Blue screen of death "IRQ" screen

[Rhin0]

hey guys,

FX-55
AV8
500w X-connect
1 gig OCZ
250gb hitachi
256mb evga 6800ultra

For the first time ever I experienced a problem with my computer. First serious issue yet. I recieved some type of "blue screen of death" that said something about IRQ blah blah to prevent serious damage to your computer it will be restarted. Looked like an IRQ conflict maybe? It happned 2x when exiting or I think I alt-f4'ed or end tasked UT 2k4 DEMO. It only did it on the demo. Could software cause that problem?

And i'm not sure if it related I restarted later and it said "Your system recovered from a serious error" and it had the report. I should have saved it but it sent to microsoft. Said something about a driver conflict.


This is so strange this is all happening today. The IRQ error is related to the UTK2004 demo I think for sure but this other error is strange. I have had NO PROBLEMS or lockups for 2 days and now this starts happening.


What should I do or look for? I've checked all voltages and stuff and everything looks ok.


Thanks,
Rhin0

 

[Baked]

What sound card are you using? Sound Blaster 16? If you're using onboard sound, shut it off from BIOS and see what happens. If you're using an add-on sound card, switch it to another PCI slot or take it out and see if the problem remains. What do you have in the PCI slots?

 

[mechBgon]

Also, are you running your RAM at full voltage (manually set it) or did you leave it on AUTO ?

 

[techwanabe]

I was just working on a computer in an office today that was blue screening allot - a Win2k box. I noticed the message during the BSOD memory dump and it said something about "driver IRQx" something error - don't recall what the 4th character was.

In my past experience working at a bank and some effort to research and resolve BSOD's, I ended up finding that it was faster to make Ghost images of all the major classes of computers, keep them up to date as possible and the just re-image computers when they started blue screening.

 

[Rhin0]

Honestly I have had no probs until this. My ram is full voltage 2.71 volts right now. I am going to run some more prime95 see if I get any errors. I ran it for 10 mins just a min ago with no probs. I am using the onboard sound but I haven't had any trouble with it except that UT demo. I uninstalled it anyways.

MY PCI slots are empty. This onboard sound isn't very impressive at all. It is OK. I'd say it is on par with my Monster MX300 from 1997, heh. I think I'm getting an Audigy if I can get some extra money. Too bad the onboard isn't better, it isn't too bad though I guess.

You guys just have me so paranoid and freaked out about power supplies blowing up I am so paranoid. I can barely stand even using my computer because all I think about is something happening and burning up the entire thing.

 

[techwanabe]

I doubt it is a hardware problem - BSOD's generally are software related in my experience although I'm not discounting bad memory or P/S. You can do the test on the mem to check that.

I say format and re-install Windows fresh.

 

[Gnoad]

Funny, I just started getting BSOD's using UT2k4 full version. I never did before. I reformatted and I'm still getting them. I'm thinking its probably a driver as it just started and your the 3rd person I've heard about, so we just need to find out what we all have in common...

edit: hmm, VIA based boards? I did install the new 4in1's....

 

[techwanabe]

I don't think the VIA 4in1 drivers are necessary, however, I have seen wrong drivers definitely cause the BSOD before. Once I did that at work and boom, started getting the BSOD. Removed the driver and replaced it and BSOD were gone. However, in most cases where we had the BSOD, it was harder to diagnose. But drivers certainly are a major candidate.

I installed a number of VIA chipset motherboards and ran the PC's without installing the VIA chipset drivers. Those PCs worked fine, but they were basic workstations in a bank. For optimal performance, esp gaming - I'm sure it would be good idea. Go to VIA's website and DL the latest.

 

[Gnoad]

Thats exactly what I did. I'm just saying thats the only driver update I've done besides Video card drivers. Guess I should check those too, as we both use nvidia cards too.

 

[n7]

You are experiencing the joys of Nvidia's drivers.

There is a known problem with A64s, SP2's DEP, Nvidia's newer drivers, & UT2k4.

The easiest way to fix this is to install the old 61.77 drivers, which have no such issue.

Or you can disable DEP, but that often doesn't work.


I am at work, but i will explain in detail as soon as i am off.

 

[n7]

Okay, here's a little more info i am copying from a post i made helping someone on another forum.

With SP2 came the wondrous DEP, & unfortunately, the newer versions of Nvidia's drivers have major issues with DEP & A64s & UT2k4...& then you get those nice BSODs (Blue Screen of Death).

There are a couple ways to work around this.

You can either disable DEP entirely, or use older Nvidia drivers.
For some reason, if i understand right, disabling DEP just for UT2k4 does not always work.

However, i would still try it first.

Go to My Computer > Properties > Advanced tab > settings button under Performance > Data Execution Prevention tab > select "Turn on DEP for all programs & services except those I select" > now add UT2004.exe (from your UT2004 folder) to the list.

Now that may not work.

If it doesn't, you can turn off DEP for everything.

Go to My Computer > Properties > Advanced tab > settings button under Startup & Recovery > select Edit, & you will be in your boot.ini file.

It should look similar to this:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

On that bottom line, remove the noexecute & replace it with execute
Make sure you save.

I did that, & i starting having other weird BSODs, so i gave up & went back to using the old 61.77 drivers, which work well with DEP turned on.

Good luck :thumbsup:

 

[Mogh]

I am beginning to wonder if this is not the same issue that I have here.

http://forums.anandtech.com/me...8864&enterthread=y

What does minidump show for you?

 

[n7]

Originally posted by: Mogh
I am beginning to wonder if this is not the same issue that I have here.

http://forums.anandtech.com/me...8864&enterthread=y

What does minidump show for you?

Hmm, perhaps DEP doesn't like the Creative Labs drivers either.

Try disabling DEP like i explained & let us know how it goes.

 

[Mogh]

I first tried

/NoExecute=AlwaysOff

I still crashed.


I changed it to

/execute=optin

So far the longest I have gone without crashing. I will leave it like this today and see what happens. I noticed some game startup sluggishness since making this change. Not sure if it just a coincidence though. What do we lose changing this option?

I am still curious whether your dumpchk is similiar to mine, mostly showing audio drivers, kmixer.sys.

 

[n7]

Originally posted by: Mogh

I first tried

/NoExecute=AlwaysOff

I still crashed.


I changed it to

/execute=optin

So far the longest I have gone without crashing. I will leave it like this today and see what happens. I noticed some game startup sluggishness since making this change. Not sure if it just a coincidence though. What do we lose changing this option?

You lose DEP protection.

See the link in my post above for Microsoft's explanation of what it does.

 

[Mogh]

DEP protection is new only to Win xp SP2, so earlier versions SP1 and Windows 2000, do not have DEP, correct?

So it sounds like if I am getting BSOD only with DEP turned on I must have a poorly written driver installed somewhere.