BSOD Blues

[PTV-Jobo 820]

Hey guys, hoping I can get a wee bit of help here. To start off with, below is what I am running:

OS: Windows 7 Pro 64-bit

Video: Sapphire Vapor-X Radeon HD 4870 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16

Motherboard: ASRock X58 Supercomputer LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX

PSU: Silverstone OP1000-E 1000W ATX 12V 2.2 & EPS 12V SLI & CrossFire Ready

CPU: Intel Core i7 (HT turned off)

Memory: 6GB (6 x 1GB) OCZ DDR3 SDRAM (1333MHz DDR3-1333/PC3-10600)

Monitor: HYUNDAI W220d Black 22" 2ms(GTG) HDMI Widescreen LCD

HDD1: Western Digital Caviar Black 500GB (OS, BU's)

HDD2: Western Digital 1TB (programs, games, music, etc)

Sound: Creative PCI Express X-FI Titanium Fatal1ty Champion Series

Ok, Sunday me and my guys were getting ready to get some ArmA time in. I was hosting and would pick some missions we've played quite a few times without any issues and it would. But a few moments in, the screen suddenly lockedup/froze and then the BSOD. It was a 0x124 error I believe. Win 7 restarted, got back online, rehosted and picked a different mission. This time I only go up to the map map, and the moment I clicked continue--BSOD. Each time, I was getting further and further out of the game before I would get a BSOD. Eventually, just connecting to skype or something would cause the BSOD.

I don't OC--too chicken to really. Except for my card. I only raised it a few points, but mostly jacked the fan up to the high 80's-mid 90' percentage to make sure no heat buildup with the card. I even did a restore to factory settings and still BSOD'ed.

So a friend told me to try updating my BIOS. So I downloaded and installed the latest version of Asrock's site. Still issues. Hyperthread on or off on my CPU--BSOD either way. Stock settings or boosting on the G-card? BSOD either way.

For awhile, I thought it was the MS updates I had installed the week previous. So downloaded the latest updates and installed. When I clicked to accept the system restart--BSOD again! This time windows wouldn't even load normally. I'd see the black animated Windows 7 screen and just before the blue windows theme screen would pop up (before you see your desktop), BSOD.

The only way I could get around it was loading in safemode with networking. I tried system restoring, and still had a BSOD no matter which date/point I chose. So I gave up and decided to wipe everything and start anew. So I deleted my old partitions--remade them and installed the OS on the 1st partition.

Basically what I do is this. On my 500GB:

Partition 1 200GB (C:) holds my OS and all the most important programs, etc

Partition 2 265GB (roughly) (D:) holds my other apps/programs like photoshop, arma launcher, skype, msn, outlook 2007, etc.

and on my 1TB:

Partition 1 180GB (G:) holds my graphic design stuff, portfolio, etc

Partition 2 200GB (H:) holds all my games, which right now I only have AA2:CO installed and patched

Partition 3 180GB (I:) Has movies, music, etc

Partition 4 200GB (J:) is specifically for making backups of my system

Now I've built this thing about last year, if that, and have had no real issues like this that I can recall. Although a few months back I did have 1 or 2 BSOD's, but were far, far apart--or a random restart out of nowhere. I made sure to update my drivers and seemed to at least stop the BSOD's up till now, making me think maybe it was a bad ATI driver or something...

But this time, I did a fresh install off the dvd and allowed no updates of any kind except what comes with the dvd. Everything worked great. So installed the drivers for my sound card, video card, etc off their cd's and still--worked fine, no BSOD's. Installed just about all my apps back, and no issues. Even started to download the MS updates little by little according to oldest date to recent manually--and seemed like no issues.

Loaded up ArmA 2 2 nights ago and seemed ok, although I did notice as a USMC saw gunner on Takistan in the editor he looked kinda OFP'ish. Restarted ArmA and it was gone. Came back online yesterday and was in and out of the editor a few times throughout the day testing some sounds, but last night I was looking through the acog of the MK17 I think on utes, and the moment I pulled the trigger on full auto--BSOD!

Now at this rate, I'm in between wanting to cry and wanting to laugh in a psychotic fit. So I downloaded memtest86+ onto my usb flash drive thingy and let it run the standard test over night.

11 hours later and 8 passes--it found absolutely no errors whatsoever. I also just installed the free trial of ActiveSMART to check my HDD's and their health. Health, temperature, etc are all showing as Healthy.

I'm really out of my element here and don't know what to do. I'm on the verge of either throwing it out of my window or even worse--bring it to Best Buy and have one of the "Geek Squad" kids to look at it and make me feel like a total jackass. :(

Any suggestions for this n00b in distress?

[bensdale 0]

Test your cpu with Prime 95.

http://mersenneforum.org/gimps/p64v2511.zip

I had BSOD because my cpu had not enough volt. I have this

found out after a prime 95 test.

Maybe an other solution can be this:

MS KB about issue with OS crash when GPU under heavy load

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/983615/en-us

[Encrypted_God 10]

As you're explaining the issue, you mentioned several time about drivers. About 75% of BSOD's are driver related. BSOD's happen all the time even on the best computers. So don't think it's just yours. Only worry about when the frequency of them starts to rise, like yours.

What would really help is to take note of the actual BSOD message you get. Better yet, take a Picture of it and post it. A lot of information in that message I could decipher.

But first, you should take out 2 sticks of those OCZ's and leave the one that's closest to the chip. installed. Also, check ALL of the power connections to every componant that needs power.

Another thing to check is in the msconfig. Start/Run/Type in msconfig. Un-check ALL that is unnecessary under the "start up" tab. Report back and let us know

Edited September 17, 2010 by Encrypted_God

[PTV-Jobo 820]

Yeah most times is 0x124. I'll try getting a screen next time and posting it for ya.

Been speaking with two mates, apparently these ATI 4870's have quite a few complaints--especially with heating. Plus I noticed the dark areas in-game if you look close you can see almost like....static? But out of game, I don't have that. Most my BSOD's in the past were during game times as well. Few freak restarts, etc. I'm wondering too if its this damn card or adding to it. It's between the high 50's to mid 60's right now idling without games running not sure how that translates from C to F.

Double checked the connections, everything is goo. Although my creative I/O panel is still weird (lights are out, but get sound out of it even though it's reading it as my headset is plugged in rear jacks, lol). So might rip that stupid waste of money out too.

I'll try the sticks thing, and still make sure no dust got in any of the slots too and re-seat them. Also will try Prime 95 that bensdale suggested just to see if it finds anything.

But funny enough I found my email to Sapphire awhile back:

"I turn the monitor on and started the computer up (I don’t like keeping the computer running all day and night non-stop), I noticed all the colors and graphics were distorted considerable—almost like looking at an old Nintendo game having a graphical glitch—colors inverted, kind of chrome-looking, etc. Especially with darker colors, blacks and greys. I tried doing a system restore, checking monitor connection, etc. I tried doing Print Screen, but the capture looks normal—which is making me suspect the card itself even more. I just got done going to Google to find the Sapphire website and by the time I found the email address to send this two, the screen has just corrected itself now.

Please note, I’ve not done any overclocking of any kind on this card. The only real adjusting I’ve done was with the manual fan control and raise it to test fan loudness (which by the way, you guys did a heck of a great job…even setting the manual fan control to around the low 90’s this card is still quiet as ever, even when playing games). Fan adjustment was the only thing so I didn’t risk having heat buildup. Everything else is stock—as is the rest of my system. I spent a lot of money on this computer, so I don’t wish to cut the life of my parts by attempting any overclocking."

Seemed to go away after I emailed them, but the moron that I am I never sent it back even when they gave me a RMA. I guess as time went on it went from one quick glitch to much worse issues (freak restarts and now possibly BSOD's)

And then I found lots of posts on Ati's forums that sound close to my issues with similar or exact same card type.

Ah well, I'll have to test each stick of RAM as well over the weekend just in case if the software just isn't picking up any issues that might exist. Tonight is my father's birthday, so I'll have to hold off tonight. I'll let you guys know how I make out.

Thanks for all the suggestions and help, I really appreciate it fellas. I'm at the end of my rope here, heheh.

[Encrypted_God 10]

I am here to help so I will watch this thread close. This is not a jab below the belt towards ATi but....I recommend going nVidia. However; it is user preference.

I am looking at the random shutdowns and that could indicate a PSU issue. Look to see if you have all the components equally distributed. I have the Corsair 1000w PSU (CMPSU-1000HX) and for some reason when I had my 4 VelociRaptors connected to one cable the damn thing would shutdown on me. So I removed 2 of them and placed them on a different cable. No more shutdowns. The PSU is a beast but for some reason it didn't like four VelociRaptors on one cable.

Anyways..worth a try aye?

[PTV-Jobo 820]

Yeah, it was difficult choosing a card, since I could never get a definite answer on which would be better and figured it's down to user pref. I never had a nVidia card before--always ATI, so I kinda just went for what I had experience with--if you wanna call my n00bness as "experience", heh. I do a lot of Photoshop work with huge files, and was told ATI was the way to go, which also affected my choice.

But the major factor was price. I didn't want to go cheap, but certainly didn't have $500-$600 to pay for a card neither. I wanted someone I could run ArmA 2 as highest as possible as well--but unfortunately, I learned the difficult lesson of "it'll never happen unless I work for NASA", heh.

Still, this has done the job up till now. Just not sure what went wrong and why. I tried playing in the editor again, trying to do what I did yesterday when the latest BSOD happened, but.....nothing yet. When I want a BSOD, it won't happen and when I don't want it to, it happens a bunch. Someone up there hates me....lol. :P

I'll double check the lines on the PSU and make sure not too much is running off one single "cable". Maybe put a HDD on it's own since I still have a few free cables that I had to tie up.

As far as the random restarts, it's happened but not often and pretty much once in a blue moon. Then again, that's pretty much how this BSOD nonesense started too, eh? And before I knew it--WHAM!

Been running IntelBurn as well a few times, and so far no issues one bit. But yeah, I'll start looking inside tomorrow at some point. But now, time to go pig out and try finding a way to get out of singing "Happy Birthday", heheh.

[PTV-Jobo 820]

Ok, just had a few BSOD's out of nowhere. Until I can get the pictures off the camera and posted, I got onto windows finally and I guess this is for one of the BSOD's:

------------------------------------------------

Problem signature:

Problem Event Name: BlueScreen

OS Version: 6.1.7600.2.0.0.256.48

Locale ID: 1033

Additional information about the problem:

BCCode: 124

BCP1: 0000000000000004

BCP2: FFFFFA80062EA038

BCP3: 0000000000000000

BCP4: 0000000000000000

OS Version: 6_1_7600

Service Pack: 0_0

Product: 256_1

------------------------------------

Hope this helps in some way in the meantime?

[Infam0us 10]

Hey mate,

Sorry to hear about the problems your having with the card. Hopefully I can help as I have the exact same card as you, a Sapphire 4870 :)

Firstly I've found ArmA 2 to be very temperamental with ATI Drivers. So much so that until 10.9's came out the other day I was using 10.4's as anything above would simply BSOD ArmA 2 or just make the game unplayable. So firstly be willing to test out a lot of different drivers.

http://www.filehippo.com/download_ati_catalyst/

There is a good place to access all the recent drivers.

There is also an issue with the BIOS in certain 4870 Sapphire cards that can cause BSODs and general instability when its stressed enough. Although it does'nt sound like your having this issue its worth a look. In the end to stop it I had to flash it to a more updated version. But I warn you, don't do this without first heavily reading into it as if you do it wrong it simply kills the card.

The other issue I've sometimes had with the card is overheating, although its generally solved by using Fanspeed in CCC and monitoring temperatures. There is another issue sometimes related to V-RAM and how ArmA 2 assigns it, I think thats mostly been solved now but its under the Video Memory settings ingame if you want to play with it.

Hopefully some of my wall of text will help you, as I've had all of these problems myself and worked around them and now have the game working perfectly stable :)

Good Luck!

[PTV-Jobo 820]

Cheers on the info mate, appreciate it. Might give that a go and see how it all pans out. Thanks for the link too, saves on me wracking my brains trying to find it, lol.

I did manage to get the BSOD shots. First one I managed to get all in one shot, but screwed up on the second BSOD, so I took two pictures to get the whole code--doh!

1st BSOD:

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a130/yochanan/IMG_0398.jpg

2nd BSOD:

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a130/yochanan/IMG_0402.jpg

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a130/yochanan/IMG_0403.jpg (second half of code)

[Infam0us 10]

You can tell your system to hang on a BSOD you know, don't have to rush and take a photo :)

[EDcase 87]

Sorry to hear about your woes.

I don't know about the possible problems with ATi but another option is to check is the sound card as they can cause these sorts of problems...

Try disabling it and see if that changes anything.

[Encrypted_God 10]

I Found something that's worth checking out.

0x000000124 error: LINK

0x000000125 error:LINK

As I stated prior, A large percentage of BSOD's are Driver related, next is Hardware (or vice-versa). Infam0us had indicated that very thing. Try installing a different driver.

To reiterate on what Infam0us is talking about, To keep your system from rebooting right away, Go into your system properties and follow the below images.

[PTV-Jobo 820]

Hey guys,

Thanks for all the help. Over the weekend, I hooked up the compressor and blasted the case big time, then popped the RAM out and brushing the contacts off with a soft small brush and just about any holes/crevices/etc we can find. Shuffled the RAM around and made sure everything is seated tightly. Permanently disconnected the creative front IO panel that came with my sound card (ugh, what a waste of money!) since it was acting weird (can use my headset plugged into it, but all the lights were off and kept reading it as if I was connected in the back of the case). Popped the video card out as well to make sure no dust was trapped in the fan....

Well so far no BSOD has popped up.....yet! I don't think I'm back to normal 100%, since I notice the screen jumps, especially when loading web pages like youtube--and that never happened before.

I'm going to go through those links as well as check out the drivers side of things. I just hope it doesn't take an eternity to find a stable version, haha.

Once again, thanks a whole bunch to you guys taking the time to try and get me back to running. Just going 3 days without a BSOD feels like a new experience now, lol. :p

[PTV-Jobo 820]

Alrighty, I've downloaded some drivers and it seemed to have minimized screen "jumping" for a bit, but noticed it was doing it again today....odd.

I'm more than likely just going to save up my pennies and go nVidia this time. Although I might try contacting Sapphire about what's going on and see if maybe they'll give me a RMA# and send out a new card since I should be under warranty. If so, what I might try doing is use the default drivers off the cd first on the replacement--then start moving up in versions until I get to the most recent to see if I get any twitches. If so, then I would assume its drivers all the way.

Either way, I've had ATI every time I built and must admit...I can't say I've loved them. So maybe it's time I give nVidia a shot? I just hope I can find a good one that doesn't cost more than $300, otherwise I'm screwed. Haha.