Trying to diagnose source of BSOD

[vinceuk]

Built a completely new system from scratch, and everything seemed fine under the normal Vista environment.
Sadly, once I loaded up Crysis things went awry.

I'm now getting IRQL_NOT_LESS_THAN_OR_EQUAL BSODs after seemingly random periods of time under heavy graphics demands. Can happen within half an hour, sometimes goes hours without a hitch. More often than not it cans out on trying to load a new level.

Anyway, here's the system specs...

Windows Vista Home Premium 64 bit
Q6600 Core 2 @2.4GHz
Asus P5N-E
2 GB OZ 1033 MHz DDR2
BFG Nvidia 8800GT
Arctic 700W power supply
Samsung 500Gb SATA drive
Ideazon Z-Board USB keyboard


The IRQL BSOD is really unhelpfull as it could be lots of different things causing it.
However...
Memory checks out fine on a memtest.
Vista fully up to date and hotfixed with the 940105 GeForce hotix.
Currently running 169.25 forceware drivers.


My current thoughts lean towards something being amiss with the graphics card/driver setup but I'm not skilled enough to go any further to proving it.
I certainly can't tell if it's a hardware issue and the factory overclocked card is physically damaged or whether it's a simple case of drivers not yet catching up with the OS. I'd rather not send a perfectly fine card back and be without a rig if I don't have to.

Anyway, any hints on where to go from here to nail down/fix my issues would be appreciated!

 

[bobbknight]

I would say get in contact with BFG and send the minidumps to them.
Also get in contact with the company that makes crysis and do the same.

 

[vinceuk]

Not a Crysis problem, I went and ran a few other games and it crashed out on them as well so it would appear to be something other than the games themselves.

Of course, I spent most of the day trying to get it to crash on me and it's steadfastedly remained rock solid. At least I got six hours of gaming I suppose...

 

[DoMTaR]

first thing under that circumstance that you would want to do is go to your BIOS and check logs for any thermal event....see if something is overheating.

blue screens are 90% always software related so...driver is *probably* the root...however I have seen bad RAM give this error a few times :|

How many times did you run memtest 86?
What happens when you run Orthos?

 

[DoMTaR]

also..when did this start happening?

Power outage or hard reboot? anything like that?

 

[badge]

Have you configured your RAM in BIOS? Increase the memory voltage first of all. Set the timings manually to Mfg. specs. If BSOD continues to occur, try increasing the NB voltsg. If problems still persist try some other RAM.

 

[vinceuk]

Checked for thermal event - nope, nothing over heating.
First thing I did was use rivatuner to crank the fan speeds up and monitor temperatures. Didn't have any noticeable effect.

Memtest was run twice, checked out fine both times.
Haven't looked at Orthos as I was led to believe it doesn't scale to quad cores.

Started happening about an hour into the Crysis first run. No power outage or reboot, just in the middle of next level load. Don't think it's had a hard reboot since installing Vista - touch wood.

Didn't get round to rejig the RAM in the BIOS as it's been rock steady since Saturday morning. Downloaded a Vista update on both Friday and Sunday night.

I suppose it's serendipity if the Friday night upgrade sorted whatever it was, but it does leave me scratching my head as to why it's no longer falling over. Nothing else has changed.

Stupid computers!