BSOD problem

March 6, 2007

Hello guys,

Last year, got that brand new Dell XPS 1710 laptop from ebay half the price (with bag and accessory) Recently (about 2 month) i experienced some kind of BSOD when i play system hog games (COH and Medieval 2 Total War for exemple) it seem that it only happen when the computer work i lil bit more than usual.

Heres the BSOD msg.:

Hardware Malfunction call your hardware vendor for support

NMI parity check/memory parity error

The system has halted

I made a lot of search to see if i could get this fix but ultimatly its a hardware problem, i suspect my video card or my cpu fan or maybe the mobo. Here what ive done to try to solve the problem before looking for the hardware problem.

-Made lotsa search and read forums, lots problem point out at the ram/video/mother

-Run that memtest tool overnight to see if my ram is faulty without any problem

-Update winblows and check for thoses special microsoft issues

-Ran the Dell tool to check my comp (i know its lame but it worth a try)

-Updated my Bios to ver A04 and look for a place to uncheck parity check (but couldnt find such option in that bios) as some forum suggested

-Various video cards drivers test, including : Dell's officials, Dell's Beta, Nvidia Current, Nvidia old, Default driver, and some tweaked 3rd party

-Ran couple benchmark progs to see if they come up with some weird things but looks ok

-Reinstall the COH game (the one i have the most trouble with) and update it to last ver

-Checked COH forum if anything similar happened but nothing found

-One thing i noticed is that my comp side fan run more often that it used to, and i recall trying to reboot after a BSOD to get a msg like : your computer is too hot or something. So i had to wait before fire it up again. It could be a CPU fan or heatsink problem so my compt get too hot playing hard on system games or a video fan heatsink prob. I tried to play on different surface to help the heat sink away from the comp without any special result.

I have checked with my friend my serials to see if its still under warranty and its still good for about a month. The thing is i cant risk to send my laptop to dell so they tell me that its been stolen or something. My friend told me that he can get Dell original computer part via the computer company he work for but i wanna check with you guys before GOIN HARDWARE if you guys have any genius idea about this prob. Not that im without a computer its just that it sucks. Thx

Heres a snip of my system

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Version EVEREST v3.80.905 Beta

Benchmark Module 2.1.184.0

Homepage http://www.lavalys.com/

Report Type Quick Report

Computer XPS1710 (XPS1710)

Operating System Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 5.1.2600 (WinXP Retail)

Date 2007-03-06

Time 16:21

Summary

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Computer:

Computer Type ACPI Multiprocessor PC (Mobile)

Operating System Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition

OS Service Pack Service Pack 2

Internet Explorer 7.0.5730.11 (IE 7.0)

DirectX 4.09.00.0904 (DirectX 9.0c)

Computer Name XPS1710 (XPS1710)

Date / Time 2007-03-06 / 16:21

Motherboard:

CPU Type Mobile DualCore Intel Core Duo T2600, 2166 MHz (13 x 167)

Motherboard Name Dell XPS M1710

Motherboard Chipset Mobile Intel Calistoga i945PM

System Memory 2048 MB (DDR2-667 DDR2 SDRAM)

BIOS Type Phoenix (12/18/06)

Communication Port Toshiba BT Port (COM10)

Communication Port Toshiba BT Port (COM11)

Communication Port Toshiba BT Port (COM12)

Communication Port Toshiba BT Port (COM13)

Communication Port Toshiba BT Port (COM14)

Communication Port Toshiba BT Port (COM20)

Communication Port Toshiba BT Port (COM21)

Communication Port Toshiba BT Port (COM6)

Communication Port Toshiba BT Port (COM7)

Display:

Video Adapter NVIDIA GeForce Go 7900 GTX (512 MB)

3D Accelerator nVIDIA GeForce Go 7900 GTX

Monitor Plug and Play Monitor [NoDB]

Multimedia:

Audio Adapter SigmaTel STAC9200 @ Intel 82801GBM ICH7-M - High Definition Audio Controller [A-1]

Storage:

IDE Controller Intel® 82801GBM/GHM (ICH7-M Family) Serial ATA Storage Controller - 27C4

IDE Controller Ricoh Memory Stick Host Controller

IDE Controller Ricoh MMC Host Controller

IDE Controller Ricoh xD-Picture Card Host Controller

Storage Controller SCSI/RAID Host Controller

Disk Drive Hitachi HTS721010G9SA00 (100 GB, 7200 RPM, SATA)

Optical Drive TSSTcorp DVD+-RW TS-L532B (DVD+R9:2.4x, DVD+RW:8x/4x, DVD-RW:8x/4x, DVD-ROM:8x, CD:24x/10x/24x DVD+RW/DVD-RW)

Optical Drive WW3195U SQT349B SCSI CdRom Device

SMART Hard Disks Status OK

Partitions:

C: (NTFS) 93911 MB (5420 MB free)

Total Size 93911 MB (5420 MB free)

Input:

Keyboard PS/2 Keyboard

Mouse Synaptics PS/2 Port Pointing Device

Network:

Network Adapter Broadcom NetXtreme 57xx Gigabit Controller

Network Adapter Intel® PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection

Network Adapter WAN (PPP/SLIP) Interface (142.169.154.77)

Modem Conexant HDA D110 MDC V.92 Modem

Peripherals:

Printer Canon PIXMA iP2000

Printer Fax

Printer HP DeskJet 1220C

Printer Lexmark T630 PS3

Printer Microsoft Office Document Image Writer

FireWire Controller Ricoh RL5C832 IEEE1394 Controller (PHY: Ricoh RL5C832)

USB1 Controller Intel 82801GBM ICH7-M - USB Universal Host Controller [A-1]

USB2 Controller Intel 82801GBM ICH7-M - Enhanced USB2 Controller [A-1]

USB Device Generic USB Hub

USB Device USB Smart Card reader

Battery Microsoft AC Adapter

Battery Microsoft ACPI-Compliant Control Method Battery

DMI:

DMI BIOS Vendor Dell Inc.

DMI BIOS Version A04

DMI System Manufacturer Dell Inc.

DMI System Product MXG061

DMI System Version

DMI Motherboard Manufacturer Dell Inc.

DMI Motherboard Product 0CF456

DMI Motherboard Version

DMI Chassis Manufacturer Dell Inc.

DMI Chassis Version

DMI Chassis Serial Number D0X6X91

DMI Chassis Asset Tag

DMI Chassis Type Portable

March 13, 2007

that's what I call a good error report, congrats :)

you already did most of the related trouble shooting steps so I can only add some stuff that might be a possible cause for this problem.

1. make sure all cables are properly in place

2. make sure there really is no memory parity check option in your Bios and disable in case you find it.

3. make sure your RAM is properly in place by adjusting it once more. make sure there is no dust.

4. it could be heat problem. monitor the temperature (both idle and under full load) and post results to further narrow down the problem.

5. if there is any later Bios version coming out try that one.

6. unplug ALL external components that aren't needed (i.e. scanner, other external devices) plus ALL internal devices that aren't needed to boot (i.e. soundcard, etc). try one at a time to see if can pinpoint the problem.

7. properly update all your devices with the latest firware (you newer know).

8. maybe (though unlikely) your PSU is faulty. try to replace it temporally.

9. make your system struggle with putting it under full load with e.g. Prime95 to see if it's a general problem or game specific.

BIOS, RAM and plugged in devices are the main suspects in this case as far as I can tell.

good luck!

March 13, 2007

Hello martina,

Thx for answering :) Here's my responses to your suggestion so far :

1-I have not opened the laptop yet, i never opened a laptop before and i try to see every ''soft'' solution before. But i guess ill have to go ''hands on soon''

2-triple checked

3-see #1

4-any tool to suggest to monitor the temp? if not ill google it soon

5-i used bios A04 and updated to A05 with minors changes :

Fixes/Enhancements:

- Fixed an issue that system intermittently hangs during boot up to DOS repeatly

- Updated Dell COPYRIGHT year to 2007.

6-No external devices is plugged (except a G5 mouse sometimes)

7-Ill check this, good idea

8-see #1

9-good idea

ill report back when ive tested the stuff, thx again!!

March 13, 2007

Thx for answering :)

np, you're welcome.

4-any tool to suggest to monitor the temp? if not ill google it soon

most mother board suppliers have their own monitor application. or you could just use the well known SpeedFan:

http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php

March 14, 2007

few more tips...

3-see #1

you shouldn't need to 'open the laptop' for that, there should be a little 3 or 4 inch panel you open on the very bottom (you can use your fingernail). open it up and make sure the memory sticks are firmly seated, and if there's any dust just blow it off (try not to spit on the circuits tho) :x

4-any tool to suggest to monitor the temp? if not ill google it soon

EVEREST should do that for you, check for the icon in your system tray...

i didn't see anything about updating your graphics drivers...

http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_2k_mobile_84.63.html

make sure directx is up to date...

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details...;DisplayLang=en

also worth a try, fixed a prob i was having, go to start > Run > dxdiag > Display and disable AGP texture acceleration :)

March 14, 2007

you shouldn't need to 'open the laptop' for that, there should be a little 3 or 4 inch panel you open on the very bottom (you can use your fingernail). open it up and make sure the memory sticks are firmly seated, and if there's any dust just blow it off (try not to spit on the circuits tho) laugh.gif

alrite ill give it a try tomorrow :)

EVEREST should do that for you, check for the icon in your system tray...

actually i tried speedfan and for monitoring i prefer that program but your right that everest can monitor that stuff

didn't see anything about updating your graphics drivers...

i tried pretty much every drivers out there as i said earlier

-Various video cards drivers test, including : Dell's officials, Dell's Beta, Nvidia Current, Nvidia old, Default driver, and some tweaked 3rd party

im currently using the drivers available on dell website its 84.69

make sure directx is up to date...

yep i got the 9.0c dx

DirectX 4.09.00.0904 (DirectX 9.0c)

also worth a try, fixed a prob i was having, go to start > Run > dxdiag > Display and disable AGP texture acceleration unsure.gif

good idea i diabled it and see what happen

thx for taking time to help me nsane :x

March 14, 2007

Dude parity errors are all about ram and dell laptops are FAMOUS for their ram dying slowly and causing these errors...

In fact, I have fixed so many dell laptops due to this problem that eventually some of the worse off laptops get so bad they eventually cause hdd errors to start coming...

I know you probably are NOT swimming in cash or experience but I recommend you remove your existing ram and sell that shit on craigslist.org...then buy all new ram...

But buy some really nice ram from a well known supplier like crucial -- they tend to make ram which is a bit more oriented for gamers...

Finally, I know they are gay and people say they dont work...but pick yourself up a chill mat...you can get them for like $10.00 on sale sometimes at your local stores.

Laptops depend on convection (cooling by air flow) as well as displacement (cooling forced movement) of air. Without both, your laptop heats up and components get stressed!

March 14, 2007

Dude parity errors are all about ram and dell laptops are FAMOUS for their ram dying slowly and causing these errors...

he already did test his RAM with MemTest86. chances are that MemTest won't find anything, even if the RAM is faulty, but this chance is very small (well, it depends on the chosen test procedures).

In fact, I have fixed so many dell laptops due to this problem that eventually some of the worse off laptops get so bad they eventually cause hdd errors to start coming...

so you're saying that a HD can take damage from bad RAM? please explain this theory.

March 14, 2007

Dude parity errors are all about ram and dell laptops are FAMOUS for their ram dying slowly and causing these errors...
In fact, I have fixed so many dell laptops due to this problem that eventually some of the worse off laptops get so bad they eventually cause hdd errors to start coming...
I know you probably are NOT swimming in cash or experience but I recommend you remove your existing ram and sell that shit on craigslist.org...then buy all new ram...
But buy some really nice ram from a well known supplier like crucial -- they tend to make ram which is a bit more oriented for gamers...
Finally, I know they are gay and people say they dont work...but pick yourself up a chill mat...you can get them for like $10.00 on sale sometimes at your local stores.
Laptops depend on convection (cooling by air flow) as well as displacement (cooling forced movement) of air. Without both, your laptop heats up and components get stressed!

Ok thats scary :)

I opened up the ram box on the laptop and i didnt find any dust in it. So i got 2X1GB NANYA RAM under the hood. Couldn find much about that ''generic'' RAM on the net. Looks like its ''generic'' quality...

For now i cant afford better RAM crucial or corsair. Ill keep an eye open for those chill mat, its more in my budget range... Thx for your thoughts.

March 14, 2007

Ill try another MemTest86 overnight too

I have check my temp on idle mode (just surfin the web)

Temp HD : 35C

Temp GPU : 68C

Temp CPU1 : 46C

Temp CPU2 : 48C

i will check the temp on high stress later

March 14, 2007

How can bad ram cause errors eventually with your hard drive?

The same way a bad power supply slowly fries components attached to a motherboard...

Over time the ram fails and eventually and abruptly causes the head of the hard drive to stop spinning and reboot in mid process of reading and/or writing.

Constant BSODs can and will effect your system files and that in turn affects your hard drive since those files reside on the hard drive itself.

Now, how about you show a little respect and try to help this guy instead of fighting with me in a fucking warez forum? It's 2007 and people still show INET muscle in forums... :)

March 14, 2007

@3nigm4

You did quite a lot of the things I would suggest like updating your bios and drivers...

1 thing you could try it removing 1 gb of ram and pushing your system...if it BSODs, swap the ram in the SAME SLOT and eventually we can determine if one of your sticks is bad...

Slowly but surely we will determine if it's your OS or ram.

Also most apps written to control fan speed and heat as well as temperature monitoring apps are kinda worthless in your situation.

Those things are for overclockers and people with unlimited money who like to break stuff and replace it without worrying about it.

Think about it this way...if you run everything the way it's supposed to run, and understand some things get old and wear out, problems will happen.

Why add to the stress of hardware by forcing it to run the way it wasn't created to?

March 15, 2007

Alrite ill try the ram swapping soon, now i just wanna report that i ran for 12h windiag memtest in extended mode and it didnt report any error. We will be sure soon if its the ram or not :) Thx for sticking around !

March 15, 2007

OK, heres the news :)

I tried to play COH again and i got that blue screen again. But when i reboot i saw that message :

Your system automatically powered off because it became warmer than expected.

0) This may be caused by operating or storing the system in an environment where the ambiant temperature is too high, or

0) Obstructing the air flow from the system vents

If this problem recurs please call Dell support with error code #M1004

After seeing that message i decide to open up the hood. To get access to the fan i had to open up and unscrew mostly everything. I found some dog's hair near a fan and i removed it. I took time to clean up the keyboard while it was unscrewed. So put back everything back in place and fired it up. Had to set up system time back up and tried COH. I played for a while when it crash to a windows full off video noise that look like that animated stereogram : looks like this (without the movement of course)

So i google my ass off on that #M1004 topic. Various cause came back to me but most point out at the Bios not updated (mine is updated) or the motherboard.

March 16, 2007

Over time the ram fails and eventually and abruptly causes the head of the hard drive to stop spinning and reboot in mid process of reading and/or writing.

that's VERY unlikely. AFAIK the only possible situation where a HDD could take damage from bad RAM is when the part of RAM is faulty where the loaded HD drivers are. a very slim chance.

Constant BSODs can and will effect your system files and that in turn affects your hard drive since those files reside on the hard drive itself.

that logic doesn't make any sense whatsoever to me. if I go by that logic, my HD will also take damage if I manually delete random system files. that is not the case.

Now, how about you show a little respect and try to help this guy instead of fighting with me in a fucking warez forum? It's 2007 and people still show INET muscle in forums... :)

uhm, the only one who is fighting seems to be you. I kindly asked you to explain your theory, that's all. and I guess I was helping, wasn't I? (in case you say no, please reread this thread)

Also most apps written to control fan speed and heat as well as temperature monitoring apps are kinda worthless in your situation.
Those things are for overclockers and people with unlimited money who like to break stuff and replace it without worrying about it.

his problem could very well be caused by overheating (which doesn't only happen when OC), so temperature monitoring is far from useless IMHO.

@ 3NIGM4:

I would again recommend that you stress your computer and monitor the temperature.

this procedure is meant to ensure you don't have generic instability problems (i.e. not game specific) or overheating problems.

make sure there is some room underneath your laptop for air circulation.

the idle temp. you posted so far is out of any critical area, but they look as they could go much higher when on load...

edit:

I found some dog's hair near a fan and i removed it.

another good reason why dogs should not be allowed to work on a computer :P

March 16, 2007

i have 2 cats and if i do not clean ALL my fans especially the power supply fan) every 2 or 3 months i have have to replace them as they simply get too clogged up and burn out.

March 17, 2007

Ok quick update :

Ive downloaded prime95 to torture test my comp. Ive made the Blend test for 3h15 (blend test suppose to test a lil bit of everything but mostly RAM) and i come up with no error and no warning.

I have lift my laptop on cd cases to be sure that air flow easily.

So far my temp on that test didnt get really high :

temp HD : 38C

temp GPU : 59C (its lower than idle since the fan were flowing air to CPU i guess)

temp CPU 1 : 52

temp CPU 2 : 54

both temp of CPU went down to 40 as soon as i stopped the test

CPU utilisation reach 75 % and RAM utilisation was stable at 87%

Meanwhile ive updated COH to ver 1.5 i played succesfully 3 game without a crash but it crashed twice this morning :sneaky:

ill keep testing and RAM swap soon too. Im gonna do other prime 95 test especially the cpu one so i can see how high it reach.

later

March 18, 2007

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