Any help determining cause of crashes / instability ?

[JimmyBoy1]

Just for clarification, this is a clean install (apart from utils installed like cpu-z etc....) and the onboard graphics are disabled in BIOS and no onboard graphics (catalyst) driver are installed.

I have considered removing everything and seeing how things go, but as I previously mentioned, the really annoying part is not being able to replicate these BSOD's, so I could remove everything and think its all working, when infact it just hasnt BSODed.

Anyone have any other tools that may help me getting a BSOD ?

Thanks for all your help so far.

[Domestic_Ginger]

In order to replicate the errors you can run a driver verifier on the files that keep crashing.

[Ferral]

Try taking out your dedicated GPU and use the onbaord graphics, see if that does anything. I had an Asus board a few year back that used to crash intermittently when a graphics card was put in the PCIE slot, it worked fine though when I used onboard graphics.

[JimmyBoy1]

Yes, I think I will try your suggestions re: driver verifier and removal of GPU.

It's got to the point now though where I just dont feel comfortable with it, as like I say sometimes it appears to be working fine. I will always have that thought in the back of my head that something is not quite right, at least while im using the same hardware.

I think ultimately I will end up getting a new mobo, but will try other things as previously discussed first.

Thanks again for all the help and suggestions.

[JimmyBoy1]

Well... after a bit more research and still not having a stable system, I have identified a few possible problem areas.

1) After reading through the manual once again, it mentions that optical drives should be connect on ports 5-6 set to IDE. It says Ports1 - 4 can be set to IDE, RAID, AHCI.

My optical drive has always been on SATA2, and both of them are set to IDE. I have read (I seem to remember) that SSD drives should be set to ACHI, would anyone be able to confirm this for me? and I also believe that if I set it to ACHI that I really need to reinstall the OS, could anyone confirm/deny this for me?

Excert from manual:


2) Memory voltages.
This is something that has just caught my attention. Last night it took me almost an hour just to get the PC to come on!!!, the only way I managed to get it to come on is by taking out the memory from slot 1, and leaving one module in slot 3. When I had a look in the BIOS I noted the DRAM Voltage was set to 1.500 [Auto], when my memory is actually rated at 1.65v, so this slightly concerned me. However, looking at the screenshots that I took when I had both modules inserted I see the DRAM Voltage was set to 1.650 [Auto], heres a screenshot :



So, would anyone be able to explain why it appears to be 1.500 Volts for one module, but (the correct) 1.650 Volts when both modules are inserted (dual channel mode).

I did think this may be one of my problems (the memory being too low a voltage in BIOS), but its only until I started writing this post that I realise it was set to 1.650 Volts previously when I had both modules inserted, so that has now thrown some doubt on my theory of incorrect memory voltages possibly being part of my problem. I am assuming this is possibly by design the different voltages for single vs dual channel memory.


Also, I am still convinced that this is a hardware based problem and not software/driver related, as the system can hang at any point, it can hang loading windows, when windows is running, during POST or even while in the BIOS.

Any comments/suggestions welcomed!

Thanks.

[watercooled]

The BIOS may be automatically compensating for the voltage drop caused by adding DRAM modules.
As for the BSODs, what OS are you using? I was getting frequent BSODs back on Win 7 RC.
Try checking the memory dumps with the Windows Debugging Tools, or WhoCrashed, for some idea what might be causing them.

[JimmyBoy1]

The BIOS may be automatically compensating for the voltage drop caused by adding DRAM modules.

It's the other way round, the Voltage is 1.5v for 1 module, 1.65v for 2 modules

As for the BSODs, what OS are you using? I was getting frequent BSODs back on Win 7 RC.

Im using Windows 7 Enterprise 32bit Service Pack 1 (im not sure how to check the actual build number?)

Try checking the memory dumps with the Windows Debugging Tools, or WhoCrashed, for some idea what might be causing them.

I have been using BlueScreenView and they always seem to be related to ntoskrnl.exe, I think I posted more details about this is an earlier post.

PS. Thanks for the heads up about WhoCrashed, im going to give that a try.

Thanks.

[watercooled]

It's the other way round, the Voltage is 1.5v for 1 module, 1.65v for 2 modules

That's what I mean, the motherboard may be increasing the supplied (and therefore displayed) voltage to compensate for the drop caused by the second module.

Edit: Sorry, for some reason I didn't notice there was more than one page here.

[JimmyBoy1]

Here are the last few crash dumps from BlueScreenView.


==================================================
Dump File : 032711-9094-01.dmp
Crash Time : 27/03/2011 04:02:08
Bug Check String : MEMORY_MANAGEMENT
Bug Check Code : 0x0000001a
Parameter 1 : 0x00008886
Parameter 2 : 0x84524428
Parameter 3 : 0x8453cd24
Parameter 4 : 0x00000105
Caused By Driver : ntoskrnl.exe
Caused By Address : ntoskrnl.exe+def20
File Description : NT Kernel & System
Product Name : Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
Company : Microsoft Corporation
File Version : 6.1.7601.17514 (win7sp1_rtm.101119-1850)
Processor : 32-bit
Computer Name :
Full Path : C:\Windows\Minidump\032711-9094-01.dmp
Processors Count : 2
Major Version : 15
Minor Version : 7601
Dump File Size : 164,160
==================================================

==================================================
Dump File : 032611-8580-01.dmp
Crash Time : 26/03/2011 05:01:47
Bug Check String : SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED
Bug Check Code : 0x1000007e
Parameter 1 : 0xc0000005
Parameter 2 : 0x830cb7b7
Parameter 3 : 0x8e113c24
Parameter 4 : 0x8e113800
Caused By Driver : ntoskrnl.exe
Caused By Address : ntoskrnl.exe+27e7b7
File Description : NT Kernel & System
Product Name : Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
Company : Microsoft Corporation
File Version : 6.1.7601.17514 (win7sp1_rtm.101119-1850)
Processor : 32-bit
Computer Name :
Full Path : C:\Windows\Minidump\032611-8580-01.dmp
Processors Count : 2
Major Version : 15
Minor Version : 7601
Dump File Size : 164,160
==================================================

==================================================
Dump File : 031511-8268-01.dmp
Crash Time : 15/03/2011 19:32:36
Bug Check String : UNEXPECTED_KERNEL_MODE_TRAP
Bug Check Code : 0x1000007f
Parameter 1 : 0x00000008
Parameter 2 : 0x801de000
Parameter 3 : 0x00000000
Parameter 4 : 0x00000000
Caused By Driver : ntoskrnl.exe
Caused By Address : ntoskrnl.exe+121013
File Description : NT Kernel & System
Product Name : Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
Company : Microsoft Corporation
File Version : 6.1.7601.17514 (win7sp1_rtm.101119-1850)
Processor : 32-bit
Computer Name :
Full Path : C:\Windows\Minidump\031511-8268-01.dmp
Processors Count : 2
Major Version : 15
Minor Version : 7601
Dump File Size : 164,160
==================================================

==================================================
Dump File : 031311-20155-01.dmp
Crash Time : 13/03/2011 11:10:00
Bug Check String : IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
Bug Check Code : 0x1000000a
Parameter 1 : 0x00000004
Parameter 2 : 0x00000002
Parameter 3 : 0x00000001
Parameter 4 : 0x82eba9c9
Caused By Driver : ntoskrnl.exe
Caused By Address : ntoskrnl.exe+819c9
File Description : NT Kernel & System
Product Name : Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
Company : Microsoft Corporation
File Version : 6.1.7601.17514 (win7sp1_rtm.101119-1850)
Processor : 32-bit
Computer Name :
Full Path : C:\Windows\Minidump\031311-20155-01.dmp
Processors Count : 2
Major Version : 15
Minor Version : 7601
Dump File Size : 164,112
==================================================

==================================================
Dump File : 031311-8299-01.dmp
Crash Time : 13/03/2011 09:24:41
Bug Check String :
Bug Check Code : 0x0000010e
Parameter 1 : 0x0000001f
Parameter 2 : 0xa3219008
Parameter 3 : 0x00000000
Parameter 4 : 0x00000231
Caused By Driver : watchdog.sys
Caused By Address : watchdog.sys+51f0
File Description : Watchdog Driver
Product Name : Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
Company : Microsoft Corporation
File Version : 6.1.7600.16385 (win7_rtm.090713-1255)
Processor : 32-bit
Computer Name :
Full Path : C:\Windows\Minidump\031311-8299-01.dmp
Processors Count : 2
Major Version : 15
Minor Version : 7601
Dump File Size : 164,144
==================================================

[JimmyBoy1]

Edit: Sorry, for some reason I didn't notice there was more than one page here.

No problem mate, thanks for taking the time to have a look and make a suggestion.

[JimmyBoy1]

And this is the log from WhoCreashed:


System Information (local)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

computer name: HTPC
windows version: Windows 7 Service Pack 1, 6.1, build: 7601
windows dir: C:\Windows
CPU: AuthenticAMD AMD Phenom(tm) II X2 555 Processor AMD586, level: 16
2 logical processors, active mask: 3
RAM: 2146553856 total
VM: 2147352576, free: 2009079808



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Crash Dump Analysis
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Crash dump directory: C:\Windows\Minidump

Crash dumps are enabled on your computer.


On Sun 27/03/2011 03:21:19 GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:\Windows\Minidump\032711-9094-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: tdrpm273.sys (tdrpm273+0x2C1D2)
Bugcheck code: 0x1A (0x8886, 0xFFFFFFFF84524428, 0xFFFFFFFF8453CD24, 0x105)
Error: MEMORY_MANAGEMENT
file path: C:\Windows\system32\drivers\tdrpm273.sys
product: Acronis Try&Decide
company: Acronis
description: Acronis Try&Decide Volume Filter Driver
Bug check description: This indicates that a severe memory management error occurred.
This might be a case of memory corruption. More often memory corruption happens because of software errors in buggy drivers, not because of faulty RAM modules.
A third party driver was identified as the probable root cause of this system error. It is suggested you look for an update for the following driver: tdrpm273.sys (Acronis Try&Decide Volume Filter Driver, Acronis).
Google query: tdrpm273.sys Acronis MEMORY_MANAGEMENT




On Sat 26/03/2011 05:01:16 GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:\Windows\Minidump\032611-8580-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: ntoskrnl.exe (nt+0x27E7B7)
Bugcheck code: 0x1000007E (0xFFFFFFFFC0000005, 0xFFFFFFFF830CB7B7, 0xFFFFFFFF8E113C24, 0xFFFFFFFF8E113800)
Error: SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED_M
file path: C:\Windows\system32\ntoskrnl.exe
product: Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
company: Microsoft Corporation
description: NT Kernel & System
Bug check description: This indicates that a system thread generated an exception which the error handler did not catch.
This appears to be a typical software driver bug and is not likely to be caused by a hardware problem.
The crash took place in the Windows kernel. Possibly this problem is caused by another driver which cannot be identified at this time.


On Tue 15/03/2011 19:32:07 GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:\Windows\Minidump\031511-8268-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: ntoskrnl.exe (nt+0x121013)
Bugcheck code: 0x1000007F (0x8, 0xFFFFFFFF801DE000, 0x0, 0x0)
Error: UNEXPECTED_KERNEL_MODE_TRAP_M
file path: C:\Windows\system32\ntoskrnl.exe
product: Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
company: Microsoft Corporation
description: NT Kernel & System
Bug check description: This indicates that a trap was generated by the Intel CPU and the kernel failed to catch this trap.
This appears to be a typical software driver bug and is not likely to be caused by a hardware problem. This problem might be caused by a thermal issue.
The crash took place in the Windows kernel. Possibly this problem is caused by another driver which cannot be identified at this time.


On Sun 13/03/2011 09:25:47 GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:\Windows\Minidump\031311-20155-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: ntoskrnl.exe (nt+0x819C9)
Bugcheck code: 0x1000000A (0x4, 0x2, 0x1, 0xFFFFFFFF82EBA9C9)
Error: CUSTOM_ERROR
file path: C:\Windows\system32\ntoskrnl.exe
product: Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
company: Microsoft Corporation
description: NT Kernel & System
The crash took place in the Windows kernel. Possibly this problem is caused by another driver which cannot be identified at this time.


On Sun 13/03/2011 09:12:34 GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:\Windows\Minidump\031311-8299-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: watchdog.sys (watchdog+0x1276)
Bugcheck code: 0x10E (0x1F, 0xFFFFFFFFA3219008, 0x0, 0x231)
Error: VIDEO_MEMORY_MANAGEMENT_INTERNAL
file path: C:\Windows\system32\drivers\watchdog.sys
product: Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
company: Microsoft Corporation
description: Watchdog Driver
Bug check description: This indicates that the video memory manager has encountered a condition that it is unable to recover from.
The crash took place in a standard Microsoft module. Your system configuration may be incorrect. Possibly this problem is caused by another driver on your system which cannot be identified at this time.


On Fri 04/03/2011 00:13:20 GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:\Windows\memory.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: Unknown ()
Bugcheck code: 0x8E (0xFFFFFFFFC0000005, 0xFFFFFFFF85770022, 0xFFFFFFFFA27D0C3C, 0x0)
Error: KERNEL_MODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED
Bug check description: This bug check indicates that a kernel-mode application generated an exception that the error handler did not catch.
A third party driver was identified as the probable root cause of this system error. It is suggested you look for an update for the following driver: Unknown .
Google query: Unknown KERNEL_MODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED




On Tue 01/03/2011 21:54:35 GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:\Windows\Minidump\010102-8595-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: ntkrnlpa.exe (nt+0x25B1DC)
Bugcheck code: 0xD1 (0x28, 0x2, 0x0, 0xFFFFFFFF8C5B07E9)
Error: DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
file path: C:\Windows\system32\ntkrnlpa.exe
product: Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
company: Microsoft Corporation
description: NT Kernel & System
Bug check description: This indicates that a kernel-mode driver attempted to access pageable memory at a process IRQL that was too high.
This appears to be a typical software driver bug and is not likely to be caused by a hardware problem.
The crash took place in the Windows kernel. Possibly this problem is caused by another driver which cannot be identified at this time.


On Mon 28/02/2011 20:20:49 GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:\Windows\Minidump\022811-8330-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: ntkrnlpa.exe (nt+0x4681B)
Bugcheck code: 0xA (0x35, 0x2, 0x1, 0xFFFFFFFF82EA1148)
Error: IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
file path: C:\Windows\system32\ntkrnlpa.exe
product: Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
company: Microsoft Corporation
description: NT Kernel & System
Bug check description: This indicates that Microsoft Windows or a kernel-mode driver accessed paged memory at DISPATCH_LEVEL or above.
This appears to be a typical software driver bug and is not likely to be caused by a hardware problem.
The crash took place in the Windows kernel. Possibly this problem is caused by another driver which cannot be identified at this time.


On Mon 28/02/2011 00:37:49 GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:\Windows\Minidump\022811-8502-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: ntkrnlpa.exe (nt+0x4681B)
Bugcheck code: 0xA (0x0, 0x2, 0x1, 0xFFFFFFFF82EF8E9F)
Error: IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
file path: C:\Windows\system32\ntkrnlpa.exe
product: Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
company: Microsoft Corporation
description: NT Kernel & System
Bug check description: This indicates that Microsoft Windows or a kernel-mode driver accessed paged memory at DISPATCH_LEVEL or above.
This appears to be a typical software driver bug and is not likely to be caused by a hardware problem.
The crash took place in the Windows kernel. Possibly this problem is caused by another driver which cannot be identified at this time.


On Sun 27/02/2011 18:12:04 GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:\Windows\Minidump\022711-8517-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: ntkrnlpa.exe (nt+0xDCDFC)
Bugcheck code: 0x18 (0x0, 0xFFFFFFFF87F1C148, 0x2, 0xFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF)
Error: REFERENCE_BY_POINTER
file path: C:\Windows\system32\ntkrnlpa.exe
product: Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
company: Microsoft Corporation
description: NT Kernel & System
Bug check description: This indicates that the reference count of an object is illegal for the current state of the object.
This appears to be a typical software driver bug and is not likely to be caused by a hardware problem. This might be a case of memory corruption. More often memory corruption happens because of software errors in buggy drivers, not because of faulty RAM modules.
The crash took place in the Windows kernel. Possibly this problem is caused by another driver which cannot be identified at this time.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Conclusion
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

10 crash dumps have been found and analyzed. 2 third party drivers have been identified to be causing system crashes on your computer. It is strongly suggested that you check for updates for these drivers on their company websites. Click on the links below to search with Google for updates for these drivers:

tdrpm273.sys (Acronis Try&Decide Volume Filter Driver, Acronis)

unknown

If no updates for these drivers are available, try searching with Google on the names of these drivers in combination the errors that have been reported for these drivers and include the brand and model name of your computer as well in the query. This often yields interesting results from discussions from users who have been experiencing similar problems.

[JimmyBoy1]

The WhoCrashed app does give a bit more of an actual description of what the problem/cause was, and has made me aware of a possible problem with Acronis True Image driver that I have on my system.

I will be trying a reinstall soon, and will monitor what the stability of the system is like while it is completely standard (a "vanilla" install)

But this (to me) does still not answer the problems I have with the machine locking before windows 7 starts and even while in the BIOS

[JimmyBoy1]

Well... I have just been playing around with the windows 7 driver verifier. (verifier.exe)

I chose the option Create Standard Settings > Automatically selected all drivers on this computer.

Now, when it gets to the "Windows 7" boot screen, it will BSOD every time! im slightly encouraged by this, because this is the FIRST time, I have actually been able to get a BSOD repeatedly and not just randomly when I am least expecting it.

However the problem I have is, I dont know the best way to stop it from BSODing now!, the only way I could get it to start booting again is by using "Use last know good configuration" from pressing F8 on boot.

Also, BlueScreenView and WhoCrashed do not show any of these BSOD's I have just had! so I cannot investigate the cause much further.

At first it would BSOD then reboot immediately, and the BSOD would just be a flash on the screen, so I chose "Disable automatic system restart on crash" from F8 , this allowed me to atleast see the BSOD.

I took a screen shot of the BSOD, and it would only get as far as "Initialising disk for crash dump ...", so I assume it has not made the crash dump, and therefore why BlueScreenView and WhoCrashed are not detecting any new problems?

So would anyone be able to give me any new pointers with this new information ?

[blueball]

0x000000C9: DRIVER_VERIFIER_IOMANAGER_VIOLATION
As the title says, this signals a warning from one of the driver verifier I/O managers.

Taken from here.


Edit: The links on the site are dead so I have removed them.

[JimmyBoy1]

0x000000C9: DRIVER_VERIFIER_IOMANAGER_VIOLATION
As the title says, this signals a warning from one of the driver verifier I/O managers.

Taken from here.


Edit: The links on the site are dead so I have removed them.

Sorry for my ignorance, but I dont really know what this means?

I get the fact that it is saying IOMANAGER_VIOLATION, but how do I know what steps to take next?

Would this be pointing to any Input/Output device (I have a Logitech G25 steering wheel connected), or would it be relating mainly to the Disk Drive, SSD or Optical ?

Is this telling me there is a faulty driver, faulty hardware or both? and if so how can I identify the faulty driver or hardware based on this error message?

Thanks for any help.

[blueball]

Unplug all USB devices apart from your keyboard/mouse and try booting with that.