Help Please! BSOD.

[Grom]

I just upgraded my ancient 250w PSU to an Antec Truepower 2.0 430w PSU.

Im running:

AMD 64 3500+
1 gig corsair DDR PC3200 ram
Nvidia GeForce 7800GSoc AGP card
Sound Blaster Audigy

I was getting freezing and BSODs at random intervals during gameplay with my old PSU. So i replaced it... now windows wont load, although the POST seems to be successful. I suspect some driver error, but why would this occur after changing PSUs? The BSOD error i get is MACHINE_CHECK_ERROR. Anyone have any idea whats going on? It boots to safe mode seemingly without error, but booting to windows normally results in the forementioned BSOD... what the heck?

Im clueless and getting frustrated, please help.

 

[phreejak]

I know that Machine_Check_Exception, according to MaximumPC, has to do with a bad or too aggresively overclocked CPU OR a faulty PSU.

Sooo, are you overclocking your CPU? Even after changing the PSU you are still getting the error I assume?

If so, you might try testing the PSU in a different computer if you can.

One thing you might try is removing nonessential components (things that aren't required to boot into windows like your soundcard, all optical drives and any secondary HDDs, floppy drives, USB devices, etc) and try booting into windows. If successful, then add one device at a time.

 

[apache_lives]

TRY:

memtest
check cooling (video card, cpu)
check bios settings (or reset cmos)
slacken ram speed and timings
reinstall windows (clean format)

see how that goes

otherwise it could be a dud motherboard

I just upgraded my ancient 250w PSU to an Antec Truepower 2.0 430w PSU.

Im running:

AMD 64 3500+
1 gig corsair DDR PC3200 ram
Nvidia GeForce 7800GSoc AGP card
Sound Blaster Audigy

I was getting freezing and BSODs at random intervals during gameplay with my old PSU. So i replaced it... now windows wont load, although the POST seems to be successful. I suspect some driver error, but why would this occur after changing PSUs? The BSOD error i get is MACHINE_CHECK_ERROR. Anyone have any idea whats going on? It boots to safe mode seemingly without error, but booting to windows normally results in the forementioned BSOD... what the heck?

Im clueless and getting frustrated, please help.

 

[Grom]

Nothing in the box is overclocked, with the exception of a factory overclock on the video card. The information i can find on the BSOD error is that its a hardware failure. The thing that boggles is me is the BSOD is not intermittent as i would expect from a heat issue. Also, if i load my old underpowered PSU in, windows will boot up just fine. Ill try restetting the CMOS, though im perplexed, and dont expect it to fix the issue. Also im only attempting to boot with memory, hard disk, and video card. My sound card / optical drives have all been unplugged / disabled. I cant seem to understand how the PSU alone can cause this BSOD... especially when i can get into safe mode just fine.


Thanks...

 

[apache_lives]

Nothing in the box is overclocked, with the exception of a factory overclock on the video card. The information i can find on the BSOD error is that its a hardware failure. The thing that boggles is me is the BSOD is not intermittent as i would expect from a heat issue. Also, if i load my old underpowered PSU in, windows will boot up just fine. Ill try restetting the CMOS, though im perplexed, and dont expect it to fix the issue. Also im only attempting to boot with memory, hard disk, and video card. My sound card / optical drives have all been unplugged / disabled. I cant seem to understand how the PSU alone can cause this BSOD... especially when i can get into safe mode just fine.


Thanks...

your new psu might be faulty then?

 

[KOzOK]

Try to disable onboard devices, network card, raid, sound card, parallel and serial ports, fire wire, etc. I had similar issues with one of my Asus boards and it turned out to be build in network card. After I disabled it system ran fine, just had to add in PCI adapter. Just my $ 0.02.

 

[Grom]

None of this seems to be working... im simply at my wits end here trying to understand what the problem could be. I would suspect that i dont have enough power, except that the new PSU has a higher wattage and amperage on the +12v rail than my old PSU. Maybe time to start from scratch, i dont know.


Thanks


EDIT: Ive determined it must be the new PSU. Switching out only the PSU and changing nothing else causes the BSOD when windows is loading. If i switch back to the old PSU, windows loads just fine. Answer? Try another PSU? Any suggestions? What sort of power requirements am i looking at. Does anyone thing its a faulty PSU? Or ami simply cluless enough about PSUs that this particular PSU doesnt fit my needs?

Thanks again

 

[darkstar782]

Plug your old PSI back in temporarily, you neednt screw it in etc just sit it next to the case. Does it work then?

If so, RMA the PSU. There is no way it should fail with that after working with the old one!

If not, then you may have other problems :/ I'd try underclocking the RAM and CPU one at a time, to see if that makes it boot.

 

[sweetpants]

This is just what I read from a site I use here at work.

http://aumha.org/win5/kbestop.htm

0x0000009C: MACHINE_CHECK_EXCEPTION
This is a hardware issue: an unrecoverable hardware error has occurred. The parameters have different meanings depending on what type of CPU you have but, while diagnostic, rarely lead to a clear solution. Most commonly it results from overheating, from failed hardware (RAM, CPU, hardware bus, power supply, etc.), or from pushing hardware beyond its capabilities (e.g., overclocking a CPU).

 

[KOzOK]

EDIT: Ive determined it must be the new PSU. Switching out only the PSU and changing nothing else causes the BSOD when windows is loading. If i switch back to the old PSU, windows loads just fine. Answer? Try another PSU? Any suggestions? What sort of power requirements am i looking at. Does anyone thing its a faulty PSU? Or ami simply cluless enough about PSUs that this particular PSU doesnt fit my needs?

IMHO 430W PSU should be enough for your set up. Maybe you just got a bad one this time. Did you check voltages in BIOS, to see if they are stable. They should be no more than +/-10% (thats pushing it) out of range. Also it's possible that something goes wrong when you put some load on that PSU, and voltages drop causing you puter to crash. If everything works fine with your old PSU, I would just return this one. Good luck, I know it can be a major PITA.