BSOD, stop code 0x7f_d. Please help

specs: (everything stock, non-overclock)
OS: XP SP2
CPU: AMD 64 Dual 4200+ 2.20GHz
PSU: 500w cooler master (did the wattage calculation, my system seems to require 292w at peak load)
GPU: Ati x1650 Pro, (does not require external power cable)
RAM: 2 sticks of kingston DDR2 667 1GB

ok... I've been having a very frustrating bsod problem recently. I've checked the sticky post and tried its suggestions to no avail.

I've researched all of the minidumps with windbg and I've noticed a few consistent behaviors:

1)
SYMBOL_NAME: ati2mtag+102550; MODULE_NAME: ati2mtag; IMAGE_NAME: ati2mtag.sys; Probably caused by : ati2mtag.sys ( ati2mtag+102550 )
-> is true for any and all dumps since the beginning of this insane bsod episode.

2)
*** WARNING: Unable to verify timestamp for ati2mtag.sys
*** ERROR: Module load completed but symbols could not be loaded for ati2mtag.sys
->Consistent in all dumps, however I can't seem to be able to google any reasonable result for "symbols could not be loaded for xxx" behavior.

3) I come to suspect an overheating GPU as when the bsod do show up randomly, there is always a pink square with seemingly random lines inside somewhere positioned randomly on the stop screen. btw, the stop code is consistently: 0x7f_d, research result in "EXCEPTION_GP_FAULT" but I have no idea what that is, please enlighten me.

4) I have tried to clean, reseat, and memtest my rams. 7 passes with no errors on each and both sticks.

5)
for (DEFAULT_BUCKET_ID it's always a driver_fault, or a common_system_fault; for (PROCESS_NAME it's always either NSCSRVCE.EXE or ccapp.exe, I understand these exes are norton AV related however I've had this configuration for about 4 monthes now without problem until now.

6) here's a brief timeline for most of the relevant events (at least for what I can remember)
- System runs stable
- Brought new HD, now I have 4 HD in the bay
- worry about HD overheating, brought a spot fan (a system fan) pointing to HD
- upgrade ati drivers to the newest version
- used a program called "core maximizer" (a third party program to speard load evenly on both CPU cores), donno if it's relevant.
- accidently left system ran overnight, seen first bsod in the next morning with stop code 0x7f_d <- consistent for all crashes from here on. and a randomly positioned pink square on screen.
- randomly having bsods, but less frequently.
- tried roll back ati driver, no help, reinstalled driver back to newest version
- one of my older HD died, probably from heat
- removed died HD, spreaded out other HDs in the bay, removed the spot fan. cleaned reseated video card and ram.
- bsod now a lot more frequently as soon as I boot up xp normally. (safe mode seems to be completely fine, never got a bsod whatever I do, does this suggest that my video card is fine?)
- did memtest ran 7 passes without errors
- pulling hairs off, came to techspot for help.



Here's the minidump:

Loading Dump File [H:\Minidumps\Mini011208-01.dmp]
Mini Kernel Dump File: Only registers and stack trace are available

Symbol search path is:
(removed link due to post count)
Executable search path is:
Windows XP Kernel Version 2600 (Service Pack 2) MP (2 procs) Free x86 compatible
Product: WinNt, suite: TerminalServer SingleUserTS
Built by: 2600.xpsp_sp2_gdr.070227-2254
Kernel base = 0x804d7000 PsLoadedModuleList = 0x8055c700
Debug session time: Sat Jan 12 01:14:07.640 2008 (GMT-5)
System Uptime: 0 days 0:04:11.343
Loading Kernel Symbols
...................................................................... ...................................................................... ..........
Loading User Symbols
Loading unloaded module list
...........
Unable to load image ati2mtag.sys, Win32 error 0n2
*** WARNING: Unable to verify timestamp for ati2mtag.sys
*** ERROR: Module load completed but symbols could not be loaded for ati2mtag.sys
********************************************************************** *********
* *
* Bugcheck Analysis *
* *
********************************************************************** *********

Use !analyze -v to get detailed debugging information.

BugCheck 1000007F, {d, 0, 0, 0}



Probably caused by : ati2mtag.sys ( ati2mtag+102550 )

Followup: MachineOwner
---------

1: kd> !analyze -v
********************************************************************** *********
* *
* Bugcheck Analysis *
* *
********************************************************************** *********

UNEXPECTED_KERNEL_MODE_TRAP_M (1000007f)
This means a trap occurred in kernel mode, and it's a trap of a kind
that the kernel isn't allowed to have/catch (bound trap) or that
is always instant death (double fault). The first number in the
bugcheck params is the number of the trap (8 = double fault, etc)
Consult an Intel x86 family manual to learn more about what these
traps are. Here is a *portion* of those codes:
If kv shows a taskGate
use .tss on the part before the colon, then kv.
Else if kv shows a trapframe
use .trap on that value
Else
.trap on the appropriate frame will show where the trap was taken
(on x86, this will be the ebp that goes with the procedure KiTrap)
Endif
kb will then show the corrected stack.
Arguments:
Arg1: 0000000d, EXCEPTION_GP_FAULT
Arg2: 00000000
Arg3: 00000000
Arg4: 00000000

Debugging Details:
------------------




BUGCHECK_STR: 0x7f_d

CUSTOMER_CRASH_COUNT: 1

DEFAULT_BUCKET_ID: DRIVER_FAULT

PROCESS_NAME: NSCSRVCE.EXE

LAST_CONTROL_TRANSFER: from b946734c to b93f2550

STACK_TEXT:
WARNING: Stack unwind information not available. Following frames may be wrong.
a9234d94 b946734c ba354590 b9467585 6a0e4b36 ati2mtag+0x102550
a9234d9c b9467585 6a0e4b36 6a0e33b0 6a0dfe1d ati2mtag+0x17734c
a9234da0 6a0e4b36 6a0e33b0 6a0dfe1d a9234dc4 ati2mtag+0x177585
a9234da4 6a0e33b0 6a0dfe1d a9234dc4 64f0f2fc 0x6a0e4b36
a9234da8 6a0dfe1d a9234dc4 64f0f2fc 7a233583 0x6a0e33b0
a9234dac a9234dc4 64f0f2fc 7a233583 0000b988 0x6a0dfe1d
a9234db0 64f0f2fc 7a233583 0000b988 6a0e28a2 0xa9234dc4
a9234dc4 00000000 6a0e28a2 0000001b 00000316 0x64f0f2fc


STACK_COMMAND: kb

FOLLOWUP_IP:
ati2mtag+102550
b93f2550 640fb60551000000 movzx eax,byte ptr fs:[51h]

SYMBOL_STACK_INDEX: 0

SYMBOL_NAME: ati2mtag+102550

FOLLOWUP_NAME: MachineOwner

MODULE_NAME: ati2mtag

IMAGE_NAME: ati2mtag.sys

DEBUG_FLR_IMAGE_TIMESTAMP: 47561512

FAILURE_BUCKET_ID: 0x7f_d_ati2mtag+102550

BUCKET_ID: 0x7f_d_ati2mtag+102550

Followup: MachineOwner
---------


Thank you all in advance.


here's an additional minidump:

Symbol search path is: SRV*c:\symbols*http://msdl.microsoft.com/download/symbols
Executable search path is:
Windows XP Kernel Version 2600 (Service Pack 2) MP (2 procs) Free x86 compatible
Product: WinNt, suite: TerminalServer SingleUserTS
Built by: 2600.xpsp_sp2_gdr.070227-2254
Kernel base = 0x804d7000 PsLoadedModuleList = 0x8055c700
Debug session time: Fri Jan 11 00:26:30.093 2008 (GMT-5)
System Uptime: 0 days 0:04:10.796
Loading Kernel Symbols
...................................................................... ...................................................................... ..........
Loading User Symbols
Loading unloaded module list
............
Unable to load image ati2mtag.sys, Win32 error 0n2
*** WARNING: Unable to verify timestamp for ati2mtag.sys
*** ERROR: Module load completed but symbols could not be loaded for ati2mtag.sys
********************************************************************** *********
* *
* Bugcheck Analysis *
* *
********************************************************************** *********

Use !analyze -v to get detailed debugging information.

BugCheck 1000007F, {d, 0, 0, 0}



Probably caused by : ati2mtag.sys ( ati2mtag+102550 )

Followup: MachineOwner
---------

1: kd> !analyze -v
********************************************************************** *********
* *
* Bugcheck Analysis *
* *
********************************************************************** *********

UNEXPECTED_KERNEL_MODE_TRAP_M (1000007f)
This means a trap occurred in kernel mode, and it's a trap of a kind
that the kernel isn't allowed to have/catch (bound trap) or that
is always instant death (double fault). The first number in the
bugcheck params is the number of the trap (8 = double fault, etc)
Consult an Intel x86 family manual to learn more about what these
traps are. Here is a *portion* of those codes:
If kv shows a taskGate
use .tss on the part before the colon, then kv.
Else if kv shows a trapframe
use .trap on that value
Else
.trap on the appropriate frame will show where the trap was taken
(on x86, this will be the ebp that goes with the procedure KiTrap)
Endif
kb will then show the corrected stack.
Arguments:
Arg1: 0000000d, EXCEPTION_GP_FAULT
Arg2: 00000000
Arg3: 00000000
Arg4: 00000000

Debugging Details:
------------------




BUGCHECK_STR: 0x7f_d

CUSTOMER_CRASH_COUNT: 1

DEFAULT_BUCKET_ID: DRIVER_FAULT

PROCESS_NAME: CCAPP.EXE

LAST_CONTROL_TRANSFER: from b931e34c to b92a9550

STACK_TEXT:
WARNING: Stack unwind information not available. Following frames may be wrong.
a92c8d94 b931e34c ba354590 b931e585 699b16d2 ati2mtag+0x102550
a92c8d9c b931e585 699b16d2 699ab590 699a7ffd ati2mtag+0x17734c
a92c8da0 699b16d2 699ab590 699a7ffd a92c8dc4 ati2mtag+0x177585
a92c8da4 699ab590 699a7ffd a92c8dc4 49cf137e 0x699b16d2
a92c8da8 699a7ffd a92c8dc4 49cf137e 699bd788 0x699ab590
a92c8dac a92c8dc4 49cf137e 699bd788 00006fcc 0x699a7ffd
a92c8db0 49cf137e 699bd788 00006fcc 699aaa82 0xa92c8dc4
a92c8dc4 00000000 699aaa82 0000001b 00000312 0x49cf137e


STACK_COMMAND: kb

FOLLOWUP_IP:
ati2mtag+102550
b92a9550 640fb60551000000 movzx eax,byte ptr fs:[51h]

SYMBOL_STACK_INDEX: 0

SYMBOL_NAME: ati2mtag+102550

FOLLOWUP_NAME: MachineOwner

MODULE_NAME: ati2mtag

IMAGE_NAME: ati2mtag.sys

DEBUG_FLR_IMAGE_TIMESTAMP: 47561512

FAILURE_BUCKET_ID: 0x7f_d_ati2mtag+102550

BUCKET_ID: 0x7f_d_ati2mtag+102550

Followup: MachineOwner

 

The problem is definitely related to the video card or it's drivers. To be 100% honest, I didn't read everything in your post (it's a bit long ) but what I did see tells me it's video. Download the newest drivers available from here: http://game.amd.com/us-en/drivers_catalyst.aspx?p=xp/radeonx-xp then uninstall your current drivers, reboot, and install the new one. If that doesn't work, let us know. In the meantime, I'll spend some time looking thru your post more closely to see if I can find something of use.... I know you said you upgraded to the newest drivers, but you didn't say if you complete removed the old drivers before upgrading. After uninstalling, run a good reg cleaner and temp file cleaner (CCleaner does both very well), reboot, and install the new driver.

 

turns out you're right, the catalyst driver's the culprit. I downgraded the catalyst to 7.3 and it's all good now. I just got mixed in with the fried HDD and got a little bit side tracked. oh and btw, do you know a program that monitor system temperatures called speedfan? I have unusually high readings on the AUX component at times, some people tells me it's the PSU, some GPU, some north bridge, do you know what it is?

thank you for the help

 

Nope... sorry, can't help you here. I stopped using SpeedFan because of inaccuracies in temp reporting, and it the temps were inconsistent when compared to other temp utilites. Sometimes SpeedFan gave the same CPU temp, other times, SpeedFans reported CPU temp matched the GPU temp or system temp in different temp reporting tools, so I stopped using SpeedFan due to the inaccuracies and lack of consistency. I now use several different apps instead of one, which is a bit more cumbersome, bit it's MUCH more accurate. Maybe you can find an answer at Speedfan's home page, or in the forums there: http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php Anyway, this was all totally off topic
I'm glad I could help you figure out the BSOD issue. Sometimes the newest drivers aren't always the best.

 

couldn't agree more, or should we put it this way, "the newest drivers aren't always the most stable"