First Computer Build- Intermittent BSoD -

[Sunrah]

I built my first computer in august of 2008 with some great advice from the people in this forum. Over all I am very happy with it, except for the seemingly random BSOD errors. I have searched the forums, and it is hard to figure out where to start troubleshooting.

System:

Windows XP SP3
Nvidia GT 9800
GIGABYTE GA-EP45-DS3L LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard
CORSAIR CMPSU-650TX 650W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Compatible with Core i7 Power Supply
Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor Model BX80570E8400
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-6400CL5D-4GBPQ
Seagate ST3640323AS 640GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive

Error on Last Stop:

0x0000000F4 (0x00000003, 0x8AF161B0, 0x8AF16324, 0x805D297C)

If anyone can point me in the right direction or decypher the above error, I would greatly appreciate it.

Thank you~

 

[Proximon]

Have you always had these blue screens?

It's some hardware issue, maybe the hard drive in some way.

It's always a good idea to start with memtest. Download an ISO, burn it to CD, and boot it up:
http://www.memtest.org/

Check all your drivers, especially those for the motherboard. If the motherboard has a newer BIOS that mentions this problem or one like it, you may want to update the BIOS, but ONLY if it's clear that it might help.

These Seagate drives have had a lot of problems recently, so you may want to contact them about this as well.

 

[Cache]

Second on Proximon's recomendation to check out the Seagate drive. They've been having a hell of a time with some models--and while your problem doesn't sound like one that they have mentioned before in regards to the current problem, I have not been following it quite that closely. (Given that I own a Seagate model that is affected, I should probably check up on it.)

And a second also to making sure all drivers are updated and current.

 

[Sunrah]

Thanks for the replies.

@ Proximon- I have had them, but only rarely. Like one every two or three weeks. They have greatly increased in frequency in the last month. Most frequent crashes seem to happen when I have multiple Microsoft application open at one time (Outlook, IE, WMP)

I will start with the memtest.

 

[Sunrah]

Completed memtest - 3 passes no errors
performed chkdsk
downloaded Sea Tools and ran that
Verified that all drivers are updated

I am going to try to update the BIOS next I guess.

 

[Sunrah]

Okay last update:

According to the Seagate website my hard drive is not affected in the group of known bad drives.

SNo Serial number Result Action
1 9VK09B80 Drive is not affected. No action required


I have updated the BIOS with the Gigabyte @BIOS utility.

Is the next step to replace the Hard Drive and do a complete reinstall of all software?

 

[Proximon]

No, I don't think so.

Could you download and run CPU-Z, and post a screenshot of the CPU, Mainboard, and Memory tabs? We'll just make sure there aren't any configuration errors.

I would be more prone to blame the motherboard than the HD at this point.

 

[Sunrah]

Deleted by request - see relevant information in Proximon's post.

 

[Sunrah]

Deleted by request. See relevant information in Proximon's post.

 

[Sunrah]

Sigh....just crashed again.

Here is the error log from the event viewer:

http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=zlosxf&s=5

It crashed when I had Outlook, Chrome and Windows Media Player open at the same time.

 

[Proximon]

Holy (*^&%&^%# I had no idea CPU-Z would even generate that report. Please delete the decimal dumps..... in fact I'll copy and paste the relevant parts and you can wipe the whole reply:

Processor 1 (ID = 0)
Number of cores 2 (max 2)
Number of threads 2 (max 2)
Name Intel Core 2 Duo E8400
Codename Wolfdale
Specification Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU E8400 @ 3.00GHz
Package Socket 775 LGA (platform ID = 0h)
CPUID 6.7.6
Extended CPUID 6.17
Core Stepping C0
Technology 45 nm
Core Speed 2000.0 MHz (6.0 x 333.3 MHz)
Rated Bus speed 1333.3 MHz
Stock frequency 3000 MHz
Instructions sets MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, SSE4.1, EM64T
L1 Data cache 2 x 32 KBytes, 8-way set associative, 64-byte line size
L1 Instruction cache 2 x 32 KBytes, 8-way set associative, 64-byte line size
L2 cache 6144 KBytes, 24-way set associative, 64-byte line size
FID/VID Control yes
FID range 6.0x - 9.0x
max VID 1.225 V
Features XD, VT


Northbridge Intel P45/P43/G45/G43 rev. A2
Southbridge Intel 82801JR (ICH10R) rev. 00
Graphic Interface PCI-Express
PCI-E Link Width x16
PCI-E Max Link Width x16
Memory Type DDR2
Memory Size 4096 MBytes
Channels Dual (Symmetric)
Memory Frequency 400.0 MHz (5:6)
CAS# 5.0
RAS# to CAS# 5
RAS# Precharge 5
Cycle Time (tRAS) 15
Command Rate 2T


DIMM #1

General
Memory type DDR2
Module format Regular UDIMM
Manufacturer (ID) G.Skill (7F7F7F7FCD000000)
Size 2048 MBytes
Max bandwidth PC2-6400 (400 MHz)
Part number F2-6400CL5-2GBPQ

Attributes
Number of banks 2
Data width 64 bits
Correction None
Nominal Voltage 1.80 Volts
EPP no
XMP no

Timings table
Frequency (MHz) 266 400
CAS# 4.0 5.0
RAS# to CAS# delay 4 5
RAS# Precharge 4 5
TRAS 10 15
TRC 16 24

DIMM #2

General
Memory type DDR2
Module format Regular UDIMM
Manufacturer (ID) G.Skill (7F7F7F7FCD000000)
Size 2048 MBytes
Max bandwidth PC2-6400 (400 MHz)
Part number F2-6400CL5-2GBPQ

Attributes
Number of banks 2
Data width 64 bits
Correction None
Nominal Voltage 1.80 Volts
EPP no
XMP no

Timings table
Frequency (MHz) 266 400
CAS# 4.0 5.0
RAS# to CAS# delay 4 5
RAS# Precharge 4 5
TRAS 10 15
TRC 16 24


Hardware monitor
-----------------------------------------------------

ITE IT87 hardware monitor

Voltage sensor 0 1.12 Volts [0x46] (CPU VCORE)
Voltage sensor 1 1.87 Volts [0x75] (VIN1)
Voltage sensor 2 3.23 Volts [0xCA] (+3.3V)
Voltage sensor 3 5.08 Volts [0xBD] (+5V)
Voltage sensor 4 1.02 Volts [0x10] (+12V)
Voltage sensor 5 -0.06 Volts [0x1] (-12V)
Voltage sensor 6 -0.38 Volts [0x6] (-5V)
Voltage sensor 7 5.08 Volts [0xBD] (+5V VCCH)
Voltage sensor 8 3.23 Volts [0xCA] (VBAT)
Temperature sensor 0 30°C (85°F) [0x1E] (TMPIN0)
Temperature sensor 1 23°C (73°F) [0x17] (TMPIN1)
Fan sensor 0 1301 RPM [0x207] (FANIN0)

Hardware monitor
-----------------------------------------------------

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 hardware monitor

Temperature sensor 0 38°C (100°F) [0x3E] (Core #0)
Temperature sensor 1 39°C (102°F) [0x3D] (Core #1)





Hardware monitor
-----------------------------------------------------

GeForce 9800 GT hardware monitor

Temperature sensor 0 45°C (112°F) [0x2D] (GPU Core)





IDE Controller
bus 0 (0x00), device 31 (0x1F), function 2 (0x02)
Common header
Vendor ID 0x8086
Model ID 0x3A20
Revision ID 0x00
PI 0x8A
SubClass 0x01
BaseClass 0x01
Cache Line 0x00
Latency 0x00
Header 0x00
PCI header
Address 4 (port) 0x0000F000
Address 5 (port) 0x0000F100
Subvendor ID 0x1458
Subsystem ID 0xB002
Int. Line 0x00
Int. Pin 0x02
Capabilities
Power Management Capability
Offset 70h
Version 1.2
PCI Capability class 0x13
Offset B0h

Windows Version Microsoft Windows XP Professional Service Pack 3 (Build 2600)
DirectX Version 9.0c


There that's better. Just wipe both those posts please so we don't have to scroll past them.

 

[Proximon]

This is a pic of a setting in your BIOS. It needs to be disabled just as the pic shows:
http://www.phoronix.net/image.php?id=gigabyte_p45_mobos&image=gigabyte_p45ds3r_bios7_lrg

If it was set to something else that might cause the problem.

 

[Sunrah]

It was set to disabled just like yours was.

I ran across this link relating to the stop error I get. Do you think they are offering good advice here?

http://forums.techguy.org/windows-nt-2000-xp/497012-solved-bsod-0x000000f4-please-help.html

 

[Proximon]

Is your XP disk actually SP3?

If so, you might just do an XP repair installation:
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

That's pretty much what they are suggesting, only a bit easier. Back up your files

This could be something as simple as a bad SATA cable as well.