BCCode 124, Unexpected shutdown

[johnsallen_1]

Hello, I have a PowerSpec G160 tower . It has been throwing blue screens and on one occasion corrupted the C:\ drive, requiring reformatting and reinstallation of Windows. It has been back to micro Center now 4 times in 3 weeks.

Computer specs are as follows:

Intel® Core™ i5 - 2500K Processor

Windows® 7 Home Premium

System Board Intel DP67BG

System Memory 8GB composed of 4- 2048MB DDR3/1333 DIMMS

Hard Drive 2TB RAID 0 - (2 x 1TB SATA HDDs) 5,400 RPM (Unraided into 2 1 TB drives; additional 2 TB drive added.)

22x Dual Layer DVD±R/±RW Drive

LG Blu-Ray drive (added)

ATI Radeon HD5450 PCI Express Graphics/video card

Integrated 8 Channel HD Audio CODEC ALC892

Wireless LAN B/G/N PCI Card

Intel® Integrated Gigabit Ethernet


TI TSB43AB22A IEEE Firewire 1394 Controller

Memory Card Reader

500 Watt power supply

I have been getting blue screens; taking computer in and Micro Center Service gives it a clean bill of health.

I started the computer with only the keyboard, mouse and monitor attached, last night, left it to see what would happen. Returned within 5 minutes to a "recovered from unexpected shutdown" message with the following codes:

Codes are:

version 6.1.7601.2.1.0.768.3
Locale ID 1033

BCCode124

BCP1 0000000000000000
BCP2 FFFFFA800A1BF02B
BCP3 00000000BE000000
BCP4 0000000008000400

OS version 6.1 7601
Service pack 1.0

Product 768.1

Files that might help:

C:\Windows\Minidump\052212-38139-01.dmp (Found the file, copied it out of the Windows folder where I could read it but it's not human-friendly and too big to include in this message)

C:\Users;John\appdata\Local\Temp\WER38033-0.sysdata.xml (couldn't find this file even after making hidden and system files visible).

 

[willard]

BCCode 124 is a driver issue. Are you using the latest versions of all your drivers, downloaded from the internet?

 

[johnsallen_1]

BCCode 124 is a driver issue. Are you using the latest versions of all your drivers, downloaded from the internet?

The computer was just set up last Friday by a tech at Micro Center, where I bought it -- he started by reformatting the C:\ drive, which had been corrupted in the previous crash, then reinstalled Windows. The computer has run only one update since, retrieved automatically online, to Windows. I haven't gone looking for more updates. I'm wary of changing anything and making myself responsible for a problem.

Two thoughts about what may have happened:

* An updated driver may be the problem. The ATI Radeon 5450 video card asks for updates frequently, though actually I think that most of them are only pushing game and entertainment content.

* Because one of the original problems I took the computer if for was a worn-out keyboard, I had been using a PS/2 keyboard connected to a USB port through an adapter which also had a socket for a mouse. That socket was empty because I was using a USB mouse. Checking yesterday after writing to this forum, I saw that the Device Manager reported two mice.

The latest crash occurred after the system was set up the latest time, and with the open mouse port which the Device Manager reported as a mouse.

I have now plugged in a PS/2 mouse and removed the USB mouse. The Device Manager now reports one mouse and the computer has been stable for 24 hours. I'll keep my fingers crossed.

It is a bit surprising that anything as seemingly trivial and peripheral as a PS/2-to-USB adapter with an open port could crash the computer and corrupt the hard drive, but that may be what happened.

When you have two mice, you will soon have many more, but in this case it may be that I got bugs instead

 

[willard]

An updated driver may be the problem. The ATI Radeon 5450 video card asks for updates frequently, though actually I think that most of them are only pushing game and entertainment content.

Absolutely not the case. It's telling you to update the driver. Your video card will not automatically download games for you. Go update your driver.

 

[johnsallen_1]

Absolutely not the case. It's telling you to update the driver. Your video card will not automatically download games for you. Go update your driver.

I think in the end I figured it out. What was different about the computer on the technician's workbench, where it was reliable, and at home where it crashed? The difference was that I was using a PS/2 keyboard with a PS/2 to USB keyboard and mouse adapter. I was still using a USB mouse, and so the mouse port on the adapter was open. The system monitor showed two mice even though no mouse was connected to the adapter. I think that the problem was that the adapter's open mouse port confused the computer. In any case, once I plugged a PS/2 mouse into the adapter, the crashing stopped.

Now, today, the keyboard and mouse froze, but I found that a USB keyboard and mouse would work. So there may be something wrong with the adapter even with both ports occupied.