Blue screen crash. Computer wouldn`t restart Help!
 

Following on from my post elsewhere. Scenario crashed with a blue screen error message. I`ve typed it out as best I could below---

"A problem has been detected and windows has shut down to prevent damage to your computer.

DRIVER_IRQL_NOT LESS_OR_EQUAL

If this is the first time you have seen this, restart the computer. If this appears again follow the instructions below-

Check to make sure new hardware/software is installed properly. If this continues disable or remove the newly installed software/hardware, bios memory options such as caching or shadowing.

Tech information-

STOP 0x00000001 (0x00000294 0x00000002 0x00000000 0xf9025231) NV4_mini.sys-address f9025231 base at f8ff1000 date stamp 4074b958"

then said something about dumping physical memory. At this point I switched the computer off (alt-ctrl-del did not work)

Upon switch back on, no joy. Leaving the computer for 5 minutes and I was back up. Upon booting up the following message greated me. "safe mode speed. press del to enter bios setup and correct cpu speed"

Needless to say, I was very apprehensive about this. entering bios, I couldn`t see anything refering to cpu speed. I just made sure everything was set to auto.

Anyway, (if anyones got this far http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif) does anyone have any suggestions? I`m sure it was to do with the WinSPMBT install. I had just installed it and run it, nothing else, no addition recent hardware etc.

Thanks for any help

Re: Blue screen crash. Computer wouldn`t restart Help!
 

Maybe hyperthreading may cause the problem.

Re: Blue screen crash. Computer wouldn`t restart Help!
 

Hyperthreading?

My system is a athlon 2800XP. Does athlon processors use hyperthreading?

Further system info is direct X 9.0c, 256mb ram, 120gig hard drive, windows xp service pack 2

Re: Blue screen crash. Computer wouldn`t restart H
 

http://www.pcreview.co.uk/forums/thread-261628.php
Would probably be worth a browse through

(from a google search on nv4_mini.sys)

nv4_mini.sys is what the error report was complaining about.

nv4_mini.sys is the core driver for Nvidia graphics cards, and apparently some releases were unstable, according to a quick skim through the google search results. So, I would look at downloading the latest drivers for your Nvidia card from thier website.

A search on DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL in google brought up several reports such as
http://www.tek-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=308429

You may want to have a quick google on DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
and also
nv4_mini.sys

Hopefully - you just had the bad Nvidia drivers?

Cheers
Andy

Re: Blue screen crash. Computer wouldn`t restart Help!
 

Let me guess, do you have an NVIDIA video card?

Re: Blue screen crash. Computer wouldn`t restart Help!
 

Yep! Mobhack took the point! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Blue screen crash. Computer wouldn`t restart H
 

You didn't mention which graphics card you're using. For some older cards, the latest drives are not necessarily the best ones, and they might not be the most stable ones, either.

I'm running 66.93 drivers from http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp-2k_archive.html
atm with my Fx5200 card, and it works just fine.


Not being able to restart for 5 minutes points to a thermal problem: either graphics card or CPU had to cool down before it initialized correctly again. Core driver crashing points to graphics card, while "forgotten" speed settings points to CPU not starting "correctly" and therefore set to failsafe speed (PCI bus set to 50 Mhz, etc.). I have, in rare cases, seen such errors which faulty memory chips or failing EPROM, too, so 'debugging' can get pretty complicated...
Was there any special beep code from BIOS during the failed startup attempts (provided you have the internal speaker connected to the motherboard, oc.) ?

SW

Re: Blue screen crash. Computer wouldn`t restart Help!
 

I suggest, as Andy already mentioned, switching to the latest official Nvidia Forceware.

Personally I´m using the 71.89 build on a FX 5950 Ultra card with DirectX 9.0c.

Works flawless for me.

cheers

Helge

Re: Blue screen crash. Computer wouldn`t restart Help!
 

Hi,

Sorry about not mentioning what graphics card I`ve got. I`ve got a nvidia TNT2 32mb. A old card, that was in my previous machine thats never given me any problems in the past. The driver version is labelled as--
version-5.6.7.3, digitial signer-microsoft windows publisher.

I`ve looked around the links mentioned above, some posts suggest cooling (or lack of) like arralen suggests, as well as driver problems. No beeps heard.

Re: Blue screen crash. Computer wouldn`t restart Help!
 

Have you installed the newest driver for your specific video card? If not, try this before all other.

Re: Blue screen crash. Computer wouldn`t restart Help!
 

if that is an STB NVIDA RIVA TNT 32MB, that is the same old card that is in my old Dell W98 P2 450. i.e. the box WinSPMBT was chiefly developed on http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

The original card was the 16MB version shipped with the machine in 1998, I got the 32MB as a "brown-box" parts add on from PC World in 2003 or so, for not very much.

I got the latest driver set for that on the Nvidia site, middle of last year and have not updated since as no problems.

Cheers
Andy

Re: Blue screen crash. Computer wouldn`t restart Help!
 

Mobhack, thanks for the response. I`ve just gone through the driver selection process here-
http://www.nvidia.com/content/drivers/drivers.asp

but after i`ve downloaded it and run the program, it says that it "cannot find any drivers which are compatable with your current hardware, setup will quit."

Any idea where I should download the driver from, and what version/number is it?

Re: Blue screen crash. Computer wouldn`t restart Help!
 

What about the manufacturer of the card? take a look at the site of the manufactorer as well.

Re: Blue screen crash. Computer wouldn`t restart Help!
 

Good idea! (doh, wht didn`t I think of that!!) Still, just looked (manufacture is "sparkle") and the card/chip set is so old there is no mention of TNT2 on the web site. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif

Re: Blue screen crash. Computer wouldn`t restart Help!
 

Sounds like the newer Forceware drivers don´t support your hardware anymore.

check out this link:

http://www.3dchip.de/treiber/nvidia.php

here you can get the older Detonators which were downward compatible to the TNT-cards. Give the latest (build 45.23) a try.

I forgot to mention: Before installing them, IIRC you need to uninstall your current drivers, then reboot with the windows SVGA driver and then install the detonators. This assures there will be no mix-up with old driver components. Alternatively you can use DetonatorRIP to assure you completely get rid of the old drivers.

Get the tool here:

http://www.guru3d.com/index.php?page=detonatorrip

there is also a section about the installation process here:

http://content.guru3d.com/article.ph...view&id=23

cheers

Helge

Re: Blue screen crash. Computer wouldn`t restart Help!
 

I got mine from there - selected "graphics driver" in column 1, "geoforce and TNT" in the second, and then "Windows 95/98/ME" as it was a W98 box.

Got some software which had the card in it as one of the options. It unzipped (or made - been a while !) a folder on C called Nvida\Win9x\40.72 - Installed and all went OK.

Cheers
Andy

Re: Blue screen crash. Computer wouldn`t restart Help!
 

Hello Dita,

Sorry to see your having problems. I saw your post on the strategy zone that you were able to get to the start screen.
At what point does the game go kaput?

You may want to seriously consider upgrading your graphics card.You dont have to go out an buy the latest and greatest.Many deals to be had with the technology in between.

Re: Blue screen crash. Computer wouldn`t restart Help!
 

Hi, skirmisher, looks like that may be the solution. I`m just downloading drivers 61.77, going though the PDfs on the nvidia set, it looks like this was the last driver that supported TNT2. Heres hoping.....

Mobhack, I`ve got windows XP. My card was fitted in my old windows 98 machine, then it finally wnet to the great PC heaven in the sky just before christmas last year

Re: Blue screen crash. Computer wouldn`t restart Help!
 

First, thanks to all for the suggestions and assistance on how to fix this.

I`ve updated my drivers,to version 6.1.77 (dated july 04 I think). This looks like the last official nvidia drivers for my old TNT card. So far, everything seems to be ok. Further to other suggestions, I think I may be having a overheating problem. It has been a particular hot spell here in the (usually) rainy UK. (ignoring the flash floods in yorkshire http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/shock.gif)

I`ll be getting more RAM (to bring me to 512) and a nice new (and improved fan) for the CPU. Graphics card update is definately on the cards, put will probably have to wait... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif

Once again, thanks for the help. Now, onto the battlefield