Vista SP1 BSoD crash

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sth128

Weaksauce
Joined
Nov 14, 2006
Messages
122
Well it's been one month since I installed Vista 64-bit and I've seen my first BSoD on startup.

Nothing will work, Safe Mode, Last known config, etc. Currently it's in the "repair windows" thing going nowhere...

Anything else I can try before formatting? What file system does Vista use btw? I can't even run chkdsk...
 
The screen says "STOP 0x000000F4" followed by more hex codes after which I did not take down.
 
Definitely not hardware. As for software, I don't think I installed anything that would affect the system so.

The only things I can think of are a couple windows defender definitions and virus definitions.

The system ran without problem after SP1...
 
It's kinda important to write down what the BSOD shows, because a STOP code isn't all that specific.
 
Well whatever, it's too late now. I wiped the drive already.

And the first restart after clean install of Vista is... BSOD!!! Hooray!!!

Third restart fared slightly better... Oh the joy of Vista 64bit...
 
Test your ram with memtest86 anyway. I thought my hardware was fine prior to SP1 but after SP1 I also got a stop error. I ran memtest and found out the ram was causing it (at 80% of test would get errors). Had to do do some tweaking in the bios on the ram settings to fix it.
 
That is definitely a memory issue of some kind.

When you see multiple 0000's that is usually something to do with memory.
 
sth128 said:
Well whatever, it's too late now. I wiped the drive already.

And the first restart after clean install of Vista is... BSOD!!! Hooray!!!

Third restart fared slightly better... Oh the joy of Vista 64bit...
Click to expand...

I wouldn't necessarily blame it on vista64. Run a memtest. Or write down the rest of the bsod error and post it here.
 
Wow, I'd say see if you can't get a minidump off the system, but you've got a nice situation where a required system process (/thread) is dying before you can load. You can try a parallel installation of Vista on another partition and see if you can access the folder to pull a dump file off. I'm not sure of any *nix Distros that see Vista NTFS drives as yet.

Do run hardware checks, if you're overclocking step back to stock speeds.
 
LoStMaTt said:
That is definitely a memory issue of some kind.

When you see multiple 0000's that is usually something to do with memory.
Click to expand...
Not definitely a memory issue of some kind. It's quite possible, but my wife's computer has had some annoying BSOD problems with multiple zero's in the stop code, and it was not a memory issue.

zupahwez0e said:
I wouldn't necessarily blame it on vista64. Run a memtest. Or write down the rest of the bsod error and post it here.
Click to expand...
That seems to be a waste of time. I did that about a month ago and basically got shit for a response.
 
Don't think it's a hardware problem. I ran memtest prior to vista installation the first time, as I do all OS installations.
 
How long did you run memtest? I suggest running a 24-hr stress test. Some errors dont show up until after a couple of hours.
 
Yes, I have had memtest run error free for hours on a machine that would not boot into Windows. If you wiped the drive and still get a BSOD, it is probably 90% likely it is a hardware problem. Voltage too high/low, etc.The last machine I had BSOD's on turned out to be too much voltage to the CPU.
 
The initial memtest ran for about six hours or so. As for voltage. I set all the values to non-overclocked standards.

If it's a hardware fault, shouldn't I get a BSoD more often?
 
sth128 said:
The initial memtest ran for about six hours or so. As for voltage. I set all the values to non-overclocked standards.

If it's a hardware fault, shouldn't I get a BSoD more often?
Click to expand...

Not necessarily. A BSOD is almost always hardware or a bad driver. The bad driver would happen more often, but slightly flaky hardware could be entirely random. Memtest is an interesting program. If it shows errors, you have problems. If it doesn't, you still may have problems. I assume your temps are good?
 
sth128 said:
And the first restart after clean install of Vista is... BSOD!!! Hooray!!!
Click to expand...

that should tell you right there it's a hardware problem. Could be anything from bad RAM, flaky power supply, blown caps, loose connector cable, failing hard drive, bad CPU fan, overheating..etc..

The last time I had sudden and unexpected BSOD's it was a bad CPU fan. It seemed to be spinning fine when you eyeballed it, but when i checked the BIOS I discovered it was running at less than 1000RPM.
 
maw said:
I don't think that the problem as his system was running fine before. the BSODs started happening a month after he built the system.
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The 0xF4 code is generally a software error (which usually can stem from hardware configuration problems) Grant it the article is for XP and 2003. It still may be valid. The OP could've had his computer go into standby/resume after leaving it on for awhile.
 
How much RAM do you have installed? I don't know what caused your initial BSOD's but the BSOD durring/after a fresh install could be the bug with Vista when you have more than 2GB installed.

If you have more than 2 GB try removing a dimm, reinstall Vista, patch it up and then throw the dimm back in.
 
Xyrax said:
How much RAM do you have installed? I don't know what caused your initial BSOD's but the BSOD durring/after a fresh install could be the bug with Vista when you have more than 2GB installed.

If you have more than 2 GB try removing a dimm, reinstall Vista, patch it up and then throw the dimm back in.
Click to expand...

I think you're onto it. I just posted a thread about getting BSOD after formatting and reinstalling Vista 64 onto my 4gb RAM system. I remember the first time I installed 64-bit I only had 2gb of RAM. I'm going to pull 2gb's out and see how it goes. Will report back.
 
Yeah the fresh install BSOD was caused by the 4Gb ram schtick... Nothing to do with hardware failure.

I've had bad RAM before. The errors won't take their sweet time only showing up after the honey moon.

It was probably a software conflict with Quicktime or another program that I installed... There's some problem with 64-bit Vista, QT doesn't officially support it.
 
sth128 said:
Yeah the fresh install BSOD was caused by the 4Gb ram schtick... Nothing to do with hardware failure.

I've had bad RAM before. The errors won't take their sweet time only showing up after the honey moon.

It was probably a software conflict with Quicktime or another program that I installed... There's some problem with 64-bit Vista, QT doesn't officially support it.
Click to expand...

Actually the 4GB could be overloading the memory controller, and could still be hardware related, as 4GB does not fail for everyone. Sometimes you need more voltage.

Quicktime sucks on any version of Vista, but yes, especially 64 bit.
 
sth128 said:
Yeah the fresh install BSOD was caused by the 4Gb ram schtick... Nothing to do with hardware failure.

I've had bad RAM before. The errors won't take their sweet time only showing up after the honey moon.

It was probably a software conflict with Quicktime or another program that I installed... There's some problem with 64-bit Vista, QT doesn't officially support it.
Click to expand...
Userspace programs such as Quicktime don't generally cause BSODs these days. Especially not ones that prevent you from getting your OS to boot.

Almost the exact same thing happen to me about a month ago, and the stop code sounds really familiar. Took out one 2 GB stick, left the other in - computer boots/installs just fine! Put it back in, problems ensue. The kicker was when I reinstalled with just the stick I'd previously removed. It was probably the first time I was happy to see a BSOD.

Also, the stick passed twelve hours of MemTest. I no longer consider it a reliable stability test.

A computer that can't boot isn't a misbehaving media player, it isn't Microsoft's incompetence, it's probably not even a bad driver - more than likely, it's data corruption. Save yourself some time, check your RAM and SATA cables. Somewhere between your CPU, physical memory, and the hard disk, your little 1s and 0s are turning into little 0s and 1s.
 
LstOfTheBrunnenG said:
A computer that can't boot isn't a misbehaving media player, it isn't Microsoft's incompetence, it's probably not even a bad driver - more than likely, it's data corruption. Save yourself some time, check your RAM and SATA cables. Somewhere between your CPU, physical memory, and the hard disk, your little 1s and 0s are turning into little 0s and 1s.
Click to expand...
Well for now I'm blaming the problem on Microsoft's incompetence. I've built some eight odd systems, one hardware fault (RAM), and about 3,564 Windows failures...

Besides, I doubt a memory fault would cause the exact same problem at exactly the same spot during booting every single time resulting the exact same error code. Unless RAM these days stand for "Regularly Accessed Memory".
 
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