Problem with the ASRock K7VM4 motherboard - Multiple blue screens caused by drivers or... ?

Where the error code that you are receiving?
0x0000007 indicates the hardware compatibility issue could
such as finding another driver of the advised try an older version of the driver before purchasing a new card
also look for bios updates
have been tried configuring any options in your CMOS settings try enabling or disabling the shadow option for your video card in the bios setup
for changing the video cache option to disabled, enable or Wightback if available  

post the error code that you are receiving the first and the last set of numbers are the most relevant

I just reboot it and now there's a different error message:

DRIVERS_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL with the error code Stop: 0x000000D1 (0xFBADC962, 0x00000002, 0x00000000, 0XFBADC962)

I haven't update the BIOS yet but will try some option on the CMOS.

Thanks again,
Frank

Try reducing memory bus clock speed in BIOS (e.g. 166MHz instead of 200MHz).  If you cannot reduce memory bus speed, try reducing CPU clock speed.  This is a common error with unstable RAM that may not show in memory tests.

If no luck on first step, try another video adapter.  Faulty video RAM can cause same symptoms.  May be main suspect in your case since it will boot into safe mode.

A bad page file will also cause the same error.  That is not likely in your case since XP has been re-installed several times.

I reduce the memory bus clock speed from 133MHz to 100MHz but it didn't work, and I have the old error about Page_Fault_In_Non-Paged_Area with the error code
Stop: 0x00000050

How can I change the video adaptor ? I'ts an onboard video card (VIA/S3G)...

Thanks,
Frank

Video memory is shared, so that's not the problem.

To tackle page (swap) file:  Test hard disk thoroughly and check page file sttings.

Does mobo have a slot for an AGP card?

Do This First.  Try installing latest video driver from VIA.  Link below.

http://www.viaarena.com/default.aspx?PageID=420&OSID=1&CatID=1160&SubCatID=112

0x000000D1: This indicates that a kernel-mode driver attempted to access pageable memory at a process IRQL that was too high
0xFBADC962: note that the memory address is reserved
0x0000002: DEVICE_QUEUE_NOT_BUSY  0+1=2=read&write (what the device did)
0x0000000: wildcard (it dosent know the mem reference)
the last code 4.) 0xFBADC962: OBJECT1_INITIALIZATION_FAILED

Why
A driver tried to access an address that is pageable (or that is completely invalid) while the IRQL was too high. Drivers is useing improper addresses.

change or release the reserved address for video card try between irq11 and 16
Use a kernel debugger to get a stack trace


0x00000050 This indicates that invalid system memory has been referenced
Remaining four error codes
1.) Memory address referenced
2.) 0: Read operation  1: Write operation
3.) Address that referenced memory (if it knows where)
4.) Reserved  
If the driver responsible for the error can be identified, its name is printed on the blue screen and stored in memory at the location (PUNICODE_STRING) you can find that in your registry

0x50 usually occurs after the installation of faulty hardware or in the event of failure of installed hardware (usually related to defective RAM, be it main memory, L2 RAM cache, or video RAM).
Another common cause is the installation of a faulty system service.
Antivirus software can also trigger this error, as can a corrupted NTFS volume

My suggestions on 0x50 code string

Disable Ghost and Antivirus software

You should run hardware diagnostics supplied by the system manufacturer

check the System Log in Event Viewer for additional error messages that might help pinpoint the device or driver that is causing the error.

Disabling memory caching of the BIOS might also resolve it


Looks like your video card bios or ram
change addresses
disable video cache
do not share any mem with your Video card from your system until the problem is resolved
update your video bios and graphics processer / south bridge

In the recovery counsil

good idea i say just delete the pagefile.sys


 Run Chkdsk /f /r

ok thanks for the answers guys, just a little update on my situation.

I've put a new stick of RAM memory on the Motherboard from my other PC. When I can find an old AGP VGA card, I'll try it out too.

Now when I've update the BIOS to version 2.50 (the laster from ASRock for the K7VM4) an tried to install the new VIA S3G drivers but every time I try to install something, open a cdrom or anything in safemode, the PC crashes and I got a blue screen. Now I can't even access the Recovery Console form my Win XP cd becaus eof that error:

Stop: 0x00000024 (0x001902FE, 0xFAF8F90C, 0xFAF8FF508, 0xFA9FC1FC)
Ntfs.sys - Address FA9FC1FC base at FA9EF000, dateStamp 41107eea

Now I'm not a XP geek, but does a Ntfs.sys error means my current installation of Windows is messed ? I could try to reinstall/repair, but I definately can't access the Recovery Console (so I can't use the chkdsk command). I've try to do a scandisk form MSDOS with no success too.

[Quote]
"Looks like your video card bios or ram
change addresses
disable video cache
do not share any mem with your Video card from your system until the problem is resolved
update your video bios and graphics processer / south bridge"

How do I change adress ?
 I'll try to disable the video cache if I find the option in the CMOS (haven't seen it yet).
I don't know how to share memory, so that's one thing less
I'd like to update them, and will try an AGP card ASAP.

Thanks everyone for the help so far,
Frank

0x00000024 problem occurred in ntfs.sys, the driver file that allows the system to read and write to NTFS drives
Invalid character lead byte It's not in range

Check Event Viewer for error messages
Start    control panel    administration options     event viewer

why can't access the recovery consul? it's on the way to doing a repair install
run CHKDSK /F /R

EOF error? what is that?

0xFE indicates that an error has occurred in a universal serial bus (USB) driver.


are the error codes always different?
if they are not consistant ........
Do you know how to use a kernal debugger?

Shared memory means that on-board video is using part of system memory as video memory.  You can minimize shared RAM but cannot eliminate sharing since video adapter must have some memory (usually 8 MB minimum on newer mobos).

Did you change memory back?

This is looking more and more like some type of memory problem, but hard to be certain.

See if you can boot from Ultimate Boot CD (Google it if you don't already have one).  Run Memtest86 and hard disk tests using manufacturer's utilities (they are on UBCD).

We need to determine if you have a hardware problem or Windows problem.  Best way to do that is to take XP out of the loop.

FSB Frequency jumper setting is not synchronized with the CPU, the system will not bootup properly

http://www.asrock.com/Drivers/Manual/K7/Jumer_setting_K7.pdf

in bios
Disable Spread Spectrum:

Advanced tab under chipset configuration
AGP shared mem (change to share as much as you can we are going to try and widen the address range)
fast write is off
disable USB

Advanced Peripheral Configuration:
Disable Audio and modem
OnBoard Infrared Port:Disable
OnBoard Game Port:Disable
OnBoard Midi Port:Disable
OnBoard Parallel Port:Disable or set to ECP

willcomp does the video not have its own mem when its on board? does it use the RAM?

For a VIA chipset motherboard with S3 graphics, the answer is yes.  Same for most other on-board video adapters including Intel.  System memory is shared, meaning that amount of memory available to the OS is reduced by amount used for video memory.  That is very common in low end PCs and most notebooks.

I haven't looked up particulars on motherboard but it's almost certainly a Socket A micro ATX motherboard.

Have you just been doing repair installs or have you ever installed OS from zero's on this machine?
try to get to the event viewer and check out what is going on.
if you get to OS hold down window key and break enter device manager go to your video card and check to see if you can change any recorces or IRQ's

in bios
ensure you are not overclocking
are you useing Hybrid booster?
Hybrid Booster   Boot Failure Guard
try to but do not over clock and ensure to set all RAM and CPU options to auto  and do not set ram to 100Mhz DDR333 or 400 does not support 100Mhz

AGP/PCI Frequency control provides the interface of AGP/PCI frequency value setting.

all this troubleshotting is depleating your directory structor causeing NTFS errors
in the end your probally going to have to install a fresh copy of Win XP re partition and full format

if your not getting any where you should fully install OS

it is Micro ATX Socket A
but AsRock clames it is Socket 462 ?????????http://www.asrock.com/product/product_k7vm4.htm

[Quote]
"Check Event Viewer for error messages
Start    control panel    administration options     event viewer

why can't access the recovery consul? it's on the way to doing a repair install
run CHKDSK /F /R"
- Now I can't even boot in safemode, the Ntfs.sys error always happens.

"are the error codes always different?"
- Yes ! Since I can't get into windows, every time I boot or I try to access the Recovery Console on the Win XP cd, I get the Ntfs.sys error.

"Do you know how to use a kernal debugger?"
- I have repair some pc but never used one, sry.


I'm currently running the Memtest from the UBCD so I'll update once I have the results. I don't see how this could be a Win problem since I reinstalled so many times. As you guys said, it would make sense to be the RAM or video drivers.

Side note. Could it be the USB drivers ? Last time my friend connected a USB digital camera the PC bugged =S

Thanks,
Frank

it is the ram or video drivers which initally caused the problem
but your OS is shot from all the crashes if you cannot perform chkdsk you have to
repart and format the drive and do a clean OS install
set your bios settings to deafult and disable midi and audio yust to be safe
and start over with the bios and video updates now It will probally work fine
when you are setup monitor the event viewer to ensure stabillity
let us know how it goes

P.S. make sure Video uses a lower IRQ this time

[Quote]
"Check Event Viewer for error messages
Start    control panel    administration options     event viewer

why can't access the recovery consul? it's on the way to doing a repair install
run CHKDSK /F /R"
- Now I can't even boot in safemode, the Ntfs.sys error always happens.

"are the error codes always different?"
- Yes ! Since I can't get into windows, every time I boot or I try to access the Recovery Console on the Win XP cd, I get the Ntfs.sys error.

"Do you know how to use a kernal debugger?"
- I have repair some pc but never used one, sry.


I'm currently running the Memtest from the UBCD so I'll update once I have the results. I don't see how this could be a Win problem since I reinstalled so many times. As you guys said, it would make sense to be the RAM or video drivers.

Side note. Could it be the USB drivers ? Last time my friend connected a USB digital camera the PC bugged =S

Thanks,
Frank

[Quote]
"make sure Video uses a lower IRQ this time"
- Can I manually set the IRQ of a device via the CMOS ?

Not for video, at least not on mobos I'm familar with.  Pretty much limited to serial ports and parallel ports for IRQ changes.  Video IRQ conflict is not your problem.

Run some of the other tests on UBCD such as HDD tests and burn-in tests to check hardware health.  The more testing you do outside XP, the better.

I'll agree to that

and don't install any Norton Espically Ghost (it's a resorce sucker)

Just some little question on the UBCD tests, don't know if you guys can help....

I ran the memtest86 v3.3 and it ran for at least a complete day (is it supposed to stop by itself ?). When I got bored, there was still no error...

Then I ran the Lucifer v1.0 System burn-in test and when I got bored (3-4hours later...) there was 8 errors ! Again, I don't know if this app stops by itself, but whatever I do it wouldn't stop and I couldn't see what were the errors...

I'm gonna tyr the ither tests and will post the results.

Thanks for your support guys, I really appreciate.

Frank

Those 2 tests run until stopped by user.  Not bad results there.  Time to continue on.

ok here are the results:

Memtest86 v3.3 ran successfuly with no error.
Lucifer System burn-in test ran and ends up with 8 error when I stopped it.
The other memory tests didn't report any error.

With these results, can we conclude that the problem is about the onboard video chipset ? If it is, how can we solve this ? Would buying an AGP video card and disactivating the onboard solve it ?

Thanks,

Frank

Nope.  Can't conclude anything right now.  I gave you an action plan earlier.  Still believe that's best approach.  You need a solid XP installation to work with.

ok I'm doing this right now.
Thanks

ok a little update...

I did the zero fill HDD (took almost 5hours!) and set up the partition.

Then, I try to install windows xp but first I had a cd error saying the file dvdPlayer.exe couldn't be found. I restart, reformat again in NTFS and try to reinstall. This time there was another error with a file. So I rebooted, run the instrallation again without formating (I deleted the old Windows directory as Windows XP asked me) and now I have another blue screen of death.

IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
Stop: 0x0000000A (0xFFAD35A8, 0x00000002, 0x00000000, 0x80803DB2)

Note that I restarted the BIOS settings before installing, so everything was default. I'm a bit confused as what to do right now and would really appreciate if anyone could give advices.

Thanks again everybody!
Frank

your were right on track to a perfect clean install

The DVDplayer.exe file a computer can read it from the CD are using it's gotta be the CD  
I have a few Windows XP disks and 1 can't read that same file because its scratched that I put in an identical one CD and continue from their and everything is fine
Look for scratches or a tiny nicks and clean yours could be just dirty.

I think we need to know exactly how you are doing everything from the beginning starting with
your process in partitioning and formatting the hard drive

what model is the hard drive?
how and what are using to partition the hard drive?
how and what you are using to format the hard drive?
look at the surface of the CD are there any scratches? is it flawless?  

Don't worry about the error codes BUT keep posting them and I will  keep posting the definitions.
just in case we need future reference. they will be here
0x0000000A. This indicates that Microsoft Windows or a kernel-mode driver accessed paged memory at DISPATCH_LEVEL or above
This bug check is issued if paged memory (or invalid memory) is accessed when the IRQL is too high.
The error that generates this bug check usually occurs after the installation of a faulty device driver, system service, or BIOS.
If you encounter bug check 0xA while upgrading to a later version of Windows, this error might be caused by a device driver, a system service, a virus scanner, or a backup tool that is incompatible with the new version.

willcomp I could use some help finding if you don't already know
scene it seems to me that he is having problems, according to the error codes, with memory, or driver conflict causing memory faults
but a few weeks ago reading somewhere on Microsoft web site about installation troubleshooting WinXP (that I never bookmarked the reference)

but they mentioned at some point during the installation while it's reading, loading, configuring setup that you can press a key or key combination (I think F10 and something) but it's meant for hardware troubleshooting during windows insulation it  pauses the installation so you can troubleshoot or manually install the correct driver for the problemed device/driver/software and then continue safely from that point.  it lets you bypass what windows is doing and lets you do what is needed

so when we get there if we need to we can kill the problem from the start befor it starts and spreads  
Microsoft sets  theirs hidden device drivers that are installed and do not get of replaced or remove conflicting with other component drivers

I think this could help

Ok I retry the installation with different cds (I have 2 copies of Windows XP Home, 1 Pro and 1 Pro with SP2) but it looks like the installation has a problem with this file: "esent.dll" as it did the first time.

Here's the error problem (might not be the exact msg, I have to translate from french...):

"The file esent.dll could not be copy correctly."

"The file placed on your hard disk by the installation program is not a valid system image of Windows XP. If you are installing from a CD-ROM, there might be a problem with the Windows XP CD.@

I try installing that file with the 4 different cds (normally as akarre said, it works when 1 file can't be copied) but this time it simply don't work.

I'll try formating everything and reinstalling again.

*note: no blue screen of death this time though...

Thanks,
Frank

Sorry I've been missing in action.  We've had a little problem named Katrina here (for those outside the US and others that may be clueless, Katrina was a major hurricane that struck the Gulf Coast Monday).  No major damage by comparison in our area, but trees and power lines are down.  Just got power back at my shop, still waiting at home.

Change Optical drives first to eliminate that as possibility.  Don't think it's the problem, but need to eliminate.

All signs still point to memory as primary cause.  I have seen memtest not report errors for memory that was marginal, but you should be able to install XP under those conditions.  Hard drive tested OK and was cleaned, so shouldn't be the cause either.

Other possibilities are motherboard memory controller, motherboard malfunction, and CPU.

My best guess right now is reserved (shared) video memory.  I don't believe memtest tests the shared RAM.  Maybe someone else can provide definite info there.  See if you can borrow a stick of known good compatible RAM for testing.  If you can borrow RAM, try that before anything else.

Would buying a new motherboard solve the problem according to you guys ?

Hard to say for sure.  I would rather eliminate memory as problem first to be safe.

Motherboard is definitely a prime candidate for root cause.

The memory is all the same even if it is shared it comes from the same source
unless video mem is on a seprate video card
when scanning mem you would be able to choose if it is an available option to scan video mem

how about the jumper settings are you useing cable select if you are try master if you are useing master switch to cable select

if you think It might be the motherboard switch master to secondary and secondary to master

but once again all the codes point to a memory problem

Video memory is a reserved block of system memory.  Must be available for there to be a display.  Memtest has a display.  Can memtest move memory blocks to allow testing reserved memory?  I seriously doubt it, but would need an answer from someone intimately familar with memtest to verify.

Thanks but I know that part although I have never used memtest but I do know this

the way the system allocates memory is a command from the bios setting the parimaters for designated use thus seperating the video ram from the regular ram.  (I am sure you already know this)
so when testing memory function for the memchip it tests the whole chip regaurdless of where the memory is allocated to It tests the whole chip function Read Write Latency useing all supported data types and allocation support. since memtest seems to in the top 10 memtest programs I am pretty sure it uses this standard whitch covers all deafult chip functions if the software Co. wants to be succesful it should preform many more functions. but the standard covers if the mem chip is reliable working condition.

I think you want to see results with this function......
the driver for the video chip and graphics acc. chip the compatibality of comunication between those depends on the programming enginers code.  since IC are all embeded on the board there should be no issues unless the firmware or drivers are corrupt or cannot be properly updated from (ESD) or other damage to the IC.  

So the test should be between the communitation of the video card + graphics acc. R/W to RAM's allocated section.
(in the same way stated above)
 I believe the question would be weather memtest does that.  I don't think so unless it has all the different code and drivers from all manafactures to preform that test beacuse the drivers arent loaded yet if you are executing this in DOS.  Dual function testers that work in DOS & WIN might if you used the program in win first then the program could learn what driver is used and function the proper test in DOS mode.

Only 100% reliable way I know to eliminate marginal RAM as problem is to replace with known good RAM.  Even then there can be timing issues.  Crucial memory using SPD is most reliable that I have worked with.  Have not had any problems with Corsair and Mushkin, but have not used a lot of their memory.  Have had problems with Kingston, although it is generally reliable.  Generic RAM is just not reliable.

you right about that but it always has been that they work or not at all.  why waist time testing memory sounds good anyway.
if you think it's bad just switch it out there cheap and they hold there value, they all have lifetime warranty that ive seen

Infineon, Micron, Centon, Elixir are also exellent I have always had trouble with kingston even there net card's (that's wierd)

I'd love sit back compare notes but i think i saw in rules we can't
How would someone get in contact with another user?
we seem to be on the same page about a lot of things

Sorry TheKingpin08 we will get back to your problem in a min.

hehe no problem guys !

Meanwhile I've installed a working RAM (PC266) from another of my PC and reinstalled win xp. I will only install the chipset drivers and video drivers and restart the PC to see if it works.

Thanks,
Frank

For your information, the HDD is a Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9.

I did a couple repair installations on the PC but also erased everything with the complete format and Zero fills.

I will try all the BIOS settings you told me and post the results.