Installed XP Pro 64-bit SP2 and now BSOD

[pcoghlan]

So I have my nice new machine running under XP Pro-64 bit and decided to install SP2. Upon rebooting I get a BSOD within 20-30 seconds of logging in. It flashes up and the machine immediately reboots so I don't see an error message.

Any idea where I can start on this? It happens repeatedly about the same length of time after windows settles from the boot. It happens regardless of whether I log in, i.e. it happens on the login screen too.

I am thinking a fresh install of Win XP 64 and nothing else and then apply SP2?

One thought, is SP2 necessary?

Thanks,
Paul


EVGA X58 Motherboard
Intel i7 920 CPU
6GB Corsair RAM
Corsair 750W PSU
3x 150GB WD Velociraptors

[pcoghlan]

Update...

I have booted in Safe Mode and uninstalled SP2. Seems to run fine now but is SP2 is highly recommended this is a short term fix.

[The Wise Monkey]

Try re-installing SP2, see if the problem re-occurs.

[pcoghlan]

I feel guilty not having replied to update on this so here goes.

I decided to completely wipe the machine and start from scratch.

After installing the OS I immediately installed SP2. I than installed ONLY the Ethernet drivers so I could connect to the web, I ran Windows update and basically got the machine TOTALLY up to date.

All was well at this stage.

I installed other peripheral drivers, audio, USB, etc. I did not install the graphics card drivers as I was starting to think they might be the cause.

Once I got the PC finished apart from the graphics drivers I installed them. Rebooted and BSOD! :-(

I restored Windows to the pre-graphics driver config and once again all was fine. So, I was now fairly sure that the graphics install was the issue.

On a total guess I decided that instead of running the graphics card CD which installs a ton of display management utilities I instead used Device Manager to detect the cards and find/install the drivers from the CD. This meant that ONLY the drivers would be installed and not the other fluff.

Rebooted and all was well AND the additional monitors worked! :-)

I have since rebooted the PC maybe 50+ times and have seen the BSOD (it references disk.sys) maybe once or twice. It seems that it will either happen within 30 seconds of boot up or not happen at all. I can live with 1-2 in 50 although I would prefer to get to the bottom of it!

I hope some of this helps someone in the future.

Once again thanks for all your help

Paul

[RickyTick]

Hey Paul. Sounds like you've made some progress. You didn't say what kind of video card you have, so I'm going to guess Nvidia. If that's the case, then read and follow these instructions.
http://evga.com/forums/tm.asp?m=396474
He recommends getting the driver from EVGA, but I would recommend getting it from Nvidia directly. There is a new driver (181.22) that just came out this week.

If you have ATI Radeon, this please disregard. :rolleyes:

btw, BSOD 1 out of 50 times would drive me nuts. I would expect perfection, but XP 64-bit has had a lot of issues like this.

[The Wise Monkey]

Yeah, I agree with Ricky - download the latest drivers for your card from either the nVidia or ATI website as the drivers that come bundled with CDs are usually very out of date.

[pcoghlan]

Thanks guys, the card is below:

SAPPHIRE HD 4850 X2 2G/1G GDDR3 PCI-E

I went to sapphiretech.com but to be honest the only thing I saw was the entire CD application, not updated drivers. Their site didn't overly impress me actually.

The card manual appears to be written for a much lesser card and simply says plug it in and install drivers, very useful.

The manual does have ATI Radeon written all over it so I don't know if that means I can get drivers elsewhere?

Thanks again,
Paul

[The Wise Monkey]

Download and install the drivers from the ATI website:

http://ati.amd.com/support/driver.html

For future reference, it is always best to download the drivers from the original manufacturer's website i.e. either nVidia or ATI.

[pcoghlan]

Thanks but no luck. Tried to install the latest Catalysts Control Panel with drivers (8.12) but it says it doesn't detect any hardware suitable for those drivers. I think I had that issue before when looking for new drivers. It seems only the sapphiretech drivers will install, not ATI.

[The Wise Monkey]

That's...odd. I had a look on the ATI forums, and you aren't alone by the look of things - seems that Sapphire cards don't support the standard ATI drivers. :/

However, a quick dig into the Sapphire website returned this:

http://www.sapphiretech.com/us/support/drivers.php

Try downloading the XP driver from there and see if that works.

[RickyTick]

Latest AMD catalyst driver is out.
http://game.amd.com/us-en/drivers_catalyst.aspx

[airflow]

Its interesting, I'm having a similar problem.
My card is an old nvidia TNT2 M64.
have installed winxp, added service packs 2 and 3.
was running fine off the standard winxp vid drivers for the card.
Updated to the nvidia ones (did the procedure necessary to force it to use those drivers), and it seemed ok for a while (a few reboots), then I found it was doing the bsod reboot fairly soon after logging in, or during logging in.

I initially thought it was a hardware issue though - unsure If it can still boot into safe mode but I'll give it a try see if I can uninstall the vid drivers (back to the standard ones that come with winXP).

[RickyTick]

Definately an oldie you got there. :)

It might be best to stay with the old driver that you know works. Your card is old like me, and us old folks resist change. :D

When you're ready to build yourself a new system, we'd love to help.