CThomp2005
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Windows 7 starting to BSOD on boot - rr174x
Over the past, say, week, my system has started to boot to a 7F BSOD. I go through the Win7 Repair from the install disc (restore) and that doesn't help. I open the case, jiggle a few things around, reseat some stuff (cards, cables, RAM) and it finally boots.
Event viewer shows that "rr174x failed to load/start" in the Administrative Events. There is an entry for this every time I BSOD. This would be a HighPoint RocketRaid driver that I probably installed when I first built the system (about a year ago), but had removed soon after (using the SATA ports on the mobo instead). Has never been a problem before.
I found the rr174x.sys file (properties say from 2006) in the System32\Drivers folder and renamed to rr174x.sys.bak, but the same BSOD came up the next boot. There is another folder in the DriverStore folder starting with rr174x, with a number of files (.ini, .sys, etc.), but I'm leery of messing with it.
There is no entry in Device Manager for this device (any longer), and there is no entry in Add/Remove Programs to uninstall it.
How do I get rid of this driver/file? If it is indeed my problem. Driving me crazy that I have to jiggle stuff around to get it to boot.
Have downloaded the MS Windows Memory Diag, and am about to run that to see if it's a RAM issue.
Event viewer shows that "rr174x failed to load/start" in the Administrative Events. There is an entry for this every time I BSOD. This would be a HighPoint RocketRaid driver that I probably installed when I first built the system (about a year ago), but had removed soon after (using the SATA ports on the mobo instead). Has never been a problem before.
I found the rr174x.sys file (properties say from 2006) in the System32\Drivers folder and renamed to rr174x.sys.bak, but the same BSOD came up the next boot. There is another folder in the DriverStore folder starting with rr174x, with a number of files (.ini, .sys, etc.), but I'm leery of messing with it.
There is no entry in Device Manager for this device (any longer), and there is no entry in Add/Remove Programs to uninstall it.
How do I get rid of this driver/file? If it is indeed my problem. Driving me crazy that I have to jiggle stuff around to get it to boot.
Have downloaded the MS Windows Memory Diag, and am about to run that to see if it's a RAM issue.
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web tracker: I recall using ccleaner on previous systems. I'll have to download the try that tonight.
ded9: where do these dump files get saved to again? I can never find them. I can upload if you can direct me to it...
Same issue this morning booting up. Ran the MS memory diagnostic and it came up clean. Thought maybe it's trying to load the rr174x (RocketRaid) driver because something in BIOS is set to boot from it. Changed the "Boot Other Device" (which was Enabled) to Disabled. Managed to boot into Windows after that, but don't know if that's permanent, or a one-shot. Will know tonight when I get back home and try to boot again.
Additionally, checked the power in BIOS and everything was within range and solid (thought a glitchy PSU might be causing problems).
ded9: where do these dump files get saved to again? I can never find them. I can upload if you can direct me to it...
Same issue this morning booting up. Ran the MS memory diagnostic and it came up clean. Thought maybe it's trying to load the rr174x (RocketRaid) driver because something in BIOS is set to boot from it. Changed the "Boot Other Device" (which was Enabled) to Disabled. Managed to boot into Windows after that, but don't know if that's permanent, or a one-shot. Will know tonight when I get back home and try to boot again.
Additionally, checked the power in BIOS and everything was within range and solid (thought a glitchy PSU might be causing problems).
Dump files are stored in windows folder. Check for .dmp files and upload the latest one .
Ded9
Ded9
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ded9 - there is a MEMORY.DMP file there, but size is 95MB, and the note when trying to Add File here is max 50MB. Have to run to work, will check in during the day and continue on this tonight....
Zip the memory.dmp file and upload it on megaupload or rapidshare.
Ded9
Ded9
ASKER
Attached is the memory.dmp file - shrunk down to 22MB...
Got home tonight and booted (again) to the BSOD (so I guess the BIOS adjustment did nothing). Rebooted and went into BIOS and changed something innocuous - changed boot order to HD first, then CD drives. Saved and exited, and booted to Windows.
Am running Eusing Free Reg Cleaner to see what can be cleaned out.
MEMORY.zip
Got home tonight and booted (again) to the BSOD (so I guess the BIOS adjustment did nothing). Rebooted and went into BIOS and changed something innocuous - changed boot order to HD first, then CD drives. Saved and exited, and booted to Windows.
Am running Eusing Free Reg Cleaner to see what can be cleaned out.
MEMORY.zip
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This morning seems to be better. I ran the Eusing Free Registry Cleaner last night and it seemed to clean up a LOT of stuff. This morning, for the first time in a while - I booted straight into Windows. I'm going to run like this for a couple of days to see if this resolves it all, or if symptoms still persist.
ded9: Thanks much for the analysis. I'm kinda stuck where I am with the ATI drivers as it's an older system (AGP video) with an older video card. The latest and greatest drivers for this card are installed (went through this earlier in the year when my games were lagging and the game manu suggested moving to the latest drivers - which I did). I do have a note in the (Win7) Action Center noting that the ATI drivers caused a crash back in Oct 2010, but nothing more recent. I will scout out the ATI site again to see if anything newer has been released.
I will report back over the weekend to see if the reg cleaner did the trick, or if this is a "random" successful boot.
Thanks both for the help so far...
ded9: Thanks much for the analysis. I'm kinda stuck where I am with the ATI drivers as it's an older system (AGP video) with an older video card. The latest and greatest drivers for this card are installed (went through this earlier in the year when my games were lagging and the game manu suggested moving to the latest drivers - which I did). I do have a note in the (Win7) Action Center noting that the ATI drivers caused a crash back in Oct 2010, but nothing more recent. I will scout out the ATI site again to see if anything newer has been released.
I will report back over the weekend to see if the reg cleaner did the trick, or if this is a "random" successful boot.
Thanks both for the help so far...
ASKER
Well, after the reg cleaner, I successfully booted all weekend - and was going to award the trophy to web tracker... However... This morning upon booting, I ended up back at the 7F BSOD screen - so I guess the reg cleaning didn't take care of it all.
I will visit the AMD/ATI site tonight to see if there's anything about this problem there, or if there are updated drivers that may resolve the problem.
Thanks for hanging in there - I'll get back to you...
I will visit the AMD/ATI site tonight to see if there's anything about this problem there, or if there are updated drivers that may resolve the problem.
Thanks for hanging in there - I'll get back to you...
ASKER
Ok... so I hit the AMD/ATI page and found drivers (ver 10.2) dated late Feb 2010. Now I recall going through this before. I downloaded the WDDM package and installed. Prior to this, in Device Manager, my video card read something like "Radeon X1650 series" - that's it. After the install, it reads "Radeon X1650 Series (Microsoft Corporation - WDDM)". Checking the driver version, it's now *prior* to the one I had before, and an earlier date (sometime in 2009).
I reran the installer and *uninstalled* first, and checked the driver version, and it showed as above - "Radeon X1650 Series (Microsoft Corporation - WDDM)", with the same 2009 date. I reinstalled the WDDM package from AMD/ATI and the same info is there (as if the driver isn't installing, or this *is* the driver).
I recall this from my fiasco last year when a game wouldn't run properly. If I download the *full* Catalyst package (90MB download) and install, I will be back to where I was to begin with (the "Radeon X1650 series" card) - and the driver date will be later (2010), and the version will be a little newer - but *not* 10.2 as shown on the website (is something like 8.5xxx something).
Soooo...what gives?
I reran the installer and *uninstalled* first, and checked the driver version, and it showed as above - "Radeon X1650 Series (Microsoft Corporation - WDDM)", with the same 2009 date. I reinstalled the WDDM package from AMD/ATI and the same info is there (as if the driver isn't installing, or this *is* the driver).
I recall this from my fiasco last year when a game wouldn't run properly. If I download the *full* Catalyst package (90MB download) and install, I will be back to where I was to begin with (the "Radeon X1650 series" card) - and the driver date will be later (2010), and the version will be a little newer - but *not* 10.2 as shown on the website (is something like 8.5xxx something).
Soooo...what gives?
Uninstall ATI software using this tool.
If you want to uninstall windows steady state. Just do these steps.
1. Download
http://www.ursoftware.com/product/uninstaller/download.htm
2. Select pro option.
3. Uninstall the product.
4. It will go through 3 stages. Make sure you complete those steps.
5. Restart the computer
Also try to uninstall ati from device manager if its still listed.
Download the new ATI drivers and install them.
If still you are having lot of issue then you can buy a new pci graphics card.
Ded9
If you want to uninstall windows steady state. Just do these steps.
1. Download
http://www.ursoftware.com/product/uninstaller/download.htm
2. Select pro option.
3. Uninstall the product.
4. It will go through 3 stages. Make sure you complete those steps.
5. Restart the computer
Also try to uninstall ati from device manager if its still listed.
Download the new ATI drivers and install them.
If still you are having lot of issue then you can buy a new pci graphics card.
Ded9
ASKER
Will try that tomorrow, ded9...
So far, with the "older" "Microsoft...WDDM" drivers, I've been booting without the BSOD. Will see how things go after going through your steps above.
Thanks again. I'll be in touch.
So far, with the "older" "Microsoft...WDDM" drivers, I've been booting without the BSOD. Will see how things go after going through your steps above.
Thanks again. I'll be in touch.
ASKER
Well, I'm still where I started. I thought the reinstall (albeit, to what appears to be a previous version) of the drivers might indicate a problem with the newer ones, but this morning found me booting to yet another 7F BSOD. I will try the removal and reinstall suggested by ded9, above.
What I keep wondering, however, is why now? I've had the same drivers for a while, and nothing like this has happened. Significantly, over the past couple of months, I have run into a couple Windows (7) updates that caused BSODs right after install, in which case I Restored back and recovered the system. Eventually, they all went in successfully, and everything seemed fine. Now this.
I'll report back later after the reinstall...
What I keep wondering, however, is why now? I've had the same drivers for a while, and nothing like this has happened. Significantly, over the past couple of months, I have run into a couple Windows (7) updates that caused BSODs right after install, in which case I Restored back and recovered the system. Eventually, they all went in successfully, and everything seemed fine. Now this.
I'll report back later after the reinstall...
ASKER
Well, today has been horrendous... Kept booting to BSOD w/o a break. Over the past few days, more often than not, I made it into Windows. If I BSOD'd, I usually just restarted the system and it booted fine. Today, BSOD after BSOD, until I started fooling around (below).
Decided to dive into the hardware and found a couple of things: 1) PSU juice connected to a tester shows 3.3V wavers between 2.5 and 3.5, and the 5V wavers between 4.5 and 5.2; 2) when my second stick of RAM is in, it religiously BSODs. Changed out the PSU and removed the second RAM stick, and the system still sporadically BSODs.
I have disconnected, one by one, all of the hardware I have, and replaced the video card with a known good one from one of my other system (actually the same model card - X1650Pro).
Uninstalled the ATI Catalyst Manager from Control Panel. Downloaded and ran the uninstaller ded9 listed, but nothing ATI or video-related appears in the list. Uninstalled the card from Device Manager and let Windows reinstall. Still BSOD'd during the next reboot, but after a restart, I got into Windows.
Nothing seems to be resolving this 100%. Finally, I decided to bite the bullet and ordered all the parts for a whole new system. Getting tired of keeping old hardware alive.
I'm still going to try to troubleshoot this, and hopefully keep as a secondary system.
ded9 Is there something I missed with the uninstaller? Downloaded what it said was "pro", but really only shows what's listed in Control Panel / Programs and Features. After uninstalling the ATI software myself, nothing else ATI is listed in the uninstaller.
Decided to dive into the hardware and found a couple of things: 1) PSU juice connected to a tester shows 3.3V wavers between 2.5 and 3.5, and the 5V wavers between 4.5 and 5.2; 2) when my second stick of RAM is in, it religiously BSODs. Changed out the PSU and removed the second RAM stick, and the system still sporadically BSODs.
I have disconnected, one by one, all of the hardware I have, and replaced the video card with a known good one from one of my other system (actually the same model card - X1650Pro).
Uninstalled the ATI Catalyst Manager from Control Panel. Downloaded and ran the uninstaller ded9 listed, but nothing ATI or video-related appears in the list. Uninstalled the card from Device Manager and let Windows reinstall. Still BSOD'd during the next reboot, but after a restart, I got into Windows.
Nothing seems to be resolving this 100%. Finally, I decided to bite the bullet and ordered all the parts for a whole new system. Getting tired of keeping old hardware alive.
I'm still going to try to troubleshoot this, and hopefully keep as a secondary system.
ded9 Is there something I missed with the uninstaller? Downloaded what it said was "pro", but really only shows what's listed in Control Panel / Programs and Features. After uninstalling the ATI software myself, nothing else ATI is listed in the uninstaller.
For sure its ati that is creating problem. Now if the computer works fine with WDDM drivers then do not update the ATI drivers.
If its a very old computer then better go a new one and make sure the new one does not have onboard video card. Depends on your budget.
Ded9
If its a very old computer then better go a new one and make sure the new one does not have onboard video card. Depends on your budget.
Ded9
ASKER
When I Uninstall the card from Device Manager, and rescan for hardware changes, it reinstalls with the drivers it has saved (the MS WDDM ones). Is there any way to "catch" it and redirect it to newly updated drivers? Or manually remove the current drivers from wherever they're stored so Windows doesn't use them automatically?
:-) After fighting with all this this morning, I ordered in all the parts for a more up-to-date system (an i5-based system, about time I upgraded!). This is a P4C (800MHz FSB) 3.2GHz system with AGP 8x video. Parts should be in mid-next-week, and should be on the new system shortly after.
:-) After fighting with all this this morning, I ordered in all the parts for a more up-to-date system (an i5-based system, about time I upgraded!). This is a P4C (800MHz FSB) 3.2GHz system with AGP 8x video. Parts should be in mid-next-week, and should be on the new system shortly after.
i think the wddm is stabe ones right so let that be installed.
Ded9
Ded9
ASKER
Well, as the wddm didn't really seem to make a difference (still sporadic BSODs with them), I re-uninstalled the current wddm drivers and reinstalled the more recent (late Feb 2010) ATI Catalyst Drivers. The card now shows as "Radeon X1650 series" in Device Manager. System rebooted fine after that (which it does off and on).
Additionally - and this goes - to something else I've been wondering about, if a recent Windows Update may have had something to do with this - I downloaded and installed the latest (2) Windows Updates, and the newly available SP1. After which I again booted successfully.
On a whim, I reinstalled the second stick of RAM, which I haven't been able to do all day w/o hitting a BSOD, and the system still booted correctly.
As first bootup in the morning is typically when the BSOD occurs, I'll let the system ride like this until morning and see what happens. If successful, I may try moving back to the video card I replaced and see if this stay put. I'm guessing if the Updates had anything to do with it, and the recent update or SP1 resolved anything, the system should continue to boot properly.
If not, it's back to the drawing board.
This has been the annoying part. Has been the same system, hardware and drivers for almost a year now w/o a problem - nothing new was added to updated lately *except* Windows Updates. Over the past few weeks, on two occasions, my system BSOD'd after installing Updates. Now it's sporadic.
Once again, I'll keep in touch and let you know what's happening. (Still can't wait to get the new system built and up and running, though ;-) ).
Additionally - and this goes - to something else I've been wondering about, if a recent Windows Update may have had something to do with this - I downloaded and installed the latest (2) Windows Updates, and the newly available SP1. After which I again booted successfully.
On a whim, I reinstalled the second stick of RAM, which I haven't been able to do all day w/o hitting a BSOD, and the system still booted correctly.
As first bootup in the morning is typically when the BSOD occurs, I'll let the system ride like this until morning and see what happens. If successful, I may try moving back to the video card I replaced and see if this stay put. I'm guessing if the Updates had anything to do with it, and the recent update or SP1 resolved anything, the system should continue to boot properly.
If not, it's back to the drawing board.
This has been the annoying part. Has been the same system, hardware and drivers for almost a year now w/o a problem - nothing new was added to updated lately *except* Windows Updates. Over the past few weeks, on two occasions, my system BSOD'd after installing Updates. Now it's sporadic.
Once again, I'll keep in touch and let you know what's happening. (Still can't wait to get the new system built and up and running, though ;-) ).
ASKER
All day, good boots - no BSODs... As mentioned above, I went about reinstalling the original video card, and still booted fine.
The only oddity seemed to be a PCI USB/Firewire card I had installed. In Device Manager, it now showed up with a problem - yellow exclamation points. I saw this throughout my troubleshooting, usually saying it couldn't find enough available resources. Sometimes, it would show up working normally. Now, it was saying the device drivers weren't installed (which, as far as I know, I didn't install any specific drivers - Windows recognized and installed it itself). As I only had a USB drive inserted, used for the Windows 7 cache, I moved the USB key to another port and removed the card. Now all shows fine in DM, and I'm still booting normally.
Nothing has really made sense through all of this, with removing parts allowing a clean boot one moment, then BSODing the next. I'm not exactly sure what has (seemed to have) resolved it. I will run for another day or two and see what happens before making final judgment and assigning points.
Thanks again for your patience!
The only oddity seemed to be a PCI USB/Firewire card I had installed. In Device Manager, it now showed up with a problem - yellow exclamation points. I saw this throughout my troubleshooting, usually saying it couldn't find enough available resources. Sometimes, it would show up working normally. Now, it was saying the device drivers weren't installed (which, as far as I know, I didn't install any specific drivers - Windows recognized and installed it itself). As I only had a USB drive inserted, used for the Windows 7 cache, I moved the USB key to another port and removed the card. Now all shows fine in DM, and I'm still booting normally.
Nothing has really made sense through all of this, with removing parts allowing a clean boot one moment, then BSODing the next. I'm not exactly sure what has (seemed to have) resolved it. I will run for another day or two and see what happens before making final judgment and assigning points.
Thanks again for your patience!
Is this the only system that is having problems in your business? because I would suggest maybe test the current given by the outlet, since you noted a variation in the voltage readings from your powersupply. Are you using a UPS or a surge protector, that should even out fluctuations in your power. It could be just a bad motherboard. It is really hard to diagnose something that is intermittent.
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As the last steps that seemed significant were reinstalling the video drivers and installing the Windows Updates (and SP1), and possibly replacing the PSU and removing the USB card, I'm placing the most emphasis/points on those solutions.
I believe a good registry cleaning does have merit in this type of situation, and I noted *a lot* of stuffed was flagged and removed using the registry cleaner - so some points go to that also.
Thanks very much for your time and patience; ded9 and web_tracker!
I believe a good registry cleaning does have merit in this type of situation, and I noted *a lot* of stuffed was flagged and removed using the registry cleaner - so some points go to that also.
Thanks very much for your time and patience; ded9 and web_tracker!
Ded9