OT: Device Driver Errors
 

Greetings!

I'm running WinXP Pro on a Pentium 4 2.4Ghz data machine with 512Mb of RAM and plenty of HD space.

I've been having random reboots (2-3 daily) due to a device driver error for the Last 8 months. I'm really quite tired of it!

Of course, WinXP can never reveal which driver it is, just that I've had a crash due to a device driver error.

I've kept all the drivers for my video card (ATI Radeon 9000 64Mb) and sound card (sound card, AC-97 C-media) updated as much as possible.

The drivers for the sound card are not digitally signed for XP, and there was one time it actually reported a device driver error as caused by the sound driver - but only ever once.

There are no showing conflicts in my device manager or stuff of that sort.

Is there any way that I can determine which is my problem driver? Can it be another device? I do have a DVD and CD-RW drives as well.

Please help!

Re: OT: Device Driver Errors
 

Uninstall them one by one until the problem goes away? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/rolleyes.gif

Re: OT: Device Driver Errors
 

You get one or two free tech support calls to Microsoft. If not, tell them the problem occured after the Last update and you need there help to figure it out. They might wave the cost.

Good luck, and please keep us informed.

Re: OT: Device Driver Errors
 

2 things

1/ go to your control panel. Under administrative tools you to event viewer. This is a log of error Messages. Look for big red "X's.

2/ Go to control panel / system / Advanced tab. Under Startup and recovery, go into settings. Under system failure, un-check the automaticly restart box. It should stop thr rebooting, though not the problem. It sould give you a cahance to see what the problem is.

Re: OT: Device Driver Errors
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">You for the Motherboard drivers first. also check if there is an updated BIOS. I would quess your problems there. If not, I would try disabling (or removing, if you can) the Norton. Most AV programs are very intrusive, but it seems NAV is more than others. It will work fine for many, but, sometimes.....
It would be helpful if I knew the specific equipment you computer has (MB, CPU, etc.)
How long have you had XP Pro installed?
Do you do a lot of adding/ removing of software?
Have you run any anti spyware programs lately (Spybot, Ad-aware)? sometimes a little program in the background wreaks havoc.

Re: OT: Device Driver Errors
 

Yeah, that's what I'm going to do when I get the chance tonight is get an updated bios driver.

The motherboard is Asus (can't recall the model right now, will note it on next startup). I've given the rest of the pertinent specs in my first post.

I installed WinXP fresh on the computer when it was new, and also Norton. There are reports of a norton driver causing problems, although my symptons haven't quite matched up to what I read.

I don't think it's connected to software remnants, since it has been present since the earliest days, when the system was more or less "clean" and the error occurs very randomally...

I do run ad-aware on a regular basis.

Re: OT: Device Driver Errors
 

There is a specific model of ASUS motherboard that is notorious for having issues..I'll see if I can find which model for you.

Re: OT: Device Driver Errors
 

Another off the wall thing might be that your Asus MB's AGP port might be failing.

You should also consider calling the tech number for your Graphics Card. Most have a long time warrentee and perphas they can help solve the problem.

Re: OT: Device Driver Errors
 

I have an ASUS P4SX8 motherboard.

Re: OT: Device Driver Errors
 

Dude I feel for you. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif With how ASUS has been cutting quality lately even there best Boards are failing.

Re: OT: Device Driver Errors
 

If you have a network card in your machine, look at updating its driver; netcards are notorious for causing random reboots.

[ March 30, 2004, 00:45: Message edited by: DarkHorse ]

Re: OT: Device Driver Errors
 

I'd already disabled the automatic restart - but that system event viewer was kind of interesting. But I've been unable to correlate the error reports with any of the devices.

I ran a scan and identified 9 digitally unsigned drivers and researched each one. 1 belongs to the motherboard, 2 to c-dilla (software protection copyright stuff, but not present from the beginning), 1 from the dvd, 1 for safedisc launcher (another copy protection thing), 2 from my Norton a/v, and 1 from my soundcard.

I'm going to see if I can find some updated signed drivers...I know already for some of them I won't be able to though.

Re: OT: Device Driver Errors
 

I believe the network card and the sound card are both integrated with the motherboard in this case...

...research I've done has shown oddities between ATI graphic cards and my particular motherboard but mostly reported in conjuction with Radeon 9700...

Anyways, I went to download some updated drivers, but the ASUS site lists a bunch of different ones for different components, i.e., ide, sound, network, and so on.

I downloaded the one for sound (although I suspect is more outdated than the one I grab previously from the actual chipset manufacturer of the sound card) and one for the network card. I need to review which files it contains just be to be sure it is actually a more update driver...actually right now I think default WinXP drivers are being used...?

Re: OT: Device Driver Errors
 

Make sure to install the latest IDE & AGP drivers. I've found the early releases of the SIS IDE drivers made the system run a little odd.
I have had issues w/ older ATI card under 98 because the driver wouldn't assign an IRQ and the video card & the sound card would get on the same one an make the system unstable. I haven't noticed that to be the case under XP. Just to be safe, go into you BIOS Setup & assign PCI slot 1 to, well the usual setting was IRQ 11, and see what happens. XP usually reassigns it but, hey, give it a try.

Re: OT: Device Driver Errors
 

Oops. My bad.

The sound card is on 18, the video card on 16.

[ March 30, 2004, 02:44: Message edited by: Captain Kwok ]

Re: OT: Device Driver Errors
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">XP has added the 16 and up IRQs. try reassigning them through the BIOS Set-up at start-up. Check to see whats open 15 & below. Try maybe 11 for the AGP / PCI Slot one. You could also assign the PCI Slot w/ the sound card, maybe to 7, & see what happens. The more you discribe it, it sounds like a hardware conflict, through I thought XP was supposed to stop such things.

Re: OT: Device Driver Errors
 

Just a thought - I had problems similar to the one described and I ended up solving it by turning off all power conservation stuff (BIOS, OS, etc.). That did take care of it for me....

Re: OT: Device Driver Errors
 

Another update:

The BSOD Messages usually say something about "IRQ_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL".

"PAGE_FAULT_IN_A_NONPAGED_AREA" is another one I've seen.

A website I found indicated the first one is likely due to bad drivers or incompatible hardware/software. I'm leaning towards bad drivers.

The second can be an indication of bad memory or defective hardware.

[ April 05, 2004, 19:01: Message edited by: Captain Kwok ]