Windows 7 BSOD and Hardware Problems

Hi, I've been having problems with my computer (Dell XPS730) for the last couple months now. Early on the problem seemed to be with the video not working properly, so I eventually had Dell replace one of the cards in the system. The computer still froze all the time, and I eventually had Dell send me new memory, and unfortuneately an entirely new hard drive. Now after receiving the new hard drive and upgrading from Vista to 7 on it, the computer is still very unstable (basically unuseable outside of safe mode).

The main problem is it keeps freezing and I'm getting the BSOD hardware failure screen. This is where I'm lost and Dell support has been of no help at all, other than to tell me to system restore or clean install Windows, neither of which will work. The computer seems to almost always be working overly hard. Even now as I type this in safe mode with only IE open, it sounds as if it's being used to the max. It's only about a year old (Intel Core Extreme X9650 3ghz, factory overclocked to 3.67ghz, dual 9800 GX2's, 4gb ram, running 32bit win7). I'm not sure if this could be a problem with the processer, an overheating problem, or something else entirely?

I just simply do not know where to go from here. I have used bluescreenview to read the dump files, of which I have a ton of, and they all seem to point back to the same file: caused by driver: halmacpi.dll, caused by address: halmacpi.dll+ef3f. I have tried to find solutions online, but have not had any luck. I have run system diagnocitcs and everything seems to pass. I haven't run something like memtest, so maybe I should give that a try as well. Based on the way the computer sounds, I do feel as though something is definitely not right hardware wise. Also, when booting up it will sometimes not send the signal to the monitor, so I basically must hold the power button to power off and just keep trying until it does (positive it's not the monitor's problem).

On what I think is an unrelated note, when looking in system properties, it says I have 4gb ram, but only 2gb is useable. In bios it does say 4gb available.

Terribly sorry for such a long post. Any help/suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!!

 

I've attached the newest dump file in a zip in case it will be of any help. Thanks again.

 

can you run for as long as you like in safe mode without crash?
If so then,
Most likely a driver problem

visit your mobo manufacterers website and downlaod ALL the latest drivers!

Did you or dell setup the gpu's?

Burrell

 

No, the problem does still happen in safe mode as well, although less often. If I try to do much more than browse the net (such as watch a video file, open multiple programs) it will normally crash pretty quickly even in safe mode. I did download the newest bios and updated the video drivers for windows 7, and looking in device manager everything seems to be working fine, even though it sounds bad. I installed the new HD they sent me, but otherwise the PC was built by Dell.

 

it is still probably a driver issue.

I'm not too sure you've done what i said

How did you go about updating the BIOS and installing the drivers.

Have you updated a pc BIOS in the past?

You could also try...

download the ISO. version.
http://www.memtest.org/#downiso

and burn to cd/dvd using this

http://infrarecorder.org/?page_id=5

Run for 30-60 mins and post results.
(make sure you chanfe the boot order to CD drive)

Burrell

 

It has been extremely loud the past couple of days. Do you think wrong drivers/bios could result in the computer sounding like this? When I was in contact with Dell they updated both the Geforce drivers and Bios driver for me from the dell support page. While I think the Geforce driver is ok, I'm not sure about the bios one. The support page does not allow me to download Windows 7 drivers for the bios. I'm not entirely sure which motherboard exactly, so I definitely dont want to download and update any until I know for sure. I downloaded Everest from this site and received the following from the scan:

Motherboard ID: XPS-6A61MB01C-00
Motherboard Name: Unknown

Bios type: Award
Award Bios type: Phoenix - AwardBios
Award Bios Message - (Bios Revision 1.0.6) *this is the bios version I updated with dell*

I've tried looking around for the phoenix/award bios updates for windows 7 or anything newer than the 1.0.6 I have, but can't seem to find any. I'm not sure if windows 7 is simply not officially supported for the motherboard or I just can't find the driver. Do you think this could be the problem? The problem was still here before I was running 7 however, so I'm not sure what to do next.

I've just downloaded and burned the memtest iso and will do that next. I'll be sure to post results later today. Thanks again for all the help so far.

 

Ran the memtest for about 4 hours with 0 errors, 100% pass. Not sure where to go from here.

 

If you are running a 32 bit OS, then the OS can only use about 3.2GB you will never get the 4GB. If your video card borrows system RAM as a lot do, that would cause you to see less than 3.2GB usable RAM so that part is normal.

If I break this down (guesswork on my part) hal is the Hardware Abstraction Layer. acpi is Advanced Configuration and Power Interface. You already know something is wrong with the hardware.
Maybe you have to start looking at what can go wrong with acpi settings.

In halmacpi apparently the m means multi-processor.

This is for Vista and since this doesn't apply (resume from hibernate), I would not recommend doing the hotfix.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/954429
I only show it so you can check your version of halmacpi against the version listed for Vista x86.

Small consolation: another Dell owner (different model) with Vista and now Win 7 has the same bluescreen problem
http://social.answers.microsoft.com.../thread/7e6e9b11-792c-4d63-b465-ea21490f205f/

Possibility, newer halmacpi for Vista
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/969468

Solved http://social.answers.microsoft.com...r/thread/baf27a4e-6ced-4ee1-ad39-6bf5ff96c4d7
same error as yours and it turned out to be a bad motherboard.

 

Thanks for all the info. Considering the sound and that the problem was occuring with vista as well, it wouldn't suprise me at all if it was the motherboard. I'm not sure how I would fix this other than replacing the motherboard. Is there a way to check for sure if the motherboard is not working properly? If I do end up having to replace the motherboard, how should I go about choosing one that will work the best for the system? Thanks again!

 

Bump

 

Still haven't been able to resolve the problem after another clean install of 7, driver update, and the bios update from Dell's site. All diagnostic tests point to no hardware problems, but I guess the problem could still be the motherboard. I'm not sure which motherboard would be good based on the system specs (Intel Core Extreme X9650 3ghz, factory overclocked to 3.67ghz, dual 9800 GX2's, 4gb ram, running 32bit win7). Any suggestions would be very much appreciated. Also, I plan to take it to a shop (I guess best buy) for the installation. Any suggestions for a good place to go (DC/VA area) would be great. Thanks again!