"Clock interrupt" + "uncorrectable hardware" errors = I'm replacing something, right?

R

Redshirt #24

2[H]4U
Joined
Jan 29, 2006
Messages
3,461
I suppose it's just coincidence, but I can't help thinking I screwed something up massively when I did a driver (GPU, for the record) rollback in Vista x64 last week. Ever since then, I've been getting random BSODs of either the "the system has encountered an uncorrectable hardware error" or the "a secondary clock interrupt was not received..." variety, usually referring to either 0x00000124 or 0x00000101. Nothing in the system is overclocked or overvoltaged, and the only thing that seems to minimize--but not completely eliminate--it even with only one HD in the thing is if absolutely no sound hardware of any sort is in place. No sound card, no enabling onboard audio.

How screwed am I? :(
 
I actually jumped the gun over the weekend and started a completely new Vista reinstall on a completely separate hard drive--I was kind of leaning towards this anyway due to space concerns. The install went perfectly fine, no drivers installed at all, and then I enabled that damn onboard audio...blooey. (At least I doubt it's the RAM...Memtest86 gave some sort of machine check error once after a twenty-hour-long run with audio enabled, but otherwise hasn't reported anything strange on any other runs.)
 
What do you have in the computer for devices? PCI / PCI-E / AGP etc.
When you reinstalled did you follow the driver rule of path? OS install, sp install, chipset, audio, video, network, etc?

If you have a add-on video card, you can never use the built in at the same time, you have to disable it in the bios. ( some models of motherboards do this )
 
The new Vista install is just Vista itself. No SP, no drivers of any sort other than chipset. The only add-on card in the thing (see .sig) is the 4870X2--I pulled my usual sound card, at varying times one or the other of the two sticks of RAM, and all but one HD (and the BD drive) entirely along the way. It occasionally BSODs without sound enabled, and never immediately, but within a few minutes with it enabled it will definitely BSOD.

I'm more worried about the clock interrupt error, since that's apparently the one that's a harbinger of some sort of CPU issue...
 
Googling for that stop error and audio turns up a ton of stuff. Check it out. Sounds like driver issues. You say no drivers were installed, but Vista comes with gigs of drivers. Your onboard audio has some driver unless its showing up as 'unknown device'.
 
It shows up as "High Definition Audio Device" and actually plays sound as is (until it goes deet-deet-deet and blows up), but I didn't dare try to install new drivers on it after it blew up on the chipset driver install (if it had survived that, my next step would have been the gigs of Vista updates). Believe me, I'd love to pin this on some freaky driver quirk rather than a hardware issue...but I ain't that lucky. :(
 
Tried a virgin XP/x64 install last night...got halfway through the initial file installation with onboard sound enabled and it BSOD'd again (MACHINE_CHECK_EXCEPTION, 0x0000009c). On the assumption that Memtest86 hasn't been lying to me about the RAM being good, I'm off to Fry's later for a motherboard and a 6-pin to 8-pin PCIe adapter (in order to test-swap my Ultra 600W back in--I'm going to be pissed if my month-old PCP&C 750W has already given up the ghost).
 
theres been alot of problems with the PP&C 750 watt PSU's lately. maybe that is your culprit
 
I'm not sure if I'm relieved, but it looks like the PSU's off the hook--I finally got the adapter for my 600W, hooked it up, and got "machine check exception" again during an XP/x64 install. And along the way I picked up a single 1GB stick of RAM for testing, which didn't help either. So now I'm down to two possibilities: the motherboard itself, or the CPU (the 4870x2 would probably be doing something dramatic in its own right if it was bad).

Anybody in Dallas got a spare mobo they're not using? :D
 
Redshirt #24 said:
I'm not sure if I'm relieved, but it looks like the PSU's off the hook--I finally got the adapter for my 600W, hooked it up, and got "machine check exception" again during an XP/x64 install. And along the way I picked up a single 1GB stick of RAM for testing, which didn't help either. So now I'm down to two possibilities: the motherboard itself, or the CPU (the 4870x2 would probably be doing something dramatic in its own right if it was bad).

Anybody in Dallas got a spare mobo they're not using? :D
Click to expand...

most likely your motherboard. i doubt the CPU is dead. if it is then RMA it to intel.
 
Due to a lucky fluke I got to replace both my motherboard--goodbye P35 Neo, hello used Rampage Formula--and my Thermaltake HSF, which may have somehow contributed to this comedy of errors by loosening along the way. I'm still not sure about that. (^$%##%!! pushpins.) But that one-two punch seems to have done the trick: as I write this on my laptop, the main rig is wrapping up a Vista x64 install and going into Windows Update hell without any problems whatsoever.
 
Redshirt #24 said:
the only thing that seems to minimize--but not completely eliminate--it even with only one HD in the thing is if absolutely no sound hardware of any sort is in place. No sound card, no enabling onboard audio.
Click to expand...

Redshirt #24 said:
It shows up as "High Definition Audio Device" and actually plays sound as is (until it goes deet-deet-deet and blows up), but I didn't dare try to install new drivers on it
Click to expand...

Redshirt #24 said:
Tried a virgin XP/x64 install last night...got halfway through the initial file installation with onboard sound enabled and it BSOD'd again (MACHINE_CHECK_EXCEPTION, 0x0000009c).
Click to expand...

Redshirt #24 said:
I got to replace both my motherboard
Click to expand...

Wow, thats a roundabout way to fix a soundcard driver/bios issue.
 
Oh, I dunno: I had to upgrade the P35 Neo's BIOS, pull every noncritical piece of hardware, and disable half the crap in the BIOS--and it still flipped out even with sound taken out of the equation. In fairness, I'm still not sure I didn't completely overlook the CPU overheating thanks to the previous HSF as a possible culprit (stupid gaffe...I was thinking "Hey, it's running at 60c and Vista said it was 50c...that's within tolerance, right?"), but apart from that I was down to either the CPU or motherboard--and the Rampage Formula was a nice upgrade anyway. (With the new HSF, the CPU's running at about 43C now. Not [H]ard, I know, but an improvement is an improvement.)

If nothing else, it's a good reminder: check everything.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top