BSOD is killing me...

[FrozenYak]

Hi, I bought a variety of new hardware and occasionally at startup it is giving me a

Machine_Check_Exception

Now with how much hardware that has been added I dont know enough to be able to tell what hardware exactly is causing the problem. Is there any somewhat reasonable way to understand the MCE's?

My specific error is

0x0000009c (0x00000000, 0xbab3c050, 0xb2000040, 0x00000800)

Any suggestions appreciated

 

[mrblotto]

A quick google search shows many mention a Creative Labs sound card..........maybe uninstall the sound card software and uninstall the sound card and see what happens?

 

[FrozenYak]

Thanks, but I dont even have a sound card installed right now (never did care much for anything but the basics). The only sound software I have is what came with my EVGA mobo and ive been having the problems since before I installed it.

I figured it may be a memory problem, and I did have some errors pop up when I ran a mem test, but I moved them around and so far have not received any new errors from the memtest (it's still running). I thought that was the fix but I got the BSOD again when I reloaded up.

 

[Quiksilver]

I'd run memtest to see if it your memory causing this problem.

 

[dclive]

Originally posted by: FrozenYak
Hi, I bought a variety of new hardware and occasionally at startup it is giving me a

Machine_Check_Exception

Now with how much hardware that has been added I dont know enough to be able to tell what hardware exactly is causing the problem. Is there any somewhat reasonable way to understand the MCE's?

My specific error is

0x0000009c (0x00000000, 0xbab3c050, 0xb2000040, 0x00000800)

Any suggestions appreciated

Open the dump in the debugger and post the output from !analyze -v - see my .sig and website for full details on the howto.

 

[FrozenYak]

Ok thanks dclive, ill try that when I get home.

I did run a memtest but I believe I fixed what was causing its problems. I may get memtest86 and give it a try later too quicksilver.

 

[FrozenYak]

I searched and cant seem to find any windows dump file on my comp aside from if I download your example. My install is recent I have experienced crashes since then...is there a reason it wouldnt be there?

 

[dclive]

If you're getting BSODs, you should have a c:\windows\minidump folder or a c:\windows\memory.dmp file. Can you confirm you have neither?

 

[dclive]

Is your pagefile located on c: ?

Is your PC set to write a dumpfile (kernel is best) ?

Both can be found in MyComputer (rightclick) / Advanced ...

 

[FrozenYak]

It's set up to write a small memory dump (64kb) to %systemroot%\minidump so as far as I can tell then it should be there somewhere, but looking manually or searching doesnt reveal anything.

Not sure about the pagefile, when i try to change the memory dump type it gives me a warning about the pagefile size on C:
Edit: Yes the pagefile is located on C:

I set it to kernal anyway and changed where it saves....im off to see if i can crash it again, maybe it will record this time.(Gee never thought I'd be trying to get my computer to crash)

 

[FrozenYak]

Nope...doesnt look like there is any dmp file being saved. Would it matter if the BSOD was happening before the system actually loads?

 

[dclive]

Nope; it will still write there assuming it can boot up enough to do so. If you can reboot and get into the OS, it should write that file.

 

[FrozenYak]

Well thanks for the help...cant seem to find this file anywhere. I think it's time I finally took it in to have it looked at. This has gone way past my knowledge base.