[BSOD] STOP: 0x000000f4

[Androme]

Hey.

The problem occurs randomly. Sometimes it happens when trying to install a program, sometimes when I'm copying files over from my D drive to my C drive (two hard-drives) other times when just opening up a program even as simple as Notepad! This is annoying.

Specifc tech error message: STOP: 0X000000F4 (0X00000003, 0X89.....)

the ... indicates differences in the remaining paramters - e.g. one was 0X89D, but the last 9 times have been 0X89B1F... where ... has differentiated as well

I've looked around on Google and yes, I have looked at every Microsoft KB support article on this particular stop error message. I have put my SATA drive into the main slot, I have a DVD-ROM drive as master (as I have no PATA drives) and the problem remains.

I have ran Memtest86 and it reported no errors. I ran an overheating program checker and it detected no overheating. I have all hotfixes and SP2 - Win XP Home.

There are no conflicts in Device Manager. I have all drivers up to date.

Specific hard-ware information:

Intel C2D E6700, Asus P5N-SLI NF 570 (mobo), 2x1GB DDR 6400 Corsair XMS2, Enermax Noisetaker EG701AX-VE 600W PSU, XGamerX Nvidia GeForce GX2 7950 1GB gfx.

I am at a dead-end. Any help is greatly appreciated.

[Heartless]

I once had such blue screens on my laptop due to a broken networks card driver, so it might be that one of your drivers is broken?

[djbass]

Is this something that has happened only recently?

Have you added or changed in your computer since?

I would start by getting the latest drivers for your motherboard.

It seems from what I have read on the error duel core systems & video cards are a common connection between the affected system.

Maybe you will need to start a process of elimination, if you have access to another video card for example you could try it would be worth giving it a shot.

[Phil^]

when you are installing a program, is it to the C: drive?
are the C and D Drives on the same physical disk?
do they use the same IO bus controller?

The error message will change each time since its quoting memory addresses where windows has broken at, and these are assigned dynamically

I would tend to suspect an intermittant hardware failure on either the physical disk, or the IO bus controlling it.
It could be the drivers as well, I guess but imo its hardware related.
To verify this, take the drive to another computer and test it there. If it happens on that computer too then its the physical drive which is at fault, and you want to be doing a backup and reinstall on another pretty much asap

[Androme]

Thanks guys.

How do I check if they are using the same IO bus controller?

Nothing's been added recently hardware wise. It's the same setup. Drivers are all up-to-date.

Programs are on C: drive - my D drive is just a backup drive for all my files.

As for another video card, I'll try plugging in my old AGP card and see if that resolves the issue.

[Tietäjä]

Did it resolve yet? If not, might be related to the processor chip and XP? I had some issues with the cores, but then again it was on a T7200. And you probably have the hotfix for 0x000000F4 already.

[djbass]

I only had a brief look into the error during lunch earlier but I've since had time to look a little deeper into this issue.

Starting with the root cause:

0x000000F4: CRITICAL_OBJECT_TERMINATION
One of the many processes or threads crucial to system operation has unexpectedly exited or been terminated. As a result, the system can no longer function.

Noted common causes:

• A piece of software or driver is conflicting in such a way that it freezes or terminates a system process.
• The pagefile is damaged.
• The IO controller is faulty (which these days is located on the mainboard).

Some possible fixes for the above:

Software/Driver conflict
Try uninstalling/rollback any recently installed drivers and software.
If system restore is enabled you might try reverting to a date before this started happening.

You could attempt the following to pinpoint the faulty driver:
1) Goto Start->Run...
2) Type in 'verifier' and hit enter
3) Select 'Create Standard Setting' and hit next
4) Select 'Automatically select all drivers installed on this computer' and hit Finish
5) Reboot


This will attempt to verify the drivers as they are running and will slow windows down a bit. If for some reason it fails to boot at all after doing this, start the computer in safe mode (F8) and repeat the above but choose 'Select driver names from a list' at step 4, check the box next to any
driver where the provider is not Microsoft, hit Finish and reboot.

When the BSOD next occurs it should have "DRIVER_VERIFIER_DETECTED_VIOLATION" instead with details of the faulting driver.


Pagefile is damaged
Recreate the pagefile using the following steps.

Right click my computer, select properties, then the advanced tab.

Under performance, click settings. Click on the advanced tab and then on the change button.

Click on the custom size button and click in the initial size box, make the size of the page file 0. Click in the maximum size box, make the size of the page file 0.

Click set.

Now reboot your machine. After your system has restarted, run a defrag.

Once the defrag has finished, go back to the pagefile settings above and click on the change button. For the initial and maximum pagefile size make it 1.5 times the ammount of ram you have. I.E if you have 512mb of ram set the page file to 768mb.

Click on the set button again and reboot your system. You now have a brand new page file.


For an alternative method refer to the following article


Faulty IO controller
Get a new motherboard.. sorry no easy fix for this one

[Androme]

Thanks for all the help! Greatly appreciated!

Ok I've followed your instructions for your pagefile thingy. Defragmented etc. Then I typed verifier in the thingy and followed your instructions.

Now I've repeated a condition where the BSOD would appear (e.g. copying file from one hard drive to the other) and now it doesn't show a BSOD anymore - it just goes black and restarts!

[djbass]

thats a silent BSOD.. it should be creating a file in C:\Windows\minidump

need special tools from
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/devtoo...g/default.mspx

to read the file.. if you had a way up uploading the file somewhere I could try taking a look at it for you

[Androme]

Cheers djbass! It seems to work now what you said, the BSOD have stopped appearing. It's running a little laggy sometimes but everything is cool!

[djbass]

It wasn't intended as a permanent fix. The driver verifier may cause problems if left running permanently.

You could always try turning it off with 'verifier /reset' at the command prompt and see if the problem reappears.

[Androme]

The problem reappears That means it's a driver problem if I am right in thinking. How do I tackle this, uninstall/disable them one by one? Wish there was some kind of driver checking tool

Thanks for the help!

[djbass]

Yes it definately sounds like a driver problem, and verifier is actually supposed to be a checking tool.

Unfortunately its also a very advanced and powerful tool so I'm not even sure myself how to use it properly. From what I understand its supposed to flag any problem drivers by isolating them in their own area of memory and catching any unusual behaviour. If something does misbehave its supposed to BSOD with the fault code and the name of the driver that caused it.

Thats why I found it odd that you said everything was running fine while it was active.

At the end of the day you may have no choice but to trying the one by one approach.

[Androme]

I've found it, it seems to have been an nVidia IDE driver which apparently isn't actually needed. It's a driver that's supposed to speed up hard-drive activity by preventing a queue of operations or some rubbish like that.

Thanks for all the help. I've removed it and it works fine