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Games cause BSOD and auto restart

3K views 21 replies 6 participants last post by  AlbertMC2 
#1 ·
Hi everyone.

I have a computer that was just freshly formatted. Its running XP SP3. Has all drivers/bios/hardware/windows updates up to date. It was formatted on thursday and since then, besides installing a couple programs and a couple games. It is completely clean.

Since that point I can't seem to fix this problem.

The computer seems to run seemingly ok with no issue. But once I start up a game (I have installed a couple just to see) it will run anywhere from a second - 10 seconds and then either restart with no BSOD or throw one.

Currently one of the BSOD errors I have is:
0x0000007F

One I got about half hour ago was..
0x0000007E

I checked out most of them and did run what they recommended. I have swapped out video card, the ram. Updated the Bios etc..

One reason I though was maybe it was over heating and that's why it auto restarted. I ran Prime95 and some "hot cpu tester pro". They both ran for a fair bit of time and the computer did not restart which leads me to believe its not a over heating issue?

Specs are:
CPU: Dualcore Intel Pentium D 930, 3000mhz
Motherboard: Asus PSWD2-E Premium
Ram: 3072 MB (DDR2-800)
Video: ATI Radeon HD 5500 Series

I have tried everything I could possibly think of and have no idea where to go from here... Could the mother board be bad? Kind of weird it runs all apps ok but crashes on games :sigh:

Thanks for any suggestions or help
 
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#2 · (Edited)
I don't think this is a mobo issue. It seems like a driver conflict with windows. Games are video intensive and try to use your video card to it's fullest. If the driver from the video card manufacturer isn't compatible with the game or loosly so with Windows, BSOD's can occur.

Did you check out these two Microsoft Support pages?

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/330182

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/822789

:wave:
 
#3 ·
I belive I went through the first one. I'll check out the second one although I dont use one of those programs for anti-virus.

In regards to it being a driver conflict for the card. The first original card in there was a nvidia geforce 8600 GTS. I replaced it temporally with the card from my computer which is a radeon 5570 HD. The first drivers where uninstalled and the computer was restarted before installing the drivers for the second card.
 
#4 · (Edited)
1) There's no anti-virus or anti-spyware running?
2) Does the BIOS allow you to choose between PCI video and PCI-E?

Two different brands of video card causing the same problem on a relatively clean PC makes me cringe. Might point to the MOBO as you suspected.

The BIOS might show you the CPU's temps and the range of normal.
Overheating usually shows as a slow computer after a few minutes of operation, you can check to see if the fans are running.

I found an obscure note that the ATI Radeon 5500 could have IRQ conflicts with some USB ports. You might check in Device Manager and see if anything is amiss there. Doesn't explain why two video cards would exhibit the same symptoms though.
 
#7 · (Edited)
Thank you for all the help guys.



- I have Vipre installed on it. This problem happened before I had any AV installed though.
- It doesn't appear there is any such option in the BIOS. Here is a link that shows off the BIOS rather well.
http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Hardware/Reviews/asus_p5wd2-e/3.html
- I have the case open majority of the time at the moment as I had to attach a floppy to update the motherboard so I can see all the fans are running. It even has an extra fan in the front to allow additional cooling. And I also tried to run a torture test to get the thing to over heat but it ran for about half hour at 100% and fair big chunk or ram was used and nothing happened. Was just as quick as it was before the test. Second I started up a game though... bam... Restart

The one thing I found thats odd in the device manager though is even after everything is installed. I have 2 things that are not registered.
- PCI Device
- Unknown Device

Now the only thing in the PCI slots is a Wireless card that is working fine as it gets on the Internet and home network here without issue and downloads/uploads.

Other then that. The only thing plugged into the mother board is..
- Video Card
- 1 Cd-rom
- Wireless card

The floppy is unplugged and the onboard sound is working fine.

:4-dontkno

One other forum poster with a similar problem was asked for Power Supply information. Inexpensive power supplies can apparently cause the random reboot issue when playing games. I'm thinking about how that might happen and think it might have to do with the high CPU and video card usage during game play causing a voltage rail to sag, causing a ps shutdown.
That makes sense Jim, Its running what looks like a pretty new 500w PSU. Although its not running very much in the computer voltage wise. Just what I mentioned above and the 5500 series of video card is considered not a high power card.

First off, games don't cause BSOD. Hardware, and the drivers that interact with it do. Also the only reason your computer would restart is because your computer is set to. You can disable this restart yourself by unchecking the option on the Startup and Recovery dialogue box. This may give you a chance to read the BSOD.

Since you have done such a clean install, I guess I wouldn't go blaming badly configured settings, drivers, or anything like that. There might be more interesting information worth showing us from the BSOD. So if you see it again, and you have unchecked the restart option, you can write it down to show us.

You could be on something about the PSU. If they don't supply enough power to the hardware, you are bound to be facing problems. If the computer was pre-built by a manufacturer, this shouldn't be a problem as they should have considered the power demand versus the supply. But that will be another case if you or someone else built the computer for you.

Also.... here:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/330182http://support.microsoft.com/kb/330182
Hi Jay, I have disabled that option and the option in the BIOS as well. It still just auto restarts without any BSOD or error. I'll check out the microsoft link and see if replacing some of the drivers might work.

-----

In regards to over heating... When running Prime95 on a blend test and SpeedFan. The highest temps I get are:
System: 38C
CPU: 54C
AUX: 35C
HD0: 30C

When running FurMark on the GPU I get this:
System: 35C
CPU: 46C
AUX: 13C
HD0: 31C
Graphics card: 65C

So I might be wrong but that should rule out the power supply too right? If the PSU can keep up to the video card when its going through a stress test then it should be ok.

Tried to start up a game in windowed mode to see what SpeedFan was saying and the second it got into game it restarted. Non of the stats went much higher then resting temp.

Guess this rules out over heating?
 
#5 ·
One other forum poster with a similar problem was asked for Power Supply information. Inexpensive power supplies can apparently cause the random reboot issue when playing games. I'm thinking about how that might happen and think it might have to do with the high CPU and video card usage during game play causing a voltage rail to sag, causing a ps shutdown.
 
#6 · (Edited)
First off, games don't cause BSOD. Hardware, and the drivers that interact with it do. Also the only reason your computer would restart is because your computer is set to. You can disable this restart yourself by unchecking the option on the Startup and Recovery dialogue box. This may give you a chance to read the BSOD.



Since you have done such a clean install, I guess I wouldn't go blaming badly configured settings, drivers, or anything like that. There might be more interesting information worth showing us from the BSOD. So if you see it again, and you have unchecked the restart option, you can write it down to show us.

You could be on something about the PSU. If they don't supply enough power to the hardware, you are bound to be facing problems. If the computer was pre-built by a manufacturer, this shouldn't be a problem as they should have considered the power demand versus the supply. But that will be another case if you or someone else built the computer for you.

Also.... here:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/330182
 
#9 · (Edited)
Guess this rules out over heating?
It could, but with this kind of issue I try to keep an open mind.

The one thing I found thats odd in the device manager though is even after everything is installed. I have 2 things that are not registered.
- PCI Device
- Unknown Device
After removing the WiFi card, check this again.

Have you run the 'Game' test with the WiFi card removed and the CD/DVD unplugged? If that changes anything, plug in the DVD, run again. Then the WiFi.

You're not overclocking are you?

Finally, do you have a power supply on hand you can substitute?

2) Does the BIOS allow you to choose between PCI video and PCI-E?
- It doesn't appear there is any such option in the BIOS. Here is a link that shows off the BIOS rather well.
Check the BIOS in 'Onboard Devices Configuration' and 'PCIPnP'. Shut off all unnecessary devices, such as the onboard NIC, etc. while you're testing.

BTW, I think we're getting close to finding a resolution to this issue...it really helps that you have a nice clean OS to work from.
 
#10 ·
Thanks for the encouragement Jim :)

I started off by unplugging the wireless card and the dvd rom. I get into windows and All I get is "windows has recovered from a serious error". I'll press 'don't send' and it comes back in a second and keeps coming back no matter how many times I press it.

Its actually the wireless card causing this error. If i plug the card back in I get no 'serious error' when I get into windows.

Could this be just a bad install of windows? or perhaps when installing something got corrupted somewhere? Seems every time I take a step somewhere with this computer I get a new error or problem.

Considering re formatting and seeing if the problem is there again. What do you guys think?
 
#11 · (Edited)
OK, leave the WiFi board out. Boot into 'Safe' mode and remove the software for the WiFi card from 'Add remove software'. The error box shouldn't hamper working in Win.

Shut down, plug the CD back in. Reboot, check the BIOS and see if there is an onboard NIC. Turn it off. Boot back up and test again.

I think it's a large clue that removing the WiFi caused a 'Recovered from a serious error'.

(I've not experienced the repeating 'Serious error' for quite awhile, so I'm rolling it around in my head for the moment).

If you'd had a bad install of WinXP it would have shown you that during the install.

What you could do is leave the WiFi board out, set BIOS to boot first from CD, insert your XP disk, boot from the disk, go past the first mention of 'R'ecovery, and do a restore, that'll leave your files & programs intact.

After it's finished and you can boot (maybe test a game), shut down, install the WiFi card, and on reboot reinstall the drivers (Windows will do this for you - usually). I've sometimes had to change the order I install plug in devices to get a clean boot. At least in the olden days; XP is usually pretty good at this though. Have your WiFi install disk ready if it asks for drivers it doesn't have. Or download them from the web first and have them on a thumb drive.

If this clears things, go back to BIOS and turn the onboard NIC back on, it'll install and you'll be back to where you can use both the WiFi and the NIC (when properly configured of course).
 
#13 ·
Alright I have removed the wireless card/software/drivers from the computer and do still have the CD removed. I've checked in the BIOS for anything with the word NIC in it but I did not find anything.

My understanding is NIC is basically a network card. There is the option to disable the on board network cards. I have tried that but I am still in the same boat.

I have also uninstalled the anti virus that's on there.

I tried one of the games and also the stand by button ( by mistake) and they both result in a

Stop 0x:0000007F

Beginning dump of physical memory
Physical memory dump complete.

Even with the options to not auto restart it still only flashes so I took my digi cam and just pointed it at the monitor. Seems to be running for about 20 seconds now instead of the 4 seconds before restarting.

Guess that's some progress :)

EDIT: I'll try reinstalling the card and see if that clears that error up.
 
#14 · (Edited)
I lost my DSL for awhile, back up on the T-1 line.

Read through the info in this link and see if it applies.

Stop 0X:0000007F Issue

We're getting close...I can feel it. Just a few more steps.

I don't recall if you tried to install Norton or not. (Don't install - wondering about an incomplete uninstall).

NIC = Network Interface Card.

Which of your video cards are you using now?

I don't know what you mean about 'Pointed the DigiCam at the monitor'.
 
#15 · (Edited)
I'll have to give it all a shot tomorrow after work. But I am glad one of us is still feeling very optimistic :) It is encouraging.

I don't have any Norton products installed. The anti virus that was installed was Vipre so there was nothing Norton related that went near that PC.

I put the nvidia card back in there since it requires a power supply that has the extra 'PCI-E' power connection that my computer lacks so when I took the Radeon card from my PC to put it in that one. I can't use the video card that is in that PC in the mean time. Truth be told I did not try running it in my pc but since it has an extra power cable running to it I figured it would require it to run properly.

By the digicam thing I ment that the restart and BSOD happen so fast that I cannot read it. I do a bit of photography so I took my DSLR and pointed it at the monitor. Started up a game and let it run for a few seconds before it flashed the BSOD and restarted. Then I went back on the camera and looked at the video and went frame by frame so I could see what Stop error it was. Figured I had to improvise :)

EDIT: Forgot to mention that after looking at that link it doesn't really pertain to much to my situation since it does not have a Symantec product but following another link there to the general causes of Stop 0x7F are:

  • Low-level hardware corruption, such as corrupt memory (RAM)
  • Mismatched memory modules
  • A malfunctioning motherboard
I believe I have ruled out the first two since I swapped the RAM from my PC over to that one and it runs fine without any issue. The RAM in both sets is also a matching pair.
 
#20 · (Edited)
Is it odd for a motherboard to just 'mostly' work?
Not at all, the mobo is made up of primary, secondary, tertiary, and more, sub-systems. The only thing that is common to all is the CPU, and the power supply.

If I was desperate to save this computer, I'd try a different power supply at this point, and I'd also carefully remove and reinstall the CPU, because it's in a socket, and those contacts can get corrosion. I'd visually inspect all the pins on the CPU looking for a slightly bent pin, and the socket for anything unusual, like cookie crumbs :tongue:. (I would also vacuum [I have an anti-static vacuum] or blow out the case, because I dislike a dusty computer).

Removing and reinstalling the CPU, and operating the capture latching mechanism several times, wipes the contacts on the CPU's pins and cleans them. (Yes, you can spray contact cleaner on them too).

I've also found power supply contacts that had been inserted into their sockets on the mobo at an angle, which opened them a little, causing an intermittent open circuit and odd shutdowns.

Good luck to you. :4-dontkno
 
#21 ·
go into your bios and post your temperatures and voltages from there.

If this is happening with two different cards then either your mobo is damaged or your power supply is the propblem.

what make and model of psu do you have?

Also check your motherboard for damaged or leaking capacitors.
 
#22 ·
Hi

The fact that this is happening with 2 graphics cards, on a fresh install of Windows together with the fact sometimes it just restarts without a BSOD would suggest it is definitely a hardware and not a software problem.

Therefore I would start with the memory test. (I realize you have swapped out the memory but I would still test to be sure). You can run Memtest which you can download from here. Download the ZIP file, extract the ISO and write it to CD (Do not just copy the file to the CD). If you need help doing this here is a document that should help you.
Once written to CD, boot your PC with the CD and run Memtest. Allow the test to run through at least 3 passes or until it gives errors. If you have more than 1 memory module run the test on each module separately.

Then you should run a hard drive test. You can download the diagnostics program for your make of hard drive here. Once again download the zip file, extract the ISO image and burn it to CD. Boot the PC with the CD and run the advanced/extended test.
 
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