Endless blue screen errors “caused by device drivers”.

[Anonymous]

I am getting endless blue screen errors “caused by device drivers”. The blue screen only seems to happen when using 3d Studio 9...and only after installing the latest Nvidia driver for my Geforce 8600 GTS. However, the crashes seem to go away (so far) when I switch to open GL from Direct 3d. I tried everything, including downloading the new nvidia driver again and re-installing. Since the Direct 3D is faster in the re-draw, I’d like to stick to it. (I have not yet installed sp2 on my XP quad core system, which is for Vista only - I believe?)

Any suggestions?


Thanks in advance.

[Maneswar_Cheemalapati]

Post the code error and driver info for the Blue Screen. Otherwise, it's impossible to suggest anything.

Blue screens have hexadecimal error sequence (5 sections of 0x0000DC43 type error values) plus sometimes specify a type of fault (IRQL NOT LESS THAN...) and the driver causing the fault (DRIVER.SYS). List those and maybe someone can help.

[Anonymous]

Where would I find the code error and driver info for the Blue Screen? However, I finally downloaded sp2 on our dial up (no broadband in the countryside here), and so far, after a couple hours; no more blue screens. I was getting them every 10 - 20 minutes when using Max; for some reason- mostly when rendering “glass”.

[Anonymous]

It seems that the SP2 fixed the blue screen problem; at least I have been most of today without a crash.
However, when using Direct 3d, the interactive renderer does not show the materials on screen (they show at first, then mysteriously disappear)...so again I have returned to the slower open GL which does not have a problem showing the mapped materials in the interactive renderer.

[Maneswar_Cheemalapati]

The Blue Screen contains the error codes.

They look like this.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Screen_of_Death

In that sample, the error is PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA .
Code is the *** STOP: alpha numeric error code
Faulting driver is *** SPCMDCON.SYS.

[Anonymous]

It's: C:\DOCUME~1\Brit\LOCALS~1\Temp\WERf6d3.dir00\Mini033008-01.dmp
C:\DOCUME~1\Brit\LOCALS~1\Temp\WERf6d3.dir00\sysdata.xml

error signature: BCCode : 1000008e BCP1 : C0000005 BCP2 : DE59E7D2 BCP3 : EC92D69C
BCP4 : 00000000 OSVer : 5_1_2600 SP : 2_0 Product : 256_1

I uploaded another nvidia driver, and it still happens ...only when rendering with Direct 3d. It is fine with Open GL.

[Anonymous]

and its preceded by more than 20 of these warnings: An error was detected on device \Device\Harddisk0\D during a paging operation. - the disk
& The driver failed to allocate memory. -atapi

[Maneswar_Cheemalapati]

Take the time to write down what is on the Blue Screen, or does it flash by too fast and automatically restarts?

If it restarts automatically, make it stop, so you can study the error and write it down.

Go to My Computer, right click, properties, Advanced Tab, Startup and Recovery button, UNCHECK Automatically Restart.

Now go make it crash. I'll see what I can find with the gibberish above, although I think it's just encoded versions of the Blue Screen Code, without the benefit of the offending protocol and the actual driver.

[Maneswar_Cheemalapati]

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/newsgroups/reader.mspx?query=BCCode+:+1000008e&dg...

See if anything there makes any sense. APparently, just about everything can cause this error, from bad drivers, faulty windows service installed by something, possible virus, faulty memory, overheating PC, dust, bad cable, anything. The likely error is at the Kernel Level which is pretty deep in Windows, at the core of the OS. Your disk failure may also mean your hard drive has a bad sector or is failing, or it could be that the ATAPI.SYS driver stopped when the Kernel Error occurred. Did you look in the Device Manager to see if any device has an asterisk or problem symbol next to it?

[Anonymous]

This one is very confusing.

My system worked OK when I brought it to a technician for a complete annual check-up 2 weeks ago. I did not have blue screen crashes.

They looked at everything from dust, to temperature, to cables, to hard drives, etc. and all were in fine working order. They did, however, install the latest Nvidia driver. After it returned nearly every time I rendered in Max 9, I’d get a blue screen and reboot. It only happened when in Max and never in other applications. After switching to Open GL in Max, it stopped. I downloaded an even newer Nvidia Driver (for GeForce 8600) today (new in the last 2 weeks) and tried the Direct 3d driver in Max again today. The crash returned - when rendering. I switched back to Open GL, and no more crashes.

There clearly is a Direct 3d and Nvidia conflict causing the blue screens...so it is Open GL for me from now on.

[Anonymous]

One more thing; I or the technician have not been able to find the old navidia driver, which worked ...with no blue screens.

[Maneswar_Cheemalapati]

Well, you are welcome to keep talking around the point, or you can disable the auto restart and report the actual errors on the Blue Screen, which may include the driver causing the fault.

Yes, the error can be casued by a driver, and it may be the new Nvidia Driver trying to write to sections of memory or trying to do things it's not supposed to do. Go to Nvidia's site and see what's there for old drivers and use those.

By the way, I have no idea how good the tech was, but you can generally find out what was installed in a system previously by parsing through the driversfiles folder in XP.

C:\WINDOWS\system32\ReinstallBackups\

Just search for *.PNF, those are INF installation files which have been installed so become Precompiled for installation and subsequent usage like reinstalls. If you hunt through there, you can find out what was previously installed. You can open these files in Notepad, but open the related INF, not the PNF which is not really legible.

Anyway, I'm not going to be able to help you from such a distance. It's something that is easiest to resolve looking at the actual machine. Even then, it could take hours.

[ivan_iliev]

Brit,

Why not using the “repair” (change/remove) option in the Control Panel, giving you the possibility to reinstall the previous setup?

I don’t have the technical savvy and know-how of Maneswar and others in this topic, therefore look what kind of folder I’m having here. (This is my old workstation.)
This way I am always able to go back if something happens and it worked.

Sympathy

ivan

[Maneswar_Cheemalapati]

Right, I have a folder like that too, one for Nvidia and one for ATI, for the card that was previously in the machine, and each folder has drivers folders back many many releases. Good advice Ivan.

Actually, I used to keep a log file of things I did to the PC when I first started working with computers and that helped immensely... now I'm too lazy to keep up, but I should go back to logging all changes I make. It should be just like when you record tune-ups and oil changes for cars.