Seems like BSOD is scheduled 1 hour after cold-boot.

Hiya!

Having trouble with a computer for over a month now and am ready to give Call-to-Haul a buzz.

This is on new hardware (below). HDD was cloned to the new HDD. Computer first spewed BSOD all over the place; pointed to anything and everything. We checked, rechecked, uninstalled, reinstalled, removed and reinstalled drivers (all, including mobo, vid card and old "hidden" drivers), unplugged and re-plugged everything, reseated CPU, replaced cables, changed PSU, swapped RAM slots, ran memory test overnight, burn-in test, performance tests and it flies through all tests A-Okay. (Obviously we now understand that doesn’t mean there aren’t problems.) We have also repaired Windows multiple times (including 1001 updates). We have disabled and stopped “crap” from startup, run defrag, scanned with Malwarebytes (purchased), SAS, MSE, Avira and AVG, and others; no hits. (Yes, we installed, ran and then uninstalled antivi software between trials.)

We did stop 99% of BSODs except for - and here is the tricky part - an hour after a cold boot. That’s one hour. Every time. All the time. No matter what time. Once it reboots, it runs just peachy all week long – as long as it isn’t shut down. Computer does not leave a dump, nor does it leave anything in event viewer. We have tried WhoCrashed and BlueScreenMonitor (?) but since it is not leaving a dump, there’s nothing for them to analyze. If we happen to catch BSODs, they still point in various directions like IRQL, Fault in non-paged area, NTFS file system, ntoskrnl etc. As I said earlier, errors have blamed everything at one time or another, but it leaves no dump. (And yes, it should; it used to but hasn't the past 4-5 BSODs.)

XP Professional
HDD 500G|SAMSUNG HD502HJ
PSU OCZ|OCZ550FTY 550W RT
MEM 2Gx2|MUSHKIN 996585 R
MoBo BIOSTAR | TA890GXB HD R
DVD BRN ASUS | DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS%
VGA SAPPHIRE|100296HDMI HD4670 R
CPU AMD|PH II X4 965 AM3 RT
Original HDD cloned to new HDD.

What the heck? Any ideas? Can do a clean install, but prefer not to due to tons of work-related software and data. Not too proud to beg – on our knees… )

Thanks in advance.

 

First place I'd look is in Task Scheduler, there maybe something set to run about an hour after boot.

Check that Windows is set to save a minidump.

 

Check the properties of the Windows/Minidump folder to be sure it's writeable. A full memory dump will be very slow but minidumps just happen ... I'm at a loss to visualise what's happening here.

 

Couple of quick silly questions: is the machine connected to any peripherals (printer, wireless adapter, UPS, etc., especially with USB connections)?
And, have you disabled the Windows Time service? Never heard of that causing problems, but it's a straw to grasp.

 

Have we checked to see if there is plenty of ventilation on the CPU and that there is an ample supply of thermal grease?

 

This answer assumes the issue happens roughly after an hour; not at the exact moment of 1:00:00...

If you have an NVIDIA video card (even an older one), pull out the ATI and see if the issue repeats with the NVIDIA card.

ATI still has a few phantom driver issues (possible in 32-bit but more likely in 64-bit). Unlike Windows 7 (which can usually recover itself), these issues on XP will often crash the PC into a BSOD.

 

I have a 4870 in one of my PCs. The fact it happens once every several days without a reboot makes me think even more it is a driver issue ATI has yet to solve. Although Windows Action Center will usually record the ATI driver fault if the PC freezes and recovers; it usually won't if it goes to a BSOD. Based on my experience, the odds of a BSOD crash increase if the PC is left on for a few days or more without a reboot.

In addition, I've found that the ATI drivers will also sometimes have a negative effect on audio/video playback; occasional hanging or stuttering in Win Media Player 11 is common on the PC noted above. When I pulled the ATI card and tested the system with an old NVIDIA 8400, the a/v stuttering issues went away.

Here's a dirty little secret I found out in a Microsoft video training session: When Vista was having major issues, Microsoft analyzed the "send error reports" messages. Even on units running Vista SP1, almost two-thirds of the error reports involved third-party drivers - and, of those two-thirds, over 60% were ATI graphics drivers.

Until ATI gets their s**t together, I see no foolproof way to totally solve the problem. Unless you want to switch to an NVIDIA card, my advice is to reboot the PC on a regular basis (at least once a day). As noted in my experience, the risk of an ATI based crash increases based on the hours/days since the last reboot.

 

All I can say about the a/v stuttering issue on this specific PC is that it goes away when I pull out the ATI and put in an NVIDIA. I have no idea why. Since I've checked the sound drivers for updates and uninstalled/reloaded WMC 11, I have no choice but to blame ATI. rolleyes

 

I just got a deal on an NVIDIA 210, which should be sufficient for the PC that's giving me fits with the 4870.

I'm going to try moving the 4870 to a new home theater build I'm starting next week using an ASUS AM3 board in a hybrid Crossfire setup.

Keep your fingers crossed...rolleyes

 

Wow! Thanks for the tip. I never would have guessed the UPS was the culprit. If I ever run into a similar issue where the "usual suspects" don't work I'll definitely try using a surge protector without the UPS to see if it fixes the problem.

If the bad UPS is under 3 years old it may still be under APC's warranty. I would go to their website and check. If you cannot find the receipt they may accept an RMA based on the unit's serial # which shows the date it was manufactured.

As for the video card swap, success! The GT 210 works perfectly with the Gigabyte EP43UD-L motherboard - no more audio or video stuttering issues.

I moved the ATI into the new Home Theater PC build. I've been too busy to finish tweaking it; however my initial 30 minute video test only had one stutter.