Finding the cause of blue-screens/crashes

  • Thread starter Thread starter PapillonIrl
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PapillonIrl

PapillonIrl

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Setup:

Pentium 4 3.2gHz
SiS Chipset
1 GB RAm

2 x UAD-1 Cards
RME Fireface 800

Windows XP (SP2)
Samplitude 8.11

I am getting intermittent blue-screen crashes, can't find anything in common with all the occurances, apart from the fact that I'm running Samplitude, which is pretty much all I do on it anyway.

I can't think of any change in hardware or software prior to it starting.

Things I have tried since it started happening:

Flashed BIOS
Upgraded XP to SP2
Upgraded Samp to 8.11

Can anybody advise me on how to track down the problem ? I have a session booked this weekend which I'll have to cancel if I can't sort this out. Is there a utility which can check for faults which may cause blue-screens ?

Many thanks,

Nathan
 
Does is indicate a driver file at any of the bluescreens? If so, what's it called?
 
No, just a vague 'an unexpected error has occured...' type effort...

:confused:
 
Why dont you restore your computer back to a date when it was running correctly?
 
Right-click on your "My Computer"
Select "Manage"
Select "Event Viewer"
Error events are easily discerned. There should be an event that corresponds to the blue screen.

hth.
 
fraserhutch said:
Right-click on your "My Computer"
Select "Manage"
Select "Event Viewer"
Error events are easily discerned. There should be an event that corresponds to the blue screen.

hth.
Click to expand...


Good answer I forgot about that! :D
 
Thanks for replies all.

Will try everything mentioned.

Have had two more messages since on bluescreen.

One names a file called hypaudio.sys,

the other is a IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL effort.

Gonna look into those now, but any more thoughts much appreciated.

Nathan
 
You know, it occurs to me that all you may need is to reinstall Samplitude. You may have some corrupted .dll files or something like that.
 
a lot of the time, it's newly installed device drivers or bad memory (ram).

If you get them a lot when using a lot of cpu/memory - i'd check out microsoft's memory diagnostic thing. you download it and extract it to a disk then run it on startup, pretty simple.

also - if I were you I'd click that "send error report and track this error" pop up box on restart. I tracked a lot of mine - eventually microsoft told me they were all due to a device driver...and a little later they told me which one (my video card/driver). I replaced it, and haven't had a bsod since! ha.
 
PapillonIrl said:
Thanks for replies all.

Will try everything mentioned.

Have had two more messages since on bluescreen.

One names a file called hypaudio.sys,

the other is a IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL effort.

Gonna look into those now, but any more thoughts much appreciated.

Nathan
Click to expand...
I'm pretty familiar with the "IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL" BSOD. That means you have bad ram or you need to loosen the ram timings.
http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/fma/P4tweakRAM2.htm
 
shackrock said:
a lot of the time, it's newly installed device drivers or bad memory (ram).
Click to expand...


Ive tossed mother boards because of bad ram. Even though it posts and error checks OK, I stay away from CHEAP no-name ram.

Corrupt data/sectors on your HD could be a good source of BSODs too.
 
ocnor said:
I'm pretty familiar with the "IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL" BSOD. That means you have bad ram or you need to loosen the ram timings.
http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/fma/P4tweakRAM2.htm
Click to expand...

That's a nice link.

I've never figured out which is better for audio though: lower latencies or higher fsb. My understanding is

Lower latency, lower fsb means the data is located more quickly, but can't get delivered as quickly to the cpu.
Higher latency, higher fsb means locating the data takes longer, but once found it gets delivered faster to the cpu.

My gut feel says that as audio data tends to be contiguous as opposed to randomly scattered in ram, it's better to wear a higher latency and go for the higher fsb. The higher fsb means the chip runs faster allowing for more calculations to drive plugins etc
 
I'm thinking my RAM is the most likely culprit here...

I will run a diagnostic when I get back to the studio tommorow.

In the meantime, does anyone care to recommend some good products ? I was thinking of going the 2gb matched pair route if there is some future-proofing and increased performance to be gained from it ?

Thanks,

Nathan
 
its called SiS chipset. Get a new motherboard. a nice one.

danny
 
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