Hey all,

Just upgraded from x850xt pe to the HD3870 and love it. One problem my computer crashes constantly. Here are my specs:

AMD Opteron 165 at 2.8 GHz (310x9)
ASUS A8R-MVP Mobo
Mushkin DDR400 at 279MHz 3-3-3-5
APEVIA ATX12V 500W Power Supply

The above config was prime stable for 72+ hours and memtest stable for 72+ hours. I had an occasional (once per week) crash while playing The Witcher and Company of Heroes, mostly with COH. These were also the only games that used all vid ram of my old x850xt, so I assumed that was the cause.

When I got back home after Christmas, I installed the Visiontek HD3870 after uninstalling ati software and using drivercleaner. Installed latest driver (7.12) and all other needed software. Then I installed rivatuner and atitool to try to overclock. AtiTool did not load so I then uninstalled it and tried att. I had a crash so I said I'll over clock later, I just want to play now. Then I had it crash again. I unistalled att in case that was the problem. Still crashes. I couldn’t play any game for more than 20 minutes without a crash. Closed out Rivatuner, still crashes. I was even having some crashes while at desktop.

I was always getting a BSOD 07f error.

After reinstalling drivers, I noticed sporadic (1crash/24hours) crashing. I then dropped ram timings at the suggestion of a friend and crashes dropped to 1 crash/48 hours. I figured I would continue to troubleshoot but for now it was ok.

Then last week, my computer began crashing constantly again. I dropped my overclock completely but that did not help. At the beginning of last week, my system crashed as follows in a 48 hour period:

30 crashes in the past week
27 while at desktop, mostly while just idling
2 while watching TV or movies
1 while gaming

Yesterday, I had 6 crashes, 3 while playing TF2 and 3 at desktop. Today I have had 6 crashes, 1 while at desktop while I was away and 5 while attempting to type this message. Obvouisly, this is very annoying and makes my computer unusable.

An interesting thing I have noticed is ~50% of BSODs have a ~80x80pixel pink square on them at a random location.

In addition, about 30% of the time when the computer restarts from the BSOD, it loads all startup programs and then freezes with the mouse unable to move but no BSOD.

So here is what the event log says:
SaveDump:

The computer has rebooted from a bugcheck. The bugcheck was:

0x0000007f (0x0000000d, 0x00000000, 0x00000000, 0x00000000). A dump was saved in: C:\WINDOWS\MEMORY.DMP.

Interstingly, everytime before it crashes, I get 2 eventlogs 1 sec before the crash. They are also below:

Error 6005
The Event log service was started.

Error 6009
Microsoft (R) Windows (R) 5.01. 2600 Service Pack 2 Multiprocessor Free.

I then tried to remove ram errors from the differential. I tried 1 stick in slot 1, then the other in slot 1, then that stick in 3, 2, and 4. All variations produced crashes within 30 minutes. Remember this RAM wa previously stable.

What should I do now?

Would you bother removing vid card or would you just reinstall windows?

I ask, because it is a pain to put the vid card in because the cable for my sata driver has to go over the video card which means removing the card requires removing the SATA cable from my hard drive and then stuggling to fit my hands into a position where i can get the cable back in.

I think I may try a dual boot as a test. Thoughts?

Anything else it could be? Seems it is either Vidcard or software at this point, right?

John

The PSU may be the culprit. An underpowering psu can case all sorts of unexpected problems. Try another one.

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forum [...] p?t=108088

I assumed the PSU would noy be the culprit as the crashes occur at desktop under no load with equal or greater frequency than while gaming under heavy load. Is this not a reasonable assumption?

Have you tried putting your old Video card back in?

No, because as stated above it is a pain to put the vid card in because the cable for my sata driver has to go over the video card which means removing the card requires removing the SATA cable from my hard drive and then stuggling to fit my hands into a position where i can get the cable back in.

I certainly could put it back in, but it seems that may take just as long as a reinstall.

Is that waht you would try next?

What do you think about PSU?

I believe the guy with the PSU advice is on to something. Think about, the only thing you changed was the video card. Your new card draws more power than your old card, whether under load or not. Your PSU may have already been marginal and the new component just pushed it over the edge. I would try a new PSU to rule that out, otherwise my second guess would be plain old bad drivers.

I once had the same problem as you back when I had a 3ghz P4 build. It turned out to be the PSU was at fault. So perhaps your PSU just can't handle it?

If its not however you may want to get a replacement on your HD3870 as it being the only new hardware its also a much larger chance of it being the problem.... Swap out your new one for the old and see if the problem continues. If it doesn't then get a replacement as you may have just had bad luck with a faulty videocard.

Seems unlikely to be the PSU considering, that as stated above, the crash occurs randomly at desktop (with AMD/ATI PowerPlay (lower power mode enabled)) and while gaming. There is a ~80Watt difference between the two states.

Also, the crash is always associated with the 07f error. With a PSU power draw issue, I would have expected random error codes, not the same one everytime.

Furthermore, PS Calculator (http://www.extreme.outervision.com/PSUEngine) estimates a 478 W useage with the x850xt pe and a 482 W useage with the HD3870 under full statup load assuming 25% capacitor aging. Seems unlikely this would cause the issue.

However, I did note the excess draw at startup in the power supply could be the cause of the crashes at startup seen recently (sometimes 5 reboots are required to start windows, but only after crashes).

Well, since your convinced its not your PSU than you need to minimize your load services and devices to narrow down the culprit. Meaning, Unload any and all unnecessary services on startup by going into msconfig from the start panel. Also, disable all your fancy power variation software (powerplay) and monitoring tools. Try to get your system to the bare minimal and see if that fixes anything. If it does than you can begin to reload your services and tools one at a time monitoring each one till you find the bad one. I am also assuming that when you isntalled your new card you completely blew away your old drivers and loaded your new ones fresh.

Also that 07f error is a memory address error. download and install the memtest iso which allows you to create a bootable CDROM and run memtest in DOS mode. You should have no failures to verify your memory is sound. The main rules when you have a random problem is to reduce the complexity of your setup to the bare minimal or your just pissing in the wind otherwise.

You say it WAS prime and memtest stable...

Re-test(0x0000007F,s tend to point at ram)

You should try to remove it and reinsert it with a good amount of force(also make sure the contacts are clean)...I have seen this happen and cause 0x0000007F errors...

Do you perhaps have a Raptor and a G80 series GFX?

Im leaning...as the above poster states...to ram...maybe even mobo....its very odd to get repetitive recurring general hardware failure errors as you have been and it ending up being a PSU