BSODs and Clicking Noise

[Tetragrammaton]

After about two years of mostly-perfect functioning, my computer got four BSODs in the last two days.

Also, when I booted up my computer a couple boots ago, I got several loud clicks before it started up (and ran fine until the next BSOD).

I've heard of clicking being a harbinger of hard drive failure, so I backed up all the important files I can find. The HDD is a Western Digital Raptor 2, which I've heard are fairly unreliable, so I had bought an external Seagate for just such an occasion.

However, these problems started occurring just after I plugged in and installed drivers for a new gaming keyboard, mouse, and headset (all USB). They've been working just fine, though, and I was under the impression that hardware driver problems usually caused BSODs right away, rather than after hours of use.

So, does anyone recognize these symptoms? I'm already backed up, thankfully, but if it's something more simple and easy to fix than a drive failure, I'd like to know.

 

[Cutthroat]

Unplug the USB devices and do a system restore to before you installed them to see if the BSOD's go away. Could be a coincidence that the BSOD's and clicking started at the same time. If the BSOD's continue after restoring I would say the HDD is dead.

 

[dclive]

Originally posted by: Tetragrammaton
After about two years of mostly-perfect functioning, my computer got four BSODs in the last two days.

Also, when I booted up my computer a couple boots ago, I got several loud clicks before it started up (and ran fine until the next BSOD).

I've heard of clicking being a harbinger of hard drive failure, so I backed up all the important files I can find. The HDD is a Western Digital Raptor 2, which I've heard are fairly unreliable, so I had bought an external Seagate for just such an occasion.

However, these problems started occurring just after I plugged in and installed drivers for a new gaming keyboard, mouse, and headset (all USB). They've been working just fine, though, and I was under the impression that hardware driver problems usually caused BSODs right away, rather than after hours of use.

So, does anyone recognize these symptoms? I'm already backed up, thankfully, but if it's something more simple and easy to fix than a drive failure, I'd like to know.

Check out the memory dump windows generated (see my site - the bsod section) and figure out why the machine crashed. See my site; post if you have any questions. Post the output of the !analyze -v command in the debugger.

 

[Tetragrammaton]

I checked out dclive's site, and I used the windows debugger to check out the dumps. Here's what I got:

*** WARNING: Unable to verify timestamp for cmudaxu.sys
*** ERROR: Module load completed but symbols could not be loaded for cmudaxu.sys
Probably caused by : usbohci.sys ( usbohci!OHCI_IsoTransferLookAhead+48 )

usbohci.sys, according to Google, is the OHCI USB Miniport Driver.
cmudaxu.sys is the C-Media USB Audio Driver

Sounds like my headset has been acting up! I suppose I'll reinstall the driver, but I'm really not sure what to do should that fail (as I expect it well may).

 

[dclive]

Don't reinstall the driver - update the driver. Is there a newer one you can download? If not, send your dump to the c-media developers and ask them to fix it.

 

[Tetragrammaton]

I had previously used the driver that came with the headset, and I installed the one that the manufacturer's website pointed to. It was unclear if that was a newer driver or not.

So far, after less than a day of continuous testing, I've not yet BSOD'd yet. That proves nothing, of course. I'll post if it fails again.

However, after unplugging all of the USB devices and replugging, now the mouse doesn't work! Specifically, my Razer DeathAdder is not recognized by Windows. I've installed the latest drivers and I've tried using different USB ports, but the it just won't recognize the mouse, so I'm stuck with my $5 one for now. Any suggestions on *this* problem?

 

[dclive]

Plug in the razer mouse and write down the time / timezone / etc. info
wait 2 minutes
run mpsreports on the machine
send mpsreports to me with the time info

The setup*.txt files in c:\windows should have full info on what's going on....

 

[Tetragrammaton]

I've sent you the reports. Thanks for the help!

 

[dclive]

[2007/09/15 16:57:27 1104.3 Driver Install]
#-019 Searching for hardware ID(s): usb\unknown
#-018 Searching for compatible ID(s): usb\unknown
#-198 Command line processed: C:\WINDOWS\system32\services.exe
#I393 Modified INF cache "C:\WINDOWS\inf\INFCACHE.1".
#I022 Found "USB\UNKNOWN" in C:\WINDOWS\inf\usb.inf; Device: "Unknown Device"; Driver: "Unknown Device"; Provider: "Microsoft"; Mfg: "(Standard USB Host Controller)"; Section name: "BADDEVICE.Dev".
#I023 Actual install section: [BADDEVICE.Dev.NT]. Rank: 0x00000000. Effective driver date: 07/01/2001.
#-166 Device install function: DIF_SELECTBESTCOMPATDRV.
#I063 Selected driver installs from section [BADDEVICE.Dev] in "c:\windows\inf\usb.inf".
#I320 Class GUID of device remains: {36FC9E60-C465-11CF-8056-444553540000}.
#I060 Set selected driver.
#I058 Selected best compatible driver.
#-166 Device install function: DIF_INSTALLDEVICEFILES.
#I124 Doing copy-only install of "USB\VID_0000&PID_0000\5&8F6EE20&0&10".
#-166 Device install function: DIF_REGISTER_COINSTALLERS.
#I056 Coinstallers registered.
#-166 Device install function: DIF_INSTALLINTERFACES.
#-011 Installing section [BADDEVICE.Dev.NT.Interfaces] from "c:\windows\inf\usb.inf".
#I054 Interfaces installed.
#-166 Device install function: DIF_INSTALLDEVICE.
#I123 Doing full install of "USB\VID_0000&PID_0000\5&8F6EE20&0&10".
#I121 Device install of "USB\VID_0000&PID_0000\5&8F6EE20&0&10" finished successfully.


Try this:
0. Remove the Razor mouse.
1. Go into c:\windows\infs and make a new directory called new
2. Move all the INF directory contents into that new directory (aside from 'new', of course)
3. Reboot
4. Plug your Razor mouse in and tell us what happens.
5. If you aren't prompted for a driver, e-mail the setupapi.log file to me.
6. If you are prompted for a driver, point it to c:\program files\razer\deathadder\driver\dadder.inf (or c:\program files\razer\deathadder\driver\)

Let us know.

 

[Tetragrammaton]

No prompt for driver, sending log file now.

 

[dclive]

Show hidden files is turned on, and you've moved everything from c:\windows\inf into c:\windows\inf\new ?

 

[Tetragrammaton]

Yup. The only thing that shows up in the inf directory is the new directory.

I'm starting to think that maybe the mouse is just malfunctioning?

 

[dclive]

Does it work in another pc?

 

[Tetragrammaton]

You know, I really should have tried that earlier!

And no, it shows up as Unknown Device on another PC, so I'm very much guessing that it's just a bad mouse.

 

[dclive]

Does it show up as an unknown device on your PC too, or not at all?

 

[Tetragrammaton]

It shows up as an unknown device on both PCs.

 

[dclive]

And if you click update driver and point it to the path with the mouse's INF, what happens then?