Um... Woah? [Crysis bluescreen]

[Demus]

Let's see... Demus is playing Crysis multiplayer and is sniping a jeep's driver. Demus is happy.

Suddenly, screen freezes, sounds go clichy and then something I never expected to see on my computer: blue screen. It flashed on the screen for less than a second, and then computer auto-reboots. Demus is worried.

I just want to make sure whether it's anything serious or not - if my computer is falling apart, I'd prefer to know beforehand so I can save my yi- er, important projects. If it's just something not clicking together between NVIDIA updates and Crysis, no problem, Demus goes back to hunt clowns in nanosuits. But if it's my computer gradually dying, big problem. Demus goes get USB-memory and some CD-R's. Also, Google gives me nothing.

So how is it? Any necessary info given when asked for :3

[RobbieThe1st]

Well, I would check the temperature of your graphics card & cpu; one of them could be overheating. Other than that, it could be a driver issue, although it sounds more like an overheating issue.

You can check the temperature of your graphics card through the Nvidia control panel, and use SpeedFan for checking all other temperatures. Try checking the temperatures right when you start gaming, and after an hour or so. Please post what temps you get.


-RobbieThe1st

[Demus]

I heard I should avoid NVidia's own temp programs (doesn't give the reading by default - needs to download something), but I'll see what I can dig up with Speedfan.

It should be fine with my rig, but I'll get back whenever I get time for Crysis again. Tomorrow-ish?

[avwolf]

You might want to turn the autoreboot off so that you can find out why it blue screened. Some blue screen problems are just really irritating but nothing truly panic-worthy. Others, particularly ones that feature your hard drive, are harbingers of terrible things to come.

[aj]

In case you don't know how to do it:

Go to Start Menu/Control Panel/System/System Properties

Select the Advanced tab.

Uncheck "Automatically restart" option.

Easiest way to do it that I know of.

Alternatively, press F8 when you first turn on your computer (after shutting down, not hibernating) and you see the BIOS screen (usually the computer manufacturer's logo). Should go to a screen title something like "Windows Advanced Boot Options" or something like that. Select the option names Disable Automatic Restart on Failure (or similar, I'm writing this from memory) and hit enter. If you see the XP (assuming it's XP) loading screen, not the "Advanced Options" screen, you're too late.

If you have Vista, the steps should be fairly similar.

[Demus]

Alright. I have temperatures, which seem to be quite normal from what I hear...

Idle -> 40 minutes of gameplay
(Only those with >5 celsius change marked)

Sys 33c -> 38c

CPU 43c -> 59c
AUX 42c -> 57c

Core 0 39c -> 56c
Core 1 38c -> 54c

Seems like it was once-in-a-lifetime glitch, but I'm switching auto-reboot off and see if something turns up again.

[FastChapter]

Might be just a one-time thing, but yeah, I was going to suggest checking your temps. The same thing happened to me with my old computer on World of Warcraft, but more constantly. Computer was nice enough to tell me to shut it off oh god shut it off now please waugh.

Might've just been a goof, too. You'll know if fire shoots out of the vents.

[Demus]

Crysis Warhead (Merry Christmas to me ) this time, while loading next map. Had already played the game through once without problems, but the bluescreen occurred on the second run.

STOP 0x00000077 (0xc0000011, 0xc0000011, 0x00000000, 0x04475000) - I don't know how much I can trust my brother's handwriting, so the Cs may be 0s.

Hard drive checked by windows: no problems, so either it's bad cable or something entirely else. Halp?
I don't know whether I should defrag or just reinstall the whole thing - which will not be too pleasant with all my accounts and passwords which I've kept in computer memory for far too long ^^"

[aj]

Crysis Warhead (Merry Christmas to me ) this time, while loading next map. Had already played the game through once without problems, but the bluescreen occurred on the second run.

STOP 0x00000077 (0xc0000011, 0xc0000011, 0x00000000, 0x04475000) - I don't know how much I can trust my brother's handwriting, so the Cs may be 0s.

Hard drive checked by windows: no problems, so either it's bad cable or something entirely else. Halp?
I don't know whether I should defrag or just reinstall the whole thing - which will not be too pleasant with all my accounts and passwords which I've kept in computer memory for far too long ^^"

Stop errors, hmm? In my experience, this has generally been the fault of bad memory, but let's dig in...

Well, MSDN lists 0x77 as a "KERNEL_STACK_INPAGE_ERROR".

Since you said Windows checked the disk already (might want to try it again manually though: run Chkdsk /f /r and reboot), the next step it suggests would be to run a virus scan & check the memory. (You aren't using a SCSI disk, are you? It's generally not found in consumer systems. )

For the memory scan, I recommend memtest86. You can download it here. I'd suggest getting the bootable iso, burning it to a cd, and reboot your system with the disk inside the drive, and select the cd/dvdrom drive as the boot device (usually press f10 or f12 at the bios screen to get a list of bootable devices).

Good luck. (Also, if it happens again, take a picture of the screen. Prevents potential transcription errors. )

[Demus]

Oh, I did activate the check manually, so that's one down.

I'll have to see about that memory scan when I manage to my hands on a regular keyboard. My computer doesn't like Logitech's wireless set Drove me mad when I though my computer was stuck on the check and I had no chance of skipping it. Luckily, it was just very, very, very slow one or two percents.

In the meanwhile, I'd love to hear about the worst case scenarios

Oh, and thanks for now

[aj]

Oh, I did activate the check manually, so that's one down.

I'll have to see about that memory scan when I manage to my hands on a regular keyboard. My computer doesn't like Logitech's wireless set Drove me mad when I though my computer was stuck on the check and I had no chance of skipping it. Luckily, it was just very, very, very slow one or two percents.

In the meanwhile, I'd love to hear about the worst case scenarios

Oh, and thanks for now

Worst case scenarios, eh? Tech joke alert: O(∞) (Sorry, I've been doing much reading on sorts today.)

Seriously? If it's bad RAM, it just means you go out and buy a new stick - it's incredibly cheap now...I've seen 2GB for $20 (assuming your system is a recent one, i.e. within the last 2 years or so).

Otherwise, it could mean that something is wrong with the drive (a physical problem is doubtful, because of the checks, but one 'problem' the article I linked to mentioned a MBR virus.) That would mean you have to back everything up and wipe the drive (re-partition the drive in the Vista/XP setup). That's as bad a worst case scenario as I can think of in your case.

Of course, there's still the 'usual' power supply blows up (in your face, if you're unlucky enough to be messing around plugging in stuff. Ah. Memories. >.>), hard drive crashes, virus wipes the drive, CPU decides to spontaneously melt/undergo combustion, etc.

[Demus]

I doubt the virus (unless the bluescreen is a mere side effect of a combination of side effects), because it all happened while playing Crysis (too much for the (perhaps faulty) memory to handle? Just maybe?). Might've been a coincidence too, but I hope not.

Bought a cheap ps/2 keyboard today, so I'm off to memory testing naow.
Oh, and if you're interested, my brother helped me built this rig last March. Only the hard disks are salvaged from my old PC (supermarket Scaleo P. Oh the shame). Best you can get for my budget around here (1000€ plus HDs & OS)

EDIT: Testing complete, no errors found (phew). Only thing left is the virus, but I'd like to check before running into conclusions Suggestions from this point forward are welcome.

[aj]

I doubt the virus (unless the bluescreen is a mere side effect of a combination of side effects), because it all happened while playing Crysis (too much for the (perhaps faulty) memory to handle? Just maybe?). Might've been a coincidence too, but I hope not.

Bought a cheap ps/2 keyboard today, so I'm off to memory testing naow.
Oh, and if you're interested, my brother helped me built this rig last March. Only the hard disks are salvaged from my old PC (supermarket Scaleo P. Oh the shame). Best you can get for my budget around here (1000€ plus HDs & OS)

EDIT: Testing complete, no errors found (phew). Only thing left is the virus, but I'd like to check before running into conclusions Suggestions from this point forward are welcome.

How long did you let the test run for? I recommend at least 2 rounds, overnight if possible.. stress the memory a bit (which is what is happening when you play Crysis, given games' appetite for memory...) I had a stick that passed the first and second loop fine, but when I checked it in the morning, memtest had detected errors during the overnight run.

If the test still comes up clean, you might want to try getting a new hard drive and using that, seeing that your hard drives are fairly old (~4 years or so, assuming you kept your old computer for the 'usual' 3 + a bit years before upgrading...) - a few of the reasons why the error may occur are related to the drives.

If that doesn't work, try the following (taken from the MSDN article):
Check that all the adapter cards in the computer are properly seated. Use an ink eraser or an electrical contact treatment, available at electronics supply stores, to ensure adapter card contacts are clean. - important for your memory, though this probably should have shown up in the memtest test.

Check the System Log in Event Viewer for additional error messages that might help identify the device that is causing the error. You can also disable memory caching of the BIOS to try to resolve this error. - This should be under Administrative Tools in the Start Menu. Or you can run compmgmt.msc.

Make sure that the latest Windows Service Pack is installed. - Maybe maybe this might help. Doubt it though. >.>

If the preceding steps fail to resolve the error, take the system motherboard to a repair facility for diagnostic testing. A crack, a scratched trace, or a defective component on the motherboard can cause this error. - Worst case scenario, it's a hardware problem, you need to replace it. If your motherboard is still under warranty, RMA it...

[avwolf]

If that doesn't work, try the following (taken from the MSDN article):
Check that all the adapter cards in the computer are properly seated. Use an ink eraser or an electrical contact treatment, available at electronics supply stores, to ensure adapter card contacts are clean. - important for your memory, though this probably should have shown up in the memtest test.

My term for that is "q-tip and rubbing alcohol."

Stack errors are almost always a RAM issue. If the message had been "Stack overflow" that would mean "not enough RAM." That could be the case here, or you could be looking at a memory cell that's going bad. Memtest is useful, but in my experience, it only finds truly serious problems, and won't always catch issues. The most expensive potential issue is that your motherboard's RAM slots are going bad, and memtest (for one reason or another) ignores it (I've had that happen before). Memtest doesn't really stress your system very much, so it's also possible that, if the problem only occurs at a high (though "normal") system temperature, Memtest might never find it.

[Demus]

[Bringing back here from PM due new circumstances]

My brother has started to insist that the problem is in my Windows installation, and brought up something I had forgotten: my installation of Oblivion has extremely low framerate even on minimum settings (Complete and throughout reinstallation etc. didn't help). It had worked smoothly just months ago.

So here's my plan. I'll buy a new 320Gb hard drive (Woah, when did they get this cheap?), install OS and dig whatever I need from the old hard drive, and finally run the overnight test to stress the memory a bit. Rest should be up to warranty (given that I find the receipt ).

There's nothing I'm really more worried about here than budget and time.