what could be the problem

[Mussels]

overheating is one of the main causes of BSOD's - particularly on NB and ram.

[gaximodo]

Yeah, for NB and Drams, but I was referring to video cards- -(edited previous post)
Wouldn't they just went in some protection state or simply shut down the system?

[{JNT}Raptor]

Originally Posted by gaximodo

Wouldn't they just went in some protection state or simply shut down the system?

I would not have posted it as a possible problem If I hadn't seen it before..........In the future you should present your opinion as a question and not a statement of fact......it's to easy to mislead people when your not sure of the actual facts......this is not a flame....just fact.

Hope it helps.

[Mussels]

Originally Posted by gaximodo

Yeah, for NB and Drams, but I was referring to video cards- -(edited previous post)
Wouldn't they just went in some protection state or simply shut down the system?

video cards can certainly cause BSOD's from overheats, driver protection in vista and 7 kicks in when errors are detected these days.

they normally just stop and restart the driver, but sometimes it BSOD's

[chicos13]

ok whats NB? sorry im nooby when it comes to pc acronyms. im out of ideas until I checked asus website http://www.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=y014Wy067iZxxPeP# this is the exact model of my mobo check the memory under specification. it says this

**When installing total memory of 4GB capacity or more, WindowsR 32-bit operation system may only recognize less than 3GB. Hence, a total installed memory of less than 3GB is recommended.

im using 2 x 2gig ddr2's and it exactly shows 3GB in my pc. could this be it !! please I hope so

[francis511]

NB = north bridge

[gaximodo]

Originally Posted by chicos13

ok whats NB? sorry im nooby when it comes to pc acronyms. im out of ideas until I checked asus website http://www.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=y014Wy067iZxxPeP# this is the exact model of my mobo check the memory under specification. it says this

**When installing total memory of 4GB capacity or more, WindowsR 32-bit operation system may only recognize less than 3GB. Hence, a total installed memory of less than 3GB is recommended.

im using 2 x 2gig ddr2's and it exactly shows 3GB in my pc. could this be it !! please I hope so

This is not the reason why you are getting BSOD's, but you can get all of your 4GB ram to work with a 64 bit operation system, I'd recommend Win 7 64 bit if you think the extra 1GB is worth the effort. All depends on if you need that extra 1GB ram or not.

So how did you go with the 191.07 WHQL? Still getting BSOD?

[chicos13]

nope no BSOD I only saw it the first time I left my PC for about 24 hrs, since then it never happened again.
im using 191.07 with my 8500GT lol but I guess i wouldnt get a good comparison.
having the extra 1GB is the least of my concern now, id rather run on 2GB if it would let my PC run for 36 hrs straight. i guess im gonna try taking out the other ram and see how it goes

[Mussels]

you can still 8GB of ram in a 32 bit OS and it wont cause crashes - it merely goes to waste.


you can get reasons for crashes from having four sticks of ram - some motherboards require higher NB (northbridge, aka MCH) voltages when running four sticks of ram for example.

[chicos13]

mussels your 32 bit OS vs 64 bit information is interesting hmmm...

[inferKNOX]

Originally Posted by chicos13

mussels your 32 bit OS vs 64 bit information is interesting hmmm...

Piece of advice, if you buy/get a new OS, get 64-bit. It has some nice benefits, not the least of which is rendering all 16-bit virus useless, and these days, now that there are plenty drivers and apps for it, few disadvantages.
Also, if the problem is gone, then leave it. Don't try to force the BSODs out of the system.
They happen sometimes from random errors and it doesn't usually mean your system is in tatters. If it's frequent, you have a problem, otherwise just enjoy the PC universe!

[chicos13]

Originally Posted by inferKNOX

Piece of advice, if you buy/get a new OS, get 64-bit. It has some nice benefits, not the least of which is rendering all 16-bit virus useless, and these days, now that there are plenty drivers and apps for it, few disadvantages.
Also, if the problem is gone, then leave it. Don't try to force the BSODs out of the system.

ok ill try that thanks. what about this i dont get the calculation

"If you had 4GB of system ram and a 1GB video card under a 32 bit operating system, each individual program could only use 3GB of that system ram (due to the video card using 1GB of address space) However there is something else most people are NOT aware of.
Under DirectX 9.0C (and lower) video card ram must be duplicated into system ram. That means if you're running on the highest settings with your new shiny 1GB video card - that 1GB of video memory must be duplicated leaving you with only 2GB left for your game"

I also have 4GB of ram but only appears 3 due to the mobo and a 1GB VC...so does this mean i've used up the 3GB of address space only for my ram ?

[Mussels]

Originally Posted by chicos13

ok ill try that thanks. what about this i dont get the calculation

"If you had 4GB of system ram and a 1GB video card under a 32 bit operating system, each individual program could only use 3GB of that system ram (due to the video card using 1GB of address space) However there is something else most people are NOT aware of.
Under DirectX 9.0C (and lower) video card ram must be duplicated into system ram. That means if you're running on the highest settings with your new shiny 1GB video card - that 1GB of video memory must be duplicated leaving you with only 2GB left for your game"

I also have 4GB of ram but only appears 3 due to the mobo and a 1GB VC...so does this mean i've used up the 3GB of address space only for my ram ?

when ram is copied, its not all your video ram.

most modern games use roughly 512MB of video ram, for example -

so in a 32 bit OS, you could have 512MB of video textures

thats 512MB of system ram used
512MB of video ram used
1GB total address space used.

if you've got a game thats not large address aware, yes - that leaves only 1GB of ram for the game itself. however since most modern games are very heavy on graphics and little else, 1GB is often enough room - remember that they try and design these games to work with it.

if it is large address aware, you get that random number somewhere between 3 and 3.5GB before you run out of address space, and get crashes.



why is this so uncommon/no one knows about it?
they either blame the game itself (EG, supcom copped a lot of this prior to it being patched by the community, and later officially), blame their PC/drivers etc - or the game uses too little ram, or is large address aware.

[chicos13]

thanks again very informative. after 2 pages Im still unsure of whats caused the crash but we've ruled out that PCIE connection since my VC doesnt have one. so summarizing all this im left with trying the latest driver 191.07 and trying other games...