Vista 64 Nightmare

[mudogramx]

I'm at my wits end with Vista. I've never had so many problems with a system before. First, I had a lot of trouble installing it, but after 3 days of troubleshooting I solved that problem. Anyway, now I'm having issues that are just completely random. Keep in mind that I've updated all drivers to the latest version as well as the BIOS. I've also installed every Vista update that is applicable to my computer.

Specs:
ASRock P45R2000 Wifi Motherboard
E8400@stock
4GB (2x2) OCZ Platinum DDR3 1333 RAM
Sapphire Radeon HD 4850@stock
500GB Seagate 7200.10
Onboard Sound
CM Real Power Pro PSU@550Watts

Basically, I'm getting random blue screens and freezes. I get blue screens typically when the system is idle or doing a fairly simple task. More commonly these occur shortly after the system comes out of sleep, but not always. A lot of the time they are just random. I could be browsing the net, or simply not doing a damn thing. My gf had it hard lock on her yesterday while attempting to play a flash video. I've ran Windows Debugger on the minidump files, and around 85% of the time it points to ntoskrnl.exe as the problem. Other problems include ntfs and USB. I've installed a hotfix the other day that stated it remedied problems that mirror mine, but to no avail. Just this morning the system hard locked. I've ran Memtestx86 with no errors. SeaTools reports 0 errors. Prime95 runs without issue. System temps are well within reasonable levels. CPU idles around 38, MB around 36. I honestly have no other recourse at this point. The weird part is that the system is rock solid when playing games. Any ideas?

 

[PaulieG]

Hmm...I've generally had good luck with Vista Ultimate 64bit, until the last few days. I've been getting BSOD, despite all hardware testing coming up clean. I've really liked Vista since I've been using it, I may be going back to XP though, as it's just too aggravating!

 

[Deleted member 3]

What error does the blue screen give exactly? It's full of text for a reason. The error code helps too.

 

[Cybrnook2002]

Thats funny I got a blue screen last night when I was launching Mass effect. It was on the lines of a graphics something something. something like graphics being in sync or graphical interface something...... My first blue screen ever in vista 64. I also know I had windows update run the day before and there were about 8 updates. I remember it was a Blue screen 1033

 

[Mandown]

I had almost the exact problem before except it was on xp 32-bit, and i ran the test but everything came back ok. My solution was i had to lower my memory speed and that fixed the problem. Try doing that and clocking it lower and see if that helps.

 

[laszlo]

seems a general problem than caused by update?..

 

[mudogramx]

What error does the blue screen give exactly? It's full of text for a reason. The error code helps too.

I'll post the minidump text when I get home. I'm at work at the moment. The ones that I can remember off the top of my head are "memory corruption" and "page fault in a non-paged area". The memory corruption led me to believe it was the RAM. It would seem that blue screens would occur during games too if that were the cause. I'll try lowering the memory speed to see if that helps. Strange though, the board is rated for DDR3 1333.

 

[mudogramx]

Hmm...I've generally had good luck with Vista Ultimate 64bit, until the last few days. I've been getting BSOD, despite all hardware testing coming up clean. I've really liked Vista since I've been using it, I may be going back to XP though, as it's just too aggravating!

I know what you mean. Earlier builds of Vista ran for the most part without a hitch for me. Of course that was on a different machine.

 

[erocker]

Control Panel-->Administrative Tools-->Event Viewer. Check there for any errors or warnings.

 

[Solaris17]

same thing happened to me in xp i found out it was a psu issue and looking around online the reccomended is a 550w psu it might be to much on your system depending on how good your psu is. but i got the same prob. memory dumps and all sorts of other stuff. i rewired and now its fine but before i was drawing too much.

 

[Mandown]

I'll post the minidump text when I get home. I'm at work at the moment. The ones that I can remember off the top of my head are "memory corruption" and "page fault in a non-paged area". The memory corruption led me to believe it was the RAM. It would seem that blue screens would occur during games too if that were the cause. I'll try lowering the memory speed to see if that helps. Strange though, the board is rated for DDR3 1333.

Ya it seemed strange to me to because when I clocked my mem down i overclocked it past stock speed and it still worked without a problem. Some boards are touchy with certain memory.

Also, if you haven't already, check the timings on the ram.

 

[mudogramx]

Heres a minidump of my most recent blue screen. Win Debug reported ntoskrnl.exe as the culprit again. I upped the voltage on my RAM to 1.83v. I just realized that I left it on Auto. I know undervoltage will cause weirdness. Time will tell.

Edit: Crashed going into sleep at 1.83. Now trying 1.88. So far so good.

 

[Tile]

I've found that prob with most intel chips just downclock your ram to 1033 or around there.. should fix it, i have the same mem prob with my E6300+asus p5b (bios 1604)

 

[Deleted member 38767]

I think the MB is the problem. ASrock are mostly crap so you shouldn't push them to much.

 

[PP Mguire]

August 12th Microsoft released a slew of "critical" system updates. A bunch of my buddys in RL and on forums after updated started getting random blue screens and things just wouldnt work. I run Ultimate x86 right now and i didnt update and im fine. Just something to think about.

 

[mudogramx]

My problems started before August 12th. Anyway, upping the memory voltage seemed to work. I found this to be a solution on the OCZ forums. Thanks Mandown for putting my mind on the right track. The system is rock solid now. No crashes since before the voltage change. I ran stress tests and repeated the conditions that seemed to cause crashes before with very good results. These DIMMs just won't run correctly at 1.8. Luckily OCZ keeps the warranty on the platinums up to and including 1.95. Hehe, sorry guys I'm not an overclocker until my hardware is aging. I never would have thought just .05 volts too little would cause so many problems. New chipsets and RAM Modules though. Its to be expected. Thanks everyone for giving advice. Its like a completely different machine.

 

[Easy Rhino]

vista home premium 64bit was the easiest OS install for me ever.

 

[Easy Rhino]

August 12th Microsoft released a slew of "critical" system updates. A bunch of my buddys in RL and on forums after updated started getting random blue screens and things just wouldnt work. I run Ultimate x86 right now and i didnt update and im fine. Just something to think about.

yea, i got a vista blue screen on august 12 when i was in the middle of that update. gee thanks microsoft.

 

[PP Mguire]

If you can uninstall them. They are just "security" fixes that i believe to give BSOD.

 

[Triprift]

ntoskrnl.exe is a bootup file if thats corrupted i assume ya can repair it not sure how in Vista though :/. And i got a whole heap of updates today i better not get any bsod.

 

[spy2520]

is this only happening to people with HD4850s in vista 64? I notice some of you who are having the problem have those cards.

 

[Cybrnook2002]

Yeah. I finally threw the towel in last night and went back to XP. I feel like a traitor (But sitting comfortably) I also have dual 4850's

 

[mudogramx]

More tests later and everything seems fine now. I guess I just had a couple modules that wouldn't run at the 7-7-7-20 timings advertised without a little more voltage. In the tweaking mood I modified the fan speed of my 4850 and dropped the temp of the GPU down considerably. Those things run really hot as you all know.