BSOD Nightmare with new Asus Geforce 8800 GTS 512mb

[Soylent-Red]

Hi all,

First post here, so let me know if i miss anything or there's anything i need to do.

Received my new Asus Geforce 8800GTS 512mb (65nm) TOP Edition card through the mail at the start of this week (Monday 21st January). First time i put it in i ballsed up the drivers, and installed the card before uninstalling the old drivers, ended up locked out of XP Professional (32bit) and so had to format.

Formatted C: Drive, reinstalled windows, all with new card installed. Ended up getting lots of BSODs, though NOT when playing games. These BSODs were coming up generally when idling in windows desktop, or running something minor like windows live messenger, nero, or other minor software like that. The most frequent BSOD was Windows Event ID 1003, Error code 0000000a = "IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL". Unfortunately i don't have a minidump of this with me on this computer, but should be able to get hold of one later.

Anyway, i took this card out after about 14 formats in a different pattern each time. Put my old Asus 7900GT TOP back in, all was running fine until i started getting the BSOD "PAGE FAULT IN NONPAGED AREA", referencing the file win32k.sys, which now reoccurs every so often. My old card has never had any problems with BSODS, and nothing else in my hardware has changed recently.

It's annoying because the new 8800 card actually WORKS brilliantly when i'm in games, it runs things like crysis smoothly without AA on high graphics. But the moment it's doing anything standard it just comes up with crap.

So i'm thinking either -

1. This new card is incompatible with a part of my hardware.
2. The new card was dead on arrival and had some kind of problem with memory or something.
3. When i put the new card in, something else screwed up in my setup (despite using anti-static wristband).
-This could possibly be my RAM - although it has worked fine up until now?

It is worth noting that my old graphics card gives the same repeating "PAGE FAULT.." BSOD, while my new graphics card gives alot of different ones, mainly the "IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL". So the former could just be due to something installed improperly.

My hardware is as follows:

Microsoft Windows XP Professional SP2
AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+
Asus M2N32-SLI Deluxe, Wireless Edition, Motherboard. Bios Update 1603
4x512mb Matched Corsair DDR2 6400 RAM
Hiper Type R 580W Power Supply
Western Digital Caviar 250Gb SATA HDD
Western Digital Caviar 320Gb SATA HDD

On reading alot of forum posts - people often suggest that it's the power supply - which doesn't seem likely in this case, since the problems occur when the card is NOT under load. And i have seen people using this hiper 580w with 8800 Ultras quite happily.

 

[badge]

Hi all,

First post here, so let me know if i miss anything or there's anything i need to do.

Received my new Asus Geforce 8800GTS 512mb (65nm) TOP Edition card through the mail at the start of this week (Monday 21st January). First time i put it in i ballsed up the drivers, and installed the card before uninstalling the old drivers, ended up locked out of XP Professional (32bit) and so had to format.

Formatted C: Drive, reinstalled windows, all with new card installed. Ended up getting lots of BSODs, though NOT when playing games. These BSODs were coming up generally when idling in windows desktop, or running something minor like windows live messenger, nero, or other minor software like that. The most frequent BSOD was Windows Event ID 1003, Error code 0000000a = "IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL". Unfortunately i don't have a minidump of this with me on this computer, but should be able to get hold of one later.

Anyway, i took this card out after about 14 formats in a different pattern each time. Put my old Asus 7900GT TOP back in, all was running fine until i started getting the BSOD "PAGE FAULT IN NONPAGED AREA", referencing the file win32k.sys, which now reoccurs every so often. My old card has never had any problems with BSODS, and nothing else in my hardware has changed recently.

It's annoying because the new 8800 card actually WORKS brilliantly when i'm in games, it runs things like crysis smoothly without AA on high graphics. But the moment it's doing anything standard it just comes up with crap.

So i'm thinking either -

1. This new card is incompatible with a part of my hardware.
2. The new card was dead on arrival and had some kind of problem with memory or something.
3. When i put the new card in, something else screwed up in my setup (despite using anti-static wristband).
-This could possibly be my RAM - although it has worked fine up until now?

It is worth noting that my old graphics card gives the same repeating "PAGE FAULT.." BSOD, while my new graphics card gives alot of different ones, mainly the "IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL". So the former could just be due to something installed improperly.

My hardware is as follows:

Microsoft Windows XP Professional SP2
AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+
Asus M2N32-SLI Deluxe, Wireless Edition, Motherboard. Bios Update 1603
4x512mb Matched Corsair DDR2 6400 RAM
Hiper Type R 580W Power Supply
Western Digital Caviar 250Gb SATA HDD
Western Digital Caviar 320Gb SATA HDD

On reading alot of forum posts - people often suggest that it's the power supply - which doesn't seem likely in this case, since the problems occur when the card is NOT under load. And i have seen people using this hiper 580w with 8800 Ultras quite happily.

In BIOS set the memory voltage to 2.0-2.1v. Set the memory timings to Mfg. specs. If the error remains, try using one DIMM in slot one only. Or try different RAM altogether. Run memtest86 and test for errors. You mention power supply and drivers as being the potential proble. Theproblem is very likely your RAM, proper set up in BIOS or bad DIMM(s).


Quote:

Check the memory SIMMs (the RAM) in the computer. See the hardware documentation for more information. Remove any mismatched memory SIMMs so that all the SIMMs operate at the same speed. For example, 60 nanoseconds (ns) or 70 ns.
Run a systems test on the memory, and remove any bad SIMMs.
Test by using different SIMMs if any are available.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314063/

 

[Soylent-Red]

Thanks for your speedy response badge, it's much appreciated

I'll try all this when i get back home in a couple of hours.
Just a few questions -

Should i do this with the old or new card installed? I'm not sure whether to give up with the new one and just get the old one working again.

Is it likely that installing a new graphics card could have damaged my RAM in some way? Bearing in mind that i was incredibly careful, had anti static wristband, and wasn't operating at the end of the board?

"In BIOS set the memory voltage to 2.0-2.1v."

- The memory voltage has been set to whatever is default, i've never changed it. Is this something that needs to be done because of the new graphics card? Similarly with the timings, i've never tried to overclock or change them.

I'm just wondering why my RAM would have suddenly chosen to go kaput, but actually a friend suggested the same thing, i'll try using each chip one at a time or something. Is it three short beeps and one long that signals a RAM problem generally?

 

[badge]

Should i do this with the old or new card installed? I'm not sure whether to give up with the new one and just get the old one working again.

New card. You might try the old if the new doesn't resolve.

Is it likely that installing a new graphics card could have damaged my RAM in some way? Bearing in mind that i was incredibly careful, had anti static wristband, and wasn't operating at the end of the board?

It's possible for a DIMM to fail at any time. The RAM should be set up properly in BIOS (voltage and timings).

"In BIOS set the memory voltage to 2.0-2.1v."

Absolutely. 2.1v should be fine.

- The memory voltage has been set to whatever is default, i've never changed it. Is this something that needs to be done because of the new graphics card? Similarly with the timings, i've never tried to overclock or change them.

Did your read the Microsoft article? I've seen the error many times. Memory was the problem a high percentage of the time.

I'm just wondering why my RAM would have suddenly chosen to go kaput, but actually a friend suggested the same thing, i'll try using each chip one at a time or something. Is it three short beeps and one long that signals a RAM problem generally?

Step 1. In BIOS set the voltage and timings correctly (try 2.1v 5-5-5-15 timings). Step 2. If the problem persists, try 1 DIMM in slot 1 only. Try another DIMM if the first one fails. 3. Run memtest and check for errors. Use Ultimate Boot CD here:

http://www.majorgeeks.com/Ultimate_Boot_CD_d4981.html

 

[Soylent-Red]

Problem solved badge! I just changed the timings to 5-5-5-15 and the voltage to 2.1v as you suggested. There was nothing wrong with my RAM or my Graphics card! Brilliant.

This article may also come in handy for anyone that has this problem in the future - http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=31266

Thanks again!