BSOD - MACHINE_CHECK_EXCEPTION

[DrunkDwarf]

Hey all, in late march, i bought an entirely new system from Aria, via their custom-pc-design utility, picking the parts and they build it.

Its an entirely new system, all the hardware inside, is all brand new, nothing re-used (apart from mouse, keyboard, monitor and other external things).

Ive recently been getting near constant BSOD's while playing games and the like, sometimes when not.

The error thats coming up is a MACHINE_CHECK_EXCEPTION...

Now, what information i could find...

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=329284

and the page Microsoft forwarded me to after the error reporting program kicked in on booting up..

http://oca.microsoft.com/en/response.aspx?SGD=0dd5c893-6c58-4e9a-9238-daf1befa391c&SID=134

Now...

Being that its all brand new, i dont see how there could be a fault with any of the hardware...

Now, in the BIOS PC Health status, everything is listed as OK for the power supply, EXCEPT the Vcore.. which it has a big red FAIL next to...

When i run the motherboard utility from windows (Easytune).. it gives the following values...

VCoreA : 1.100V
+3.3V : 3.280V
+12V : 11.850V
Batt : 3.100V
CPU Vid : 1.350V

CPU temp is normal, not overheated.

Now.. the hardware im running...

Intel Pentium 4 630 3Ghz
Gigabyte 3D Aurora Case
Gigabyte 3D Galaxy Liquid Cooling
2x1GB Kingston DDR2
Levicom 350W ATX PSU Blue Fan LED
160GB Maxtor DMax+10 SATA2
Gigabyte GA8N-SLI Motherboard
Albatron GeForce 7800GT 256MB PCI-E
Samsung 16X DVDRW

Older stuff:
External USB Mouse
Standard Keyboard
External USB ADSL Modem
External USB Creative Soundblaster
External USB Hard Drive

and the most recent change/addition

Netgear Wireless Access Point via onboard Ethernet

Now... looking at the above... is a 350W PSU too low? and could that be the cause of these crashes? i did look around online for a Power Supply Calculator... entering in all the stuff i have... and it estimates that 350W would be enough... but i dont know how accurate that is...

Anyway... any thoughts on the matter would be appreciated.. its a rather annoying problem...

The problems have only started after having installed the Wireless Access Point.. but could that really be causing this?

[lazlow]

Did you install drivers/software for the access point? If so, it could be conflicts with them causing it.

If you can, boot into safe mode, remove the access point drivers/software and see if the problem still occurs. If not, then you've found the problem.

[DrunkDwarf]

Hmm.. ive just tried uninstalling the software for the Access Point (its connected via Ethernet, dont think drivers were installed for it, though i was fiddling about with drivers/software trying to get the thing to work.. no idea how i can find/remove them now though...) and it still crashes...

Its mostly in games, but its happened while just in windows doing something a few times now too, sometimes happens just getting to the menu screen of games, sometimes in the middle of play.

Ive run Memtest-86, and no errors were returned.

Id really not want to re-install windows unless its the only option left.

[Mighty_Jah]

Hi DD....Seems to be an awful lot of power draining stuff, you have running on a 350 PSU any chance you can borrow a 400-450 from a mate, bang it in an give it some punishment...if its stable...its gotta be a power issue, only other thing I can think of is if youve had the heatsink off recently, it may be a bad seating, depends how often it goes blue screen.....I would re seat the cpu, make sure youve got a good grasp on the heatsink, stick a 400-450 psu in and see what happens..!


Regards Mighty... :wink:

[Belso]

Make a note of the exact error code.

Something like 0x0000008 then try searching Microsoft's site.

[DrunkDwarf]

Well, ive formatted and reinstalled Windows, and it still happens...

Next steps... run Memtest-86 for a longer period... then try ordering a new power supply...

funny thing is.. when i was first designing my pc through Arias PC Building utility, i picked a 450w PSU.. but for some reason i dont understand, i ended up adding a 350w version of the same make/design instead prior to ordering it. I probably just picked what seemed to be the same PSU from the list without realising.

Oh well... in some regard i wish it is the memory.. would hate to mess up the brilliant work the Aria team did tidying the cables.

[Anonymous]

[Removed at the request of the author]

[DrunkDwarf]

[quote:3758de97b3=\"PrivatePyle\"]Surely you've got some warranty on the system dude :?: If it was a Dell or something you'd send the whole thing back and tell 'em to fix it pronto :!: :!: Obviously you've scanned for viruses etc..? Had a mate with quite a similar issue last year and he found a trojan that was eating system rescources..

~ PP.[/quote:3758de97b3]

If you read my post, you'd see i ordered it from Aria, and the Aria team built it from the parts i selected, and then sent it to me. They do provide a 1-year on-site PC warranty by default on that, but i dont think theres anything wrong with the hardware itself, plus the fact ive opened up the case, i think that voids their warranty (according to the Aria site).

Ive checked for viruses, spyware etc, as usual. Ive even formatted and reinstalled windows, with a entirely fresh system, and the problem still occurs under some stress.

Ive run Memtest-86 for a full 24 hours now, and there are 0 errors with the memory, so i can safely eliminate that as a problem.

Only one thing really remains... it seems likely that i never bought a high enough wattage power supply to cope with the demand of the rest of the system...

So, im going to order a 450W one or something, then try sticking that in (and trying to do as good a job as Aria did tidying up the cables)

The annoying thing is, is that i was originally going to buy the \"Levicom 450W ATX2.0 PSU Blue LED\" for £26, but ended up ordering the \"Levicom 350W ATX PSU Blue Fan LED\" instead, at £25... only a pound difference... seems likely i didn't notice that it wasn't the same one.

[DrunkDwarf]

Ok, so i ordered the Levicom 450W ATX2.0 PSU Blue LED (http://www.aria.co.uk/ProductInfoComm.asp?ID=16697) to replace the Levicom 350W ATX PSU Blue Fan LED (http://www.aria.co.uk/ProductInfoComm.asp?ID=7497) i have currently...

Ok.. so... i open up the case, and write down on a notepad all the power connectors that i unplug, one by one, i take off the cable ties Aria put on, carefully, and unplug the connectors.

I unscrew the power supply (and the radiator at the back for the water cooling that attached to the bottom two screws), taking my time, getting it, and all the cables out of the case... i set it inside the box for the new power supply, as i go to install the 450w...

I set it into place, screw it in, re-attaching the radiator in the process... then proceed to feed the cables back through the case in a tidy fashion, i find all the cables ive removed... and put them all back in place, exactly as they had been before...

Now.. the cables that were attached to the motherboard that i had to remove... were as follows...

the main mobo 20-pin connector (its worth noting, that the socket on the mobo, was a 24-pin, but had a small cover over the top of the last 4 pins, this is how it was when it was sent to me, and had been working as such), the old power supply was only a 20-pin, but the new one is a 20-pin, with a sort of extra 4-pin adaptor that slides onto the end, allowing for usage of all 24 pins... i initially put the connector in as a 20-pin, keeping the cover on there, but it didn't work, so i then went back and tried using the full 24-pin, which made no difference at all.

a 4 pin (2x2 square) 12v connector, that went in just below and to the left of the CPU.

right below the above 4-pin, a molex connector was attached to the mobo.

Alongside the above, there were molex connectors for the GPU, and a SATA connector for the hard drive, a Molex for the DVD-RW, there was also an earth which was attached to the case chassis.

So i re-connect all of these connectors... so its exactly how it was setup with the old power supply... i double check that each connector is set properly in place.

I then reconnect all the connectors at the back, put the case cover on etc, and push the power button...

Now... absolutely no sign of life from the mobo at all... the LED and fans on the PSU itself come on, but it powers down shortly after (just like the old PSU did when i shut the PC down, it kept going for a bit, then went off.)

The case fans dont move, no sound from the hard drive, nothing at all.

Ive yet to try putting the old power supply back in (ill be doing that shortly after posting this), but im posting an update out of frustration at the apparent problem occuring...

did i do something wrong at all?

UPDATE: Ive now put the 350W PSU back in, using pretty much the same steps as above, and it has powered up just like normal.

Something ive noticed now, is that when the 450W was installed, and the on switch at the back of the PSU was turned on... the 450W made a slight buzzing sound... whereas im noticing the 350W does not buzz at all...

Could it be a faulty PSU? and is this something i could get returned to Aria?