New HTPC Build… New BSOD Problems…

[Taylordown]

Hey guys, so i finally got my HTPC up and “running” but ive run in to some show stoppers.  Specifically getting BSODs all with kernal power errors causing shut down.  Ive researched the event viewer as much as possible and have narrowed the problem down to drivers.  Has anyone else run into this issue?  Is there a third party program to determine specifically what drivers are causeing the issue (windows update obviously isnt cutting it)? 

System specs are below, thanks for the help in finally deciding on the parts.

 

Win7 Home Premium (64-bit)

Gigabyte H67 mobo

Intel Core i5-2500k

Gskill DDR3 8gb (2x4gb)

60GB Vertex 2 SSD

Segate 2TB HDD

WD Caviar Green 2TB HDD

LG Blu-Ray ODD

Ceton InfiniTV4 Tuner

[oliverredfox]

http://www.resplendence.com/whocrashed will read your memory dump after a crash and help you figure out what went wrong.

[swoon]

Have you installed drivers from the manufacturers? For example, if your board has Realtek NIC and audio chip, have you gone to Realtek and downloaded/installed the latest available drivers? Chipset drivers from Intel? etc.

Have you verified the RAM is good? You can run a test by clicking start and typing “mdsched” into the search box.

I had standby issues with a Vertex 2 drive when using Intel storage drivers. You may want to verify you are using the Microsoft Standard AHCI drivers. It also could have been my particular drive which I had to RMA for other reasons as well.

[Mike Garcen]

what power supply are you using? Try to get the system as MINIMAL as possible. So remove EVERYTHING except the OS drive, 1 stick of RAM…then give it a go. Then work 1 by 1 back.

Power supplies are KNOWN to cause this, as well as faulty memory.

[Taylordown]

well as far as i can see i have tried everything. removed all devices, flashed bios, ensured all drivers were up to date, etc.  Ran the memory check, passed the standard test.  It seems the problem now is with the intel hd graphics, i cannot connect an hdmi cable without it crashing, naming one of the graphics drivers as the cause.  This is concerning considering i JUST updated that driver, also tried rolling back the driver as it was working previously.  I am currently securely erasing the boot drive and doing a clean install of win7 hoping that there were some bugs left over when i reinstalled windows without wiping the drive first. I am on the verge of taking this to a professional because im about at my limit.

I have a rosewill 650w (80+) power supply, if that may be the cause.  Thanks for the help by the way

[oliverredfox]

The Intel HD graphics driver is known to have that issue.  Version 8.15.10.2279 works for me, the newer versions crash on HDMI if I use them.

[Mike Garcen]

i would try another PSU if you can (you can always return it if it ends up not being the problem). Good call on the fresh installation.

If you truly think it’s the HDMI, then you could always install a separate HDMI video card from ATI or Nvidia and see if that works ok…not a solution but one to help you narrow it down to the board’s graphics

[mikinho]

[quote=oliverredfox]

The Intel HD graphics driver is known to have that issue.  Version 8.15.10.2279 works for me, the newer versions crash on HDMI if I use them.

[/quote]

+1 I’ve had to help various people rollback to 2279 due to BSOD w/ the latest Intel HD Graphics drivers.

[Taylordown]

So I reset everything back to factory defaults and ran the full memory diagnostic, coming up clean. Let the computer run with no open programs and was fine for about 24 hrs then I restarted it and opened a webpage, and bam, bsod. I got several of them during the reinstall, all of them for different random reasons. Is there a way to test the psu without replacing it?

[Mike Garcen]

They sell a Power Supply Checker, but i think all that actually does is check to see if all the pins are working. At that point you’ll be buying it anyways, so just buy a PSU and then return it if it’s not the PSU (or to get the one you want). You don’t need to install the PSU in the chassis, just connect the critical cables.

[swoon]

I recommend a multimeter. Just check your voltages with it while running and verify they are close to where they should be. ATX spec says +/- 5% tolerance on all positive voltages and +/- 10% on all negative voltages. If they’re off by more, you have a bad PS for sure.

[oliverredfox]

Have you doubled checked to make sure your heat sink is on good?

The newer power supply testers will give you LCD readouts of the stats.  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16899706001  But it tends to be cheaper and easier to just grab a 2nd power supply and return it if it wasn’t the issue.

[Mike Garcen]

[quote=oliverredfox]

Have you doubled checked to make sure your heat sink is on good?

The newer power supply testers will give you LCD readouts of the stats.  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16899706001  But it tends to be cheaper and easier to just grab a 2nd power supply and return it if it wasn’t the issue.

[/quote]

Wow those have gotten way fancier than the old Antec one i still have that would just green light 😛

[swoon]

FYI, from a review on that PS tester on Newegg (and this is why I never would trust any of these cheap black box testers and instead use a multimeter)

Don’t trust this, get something better. The screen only lights up for the 20/24 pin connector and when you plug in a modular connector the device simply looks for any amount of voltage. It does not see if the voltage is too high or low, the light will light up green regardless. I connected my 5V rail to the 12V on this device and light was still green, same with connecting the 5V to the 12V on the device. Useless because if the PSU has 2 rails and one rail is failing this might fail to detect the other rail while your power supply kills off hard drives and optical drives, as it was doing in my case. A cheap voltmeter can put this device to shame.

 

[frijones]

Just to throw another idea out, I was having a problem with BSODs on my fresh install of W7 and it turned out that my GPU was overheating and causing it to lock up.  A little extra cooling and all problems were solved.  You might wanna run HWMonitor to see if something is overheating.

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