Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.device_driver.dev (More info?)

HELP ME PLEASE!!!



I DESPERATELY NEED HELP WITH THESE CONSTANT CRASHES I HAVE
BEEN HAVING. I HAVE DONE SO MUCH TO TRY AND TROUBLESHOOT
IT ALREADY AND HAVENT MADE A BIT OF PROGRESS. IF ANYONE
COULD HELP ME, I WOULD GREATLY APPRECIATE IT.

THE VERY LITTLE INFORMATION THAT I HAVE OBTAINED IN MY
RESEARCH INTO THIS SEEMS TO ALL POINT TO SLOPPY VGA
DRIVERS...AND ROLLING MY VGA DRIVERS BACK FAR ENOUGH
(2001) SEEMS TO BE THE ONLY THING THAT EVEN FLUCTUATES OR
OTHERWISE EFFECTS THE ERRORS IN ANY WAY (IT DOESNT FIX
THEM, THOUGH). SO THATS WHY I CAME TO THIS NEWSGROUP
ABOUT DRIVER DEVELOPMENT.

I WILL OUTLINE EVERYTHING ABOUT THE CRASHES AND EVERYTHING
THAT I HAVE DONE SO FAR...SO THIS WILL BE KINDA LONG, BUT
PLEASE TRY TO READ THE WHOLE THING SO YOU CAN SEE WHAT I
HAVE ALREADY TRIED AND RULED OUT AS BEING THE CULPRIT.

I WILL TRY TO MAKE THE DESCRIPTION AS CLEAR AND DETAILED
AS POSSIBLE BROKEN DOWN INTO SEGMENTS. I WILL TRY TO
INCLUDE EVERY PIECE OF INFO THAT ANYONE COULD NEED IN
TRYING TO HELP ME.

IT WILL BE A LONG POST BUT IT WILL AVOID US HAVING TO GO
BACK & FORTH WITH QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ABOUT MY SYSTEM
AND WHAT I HAVE TRIED SO FAR...WHICH IS INFO YOU NEED
ANYWAY IN ORDER TO HELP ME....SO I MIGHT AS WELL PUT IT
ALL DOWN RIGHT NOW AT THE START.

I APPRECIATE ANY SUGGESTIONS.

THANKS,
ROB

__________________________________


*PROBLEM*
----------

Any Multimedia program used for ENCODING or RENDERING
audio & video files crashes EVERY time that it is encoding
or rendering. I was able to encode multimedia on this
machine several months ago, but at some point (since i
went months without even trying to encode anything) the
crashes started happening 100% of the time.

__________________________________


*DETAILS*
----------

-I USED TO BE ABLE TO ENCODE VIDEO AND AUDIO ON THIS SAME
HARDWARE until a few months back...I couldnt answer the
all-important troubleshooting question "Well, what changed
right before the failures started?" since I am re-imaging
my operating system every month or so and constantly
downloading & installing new applications...but my
hardware has not changed exept for MAYBE one new Hard
Drive which I cannot recal whether it was installed before
the crashes started or after...but I eliminated this as
the culprit in my troubleshooting steps (Described in
detail far below)

-My system is COMPLETELY free of any virus', adware,
spyware, worms, trojans, or otehr malware...aside from
being completely obsessive about this and running an array
of redundant protection & avoiding exposure in many many
effective ways, my troubleshooting liminated any kind of
malware as being a possible culprit in my troubleshooting
steps (Described in detail far below)

-These crashes go for ANY Multimedia program and ONLY
Multimedia programs (non-audio/video programs seem to work
fine).

-The crash happens at some point DURING the encoding
process, not upon starting the encoding...it will complete
anywhere between 10% to 90% of the process and then crash,
sometimes even further in.

-Occasionally, the same application errors happen during
simply playing of multimedia files, but this is much more
seldom and not something i can replicate at will like when
encoding, which crashes 100% of the time faithfully.

-The crashes happen no matter the format, source, codec,
speed, quality, process priority level nor application
used.

-As for DVD RIPPING, these crashes DO NOT occur when
ripping a DVD to ISO/BIN,CUE/NRG/MDS,MDF/ or FOLDER or
similar....(I GUESS SINCE THOSE DO NOT INVOLVE ENCODING OF
THE VIDEO/AUDIO)....they DO happen if I rip a DVD to
another format (re-encode the video)...even if its Mpeg2
with DVD standards....the key is whether or not i am
encoding

-DR WATSON (I can send my log to anyone who wants to help)
contains several of the dumps from these application
errors...they mostly contain "c0000005 (access violation)"
and a couple "c0000096 (privileged instruction)"....Im not
too well versed at the finer points of memory addressing,
so I need someone who is.

____________________________________


*ERROR DESCRIPTIONS* (divided by "@@@@", my footnotes are
surrounded by "****" )
--------------------

@@@@

Program Name.exe - Application Error

The instruction at "0x044a0e06" referenced memory
at "0x03fc5000". The memory could not be "read".

Click on OK to terminate the program
Click on CANCEL to debug the program

****BY THE WAY--The memory address change each time, the
above addresses are one example of a million. Also,
several times the 1st or 2nd address is 0x00000000)****

****Also, some times, the error appears as "...memory
could not be "written"." as opposed to "could not
be "read"."....it really depends on what the application
is doing at the moment....I have found that usually
the "could not be "read"." happen during ENCODING while
the "could not be "written"." happen more during scanning
or preperation of multimedia files....but there are so
many exceptions to this rule that its barely worth
noting.****

****Here is the above error's entry in the Event Log.****


Event Type: Information
Event Source: Application Popup
Event Category: None
Event ID: 26
Date: 8/20/2004
Time: 6:10:52 PM
User: N/A
Computer: 020MAIN
Description:
Application popup: Media Player Classic.exe - Application
Error : The instruction at "0x044a0e06" referenced memory
at "0x03fc5000". The memory could not be "read".

Click on OK to terminate the program
Click on CANCEL to debug the program

For more information, see Help and Support Center at
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.


@@@@

Program Name.exe - Application Error

The exception Breakpoint
A breakpoint has been reached.
(0x80000003) occurred in the application at location
0x07be078e

Click on OK to terminate the program
Click on CANCEL to debug the program


****This error only happened once or twice in place of the
first error...I havent been able to reproduce this error
ever again, but it must be somehow related since it
occured in the same situation that otherwise brought upon
the other error. I figured it was worth mentioning since
someone might recognize it and not the other error thereby
giving me the answer to both.****

@@@@

Program Name.exe - Application Error


The exception unknown software exception (0xc000001e)
occurred in the application at location 0x053307a0

Click on OK to terminate the program
Click on CANCEL to debug the program


****This is another one that only happened once or twice
and never again since.****


@@@@

Event Type: Information
Event Source: Application Popup
Event Category: None
Event ID: 26
Date: 8/20/2004
Time: 6:08:04 PM
User: N/A
Computer: 020MAIN
Description:
Application popup: Recode.exe - Application Error : The
exception Privileged instruction.
(0xc0000096) occurred in the application at location
0x042e0780.

Click on OK to terminate the program
Click on CANCEL to debug the program

For more information, see Help and Support Center at
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.


****Here is another error which only happened once or
twice. As you can see, I didnt get a chance to copy the
exact dialog box, but this was the Event Log entry for it.


______________________________________
-------------END OF ERRORS---------------
______________________________________


*HARDWARE DESCRIPTION*
-----------------------

MOBO Gigabyte GA-7VAXP (ATA 133, AGP 8, more...)
CPU Athlon XP 2000 (1674 mhz, Socket A, MMX, EMMX,
SSE, 3DNOW, Extended 3DNOW)
BIOS Award Modular BIOS v6.00PG, OEM version F14
09/03/2003
CHIPSET VIA Apollo KT400
RAM 256MB DDR PC3200 400MHz (1 Stick)
VGA ATI Radeon 7000 32MB AGP 1,2,4 (currently set to
AGP 4)
SOUND Hercules GameTheaterXP 6.1 External (Onboard sound
disabled)
RAID Onboard Promise 20276 ATA133 or IDE RAID
PRINT Lexmark All-In-One x5150 USB
OPTICAL NEC DVD +/- R/RW ND-2500a - IDE 2, Device 0 (alone
on IDE channel 2)
WEBCAM Concord Eye-Q Duo LCD (Web cam / Digital Camera +
Storage driver)
NIC Onboard Realtek 10-100 Fast Ethernet PCI
NET Cable modem, over 3.5 megabit per second

---

DRIVES:

*20gb Maxtor - 1 20gb NTFS Partition (C:\, Windows Drive) -
IDE 1, Device 0
*250gb Western Digital - 1 250gb Partition (D:\, Storage +
my only Pagefile) - IDE 1, Device 1

*80gb Maxtor - 1 80gb NTFS Partition (E:\, Storage) - IDE
3, Device 0 (Promise Controller)
*30gb Seagate - 1 30gb NTFS Partition (F:\, Storage) -
IDE 3, Device 1 (Promise Controller)

*10gb Western Digital - 1 10gb NTFS Partition (G:\,
Storage) - IDE4, Device 0 (Promise Controller)
*8gb Western Digital - 1 10gb NTFS Partition (H:\,
Storage) - IDE4, Device 1 (Promise Controller)

______________________________________


*SYSTEM DESCRIPTION* (Changed many times during
troubleshooting)
---------------------

Windows XP Pro (no Service pack, then SP1, Now
SP2...crashed with all)
500 mb Pagefile on D:\ (crashed with pagefile in various
sizes and locations)

______________________________________


*SOFTWARE DESCRIPTION*
----------------------

Norton Internet Security 2004, updated daily (crashed with
or without)
Norton Antivirus 2004, updated daily (crashed with or
without)
Many applications of various types. (crashed with all or
without any)
Many applications for multimedia editing, encoding, and
playing (crashed with all or without any)
ACE Mega Codec pack full install (crashed with or without)
K-Lite Codec Pack Full Install (crashed with or without)

_______________________________________
_______________________________________
_______________________________________

*TROUBLESHOOTING STEPS TAKEN SO FAR*
------------------------------------

(I duplicated the crashes under all of the following
conditions and after performing all of the following steps)

-Changed settings for pagefile size and locations in every
possible way
-Disabled all non-critical background services one at a
time
-Disabled all non-critical hardware one at a time (both in
Windows and in BIOS) like IDE controller 2, Promise IDE
RAID controller, on board hardware, etc etc
-Disabled all non-critical drivers one at a time
-Uninstalled all non-critical hardware & drivers one at a
time (both in Windows and by physically removing)
-Uninstalled (physically) all hard drives one at a time
-Uninstalled all codecs and software one at a time
-Uninstalled Anti-Virus & Firewall one at a time, tried
different brands (Avast, Black Ice, Panda, McAfee, etc)
-RE-IMAGED PC WITH FRESH WINDOWS XP PRO INSTALLATION, NO
SOFTWARE (other than test program), NO UPDATES (at first),
NO NON-CRITICAL DRIVERS
-RE-IMAGED PC WITH FRESH WINDOWS 2000 INSTALLATION, NO
SOFTWARE (other than test program), NO UPDATES (at first),
NO NON-CRITICAL DRIVERS
-Incrementally installed different services, programs,
security apps, drivers, codecs, and windows updates to
both FRESH Windows (XP & 2000) Installations...testing
after each change
-Tested each system configuration with every multimedia
encoding application at my disposal (over 30 programs from
different vendors)
-Reverted back to old versions of all hardware drivers one
at a time
-Updated to newest versions of all hardware drivers one at
a time
-Re-seated my only 256MB RAM stick into each of the 3
slots one at a time
-Ran 2 different RAM testers OUTSIDE of windows (Microsoft
and MemTest86) for over 24 hours each...passed all tests
(both set to thorough testing)
-Ran MEMTEST (Windows memory testing app) from within
windows for 8 hours....passed all thorough tests
-Ran Performance Test (from Norton System Works) using
various tests for Memory, Bus, hard drives, page files,
AGP, and CPU (multimedia & math)...passed all
-Ran burn-in tests using SiSoft Sandra 2004 on Memory,
drives, CPU Multimedia, CPU math, page file, AGP, SCSI,
and File system....passed all intense benchmarking tests
with expected results for each model hardware
-verified all IRQ, IO, and DMA for conflicts
-Tuned write caching off and on
-installed windows (XP & Pro) on different hard drives,
using only that hard drive on the system
-Defragged all hard drives using O&O Defrag will they were
down to less than 1%-3% fragmented
-Reverted BIOS to safe settings, high-performance
settings, default settings, custom sensible settings and
every other possible config...making changes one at a time
-Flashed BIOS to newer version (F14 up from F4)...despite
encoding had worked in the passed on the old version

etc etc etc.....whew!

______________________________


*CONCLUSION*
------------

I seriously have done more than even what I listed above,
but that is all that comes to my mind right now as I type
this....and this post is already long enough for you guys
to not wanna bother reading


From looking at all the troubleshooting that I have done,
you can imagine how frustated I am already...I have run
out of things to try...

the most confusing things are the fact that I USED TO BE
ABLE TO ENCODE VIDEO AND AUDIO on this machine....so when
you consider all of my different troubleshooting, it leads
you to blame some piece of hardware having gone bad at
some point after my last successfull video/audio encoding
several months ago (since the hardware is the only thing
that I couldnt swap for testing in my troubleshooting
steps)....but then all of the hardware passes all of the
stress tests and benchmarking that i throw at it...


ANY SUGGESTIONS ARE GREATLY APPRECIATED....

THANKS IN ADVANCE!!!!!

PS---- I CAN ALSO SEND SOMEONE MY DR WATSONS LOG UPON
REQUEST...IT CONTAINS SEVERAL OF THESE CRASHES IN DETAIL

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.device_driver.dev (More info?)

Please turn off your Caps Lock Key. It's considered shouting, is extremely
rude and makes the posting difficult to read.

ATI released new Catalyst 4.91 drivers today. You may wish to try them.

The other things I suggest.... update to the latest BIOS for your
motherboard....

And check the PSU. Is it of sufficient wattage? You are running a LOT of
hardware from it. I'd suggest at LEAST a 550 watt unit for all those
devices. And I'd probably add at least another 256mb RAM.
--
Cari (MS-MVP Printing, Imaging & Hardware)
www.coribright.com

"DESPERATE ROBERTO" <therebelmindAThotmailDOTcom@discussions.microsoft.com>
wrote in message news:225701c4a4b6$e37d9d80$a501280a@phx.gbl...
>
> HELP ME PLEASE!!!
>
>
>
> I DESPERATELY NEED HELP WITH THESE CONSTANT CRASHES I HAVE
> BEEN HAVING. I HAVE DONE SO MUCH TO TRY AND TROUBLESHOOT
> IT ALREADY AND HAVENT MADE A BIT OF PROGRESS. IF ANYONE
> COULD HELP ME, I WOULD GREATLY APPRECIATE IT.
>
> THE VERY LITTLE INFORMATION THAT I HAVE OBTAINED IN MY
> RESEARCH INTO THIS SEEMS TO ALL POINT TO SLOPPY VGA
> DRIVERS...AND ROLLING MY VGA DRIVERS BACK FAR ENOUGH
> (2001) SEEMS TO BE THE ONLY THING THAT EVEN FLUCTUATES OR
> OTHERWISE EFFECTS THE ERRORS IN ANY WAY (IT DOESNT FIX
> THEM, THOUGH). SO THATS WHY I CAME TO THIS NEWSGROUP
> ABOUT DRIVER DEVELOPMENT.
>
> I WILL OUTLINE EVERYTHING ABOUT THE CRASHES AND EVERYTHING
> THAT I HAVE DONE SO FAR...SO THIS WILL BE KINDA LONG, BUT
> PLEASE TRY TO READ THE WHOLE THING SO YOU CAN SEE WHAT I
> HAVE ALREADY TRIED AND RULED OUT AS BEING THE CULPRIT.
>
> I WILL TRY TO MAKE THE DESCRIPTION AS CLEAR AND DETAILED
> AS POSSIBLE BROKEN DOWN INTO SEGMENTS. I WILL TRY TO
> INCLUDE EVERY PIECE OF INFO THAT ANYONE COULD NEED IN
> TRYING TO HELP ME.
>
> IT WILL BE A LONG POST BUT IT WILL AVOID US HAVING TO GO
> BACK & FORTH WITH QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ABOUT MY SYSTEM
> AND WHAT I HAVE TRIED SO FAR...WHICH IS INFO YOU NEED
> ANYWAY IN ORDER TO HELP ME....SO I MIGHT AS WELL PUT IT
> ALL DOWN RIGHT NOW AT THE START.
>
> I APPRECIATE ANY SUGGESTIONS.
>
> THANKS,
> ROB
>
> __________________________________
>
>
> *PROBLEM*
> ----------
>
> Any Multimedia program used for ENCODING or RENDERING
> audio & video files crashes EVERY time that it is encoding
> or rendering. I was able to encode multimedia on this
> machine several months ago, but at some point (since i
> went months without even trying to encode anything) the
> crashes started happening 100% of the time.
>
> __________________________________
>
>
> *DETAILS*
> ----------
>
> -I USED TO BE ABLE TO ENCODE VIDEO AND AUDIO ON THIS SAME
> HARDWARE until a few months back...I couldnt answer the
> all-important troubleshooting question "Well, what changed
> right before the failures started?" since I am re-imaging
> my operating system every month or so and constantly
> downloading & installing new applications...but my
> hardware has not changed exept for MAYBE one new Hard
> Drive which I cannot recal whether it was installed before
> the crashes started or after...but I eliminated this as
> the culprit in my troubleshooting steps (Described in
> detail far below)
>
> -My system is COMPLETELY free of any virus', adware,
> spyware, worms, trojans, or otehr malware...aside from
> being completely obsessive about this and running an array
> of redundant protection & avoiding exposure in many many
> effective ways, my troubleshooting liminated any kind of
> malware as being a possible culprit in my troubleshooting
> steps (Described in detail far below)
>
> -These crashes go for ANY Multimedia program and ONLY
> Multimedia programs (non-audio/video programs seem to work
> fine).
>
> -The crash happens at some point DURING the encoding
> process, not upon starting the encoding...it will complete
> anywhere between 10% to 90% of the process and then crash,
> sometimes even further in.
>
> -Occasionally, the same application errors happen during
> simply playing of multimedia files, but this is much more
> seldom and not something i can replicate at will like when
> encoding, which crashes 100% of the time faithfully.
>
> -The crashes happen no matter the format, source, codec,
> speed, quality, process priority level nor application
> used.
>
> -As for DVD RIPPING, these crashes DO NOT occur when
> ripping a DVD to ISO/BIN,CUE/NRG/MDS,MDF/ or FOLDER or
> similar....(I GUESS SINCE THOSE DO NOT INVOLVE ENCODING OF
> THE VIDEO/AUDIO)....they DO happen if I rip a DVD to
> another format (re-encode the video)...even if its Mpeg2
> with DVD standards....the key is whether or not i am
> encoding
>
> -DR WATSON (I can send my log to anyone who wants to help)
> contains several of the dumps from these application
> errors...they mostly contain "c0000005 (access violation)"
> and a couple "c0000096 (privileged instruction)"....Im not
> too well versed at the finer points of memory addressing,
> so I need someone who is.
>
> ____________________________________
>
>
> *ERROR DESCRIPTIONS* (divided by "@@@@", my footnotes are
> surrounded by "****" )
> --------------------
>
> @@@@
>
> Program Name.exe - Application Error
>
> The instruction at "0x044a0e06" referenced memory
> at "0x03fc5000". The memory could not be "read".
>
> Click on OK to terminate the program
> Click on CANCEL to debug the program
>
> ****BY THE WAY--The memory address change each time, the
> above addresses are one example of a million. Also,
> several times the 1st or 2nd address is 0x00000000)****
>
> ****Also, some times, the error appears as "...memory
> could not be "written"." as opposed to "could not
> be "read"."....it really depends on what the application
> is doing at the moment....I have found that usually
> the "could not be "read"." happen during ENCODING while
> the "could not be "written"." happen more during scanning
> or preperation of multimedia files....but there are so
> many exceptions to this rule that its barely worth
> noting.****
>
> ****Here is the above error's entry in the Event Log.****
>
>
> Event Type: Information
> Event Source: Application Popup
> Event Category: None
> Event ID: 26
> Date: 8/20/2004
> Time: 6:10:52 PM
> User: N/A
> Computer: 020MAIN
> Description:
> Application popup: Media Player Classic.exe - Application
> Error : The instruction at "0x044a0e06" referenced memory
> at "0x03fc5000". The memory could not be "read".
>
> Click on OK to terminate the program
> Click on CANCEL to debug the program
>
> For more information, see Help and Support Center at
> http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
>
>
> @@@@
>
> Program Name.exe - Application Error
>
> The exception Breakpoint
> A breakpoint has been reached.
> (0x80000003) occurred in the application at location
> 0x07be078e
>
> Click on OK to terminate the program
> Click on CANCEL to debug the program
>
>
> ****This error only happened once or twice in place of the
> first error...I havent been able to reproduce this error
> ever again, but it must be somehow related since it
> occured in the same situation that otherwise brought upon
> the other error. I figured it was worth mentioning since
> someone might recognize it and not the other error thereby
> giving me the answer to both.****
>
> @@@@
>
> Program Name.exe - Application Error
>
>
> The exception unknown software exception (0xc000001e)
> occurred in the application at location 0x053307a0
>
> Click on OK to terminate the program
> Click on CANCEL to debug the program
>
>
> ****This is another one that only happened once or twice
> and never again since.****
>
>
> @@@@
>
> Event Type: Information
> Event Source: Application Popup
> Event Category: None
> Event ID: 26
> Date: 8/20/2004
> Time: 6:08:04 PM
> User: N/A
> Computer: 020MAIN
> Description:
> Application popup: Recode.exe - Application Error : The
> exception Privileged instruction.
> (0xc0000096) occurred in the application at location
> 0x042e0780.
>
> Click on OK to terminate the program
> Click on CANCEL to debug the program
>
> For more information, see Help and Support Center at
> http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
>
>
> ****Here is another error which only happened once or
> twice. As you can see, I didnt get a chance to copy the
> exact dialog box, but this was the Event Log entry for it.
>
>
> ______________________________________
> -------------END OF ERRORS---------------
> ______________________________________
>
>
> *HARDWARE DESCRIPTION*
> -----------------------
>
> MOBO Gigabyte GA-7VAXP (ATA 133, AGP 8, more...)
> CPU Athlon XP 2000 (1674 mhz, Socket A, MMX, EMMX,
> SSE, 3DNOW, Extended 3DNOW)
> BIOS Award Modular BIOS v6.00PG, OEM version F14
> 09/03/2003
> CHIPSET VIA Apollo KT400
> RAM 256MB DDR PC3200 400MHz (1 Stick)
> VGA ATI Radeon 7000 32MB AGP 1,2,4 (currently set to
> AGP 4)
> SOUND Hercules GameTheaterXP 6.1 External (Onboard sound
> disabled)
> RAID Onboard Promise 20276 ATA133 or IDE RAID
> PRINT Lexmark All-In-One x5150 USB
> OPTICAL NEC DVD +/- R/RW ND-2500a - IDE 2, Device 0 (alone
> on IDE channel 2)
> WEBCAM Concord Eye-Q Duo LCD (Web cam / Digital Camera +
> Storage driver)
> NIC Onboard Realtek 10-100 Fast Ethernet PCI
> NET Cable modem, over 3.5 megabit per second
>
> ---
>
> DRIVES:
>
> *20gb Maxtor - 1 20gb NTFS Partition (C:\, Windows Drive) -
> IDE 1, Device 0
> *250gb Western Digital - 1 250gb Partition (D:\, Storage +
> my only Pagefile) - IDE 1, Device 1
>
> *80gb Maxtor - 1 80gb NTFS Partition (E:\, Storage) - IDE
> 3, Device 0 (Promise Controller)
> *30gb Seagate - 1 30gb NTFS Partition (F:\, Storage) -
> IDE 3, Device 1 (Promise Controller)
>
> *10gb Western Digital - 1 10gb NTFS Partition (G:\,
> Storage) - IDE4, Device 0 (Promise Controller)
> *8gb Western Digital - 1 10gb NTFS Partition (H:\,
> Storage) - IDE4, Device 1 (Promise Controller)
>
> ______________________________________
>
>
> *SYSTEM DESCRIPTION* (Changed many times during
> troubleshooting)
> ---------------------
>
> Windows XP Pro (no Service pack, then SP1, Now
> SP2...crashed with all)
> 500 mb Pagefile on D:\ (crashed with pagefile in various
> sizes and locations)
>
> ______________________________________
>
>
> *SOFTWARE DESCRIPTION*
> ----------------------
>
> Norton Internet Security 2004, updated daily (crashed with
> or without)
> Norton Antivirus 2004, updated daily (crashed with or
> without)
> Many applications of various types. (crashed with all or
> without any)
> Many applications for multimedia editing, encoding, and
> playing (crashed with all or without any)
> ACE Mega Codec pack full install (crashed with or without)
> K-Lite Codec Pack Full Install (crashed with or without)
>
> _______________________________________
> _______________________________________
> _______________________________________
>
> *TROUBLESHOOTING STEPS TAKEN SO FAR*
> ------------------------------------
>
> (I duplicated the crashes under all of the following
> conditions and after performing all of the following steps)
>
> -Changed settings for pagefile size and locations in every
> possible way
> -Disabled all non-critical background services one at a
> time
> -Disabled all non-critical hardware one at a time (both in
> Windows and in BIOS) like IDE controller 2, Promise IDE
> RAID controller, on board hardware, etc etc
> -Disabled all non-critical drivers one at a time
> -Uninstalled all non-critical hardware & drivers one at a
> time (both in Windows and by physically removing)
> -Uninstalled (physically) all hard drives one at a time
> -Uninstalled all codecs and software one at a time
> -Uninstalled Anti-Virus & Firewall one at a time, tried
> different brands (Avast, Black Ice, Panda, McAfee, etc)
> -RE-IMAGED PC WITH FRESH WINDOWS XP PRO INSTALLATION, NO
> SOFTWARE (other than test program), NO UPDATES (at first),
> NO NON-CRITICAL DRIVERS
> -RE-IMAGED PC WITH FRESH WINDOWS 2000 INSTALLATION, NO
> SOFTWARE (other than test program), NO UPDATES (at first),
> NO NON-CRITICAL DRIVERS
> -Incrementally installed different services, programs,
> security apps, drivers, codecs, and windows updates to
> both FRESH Windows (XP & 2000) Installations...testing
> after each change
> -Tested each system configuration with every multimedia
> encoding application at my disposal (over 30 programs from
> different vendors)
> -Reverted back to old versions of all hardware drivers one
> at a time
> -Updated to newest versions of all hardware drivers one at
> a time
> -Re-seated my only 256MB RAM stick into each of the 3
> slots one at a time
> -Ran 2 different RAM testers OUTSIDE of windows (Microsoft
> and MemTest86) for over 24 hours each...passed all tests
> (both set to thorough testing)
> -Ran MEMTEST (Windows memory testing app) from within
> windows for 8 hours....passed all thorough tests
> -Ran Performance Test (from Norton System Works) using
> various tests for Memory, Bus, hard drives, page files,
> AGP, and CPU (multimedia & math)...passed all
> -Ran burn-in tests using SiSoft Sandra 2004 on Memory,
> drives, CPU Multimedia, CPU math, page file, AGP, SCSI,
> and File system....passed all intense benchmarking tests
> with expected results for each model hardware
> -verified all IRQ, IO, and DMA for conflicts
> -Tuned write caching off and on
> -installed windows (XP & Pro) on different hard drives,
> using only that hard drive on the system
> -Defragged all hard drives using O&O Defrag will they were
> down to less than 1%-3% fragmented
> -Reverted BIOS to safe settings, high-performance
> settings, default settings, custom sensible settings and
> every other possible config...making changes one at a time
> -Flashed BIOS to newer version (F14 up from F4)...despite
> encoding had worked in the passed on the old version
>
> etc etc etc.....whew!
>
> ______________________________
>
>
> *CONCLUSION*
> ------------
>
> I seriously have done more than even what I listed above,
> but that is all that comes to my mind right now as I type
> this....and this post is already long enough for you guys
> to not wanna bother reading
>
>
> From looking at all the troubleshooting that I have done,
> you can imagine how frustated I am already...I have run
> out of things to try...
>
> the most confusing things are the fact that I USED TO BE
> ABLE TO ENCODE VIDEO AND AUDIO on this machine....so when
> you consider all of my different troubleshooting, it leads
> you to blame some piece of hardware having gone bad at
> some point after my last successfull video/audio encoding
> several months ago (since the hardware is the only thing
> that I couldnt swap for testing in my troubleshooting
> steps)....but then all of the hardware passes all of the
> stress tests and benchmarking that i throw at it...
>
>
> ANY SUGGESTIONS ARE GREATLY APPRECIATED....
>
> THANKS IN ADVANCE!!!!!
>
> PS---- I CAN ALSO SEND SOMEONE MY DR WATSONS LOG UPON
> REQUEST...IT CONTAINS SEVERAL OF THESE CRASHES IN DETAIL
>
>
>

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.device_driver.dev (More info?)

Cari,

Thanks for the reply...

Ive tried the new ATI Catalyst radeon drivers (everything
from December 2003 till 4.9) and the problem
continued...the problem actually started under the
December 2003 drivers (dont know version number)...

HOWEVER, when I reverted back to the July 2001 drivers
(from ATI, not standard MS) just this morning, the
crashing dropped from happening 100% of the time to about
40% of the time....that makes me feel like I am on the
right track.

Also, like I mentioned in my long thread, the very limited
amount of (pertinent) info that Ive found in my weeks of
researching this seems to bring up buggy display drivers
as the culprit more than once. I wish I had another video
card from a different manufacturer to test under

I will try the newest 4.91 Catalyst drivers (figures that
they would come out today, since I just went to their site
2 days ago) and if it doesnt work, i will then try to
revert to the oldest driver that I have in my possesion,
the one on the installation CD that came with the card.

I could definitely use more RAM, especially for working
with video. Since I was encoding fine with this memory
amount using the same programs on the same OS and the same
hardware setup until a few months ago, i wouldnt think its
causing my grief.

As for my BIOS, the reason that I omitted that from my
troubleshooting was because when I was using F4 of my
Award bios, I was encoding video just fine using all types
of programs.

Then I flashed to F14 (I hadnt flashed it in a while, so
10 versions went by) but I had stopped using my PC for
encoding video...sometime after that, when I attempted to
encode video again, it started crashing and has done so
since...

I am not attributing the issue to this newer BIOS version
that I went to months back...but since I knew that I hadnt
experienced these crashes under the old version, I had
omitted that.

However, if for whatever reason, the particular version
that Im wearing now (F14) IS indeed responsible, perhaps
going to a newer bios COULD solve it altogether...so I
will take your advice on the BIOS too.

As for my power unit...ideally, with all my hardware, i
should be using a 500 or so...but I am only using a 4.
However, in my troubleshooting, I had stripped my PC down
to a single hard drive on IDE 1 - device 0 (no optical
drive, no sound card, nothing that was noncritical), I
thereby eliminated the power supply from being the issue
(albeit unintentionally)

----one more thing-----
Incase i didnt mention it, the Dr Watson log tags these
crashes "Exception number: c0000005 (access violation)"

maybe that helps...like I said, memory addressing and hex
are pretty foreign to me