Legit Reviews

I didn't want to hijack the other guys thread, but I seem to have a similar problem as he.

I'm getting random BSoD's and random program crashes, some of those crashes with errors saying it could not write to memory.

Here are some examples:

Note how my screen looked after WoW crashed. That's the actual resolution it put me at and whatnot. My desktop and in-game resolution are 1920x1200.




And then the next time, I got this error report from WoW:

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This application has encountered a critical error:

ERROR #132 (0x85100084) Fatal Exception
Program: D:\Program Files\World of Warcraft\WoW.exe
Exception: 0xC0000005 (ACCESS_VIOLATION) at 001B:7C9118D0

The instruction at "0x7C9118D0" referenced memory at "0x00000000".
The memory could not be "written".


WoWBuild: 6448
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

----------------------------------------
x86 Registers
----------------------------------------

EAX=00000000 EBX=14961D2C ECX=23BD8FE8 EDX=7C97C0A0 ESI=001E8D68
EDI=008F52C8 EBP=0012FE3C ESP=0012FE04 EIP=7C9118D0 FLG=00010202
CS =001B DS =0023 ES =0023 SS =0023 FS =003B GS =0000





Now, I ran MemTest86+ for 8-1/2 hours, made 14 passes, it showed up with ZERO errors in my system memory. ZERO.... Could these memory errors be the video cards memory going bad?

Let me also note, WoW and other games LOVE to crash when I alt+tab out, causing those BSoD's or just general program crashes.

If this is video card related, I need to act soon so I can get a free replacement under warranty. My warranty with Dell expires in like 15-20 days.


Notebook Specs:

Windows XP Professional (My copy, not Dell's)
80GB SATA HDD
256MB NVidia GeForce 7800 Go
2GB DDR2 RAM (Don't remember the speed)
2.0GHz Core Duo - T2500
Tweaks R Us Forceware 97.44 driver (NVidia Settings, not tweaked settings)

I only use the Tweaks R Us drivers mainly because NVidia doesn't support their Go series graphics cards. I'm on a fairly fresh reformat also.

got the same effect when the RAM on a FX5700 Ultra I had crapped out on me.

Well, that makes me more confident that it's the video card. Are you aware of any programs out there that can test the memory on the card? If it is indeed the video cards problem, then I need to RMA that crap ASAP!

Sorry, I went to EVGA *they made the card) and they were having a slew of them doing it. I described to them the errors and what it was acting like. They didn't even flinch "Its bad".

ttt

I play WoW as well, I get that same error after random amount of time or when I alt-tab sometimes... if you go on their Tech Support forum, they know about it and they tell you the usual crap, disable addons, reinstall...

It doesn't screw up my desktop like that though

My, what pretty 8-bit color wallpaper ya have.

Did you driver a round of drivercleaner, and installing nVidia's latest GO drivers directly from their website, skipping Dell's driver?

Fresh install, so fresh copy of the Forceware drivers.

This is the information on NVidia's website regarding the Go driver:

ForceWare Release 80
Version: 84.63
Release Date: July 5, 2006


VERY old. They didn't even offer that driver until recently. I always checked their site, they only had the 7800 GTX driver for notebooks, that was it. That's why I turned to Tweaks R Us because they incorporate the latest drivers with notebook settings available.

I'm going to try new drivers while using Driver Cleaner to wash out everything in a couple days here, to see if that helps out. I shall post results soon!

Ugh... blue screens galore these days. Whenever I boot up, my piece of crap likes to blue screen.

This may be a little wordy...

Now, I got 7 blue screens in a row, went to safe mode w/o networking, was going to uninstall the Windows updates that I just did, but forgot which ones they were exactly. I reboot to hopefully go back into safe mode w/ networking or just go to a different PC... forgetting while I'm watching TV, it loads Windows just fine. I went to test it again, restart, blue screen. Restart again. blue screen.

I then proceed to go into the BIOS and disable my wireless since I decided to plug into my network for a change. No blue screen on boot...

Now WTF. I will try to confirm this, but maybe a lot of my crap is still caused from this Dell Wireless card and software. If so, Dell is going to get a piece of my mind.




I still would love to see some testing tools that can test your video card if anyone knows of such. I just got a notice in the mail a couple days ago saying my warranty is about to expire!

-B

NAiLs wrote:Ugh... blue screens galore these days. Whenever I boot up, my piece of crap likes to blue screen.

I still would love to see some testing tools that can test your video card if anyone knows of such. I just got a notice in the mail a couple days ago saying my warranty is about to expire!

-B

This one will test your vid card, it is pretty good: http://www.techpowerup.com/atitool/

Kougar wrote:

NAiLs wrote:Ugh... blue screens galore these days. Whenever I boot up, my piece of crap likes to blue screen.

I still would love to see some testing tools that can test your video card if anyone knows of such. I just got a notice in the mail a couple days ago saying my warranty is about to expire!

-B

This one will test your vid card, it is pretty good: http://www.techpowerup.com/atitool/

ATI tool is probably not the best choice for testing an NVidia GeForce 7800 Go

Kougar wrote: This one will test your vid card, it is pretty good: http://www.techpowerup.com/atitool/

I agree, I need something for my NVidia card first!

Thanks for looking/trying though, it's highly appreciated!

if I had to guess by looking at the information present I would say video card... Does it have fragments when you sit in the BIOS and play around in there for a bit? I had a notebook with bad GPU memory and the splash screen and the BIOS had artifacts.

oh and go ahead and use ATI Tool... just because it has ATI in the name doesn't mean it wont work for nVidia cards.... Works on my 7900GTX just fine as I just checked it.

Apoptosis wrote:if I had to guess by looking at the information present I would say video card... Does it have fragments when you sit in the BIOS and play around in there for a bit? I had a notebook with bad GPU memory and the splash screen and the BIOS had artifacts.

oh and go ahead and use ATI Tool... just because it has ATI in the name doesn't mean it wont work for nVidia cards.... Works on my 7900GTX just fine as I just checked it.

I honestly don't know. I've been to the BIOS a total of what, 3 times ever in the year that I've owned the thing.

Thanks for the heads-up on the ATI Tool working with NVidia cards. I would have never guessed, but I guess it makes sense, it is just a testing tool.

I shall give my results shortly.

Eh, it didn't really say much.

NAiLs wrote: The instruction at "0x7C9118D0" referenced memory at "0x00000000".
The memory could not be "written".


.

Just reread your first post...
wondering....Isn't a null address i.e doesn't exist?
if so wouldn't that indicate in O/S or driver error or posibly a game error (which wouldn't explain the continuing errors) it might be time for the rollback/reinstall from scratch.
if that doesn't work I'd be on the dell tech support 24/7 for a repair/ replacement, quick before the warranty ends

Zertz said it is a known error for WoW, but how do you explain it for every program and just straight up the blue screens? My system won't boot for crap anymore without getting a blue screen saying that it shut the computer down to protect hardware.

NAiLs wrote:Eh, it didn't really say much.

What are you talking about? You should be using ATI Tool to see if it generates any artifacting on your screen... if yes, then you know you have a bag GPU. After about 30 minutes and there are still no artifacts or display issues then it's likely your problem is elsewhere.

I've used ATI Tool for all of my GPUs, it even works on G80 cards now. Also I should note that I've had a nVidia GO 6800 Ultra go bad on one laptop shortly after a year. Rather strange since it was not frequently used for gaming, unless their tech killed it when replacing the mainboard or something.

Edit: I missed your last line. Let us know how Dell handles your RMA... this way they might end up giving you some hardware upgrades and a new mainboard. You can remove & keep your hard drive before packing the laptop into one of the special boxes they'll send ya...

53 minutes, no errors.

If you have room on your drive, defrg (several times if needed, you need a clean block area) make a second, basic install of XP with nothing but windows, any nessesary drivers and the test programs/utilities.
Then boot to that install and test.
If it works the problem is corruption somewhere in the main install, and it's reformat time, if it doesn't work it more likely damaged hardware.