Help diagnose a crashing issue...

[gsteffens]

Well first off, please continue to bear with me if anything I post is a bit off or weird as I'm still learning computers.

I will start with my specs as best as I can describe them.

Motherboard: Abit IP35E
Ram: 2X 1GB Crucial Tracer Ballistix Ram
Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 160 GB 7200 RPM SATA
CPU: Q6600 Intel
GPU: MSI 8800GTS G92 512 MB (awesome card IMO)


I had installed everything and it was running solid a few months at the end of summer. Then I had an issue with it crashing after the "abit" screen as it came to the windows loading screen (one with the dotted line going across). I did a complete re install of everything. Until recently it was working awesome again.

Now the crash issue is a little different. It will sometimes boot up completely. Then after an unknown (different each time) amount of time, it will momentarily, like 1/2 a second, flash a detailed blue screen error (no chance I can read it) and then reboot. Other times, it will get as far as the windows loading screen (the one with the dotted line going across) and after that completes, it will reboot.

A friend of mine had me looking at the "minidump" files while it was on to see how many there were, and there were quite a few. I however have not been able to figure out how to actually open, read, and interperet them. Once I had found them, it was a matter of minutes and it momentarily blue screened and rebooted again. He has one idea of it may have a bad stick of RAM.

I'm now putting this message up on my laptop again as I turned my gamer completely off for the time being.

As a side note, I had Battlefield 2 loaded and my sister had the Sims 2 and Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 loaded. I also just installed Grand Theft Auto 4. With the exception of needing a bit more ram and GPU space to run on max settings, the game worked flawlessly on medium settings, which was awesome as it is.

Thanks all in advance.

 

[KSoD]

Okay first you want to disable auto restart of Windows on a BSOD (Blue Screen of Death)

Start>Right click on Computer (My Computer in XP) select Properties.

In Vista:

Select Advanced System Settings on the left side. In that window under Advanced>Startup and Repair click settings. There you will see the option to disable Auto Restart on system failure.

In XP basically the same without the extra click on the left side.

Now once you are able to see the BSOD use the threads here:

http://www.techist.com/forums/f9/decoding-stop-errors-193078/
http://www.techist.com/forums/f9/how-troubleshoot-specific-stop-errors-193301/

Providing that information will be of much help to us getting this resolved.

As for the minidump files. Upload them to some site, Rapid Share, Bandango, Mega Upload or something. I will analyze them for you.

If you think it is the RAM get MemTest86. Download the ISO and burn that.

Memtest86 - Download Page

Download site

Burning ISO Images with ImgBurn - NeoSmart Technologies Wiki

Use that guide to burn it. Then boot with the CD in the tray and let it run for roughly 4 hours to fully test. Report back with results.

 

[gsteffens]

I will do these tomorrow. I thank you very much for your help! I have to go to bed now, but I will be on getting this resolved quick. Thanks for the info on disabling the auto-restart. I never knew that even existed! Now I will change that setting if it doesn't crash on me first! LOL

 

[KSoD]

Not a problem. Get back to us when you can. We will work to resolve this.

 

[gsteffens]

Not a problem. Get back to us when you can. We will work to resolve this.

Okay, update... I changed the setting so it WILL NOT reboot with a BSOD.

Here are the links to the minidump files. See what you can tell me about them. As always, I really appreciate the help!


Mini121808-01.dmp - Uploaded through Badongo - BADONGO

Mini121808-02.dmp - Uploaded through Badongo - BADONGO

Mini121808-03.dmp - Uploaded through Badongo - BADONGO

Mini121808-05.dmp - Uploaded through Badongo - BADONGO

Mini121808-06.dmp - Uploaded through Badongo - BADONGO

Mini121808-07.dmp - Uploaded through Badongo - BADONGO

Mini121808-09.dmp - Uploaded through Badongo - BADONGO

Mini121908-01.dmp - Uploaded through Badongo - BADONGO




The computer has crashed once since starting the thread, hence more than I originally said were there. It has not crashed as of this moment as I am putting these files up. I will continue to check this thread via my laptop. Thanks!

 

[KSoD]

Microsoft (R) Windows Debugger Version 6.10.0003.233 X86
Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.


Loading Dump File [I:\Mini121908-01.dmp]
Mini Kernel Dump File: Only registers and stack trace are available

Symbol search path is: C:\Windows\Symbols
Executable search path is: 
Unable to load image ntoskrnl.exe, Win32 error 0n2
*** WARNING: Unable to verify timestamp for ntoskrnl.exe
Windows XP Kernel Version 2600 (Service Pack 3) MP (4 procs) Free x86 compatible
Product: WinNt, suite: TerminalServer SingleUserTS
Machine Name:
Kernel base = 0x804d7000 PsLoadedModuleList = 0x8055d720
Debug session time: Thu Dec 18 23:33:15.500 2008 (GMT-5)
System Uptime: 0 days 0:00:44.468
Unable to load image ntoskrnl.exe, Win32 error 0n2
*** WARNING: Unable to verify timestamp for ntoskrnl.exe
Loading Kernel Symbols
...............................................................
.............................................
Loading User Symbols
Loading unloaded module list
...........
*******************************************************************************
*                                                                             *
*                        Bugcheck Analysis                                    *
*                                                                             *
*******************************************************************************

Use !analyze -v to get detailed debugging information.

BugCheck 4E, {99, 55afd, 0, 0}

Probably caused by : ntoskrnl.exe ( nt!WmipLeaveCritSection+cc )

Followup: MachineOwner
---------

2: kd> !analyze -v
*******************************************************************************
*                                                                             *
*                        Bugcheck Analysis                                    *
*                                                                             *
*******************************************************************************

PFN_LIST_CORRUPT (4e)
Typically caused by drivers passing bad memory descriptor lists (ie: calling
MmUnlockPages twice with the same list, etc).  If a kernel debugger is
available get the stack trace.
Arguments:
Arg1: 00000099, A PTE or PFN is corrupt
Arg2: 00055afd, page frame number
Arg3: 00000000, current page state
Arg4: 00000000, 0

Debugging Details:
------------------


BUGCHECK_STR:  0x4E_99

CUSTOMER_CRASH_COUNT:  1

DEFAULT_BUCKET_ID:  DRIVER_FAULT

LAST_CONTROL_TRANSFER:  from 80523dd9 to 804f9f33

STACK_TEXT:  
b67c9a74 80523dd9 0000004e 00000099 00055afd nt!WmipLeaveCritSection+0xcc
b67c9ab8 8052401f c0601f20 c03e4000 00000000 nt!NtAllocateVirtualMemory+0x559
b67c9b80 8051a1cd e1b36fd0 7c8f5fff 00000000 nt!NtFreeVirtualMemory+0x233
b67c9c30 80513553 89d1a5a0 8a692d00 89d1a6d8 nt!KiInterruptDispatchNoEOI+0x18d
b67c9c68 805d2706 01d1a5a0 8a430318 8a430560 nt!IopfCompleteRequest+0xce
b67c9d08 805d28c8 00000004 8a430318 00000000 nt!RtlTraceDatabaseFind+0xb7
b67c9d28 805d2aa3 8a430318 00000004 b67c9d64 nt!RtlpTraceDatabaseInternalAdd+0x88
b67c9d54 8054161c 00000000 00000004 0007ff2c nt!`string'+0x13
b67c9d64 7c90e4f4 badb0d00 0007fe38 04e0c10b nt!wctype+0xdc
WARNING: Frame IP not in any known module. Following frames may be wrong.
b67c9d68 badb0d00 0007fe38 04e0c10b 4489c703 0x7c90e4f4
b67c9d6c 0007fe38 04e0c10b 4489c703 00000000 0xbadb0d00
b67c9d70 04e0c10b 4489c703 00000000 00000000 0x7fe38
b67c9d74 4489c703 00000000 00000000 00000000 0x4e0c10b
b67c9d78 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 0x4489c703


STACK_COMMAND:  kb

FOLLOWUP_IP: 
nt!WmipLeaveCritSection+cc
804f9f33 5d              pop     ebp

SYMBOL_STACK_INDEX:  0

SYMBOL_NAME:  nt!WmipLeaveCritSection+cc

FOLLOWUP_NAME:  MachineOwner

MODULE_NAME: nt

IMAGE_NAME:  ntoskrnl.exe

DEBUG_FLR_IMAGE_TIMESTAMP:  4802516a

FAILURE_BUCKET_ID:  0x4E_99_nt!WmipLeaveCritSection+cc

BUCKET_ID:  0x4E_99_nt!WmipLeaveCritSection+cc

Followup: MachineOwner
---------

That is the Minidump file. The main things you need to know are this:

DEFAULT_BUCKET_ID: DRIVER_FAULT
IMAGE_NAME: ntoskrnl.exe

So it is a bad driver that caused the Kernel to crash. Update any and all drivers you can.

 

[gsteffens]

Cool, did you look at all of them or are they all the same deal? Any way to track down a particular driver? Or just start updating?

Are there any that you think could cause it more than other? reason I ask is I have an overall slow internet and don't want to use time to d/l things I don't need to quite yet..

THANKS!!!

 

[KSoD]

I have not looked at them all just yet. But Driver Failure seems to be the common cause.

The way to track the specific driver is even alien to me. It requires some steps that i am not even sure how they are done. I would just look for updates to all your drivers and get them. It is always a good idea to have the latest drivers.

It could be your NIC card. Could be chipset. There is no way to say which one would cause Kernel failure.

 

[gsteffens]

I have not looked at them all just yet. But Driver Failure seems to be the common cause.

The way to track the specific driver is even alien to me. It requires some steps that i am not even sure how they are done. I would just look for updates to all your drivers and get them. It is always a good idea to have the latest drivers.

It could be your NIC card. Could be chipset. There is no way to say which one would cause Kernel failure.

what is this?


I guess I will start going down the line updating drivers. I suppose I could update the mobo and the video card for starters. Windows XP is SP3 and as completely updated as I can get it.

 

[KSoD]

NIC Card is also known as a Ethernet Card. Network Adapter.

NIC stands for Network Interface Card.