would vidcard problems stop with change to new series of s..

<mechphisto DeleteThis @gmail.com> wrote in message
news:77efd1fa-93ec-4032-a861-c420dccb654a@i7g2000prf.googlegroups.com...
> I've a friend who has an ATI Radeon HD 2600XT 512MB by PowerColor.
> In his PC, it constantly BSOD crashes his system whenever he exits
> from games or high graphics programs (sometimes during). The card
> works fine in another system.
>
> We sent it back to PowerColor for another of the same thing, thinking
> it might be defective in some way--but the new card does the exact
> same thing.
> His RAM's been checked, his WinXP Pro has been reinstalled, we've used
> supplied drivers, WinXP drivers, Catalyst drivers...nothing's fixed
> the problem.
>
> PowerColor won't refund the card, but they will offer an upgrade for
> nominal price.
>
> Question is: Could this be a problem inherent in Radeon HD cards that
> might not be playing nice with his mobo or something, and an upgraded
> card would do the same thing?
> Unfortunately there are so many of these 2600XT's on eBay, being sold
> by actual stores, that he has no real chance of selling the card. He's
> either going to have to eat the loss, or take the upgrade.
> Opinions?
>
> Thanks,
> Liam

It sounds like one system you are using the video card in has a defective
power supply. -Dave
 >> Stay informed about: would vidcard problems stop with change to new series of s.. 

mechphisto.RemoveThis@gmail.com wrote:
> I've a friend who has an ATI Radeon HD 2600XT 512MB by PowerColor.
> In his PC, it constantly BSOD crashes his system whenever he exits
> from games or high graphics programs (sometimes during). The card
> works fine in another system.
>
> We sent it back to PowerColor for another of the same thing, thinking
> it might be defective in some way--but the new card does the exact
> same thing.
> His RAM's been checked, his WinXP Pro has been reinstalled, we've used
> supplied drivers, WinXP drivers, Catalyst drivers...nothing's fixed
> the problem.
>
> PowerColor won't refund the card, but they will offer an upgrade for
> nominal price.
>
> Question is: Could this be a problem inherent in Radeon HD cards that
> might not be playing nice with his mobo or something, and an upgraded
> card would do the same thing?
> Unfortunately there are so many of these 2600XT's on eBay, being sold
> by actual stores, that he has no real chance of selling the card. He's
> either going to have to eat the loss, or take the upgrade.
> Opinions?
>
> Thanks,
> Liam

How much RAM is in the computer ?

Do the symptoms change when you drop down to a minimum amount of
RAM for the system ? (Say a single 1GB stick.)

Have you tried taking a brand new hard drive, disconnecting the
old one, and installing Windows, the drivers, and then a test
game on it ? Are the symptoms repeatable on that clean install ?
If the game works, and doesn't crash, then you'd suspect a
problem with the Windows install, of some kind.

Paul
 >> Stay informed about: would vidcard problems stop with change to new series of s.. 

On Feb 18, 8:35 pm, Paul <nos....RemoveThis@needed.com> wrote:
> mechphi....RemoveThis@gmail.com wrote:
> > I've a friend who has an ATI Radeon HD 2600XT 512MB by PowerColor.
> > In his PC, it constantly BSOD crashes his system whenever he exits
> > from games or high graphics programs (sometimes during). The card
> > works fine in another system.
>
> > We sent it back to PowerColor for another of the same thing, thinking
> > it might be defective in some way--but the new card does the exact
> > same thing.
> > His RAM's been checked, his WinXP Pro has been reinstalled, we've used
> > supplied drivers, WinXP drivers, Catalyst drivers...nothing's fixed
> > the problem.
>
> > PowerColor won't refund the card, but they will offer an upgrade for
> > nominal price.
>
> > Question is: Could this be a problem inherent in Radeon HD cards that
> > might not be playing nice with his mobo or something, and an upgraded
> > card would do the same thing?
> > Unfortunately there are so many of these 2600XT's on eBay, being sold
> > by actual stores, that he has no real chance of selling the card. He's
> > either going to have to eat the loss, or take the upgrade.
> > Opinions?
>
> > Thanks,
> > Liam
>
> How much RAM is in the computer ?
>
> Do the symptoms change when you drop down to a minimum amount of
> RAM for the system ? (Say a single 1GB stick.)
>
> Have you tried taking a brand new hard drive, disconnecting the
> old one, and installing Windows, the drivers, and then a test
> game on it ? Are the symptoms repeatable on that clean install ?
> If the game works, and doesn't crash, then you'd suspect a
> problem with the Windows install, of some kind.
>
> Paul

Two 1GB sticks. Yeah, we've tried with one out and then the other--
same thing.
I have tried a different HD, same thing.
I've had to reinstall WinXP from a format three times, no change.
The only 3 pieces of hardware that haven't been swapped out are the
CPU, mobo, and PSU.
 >> Stay informed about: would vidcard problems stop with change to new series of s.. 

mechphisto DeleteThis @gmail.com wrote:
> On Feb 18, 8:35 pm, Paul <nos... DeleteThis @needed.com> wrote:
>> mechphi... DeleteThis @gmail.com wrote:
>>> I've a friend who has an ATI Radeon HD 2600XT 512MB by PowerColor.
>>> In his PC, it constantly BSOD crashes his system whenever he exits
>>> from games or high graphics programs (sometimes during). The card
>>> works fine in another system.
>>> We sent it back to PowerColor for another of the same thing, thinking
>>> it might be defective in some way--but the new card does the exact
>>> same thing.
>>> His RAM's been checked, his WinXP Pro has been reinstalled, we've used
>>> supplied drivers, WinXP drivers, Catalyst drivers...nothing's fixed
>>> the problem.
>>> PowerColor won't refund the card, but they will offer an upgrade for
>>> nominal price.
>>> Question is: Could this be a problem inherent in Radeon HD cards that
>>> might not be playing nice with his mobo or something, and an upgraded
>>> card would do the same thing?
>>> Unfortunately there are so many of these 2600XT's on eBay, being sold
>>> by actual stores, that he has no real chance of selling the card. He's
>>> either going to have to eat the loss, or take the upgrade.
>>> Opinions?
>>> Thanks,
>>> Liam
>> How much RAM is in the computer ?
>>
>> Do the symptoms change when you drop down to a minimum amount of
>> RAM for the system ? (Say a single 1GB stick.)
>>
>> Have you tried taking a brand new hard drive, disconnecting the
>> old one, and installing Windows, the drivers, and then a test
>> game on it ? Are the symptoms repeatable on that clean install ?
>> If the game works, and doesn't crash, then you'd suspect a
>> problem with the Windows install, of some kind.
>>
>> Paul
>
> Two 1GB sticks. Yeah, we've tried with one out and then the other--
> same thing.
> I have tried a different HD, same thing.
> I've had to reinstall WinXP from a format three times, no change.
> The only 3 pieces of hardware that haven't been swapped out are the
> CPU, mobo, and PSU.

There is a thread here, where there is mention of VPU recoveries,
a win32.sys, mostly Vista related, but some WinXP at the end of the
thread. All driver problems of one sort or another.

http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?t=33886850&page=5

In this thread, there is some explanation of what win32.sys might do.

http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/12/30/1310243&tid=220

"The graphics rendering engine is divided between the Win32 subsystem
which is a user process (csrss.exe), and the Win32 executive (Win32.sys)
which actually runs in kernel space. The portion of the graphics system
in the executive is limitted almost exclusively to the actual displaying
of images and direct interaction with the drivers that interface with
the display hardware."

So that means part of Windows tossed cookies, presumably while
talking to the graphics driver. But it doesn't explain why though.

Imagine for a moment, that a driver leaked memory, or corrupted
a chained memory structure. It could be, during the "unwinding" of
the mess, and the recovery of allocated memory, that the fault
occurs. A driver bug could do it, a hardware issue, any number
of things.

If it was my problem, and I'd already done the basics (memtest86+,
Prime95 for memory stability), I'd carefully collect crash
symptoms and exact error messages, and Google them, trying to
find a match. Presumably the various versions of Catalyst didn't
all behave the same, and each driver set you tested, adds extra
data to your results.

On my ATI video card, I remember how happy I was that I got the new
card installed, booted Windows, and put the shiny ATI installer
CD in the drive. Moments later I was looking at a system crash.
The drivers on the CD crashed my system. It took me about three
downloads of different drivers, before the card was completely
happy, and it has been happy to this day. But the first attempt,
was a spectacular flop. (This was right around the time that
SmartGART was introduced.)

Paul
 >> Stay informed about: would vidcard problems stop with change to new series of s.. 

On Feb 19, 2:45 am, Paul <nos....TakeThisOut@needed.com> wrote:
> mechphi....TakeThisOut@gmail.com wrote:
> > On Feb 18, 8:35 pm, Paul <nos....TakeThisOut@needed.com> wrote:
> >> mechphi....TakeThisOut@gmail.com wrote:
> >>> I've a friend who has an ATI Radeon HD 2600XT 512MB by PowerColor.
> >>> In his PC, it constantly BSOD crashes his system whenever he exits
> >>> from games or high graphics programs (sometimes during). The card
> >>> works fine in another system.
> >>> We sent it back to PowerColor for another of the same thing, thinking
> >>> it might be defective in some way--but the new card does the exact
> >>> same thing.
> >>> His RAM's been checked, his WinXP Pro has been reinstalled, we've used
> >>> supplied drivers, WinXP drivers, Catalyst drivers...nothing's fixed
> >>> the problem.
> >>> PowerColor won't refund the card, but they will offer an upgrade for
> >>> nominal price.
> >>> Question is: Could this be a problem inherent in Radeon HD cards that
> >>> might not be playing nice with his mobo or something, and an upgraded
> >>> card would do the same thing?
> >>> Unfortunately there are so many of these 2600XT's on eBay, being sold
> >>> by actual stores, that he has no real chance of selling the card. He's
> >>> either going to have to eat the loss, or take the upgrade.
> >>> Opinions?
> >>> Thanks,
> >>> Liam
> >> How much RAM is in the computer ?
>
> >> Do the symptoms change when you drop down to a minimum amount of
> >> RAM for the system ? (Say a single 1GB stick.)
>
> >> Have you tried taking a brand new hard drive, disconnecting the
> >> old one, and installing Windows, the drivers, and then a test
> >> game on it ? Are the symptoms repeatable on that clean install ?
> >> If the game works, and doesn't crash, then you'd suspect a
> >> problem with the Windows install, of some kind.
>
> >> Paul
>
> > Two 1GB sticks. Yeah, we've tried with one out and then the other--
> > same thing.
> > I have tried a different HD, same thing.
> > I've had to reinstall WinXP from a format three times, no change.
> > The only 3 pieces of hardware that haven't been swapped out are the
> > CPU, mobo, and PSU.
>
> There is a thread here, where there is mention of VPU recoveries,
> a win32.sys, mostly Vista related, but some WinXP at the end of the
> thread. All driver problems of one sort or another.
>
> http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?t=33886850&page=5
>
> In this thread, there is some explanation of what win32.sys might do.
>
> http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/12/30/1310243&tid=220
>
> "The graphics rendering engine is divided between the Win32 subsystem
> which is a user process (csrss.exe), and the Win32 executive (Win32.sys)
> which actually runs in kernel space. The portion of the graphics system
> in the executive is limitted almost exclusively to the actual displaying
> of images and direct interaction with the drivers that interface with
> the display hardware."
>
> So that means part of Windows tossed cookies, presumably while
> talking to the graphics driver. But it doesn't explain why though.
>
> Imagine for a moment, that a driver leaked memory, or corrupted
> a chained memory structure. It could be, during the "unwinding" of
> the mess, and the recovery of allocated memory, that the fault
> occurs. A driver bug could do it, a hardware issue, any number
> of things.
>
> If it was my problem, and I'd already done the basics (memtest86+,
> Prime95 for memory stability), I'd carefully collect crash
> symptoms and exact error messages, and Google them, trying to
> find a match. Presumably the various versions of Catalyst didn't
> all behave the same, and each driver set you tested, adds extra
> data to your results.
>
> On my ATI video card, I remember how happy I was that I got the new
> card installed, booted Windows, and put the shiny ATI installer
> CD in the drive. Moments later I was looking at a system crash.
> The drivers on the CD crashed my system. It took me about three
> downloads of different drivers, before the card was completely
> happy, and it has been happy to this day. But the first attempt,
> was a spectacular flop. (This was right around the time that
> SmartGART was introduced.)
>
> Paul

Thanks for the feedback.
I've been dealing with this problem for some time:
http://groups.google.com/group/comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage/browse...m/threa
http://groups.google.com/group/microsoft.public.windowsxp.general/brow...frm/thr
The fact that this card worked fine in another machine, and the
problem would happen in the machine in question despite how many times
WinXP is reinstalled or what version or provider of the driver is
used, leads me to think it's hardware.
Since all hardware has been swapped out and tested, except for the
CPU, mobo, and PSU... this is what I have left. Either the PSU is a
problem, or this series of video card is simply incompatible with this
mobo/CPU--which led me to ask whether switching from a 2600 to a 2900
would even fix the problem.

Thanks for the reply,
Liam
 >> Stay informed about: would vidcard problems stop with change to new series of s.. 

> Dangit!
> I was certain this was the answer, but I swapped out with a much
> higher quality PSU:
> Antec putting out +3.3@30A, +5@40A, +12@18A
> (The thing weighs a ton.)
> And it still crashed with a win32k.sys claimed as at fault when I alt-
> tabbed out of a game.
> Looks like it's not the PSU at fault.

Sheesh, only thing left is the mainboard. -Dave
 >> Stay informed about: would vidcard problems stop with change to new series of s.. 

Have you tried something like Memtest to test the hardware for
stability while the graphics card is removed?
 >> Stay informed about: would vidcard problems stop with change to new series of s.. 

On Feb 19, 6:38 pm, ShadowTek <psistormyam... DeleteThis @cs.com> wrote:
> Have you tried something like Memtest to test the hardware for
> stability while the graphics card is removed?

yeah, 'fraid so.
memtest86+ with several passes. No errors. =/
 >> Stay informed about: would vidcard problems stop with change to new series of s.. 

mechphisto.RemoveThis@gmail.com wrote:
> On Feb 19, 2:45 am, Paul <nos....RemoveThis@needed.com> wrote:
>> mechphi....RemoveThis@gmail.com wrote:
>>> On Feb 18, 8:35 pm, Paul <nos....RemoveThis@needed.com> wrote:
>>>> mechphi....RemoveThis@gmail.com wrote:
>>>>> I've a friend who has an ATI Radeon HD 2600XT 512MB by PowerColor.
>>>>> In his PC, it constantly BSOD crashes his system whenever he exits
>>>>> from games or high graphics programs (sometimes during). The card
>>>>> works fine in another system.
>>>>> We sent it back to PowerColor for another of the same thing, thinking
>>>>> it might be defective in some way--but the new card does the exact
>>>>> same thing.
>>>>> His RAM's been checked, his WinXP Pro has been reinstalled, we've used
>>>>> supplied drivers, WinXP drivers, Catalyst drivers...nothing's fixed
>>>>> the problem.
>>>>> PowerColor won't refund the card, but they will offer an upgrade for
>>>>> nominal price.
>>>>> Question is: Could this be a problem inherent in Radeon HD cards that
>>>>> might not be playing nice with his mobo or something, and an upgraded
>>>>> card would do the same thing?
>>>>> Unfortunately there are so many of these 2600XT's on eBay, being sold
>>>>> by actual stores, that he has no real chance of selling the card. He's
>>>>> either going to have to eat the loss, or take the upgrade.
>>>>> Opinions?
>>>>> Thanks,
>>>>> Liam
>>>> How much RAM is in the computer ?
>>>> Do the symptoms change when you drop down to a minimum amount of
>>>> RAM for the system ? (Say a single 1GB stick.)
>>>> Have you tried taking a brand new hard drive, disconnecting the
>>>> old one, and installing Windows, the drivers, and then a test
>>>> game on it ? Are the symptoms repeatable on that clean install ?
>>>> If the game works, and doesn't crash, then you'd suspect a
>>>> problem with the Windows install, of some kind.
>>>> Paul
>>> Two 1GB sticks. Yeah, we've tried with one out and then the other--
>>> same thing.
>>> I have tried a different HD, same thing.
>>> I've had to reinstall WinXP from a format three times, no change.
>>> The only 3 pieces of hardware that haven't been swapped out are the
>>> CPU, mobo, and PSU.
>> There is a thread here, where there is mention of VPU recoveries,
>> a win32.sys, mostly Vista related, but some WinXP at the end of the
>> thread. All driver problems of one sort or another.
>>
>> http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?t=33886850&page=5
>>
>> In this thread, there is some explanation of what win32.sys might do.
>>
>> http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/12/30/1310243&tid=220
>>
>> "The graphics rendering engine is divided between the Win32 subsystem
>> which is a user process (csrss.exe), and the Win32 executive (Win32.sys)
>> which actually runs in kernel space. The portion of the graphics system
>> in the executive is limitted almost exclusively to the actual displaying
>> of images and direct interaction with the drivers that interface with
>> the display hardware."
>>
>> So that means part of Windows tossed cookies, presumably while
>> talking to the graphics driver. But it doesn't explain why though.
>>
>> Imagine for a moment, that a driver leaked memory, or corrupted
>> a chained memory structure. It could be, during the "unwinding" of
>> the mess, and the recovery of allocated memory, that the fault
>> occurs. A driver bug could do it, a hardware issue, any number
>> of things.
>>
>> If it was my problem, and I'd already done the basics (memtest86+,
>> Prime95 for memory stability), I'd carefully collect crash
>> symptoms and exact error messages, and Google them, trying to
>> find a match. Presumably the various versions of Catalyst didn't
>> all behave the same, and each driver set you tested, adds extra
>> data to your results.
>>
>> On my ATI video card, I remember how happy I was that I got the new
>> card installed, booted Windows, and put the shiny ATI installer
>> CD in the drive. Moments later I was looking at a system crash.
>> The drivers on the CD crashed my system. It took me about three
>> downloads of different drivers, before the card was completely
>> happy, and it has been happy to this day. But the first attempt,
>> was a spectacular flop. (This was right around the time that
>> SmartGART was introduced.)
>>
>> Paul
>
> Thanks for the feedback.
> I've been dealing with this problem for some time:
> http://groups.google.com/group/comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage/browse...m/threa
> http://groups.google.com/group/microsoft.public.windowsxp.general/brow...frm/thr
> The fact that this card worked fine in another machine, and the
> problem would happen in the machine in question despite how many times
> WinXP is reinstalled or what version or provider of the driver is
> used, leads me to think it's hardware.
> Since all hardware has been swapped out and tested, except for the
> CPU, mobo, and PSU... this is what I have left. Either the PSU is a
> problem, or this series of video card is simply incompatible with this
> mobo/CPU--which led me to ask whether switching from a 2600 to a 2900
> would even fix the problem.
>
> Thanks for the reply,
> Liam

OK, in addition to using memtest86+ for testing system memory, you
also need to run a program like Prime95. What Prime95 does, is a
math calculation with a known answer. The "torture test" option is
used to test the adequacy of CPU cooling (as it makes the processor
hot), as well as push a lot of data through system memory. You can
download the "official release" from the mersenne.org main page,
or use this multicore version. This one starts a thread per core,
and for dual or quad cores, gives them a better workout. When it
asks "Join GIMPS?", say no, and just use the defaults in the custom
setup dialog. Allow to run for at least four hours - if the system
isn't very stable, it will fail in 10 seconds, so for badly set up
hardware, the feedback is immediate.

http://www.mersenne.org/gimps/p95v255a.zip

In one of your threads, you mention the chipset is getting hot,
and I'd experiment with adding cooling, either by mounting a
small fan on or next to it, or using a larger fan held outside
the box. And then see if stability improves.

It is also possible, when a manufacturer fits a heatsink to a
hot chipset, that they do a poor job of installation. Sometimes,
a large quantity of thermal interface material is used, and
either the TIM makes poor contact, or acts as an insulator,
making the chipset temp higher than it should be. That
puts the chipset, and memory access, on the edge of stability.
Some chipsets even come with no TIM used, and an air gap,
guaranteeing trouble.

In those threads, you also mention that game crashes also happen
"in-game", as well as just as you exit from the game. Is the
error still reported as win32k.sys ? Or is the ATI driver named
at that point.

In terms of hardware tests, in increasing stress on the hardware,
the tests to run are:

1) memtest86+ -- Main value is detecting RAM with stuck-at faults.
Not generally known for exceptional stress to hardware.
2) Prime95 -- There are a number of "burn" type test programs.
The benefit of Prime95, is that it compares the computation
results, to expected results. So not only does it
stress CPU and memory, but also announces when a
consistency check has failed. The program cannot
test all memory, which is a weakness. On my machine,
it can test up to about 760MB of my 1GB total - the
rest of memory is used by Windows.
3) 3D Gaming -- I have used 3DMark2001SE build 330, and left the
demo loop running overnight. The main benefit was not
having to do anything, while it runs. That is no longer the
most stressful test possible. Crysis is now a candidate
for being stressful. In any case, select a DirectX or
OpenGL test program, which doesn't have a lot of known
driver issues, allows stress testing the hardware, without
triggering game related bugs.

So I'd say at the current time, you should go back and do (2). Note that
in (2), there is no stress at all on the video card or video slot. So
if you see errors detected at that point, then it could be motherboard
or memory. Sometimes bumping up Vdimm can help, or doing a bit of
BIOS tuning for the motherboard, will put the system on the right
path.

Paul
 >> Stay informed about: would vidcard problems stop with change to new series of s.. 

On Feb 19, 8:06 pm, Paul <nos... RemoveThis @needed.com> wrote:
> mechphi... RemoveThis @gmail.com wrote:
> > On Feb 19, 2:45 am, Paul <nos... RemoveThis @needed.com> wrote:
> >> mechphi... RemoveThis @gmail.com wrote:
> >>> On Feb 18, 8:35 pm, Paul <nos... RemoveThis @needed.com> wrote:
> >>>> mechphi... RemoveThis @gmail.com wrote:
> >>>>> I've a friend who has an ATI Radeon HD 2600XT 512MB by PowerColor.
> >>>>> In his PC, it constantly BSOD crashes his system whenever he exits
> >>>>> from games or high graphics programs (sometimes during). The card
> >>>>> works fine in another system.
> >>>>> We sent it back to PowerColor for another of the same thing, thinking
> >>>>> it might be defective in some way--but the new card does the exact
> >>>>> same thing.
> >>>>> His RAM's been checked, his WinXP Pro has been reinstalled, we've used
> >>>>> supplied drivers, WinXP drivers, Catalyst drivers...nothing's fixed
> >>>>> the problem.
> >>>>> PowerColor won't refund the card, but they will offer an upgrade for
> >>>>> nominal price.
> >>>>> Question is: Could this be a problem inherent in Radeon HD cards that
> >>>>> might not be playing nice with his mobo or something, and an upgraded
> >>>>> card would do the same thing?
> >>>>> Unfortunately there are so many of these 2600XT's on eBay, being sold
> >>>>> by actual stores, that he has no real chance of selling the card. He's
> >>>>> either going to have to eat the loss, or take the upgrade.
> >>>>> Opinions?
> >>>>> Thanks,
> >>>>> Liam
> >>>> How much RAM is in the computer ?
> >>>> Do the symptoms change when you drop down to a minimum amount of
> >>>> RAM for the system ? (Say a single 1GB stick.)
> >>>> Have you tried taking a brand new hard drive, disconnecting the
> >>>> old one, and installing Windows, the drivers, and then a test
> >>>> game on it ? Are the symptoms repeatable on that clean install ?
> >>>> If the game works, and doesn't crash, then you'd suspect a
> >>>> problem with the Windows install, of some kind.
> >>>> Paul
> >>> Two 1GB sticks. Yeah, we've tried with one out and then the other--
> >>> same thing.
> >>> I have tried a different HD, same thing.
> >>> I've had to reinstall WinXP from a format three times, no change.
> >>> The only 3 pieces of hardware that haven't been swapped out are the
> >>> CPU, mobo, and PSU.
> >> There is a thread here, where there is mention of VPU recoveries,
> >> a win32.sys, mostly Vista related, but some WinXP at the end of the
> >> thread. All driver problems of one sort or another.
>
> >>http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?t=33886850&page=5
>
> >> In this thread, there is some explanation of what win32.sys might do.
>
> >>http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/12/30/1310243&tid=220
>
> >> "The graphics rendering engine is divided between the Win32 subsystem
> >> which is a user process (csrss.exe), and the Win32 executive (Win32.sys)
> >> which actually runs in kernel space. The portion of the graphics system
> >> in the executive is limitted almost exclusively to the actual displaying
> >> of images and direct interaction with the drivers that interface with
> >> the display hardware."
>
> >> So that means part of Windows tossed cookies, presumably while
> >> talking to the graphics driver. But it doesn't explain why though.
>
> >> Imagine for a moment, that a driver leaked memory, or corrupted
> >> a chained memory structure. It could be, during the "unwinding" of
> >> the mess, and the recovery of allocated memory, that the fault
> >> occurs. A driver bug could do it, a hardware issue, any number
> >> of things.
>
> >> If it was my problem, and I'd already done the basics (memtest86+,
> >> Prime95 for memory stability), I'd carefully collect crash
> >> symptoms and exact error messages, and Google them, trying to
> >> find a match. Presumably the various versions of Catalyst didn't
> >> all behave the same, and each driver set you tested, adds extra
> >> data to your results.
>
> >> On my ATI video card, I remember how happy I was that I got the new
> >> card installed, booted Windows, and put the shiny ATI installer
> >> CD in the drive. Moments later I was looking at a system crash.
> >> The drivers on the CD crashed my system. It took me about three
> >> downloads of different drivers, before the card was completely
> >> happy, and it has been happy to this day. But the first attempt,
> >> was a spectacular flop. (This was right around the time that
> >> SmartGART was introduced.)
>
> >> Paul
>
> > Thanks for the feedback.
> > I've been dealing with this problem for some time:
> >http://groups.google.com/group/comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage/brows...
> >http://groups.google.com/group/microsoft.public.windowsxp.general/bro...
> > The fact that this card worked fine in another machine, and the
> > problem would happen in the machine in question despite how many times
> > WinXP is reinstalled or what version or provider of the driver is
> > used, leads me to think it's hardware.
> > Since all hardware has been swapped out and tested, except for the
> > CPU, mobo, and PSU... this is what I have left. Either the PSU is a
> > problem, or this series of video card is simply incompatible with this
> > mobo/CPU--which led me to ask whether switching from a 2600 to a 2900
> > would even fix the problem.
>
> > Thanks for the reply,
> > Liam
>
> OK, in addition to using memtest86+ for testing system memory, you
> also need to run a program like Prime95. What Prime95 does, is a
> math calculation with a known answer. The "torture test" option is
> used to test the adequacy of CPU cooling (as it makes the processor
> hot), as well as push a lot of data through system memory. You can
> download the "official release" from the mersenne.org main page,
> or use this multicore version. This one starts a thread per core,
> and for dual or quad cores, gives them a better workout. When it
> asks "Join GIMPS?", say no, and just use the defaults in the custom
> setup dialog. Allow to run for at least four hours - if the system
> isn't very stable, it will fail in 10 seconds, so for badly set up
> hardware, the feedback is immediate.
>
> http://www.mersenne.org/gimps/p95v255a.zip
>
> In one of your threads, you mention the chipset is getting hot,
> and I'd experiment with adding cooling, either by mounting a
> small fan on or next to it, or using a larger fan held outside
> the box. And then see if stability improves.
>
> It is also possible, when a manufacturer fits a heatsink to a
> hot chipset, that they do a poor job of installation. Sometimes,
> a large quantity of thermal interface material is used, and
> either the TIM makes poor contact, or acts as an insulator,
> making the chipset temp higher than it should be. That
> puts the chipset, and memory access, on the edge of stability.
> Some chipsets even come with no TIM used, and an air gap,
> guaranteeing trouble.
>
> In those threads, you also mention that game crashes also happen
> "in-game", as well as just as you exit from the game. Is the
> error still reported as win32k.sys ? Or is the ATI driver named
> at that point.
>
> In terms of hardware tests, in increasing stress on the hardware,
> the tests to run are:
>
> 1) memtest86+ -- Main value is detecting RAM with stuck-at faults.
> Not generally known for exceptional stress to hardware.
> 2) Prime95 -- There are a number of "burn" type test programs.
> The benefit of Prime95, is that it compares the computation
> results, to expected results. So not only does it
> stress CPU and memory, but also announces when a
> consistency check has failed. The program cannot
> test all memory, which is a weakness. On my machine,
> it can test up to about 760MB of my 1GB total - the
> rest of memory is used by Windows.
> 3) 3D Gaming -- I have used 3DMark2001SE build 330, and left the
> demo loop running overnight. The main benefit was not
> having to do anything, while it runs. That is no longer the
> most stressful test possible. Crysis is now a candidate
> for being stressful. In any case, select a DirectX or
> OpenGL test program, which doesn't have a lot of known
> driver issues, allows stress testing the hardware, without
> triggering game related bugs.
>
> So I'd say at the current time, you should go back and do (2). Note that
> in (2), there is no stress at all on the video card or video slot. So
> if you see errors detected at that point, then it could be motherboard
> or memory. Sometimes bumping up Vdimm can help, or doing a bit of
> BIOS tuning for the motherboard, will put the system on the right
> path.
>
> Paul

Wow! What a lot of great information and advice! I really appreciate
your doing that.
About the overheating mobo--that was a board ago. The Northbridge was
getting as hot as 105C when using SiS benchmark. We RMA'ed it and got
this entirely different mobo.

The memtest86+ I've ran for several passes with no errors.
I'm running Prime95 now. (Hadn't known about that program before.)
It's made it through 1024K, 8K, 10K, 896K, and 768K with all "passes".
I'll let it go on for another couple of hours and see what happens.

According to Speedfan, the Core temp hasn't gotten above 55C, which
isn't bad. The Northbridge has topped out at 74C. That's kind of hot;
I may need to see about putting a fan on that sink. But that's still
not too bad, especially running at max for an hour or so now.

I've run 3DMark on this system before and it got through it, twice,
just fine. I'll see about running it overnight. Does it specifically
test DirectX and OpenGL as you recommended I test for? Or do I need to
look for something else?

Anything changes, or after I complete the rest of the tests, I'll post
an update.
Thanks for the advice!!
-Liam
 >> Stay informed about: would vidcard problems stop with change to new series of s.. 

On Feb 18, 12:31 pm, mechphi....TakeThisOut@gmail.com wrote:
> I've a friend who has an ATI Radeon HD 2600XT 512MB by PowerColor.
> In his PC, it constantly BSOD crashes his system whenever he exits
> from games or high graphics programs (sometimes during). The card
> works fine in another system.
>
> We sent it back to PowerColor for another of the same thing, thinking
> it might be defective in some way--but the new card does the exact
> same thing.
> His RAM's been checked, his WinXP Pro has been reinstalled, we've used
> supplied drivers, WinXP drivers, Catalyst drivers...nothing's fixed
> the problem.
>
> PowerColor won't refund the card, but they will offer an upgrade for
> nominal price.
>
> Question is: Could this be a problem inherent in Radeon HD cards that
> might not be playing nice with his mobo or something, and an upgraded
> card would do the same thing?
> Unfortunately there are so many of these 2600XT's on eBay, being sold
> by actual stores, that he has no real chance of selling the card. He's
> either going to have to eat the loss, or take the upgrade.
> Opinions?
>
> Thanks,
> Liam

Hard drive??
Is that possible?
As you can see in the thread, I've detailed how I'm trying to narrow
the problem down.
The only hardware that has not been swapped out are the CPU, the mobo,
the video card which I thought/think is the root of the problem, and
the hard drive.
I've just finished testing the CPU, and it seems to pass all the
tests. Technically, the video card shouldn't be a problem: it's been
replaced by the manufacturer and works fine in another PC.
I ruled out the HD because I've performed badblocks (Linux low level
block checker) and chkdsk and scandisk and Partition Magic's error
check--and it passed them all. (Except half the time, after a BSOD
win32k.sys crashes, chkdsk ends up converting so many lost chains that
system files are damaged and I end up having to reformat the drive).
Just to see, I installed a different HD (IDE vs. the SATA in question)
and installed the same OS and drivers and patches and game... and I
can't seem to get it to crash!

I'm doing everything I normally do that causes the system to BSOD,
which is does without fail normally, but with this HD, it won't crash.

I figured the HD couldn't cause a BSOD crash because it passes all
those tests, and mainly just stores and transfers data--not process
and "run" it.

Is this likely the source of the problem? Or is it the fact it's a
different drive or is IDE instead of SATA masking/bypassing the still
existing root problem?

Thanks for any suggestions!
-Liam
 >> Stay informed about: would vidcard problems stop with change to new series of s.. 

> Is this likely the source of the problem? Or is it the fact it's a
> different drive or is IDE instead of SATA masking/bypassing the still
> existing root problem?

Maybe your SATA host controller is flaky? Or maybe the SATA port that
you were using is bad?

How many SATA ports do you have? Try a different one and see what
happens.

If that doesn't work and your IDE drive continues to work well, then
try a different SATA hard drive and see what happens.
 >> Stay informed about: would vidcard problems stop with change to new series of s.. 

Also, what should have been my first thought, try a different SATA
cable.
 >> Stay informed about: would vidcard problems stop with change to new series of s..