[simon g]

I need a geek, please help!

I am running windows media centre on an HP 8170a Mediacentre PC with VISTA 32 bit home premium package. Whenever we watch dvd's or tv inevitably we get a BSOD.

I've tried doing some investigations on my own but am out of my depth. I recently added 2 1GB RAM cards, a skype phone and a USB hub. From what I've read this error is often associated with drivers not being installed correctly.

.DMP files are attached.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks

Attached Files

•  Mini121210-01.zip   495.14KB   96 downloads

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Hi simon g, welcome to Geeks to go!

I'm worried about this RAM that you just installed. I looked through most of your dump files and the results are pretty random. I found like 6 different processes that were causing errors in various programs. That makes me think that it is a RAM issue because both the BSODs and the failed processes were all over the place (avast, usb modem, network card). Interestingly, none of the dump files referenced the video driver, which would seem to be the problem.


Please follow these instructions to run a memory test on that new RAM you just installed to make sure it is good. When you post your results (basically pass/fail), please also post the brand, size, and type of RAM you bought. Good luck!


Please download the Windows Memory Diagnostic, Save it to somewhere you will remember.

Preparation
After downloading the tool, run it and accept the EULA.
You will be asked to either make a floppy disk or create a CD image. If you want to use a floppy disk, insert a floppy disk and hit the top button.
If you want to use a CD then hit the bottom button and save the 'windiag.iso' to a place you can remember.
Once you have saved the 'windiag.iso' you will have to burn it to disk, a good program to use is ISO Recorder.

Starting the Diagnostics
Now you should have the CD burnt or the floppy created. The next step will be to run the diagnostics.
Insert your CD or floppy and reboot the computer.
You should get prompted to boot from the CD or floppy.
If you didn't get prompted to boot from CD or floppy you will have to change the Boot Order in the BIOS so that CD or floppy comes before the hard drive.

The Results
Once the Diagnostics start running, let it run for about 4 full passes. Preferably overnight.
When the scan has done 4 full passes, or an overnight scan, look at the bottom of the screen.
The bottom of the screen will indicate if any errors have been found.
If errors have been found please check how many under the "results" part of the bottom table.
You can then reboot your machine by pressing the 'X' key.
Please report back with your findings.

Edited by The Admiral, 14 January 2011 - 11:07 AM.

[The Admiral]

Hi simon g, welcome to Geeks to go!

I'm worried about this RAM that you just installed. I looked through most of your dump files and the results are pretty random. I found like 6 different processes that were causing errors in various programs. That makes me think that it is a RAM issue because both the BSODs and the failed processes were all over the place (avast, usb modem, network card). Interestingly, none of the dump files referenced the video driver, which would seem to be the problem.


Please follow these instructions to run a memory test on that new RAM you just installed to make sure it is good. When you post your results (basically pass/fail), please also post the brand, size, and type of RAM you bought. Good luck!


Please download the Windows Memory Diagnostic, Save it to somewhere you will remember.

Preparation
After downloading the tool, run it and accept the EULA.
You will be asked to either make a floppy disk or create a CD image. If you want to use a floppy disk, insert a floppy disk and hit the top button.
If you want to use a CD then hit the bottom button and save the 'windiag.iso' to a place you can remember.
Once you have saved the 'windiag.iso' you will have to burn it to disk, a good program to use is ISO Recorder.

Starting the Diagnostics
Now you should have the CD burnt or the floppy created. The next step will be to run the diagnostics.
Insert your CD or floppy and reboot the computer.
You should get prompted to boot from the CD or floppy.
If you didn't get prompted to boot from CD or floppy you will have to change the Boot Order in the BIOS so that CD or floppy comes before the hard drive.

The Results
Once the Diagnostics start running, let it run for about 4 full passes. Preferably overnight.
When the scan has done 4 full passes, or an overnight scan, look at the bottom of the screen.
The bottom of the screen will indicate if any errors have been found.
If errors have been found please check how many under the "results" part of the bottom table.
You can then reboot your machine by pressing the 'X' key.
Please report back with your findings.

Edited by The Admiral, 14 January 2011 - 11:07 AM.

[simon g]

Thanks Admiral,

I will download the diagnostics tool and set it up to run this evening NZ time so it can run overnight.

The RAM cards were Kingston KTH-XW4300/1G (http://www.kingstonm...d=KTH-XW4300/1G)which were recommended for my particular PC. Interesting that you think it should be the video driver; about 6 months ago I turned off the PC at the wall thinking I'd shut down, but the machine was just in sleep mode. Next morning when my wife tried to start it up the screen was scrambled. I took it into a shop and he reinstalled windows which had become corrupted and removed the factory graphics card which was ruined, leaving the motherboard card to handle the graphics. Also after the BSOD's started (about 4 weeks ago) while running windows media centre in safe mode it came up with the error that the video card did not have the expected 64bits. Not sure if this means anything to you...

I'll be in touch with some results soon, though the bit about changing the order of programs in bios sounds tricky. I've never used the BIOS before. hopefully I won't need to.

Thanks again for your help, I really appreciate it.

Cheers,
Simon

[The Admiral]

Hey good news, the memory diagnostic is a lot easier to run.

Open up your Start menu by clicking on the pearl, and in the search bar type in Windows Memory Diagnostic. Click on the only result and select an appropriate option. If you have time right now, select restart now and check for problems. The computer will reboot into the Windows Memory Diagnostic.

Please return with results from the diagnostic.

Good luck!

[simon g]

Forgot to mention, we only get BSOD's when running the media centre with TV or DVD's, no other time.

[The Admiral]

To clarify my original statement, the video driver would seem to be the culprit because of when you are experiencing the error, but because of the variability of the drivers erroring out, it looks like it could actually be a driver accessing the faulty RAM. Did you replace the original RAM with this Kingston RAM, or add in the Kingston RAM (making a total of more than 2 GB)?

Edited by The Admiral, 14 January 2011 - 03:32 PM.

[simon g]

I added the kingston ram to the existing 2x 512MB RAM cards the PC cam with, so I now have 3GB RAM total.

We were having problems with media centre before I added the RAM, but not to the BSOD level. The program would stutter like a skipping CD, then either stay that way until we forced a restart or the PC would restart itself. It all started after having the software reinstalled and removing the fried video card.

I ran the memory diagnostic tool, restarted the PC and went for a shower. When i got back the PC was booted but there are no signs of any results report. Any idea where i can get this from?

[The Admiral]

(from vista4beginners.com)
1) Right-click on Computer in your Vista start menu and choose Manage.
2) In the Computer Management screen that pops up, expand the Event Viewer in the left-hand panel by clicking on the little arrow to the left of the words Event Viewer.
3) From this expanded menu, expand Windows Logs.
4) On this expanded menu, click on System.
5) Now, the middle panel will be populated with a huge number of events. To find the one you're looking for, click on Find in the right panel.
6) In the Find window, type "MemoryDiagnostics" (all one word, but without the quotes) and click the Find Next button. (Note: you could just type "memory" and still find what you're looking for.)
7) Now, in the panel below, you'll see two tabs: General and Details. Click on Details.
8) Now, you'll see data about your test. If the test passed, you'll see the word PASS on about the fifth line down next to COMPLETION TYPE.

Edited by The Admiral, 14 January 2011 - 07:37 PM.

[The Admiral]

Were you having problems with Media Center before the graphics card was taken out? Or did that start after?

[simon g]

The problems started after taking the factory installed graphics card out.

I followed your directions and the result was a PASS

[The Admiral]

Well I found a driver update that (according to HP's website) "Resolves intermittent issue with the system restarting and blue screen issues while playing DVD movies with Windows Media Player in full screen." But it looks like it is for the old nvidia card that the tech took out. >.<


Head to http://www.intel.com...hics/detect.htm to look for an appropriate driver for your Intel Integrated graphics, the GMA 950 (your motherboard specifications are here).

Click on the Check your system for the latest updates button and click through the security prompts to install the program that will look for updated drivers. It should show that a newer driver is available. Click Download Now. Again, accept the security prompts and download the updated driver. Close all open programs and run the downloaded driver update file. Follow the prompts to install the new driver.

Reboot twice and test your Media Center functionality.

On a side note, that is a pretty cool tool. I just installed Windows 7 on my laptop a few days ago and used the Dell drivers. This Intel tool found an even newer driver, so I feel safe.

Good luck!

[simon g]

Thanks admiral for the reply and all your help.

Wouldn't you know that the intel driver isn't recommended! here's the message they have under the GMA 950 driver;

A customized computer manufacturer driver is installed on your computer. The Intel Driver Update Utility is not able to update the driver. Installing a generic Intel driver instead of the customized computer manufacturer driver may cause technical issues. Contact your computer manufacturer for the latest driver for your computer.

And HP don't have an updated driver for this intel card either, they probably didn't take into account some dunce frying the nvidea card. I'll get in touch with them and see what they can recommend.

Again thanks for all your help,
Simon