[Keywal]

i know the first one is for 2000 but it explains a lot

[joeten]

hi if you still have encrusted dust and debris this will increase the heat it would be better to try to remove it

[jspidey]

I've got the same PC/processor/memory (Gateway DX4640-UBC01A) that was running the same OS (Vista Home Premium 64-bit) and have been having the same issues recently. I did upgrade the PSU (Thermaltake 500W) and video card (GeForce 9800GT 513MG GDDR3) shortly after I bought the PC (March I believe). I keep getting memory errors, page faults, video driver errors, USB driver errors. I was hoping it was a software issue so I loaded Windows7-RTM on it and I've continued to have issues. On Vista it would crash very often but it does not seem to be happening quite as often on Win7...so far.

I reseated my RAM and that didnt change anything. I pulled out my 9800GT to use the on-board video and that seemed to have done the trick - the PC went a whole day without crashing. I just put the video card back in tonight and have already had one crash just browsing: the only intensive thing I've done was watch a YouTube video when it crashed.

What I find strange is that my issues began on 9/14/09 according to my wife and the system logs in Vista before I did a fresh install. That seems somewhat close to the date you began having issues. I'll try to do the mem tests too to see what they say. I'm so frustrated at this point. I have no idea what would cause this PC to act up suddenly. This PC is not in a place where it can be handled but it is in a location where it can breath on all sides. All the fans on the PC (CPU, GPU, PSU) all are spinning. They are set to Auto in the BIOS, maybe we can try Full On to see if that helps indicate it's a heat issue. I've noticed that the hard drive does get awful hot. Hotter than my Western Digital IDE drives ever did. This is my first SATA so I could just be over thinking it.

[joeten]

Hi jspidey you should have started your own thread hijacking someone elses is not the best way to get help.I will point out that as a general rule a psu will only perform to around 80%of that stated ie 500w = 400w actual output so you may well be under powered and this will cause many issues

[jspidey]

My apologies if you thought I was trying to thread jack but I wasn't really asking for help: I was simply offering information on the steps that I've taken to diagnose very similar issues on practically the same box that occurred suspiciously around the same time frame.

I still haven't fixed my issue yet but it does not reboot nearly as often now. But, as you stated, that would be for another thread...

[jspidey]

hate to drop by again like this but I think I've gotten somewhere with my issue and it might be the cause of your's also.

I believe my issue to be heat related at this point. In the BIOS you can turn the CPU and system fan "full on". I did that for the day and it didnt crash, even playing games.

I installed Speedfan so I can monitor temperatures, fan speeds, voltages and such. I turn the fans back to normal in the BIOS and tried to prompt a crash (successfully I might add) and noticed this:

CPU temp @ idle - about 27ºC
CPU temp in use - about 50ºC - right before it crashes

The critical temp is about 70ºC for the E4700 CPUs that we have but the heat must be messing with it.

Now the question is why it's heating up so much?? I don't think my CPU fan is auto-adjusting when the temp goes up. If you turn it "full on" in the BIOS, you definitely hear it but I get no changes when the temp goes up during use.

Just wanted to share. Let me know if you've gotten anywhere and/or if you've tried this.

[joeten]

hey jspidey sorry abot the mix up,The op has not responded for a while so maybe he has his issue sorted,thanks for coming back with some more ideas if they don't help the op they may help someone else

[FireCaptain]

Hello everyone,

I’m sorry I haven’t responded for a while, but when I tell you the reason why, you’ll surely understand my delinquency. Well, the reason for my delinquency is that my computer completely crashed! After a series of errors the computer, I tried to start in safe mode to see if it would crash while in safe mode. While the computer was loading the drivers for safe mode, it suddenly stopped mid-way through the process and wouldn’t continue loading. I waited thirty minutes for it to complete, but it just hung there doing nothing. I pressed the power button, and nothing happened. I got frustrated, unplugged the machine, and then plugged it back in. The computer went through the normal start up, but when it got passed the Microsoft logo, the screen remained black with just the cursor showing. About twenty seconds later, the cursor disappeared, and the screen remained black. It wouldn’t respond to the mouse or keyboard. I waited for fifteen minutes, before pressing the power button, but the computer wouldn’t shut down. I was completely freaked out at this point and decided that I had no other choice than to unplug the machine and use my final weapon: a re-installation of Vista using the operating disc.

After the re-installation, I was looking around at what the op disc installed and trying how to figure out how to get my pre-loaded software back, when an hour after re-installation, I got my first BSOD. I figured it was just that I didn’t have any drivers installed and that the BSOD wasn’t a big deal. Well after a couple of days and a couple of errors, I finally figured out how to get all the Gateway drivers and software back and thought I would be in the clear now that it was back to factory specs, but boy was I wrong. I was still getting BSODs. I finally decided that enough was enough and contacted Gateway tech support about sending the computer to a repair depot.

I’ll spare you the details of the warranty escapade, so I’ll just tell you that after a long battle, they recognized my warranty and set up a depot repair. I sent it off and patiently waited for it’s return. Well only a day after receiving an e-mail telling me that they had received my computer, I received another e-mail saying that the computer had been shipped back to me.

I got it back a few days ago with a letter saying that the unit had been tested and that it had passed all tests. Sounds great, right? Well, two hours after being on the computer, I got my first crash. I contacted Gateway tech support about the errors, but they said that my warranty was expired and that unless I wanted to pay for tech support, they couldn’t help. I have a two year warranty with the Home Shopping Network, and I’m going to contact them and let them take a crack at solving these BSODs.

One BSOD I think may have solved is a problem with my video driver. Since I got the computer back, it has crashed a few times when I was on youtube and when I was playing a video game. It’s crashed before when I was watching a video but never when I was playing the same game. My driver was issued on 4/21/08 and may be conflicting with a Windows Update. I think I‘ll update the driver and see if that helps.

Anyway that’s the update for my situation. The BSODs are still unsolved, the computer still crashes, and I’m still just as frustrated as ever.

Thank you for everyone’s support. I greatly appreciate it.

[joeten]

Hi if you can get the minidumps someone here will run them through a debug and try to help you track down the issue you can find them in
C:\windows\minidump.copy them to a folder call minidmps zip it and attach to your next post,and yes your correct a driver that old will cause you issues so it is a good idea to update asap.

[Rollin' Rog]

Upload the new minidumps and I'll have a look -- though I still think this is a hardware issue --

When you reinstalled Vista -- was it a "clean" install?

Can you run chkdsk on this drive now?

Are you seeing any repeating errors in the Event Viewer > System Log?

Can you force a BSOD doing anything or are they always "unpredictable"?

If you open the Control Panel > Performance Information and Tools > Advanced > Reliability Monitor -- are you seeing any problems flagged there?

Also, instead of running Vista's memory checker, try Memtest86 and leave it on overnight >>

Beginners Guides: Diagnosing Bad Memory

Memtest86 - A Stand-alone Memory Diagnostic

Use the "pre compiled ISO" download -- unzip it and just "open" it; any installed burning software should recognize the extension and give you the appropriate User Interface -- do not just try to copy or burn this normally.

[FireCaptain]

Hello RR,

“When you reinstalled Vista -- was it a "clean" install?”


Yes, I believe it was a clean install. All of my programs and files were wiped out, and I had to use command prompt to bring back the Gateway Recovery Center, so I could re-install the drivers and programs. (Never made a boot disc. Oops.)

“Can you run chkdsk on this drive now?”

I could always run the chkdsk with command prompt, but right-clicking on the c: drive, and then clicking properties, tools and error-checking wouldn’t work when the computer re-started. I’ll try it later tonight.

“Are you seeing any repeating errors in the Event Viewer > System Log?”

Oh, yes. Events 15016, 6008, 10005, 7001, 7026, and some others appear repeatedly. 15016 and 6008 are the most common. I know that 6008 means that the computer shut down unexpectedly, but I don’t know what the 15016 is for.

“Can you force a BSOD doing anything or are they always "unpredictable"?”

I usually don’t even try. However, lately whenever I try to update a driver with the device manager or whenever I try to download the installation files for the free AVG, I’ve experienced crashes. All the others seem to happen randomly. For example, twice today I’ve had errors when the computer was sleeping. Nothing was running at the time of the errors, and out of nowhere an error occurred.

“If you open the Control Panel > Performance Information and Tools > Advanced > Reliability Monitor -- are you seeing any problems flagged there?”

Yes, indeed. Almost all the errors are OS failures and application failures (explorer). It doesn’t show any hardware failures.

“Also, instead of running Vista's memory checker, try Memtest86 and leave it on overnight”

I’ll do this tonight and let you know what happens tomorrow.

Here are the Minidump files. I’ve separated them because I’m using dial-up, and it takes a while for the files to upload.

[Rollin' Rog]

I've looked at the most recent half dozen of the minidumps and there is nothing there pointing to anything other than a hardware issue.

Ram would be the most likely.

Several are "3B" errors such as this one >>

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms818997.aspx

And others are various forms of "memory corruption" and other memory management related bugchecks.

The fact that you started having these immediately after a clean install further points to hardware.

Pursuing the Event Viewer errors probably would not be worthwhile, but for future reference you can get some leads on what they mean from these two sites:

http://www.eventid.net/

When you see a "subscriber" link on Event ID such as this >> M949213, -- just substitute KB for M and google search it >> http://www.google.com/search?client=...utf-8&oe=utf-8

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sup..._advanced.aspx

[FireCaptain]

Thanks for the information and links, RR.

I ran memtest86+ last night. It ran for eight and one-half hours, made seven passes, and found zero errors.

I also was able to run disk check by using the scheduling method. You once asked me to post the log file, look for NTFS errors, and clear the page file. I don’t know whether you wanted the actual system log or a copy of the Wininit details, so I’ve attached just the Wininit details to this post. I’m a little reluctant to post the system log, but if you want the system log, I will post that too. I didn’t find any NTFS errors in the system log, and I haven’t tried the clearing the page file yet.

I know this probably won’t help you, but just to give you a little more information about my system, all of my drivers, except a NVIDIA audio driver that Windows Update downloaded and installed, are exactly what Gateway put on the computer. Also the performance index for the processor is 5.4, memory is 4.7, graphics is 2.4, the gaming graphics is 2.5, and the primary hard disk is 5.9.

One last thing. I downloaded Silverlight, an update for Jscript 5.8, and an update for Visual ++ 2005 Service Pack 1 on 10/21. A day later I noticed that the clock and cpu gauge in Windows Sidebar no longer work properly. The clock has the wrong time, the cpu gauge shows 60%, and they both don’t highlight or show the small x and wrench that all the other gadgets show when the cursor is placed on them. Does anyone think this problem is an updates conflict, or is it an extension of my current problems? How do I fix it?

Update: Last night after I ran the disk check and a few hours before I ran the memory test, I had an error, BAD_POOL_CALLER 0xc2. This morning I had IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL 0xa and just a few minutes ago MEMORY_MANAGEMENT 0x1a. Although my warranty with Gateway is expired, I still have a ninety day warranty for parts and labor. Should I give them a call and ask them to send some replacement memory?

[Rollin' Rog]

Nothing unusual in the chkdsk log.

I see you are running SP1 and I also see something called "cdd.dll" occasionally flagged as an issue -- and in the list of loaded modules, this one has no time stamp or data info.

ffff800`02b35000 fffff800`02b7b000 hal hal.dll Fri Jan 18 23:55:25 2008 (4791ACED)
fffff960`000f0000 fffff960`003a1000 win32k win32k.sys Tue Apr 21 05:22:34 2009 (49EDBA8A)
fffff960`00470000 fffff960`0047a000 TSDDD TSDDD.dll Fri Jan 18 22:42:04 2008 (47919BBC)
fffff960`00670000 fffff960`00681000 cdd cdd.dll unavailable (00000000)
fffffa60`00607000 fffffa60`00611000 kdcom kdcom.dll Fri Jan 18 23:58:25 2008 (4791ADA1)
fffffa60`00611000 fffffa60`0063e000 mcupdate_GenuineIntel mcupdate_GenuineIntel.dll Fri Jan 18 23:56:17 2008 (4791AD21)
fffffa60`0063e000 fffffa60`00652000 PSHED PSHED.dll Fri Jan 18 23:58:13 2008 (4791AD95)
fffffa60`00652000 fffffa60`006af000 CLFS CLFS.SYS Fri Jan 18 21:53:58 2008 (47919076)


There was an update that included it, can you either install the update or upgrade to SP2?

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/938194


Also, I'm not sure what warranty support expired for you if you still have hardware support -- and there could be an underlying issue with the motherboard hardware here -- so I would be emphasizing that you still have unknown "hardware" problems after a clean install, and see if they will replace the motherboard.

One of your posts mentioned Nvsmu.sys and this is an Nvidia Nforce controller driver which which could indicate a hardware issue with the controller device on the board.

[freebird317]

Have you checked for a update to your Firewall?