xp reinstall results in CTD/BSOD

joe · May 2nd, 2008, 04:36 PM

short version: reinstalled XP and now battlefield 2142 crashes to desktop after a couple minutes of playing

long version: been playing games on this pc for 18 months with occasional crashes like everyone else (usually system locks w/ looping sound). last week i got a virus or something (explorer.exe crashing and restarting every few seconds). my xp install was kind of crusty so i decided on a fresh xp install. after the reinstall, 2142 gave me a BSOD. tried lots of stuff, eventually gave up and reinstalled xp again, but this time i didn't install anything except the latest video drivers and lan drivers and then 2142. same thing, BSOD.

here's stuff i've tried:
reinstall xp (SP2)
installed every windows update
installed SP3
made sure i have all the latest drivers
tried older stable versions of the drivers
no internal parts are dusty, or dirty, or broken, or overheating, or not plugged in
tried swapping ram sticks between slots (1 to 3 and vice versa)
updated BIOS
reinstalled 2142
moved the pci x-fi sound card to a different pci slot
manually updated punkbuster
playing without any sound cards (unplugged the pci card and disabled the mobo sound card)
running games in windows instead of fullscreen
turning off hardware acceleration of sound (setting in dxdiag)

the error is inconsistent
sometimes silent CTD (50%)
sometimes BSOD (50%)

the BSOD STOPs have been 0x0A and 0xD1 (IRQL_NOT_EQUAL_OR_LESS_THAN and DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_EQUAL_OR_LESS_THAN) and one time i got 0x8E ati3duag.dll
when it CTD's, i don't get the looping sound, it just drops me instantly back to the xp desktop.
i tried windows debugger and they pointed to usbuhci.sys for the IRQL erros and ati3duag.dll for the 8E error - but those files are fine (microsoft USB driver and ati driver). i haven't run an MD5 checksum on it but it has the same size/date as the dllcache version.

i've submitted this to EA. they suggested i update C++ runtime, try setting processor affinity to use 1 CPU, turn off sound acceleration, cleaning out temp files, updating directX and updating .NET framework. tried all of those, none of those helped so far.

the only thing i can think of that is different between the new XP installs and the old install is i upgraded the motherboard BIOS from 2301 to 2704 (motherboard is asus p5w dh deluxe). but i can't figure out how to downgrade back to 2301 - the asus bios flash utility doesn't allow downgrades.

can anyone help me? if you guys have ANY ideas please let me know.
attached are a couple minidumps

IModAmd · May 2nd, 2008, 08:51 PM

Hope you don't have took the drivers from the website of Creative

Because they're worse than the original cd drivers..

So i think it's because of this it make this issue

joe · May 3rd, 2008, 11:41 AM

what's a better place to get the drivers? i have a creative x-fi card

IModAmd · May 4th, 2008, 12:36 AM

The original cd

(who is normaly provided to you

)

joe · May 4th, 2008, 02:31 PM

the original cd doesnt have the drivers for most of my hardware (video, sound, chipset, usb2, SM bus, etc.)

nCaine · May 4th, 2008, 07:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by joe

the original cd doesnt have the drivers for most of my hardware (video, sound, chipset, usb2, SM bus, etc.)

Well you asked about X-FI drivers , so he was refering to this .

And yes thats perfectly normal that CD to you sound board dont come with drivers to all you hardware

IModAmd · May 5th, 2008, 02:07 AM

Normaly you have the bundle for each parts(an cd)

With the mobo... the GFX ... The Audio.... Sometimes HDDS.... Dvd Readers....

The only thing i say about this is take the original drivers of the sound card

because newers ones really suck

About motherboard ... gfx... and others take the lastest

P.S:Maybe you're confused... but the problem is the creative team who make the drivers... are really newbies...

Dyre Straits · May 5th, 2008, 02:26 AM

If you upgraded the BIOS for your mobo, you need to also get the newest drivers for it from ASUS. Sometimes the older drivers aren't compatible with the newer BIOS. So, make sure you have that mobo completely updated with the latest drivers from ASUS.

Also, you say you did a new installation of XP. BUT, did you completely format the HDD before doing so or did you just do a new installation 'over the top' of the old one? Some of those viruses can be really nasty and even stick around after a new Windows installation. So, be sure your AV is updated and run a complete scan of the system to verify you don't have any leftover virus.

IModIntel · May 5th, 2008, 02:38 AM

Maybe this has nothing to do with his problem, but, I've heard a lot of bad comments on instability on the ASUS P5W DH motherboard.

Dyre Straits · May 5th, 2008, 02:51 AM

Maybe I should share that I had to pull an ASUS P5N-E Sli board from my system because it was ruining my RAM modules. Even Ray Adams, who makes the ATI Tray Tools, was having problems with the same exact mobo. There are two RAM slots that even ASUS eventually admitted should NOT be used in this board. I've never had a board that gave me so many problems (BSODs, System Hangs, CTDs, you name it!) as this board gave me.

It makes me very, very reluctant to ever go with another ASUS board. In fact, at my local Micro Center, on the Bargain Bin table, there are presently 10 (TEN) ASUS P5 boards that have been returned for a refund and are for sale at a very cheap price. That's the most number of any one mobo I've ever seen on that Bargain Bin table in the nearly 20 years I've been doing business with them.

So, FWIW, you might try running with only one RAM module at a time, and try changing the slots from one color to the other.

Good luck!