Stop errors on new vista build

[kohono]

Hi, new to the forum.

I've just upgraded my old athlon xp Vista system w/ the following components- msi neo2 fr mobo, intel c2d e4600, 2x1gb kingston value ram 800mhz, gigabyte 8800gt 512mb, and antec earthwatts 430w. At first I decided to just swap the parts in and use my existing Vista partition and drive, a sata hitachi 160gb, but it was randomly blue screening for me. I use a separate partition for os install and another for files. I decided to reformat my vista partition and use a fresh installation, but towards the end of the 'completing install' section, I got another blue screen. I reformatted/reinstalled this time w/o a blue screen until I got to the 'new user setup' section. I'm able to login, but I can't seem to run installs for programs or download vista updates w/o running into a BSOD. I can go as little as 1 minute and as long as 15 minutes w/o a BSOD, depending on whether or not I'm running anything intensive. I tried to download memtest and the computer blue screened. The blue screens randomly occur the same way they did when I was using my old vista install.

I suspected it would be the ram, so I purchased another set of 2x1gb kingston sticks, but I still receive the same errors. No particular message shows up; sometime's it's irq not less or equal, sometimes it's page fault, etc. For the heck of it, I tried a different video card, 6800gs, and still got the same error.

Would you say this is still a ram problem? Can this be caused by the mobo? CPU?

 

[akhilles]

Clear cmos. Look in the manual for how.

Could be ram. Write this to floppy/usb drive/cd/dvd on a working pc. Boot it up in the problematic pc. Wait for 1 pass. 5 would be better. Overnight would be best.

http://www.memtest.org/#downiso

Gen-speak, the Kingston is standard ram and needs only 1.8v. If memtest errors out, you might bump voltage up to 1.9v. But I don't think you have to. If memtest still fails, try each stick in each of the slot & re-test. Until you're 100% sure the memory is fine, you can't proceed.

If memtest checks out, set boot order in bios to:

1 = CD/DVD
2 = HDD/FLOPPY
3 = HDD/DISABLED

If there are multiple harddisks, set the hard disk order in bios to where they're installed. i.e. 1 = SATA0/1, 2 = SATA1/2, etc.

What kind of optical drive is it? IDE/SATA? If SATA, you might want to look at your manual for any config limitations. In the SATA sections. If unsure, try to use the 1st few SATA slots.

 

[evongugg]

Run hard disk diagnostics also from the manufacturer. Hitachi is not a great brand.

 

[WR2]

My first suspect would be driver issues for your hardware. What BIOS version does the motherboard have installed?

 

[kohono]

I'll try the memtest thru floppy tonight. At the moment I'm only running one sata drive, but I did have multiple sata drives w/ the old Vista setup. Actually, I inadvertantly cleared the CMOS before I installed Vista (this MSI board has a tiny button to do that and I was curious...). I ran chkdsk on both partitions and it found no errors, if that's any help. According to MSI's site, I have the latest BIOS.

I left it on overnight at the login screen and according to the event viewer it crashed twice. The longest it ran w/o error was about 4 1/2 hours.

 

[evongugg]

Disable AHCI in the bios if it is enabled.
Check the event viewer error number, look it up on the internet.

 

[evongugg]

Enabling AHCI in a system BIOS with Windows Vista already installed will result in a BSoD if SATA has been running in IDE mode during Vista's installation. Before enabling AHCI in the BIOS, users must first follow the instructions found at Microsoft Knowledge Base article 922976

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Host_Controller_Interface

 

[rsetter1]

Are the fans running on the CPU and PSU?
Is the PSU new?
Does the CPU or PSU seem unusually warm/hot @BSOD?
Is your OS off of an origional MS disk or is it a copy.

You have the same problem now that you had before changing the MB, CPU, RAM,
You have swapped out the GPU. What are your common components in both systems?

 

[killerb255]

Well...this will be a pain in the sack no matter how you look at it.

First off, what BSOD did you get? Do you have the STOP 0x000000something something error code?

In any case:

1) Test RAM. Use Memtest 86 and/or HCIMemtest (the former is more reliable, but use the latter if you have problems with large amounts of RAM).

2) Test hard drive. Use CHKDSK /r and see if anything stupid comes up.

3) Try different RAM slots.

4) If none of this works, then the problem is your motherboard (unless I'm missing something...)

 

[kohono]

Are the fans running on the CPU and PSU?
Is the PSU new?
Does the CPU or PSU seem unusually warm/hot @BSOD?
Is your OS off of an origional MS disk or is it a copy.

You have the same problem now that you had before changing the MB, CPU, RAM,
You have swapped out the GPU. What are your common components in both systems?

This problem is new and only started happening after the new components were installed. I've left the case open and fans are running, so I hope heat isn't an issue. The disk I used for the new install is a copy, but I was getting the errors on the previous Vista install that was installed off an original disk. The only common component in both builds is the hard drive.

First off, what BSOD did you get? Do you have the STOP 0x000000something something error code?

The stop error messages vary, but when I do get to read them they will usually say something like that.

3) Try different RAM slots.

I've tried each memory slot one at a time w/ one stick at a time, but no luck.

I should probably mention that while using Vista, services will stop. IE7, explorer.exe, Superfetch, Desktop manager, etc., will usually close down.

I'm picking up a new hard drive tonight, and I'm going to exchange the Kingston ram for a set of different brand ram.

Since I've gone through 4 sticks of kingston ram, what are the chances that a defective motherboard or cpu (bad mounting, maybe?) are causing the bsods?