PC Problem

[Attila Domján]

Yesterday my game started to freeze in every 10 minutes, freeizng flickering pic, sound loop, usual stuff, later already i could not start up the game, same symptoms appeared at the opening movie, everytime hard reboot, after it already did the same at Windows start up, same flickering screen, already at boot the pic was full with small white dots.... Windows could not even start up after a while, during booting blue death.....

Reason seems was that one of my 8800 Ultra out of the 2 gave up, stg went total caput inside, i had to remove and use just the other one, no any problems so far after.... damn it was expensive excercise...

Still i am not sure everything is ok with the PC, with another words i am sure still not, since also now i continuously recieve a Windows error message at shutdown (well, 8 times out of 10 shutdown, rest 2 no messages), stg like unkown excpetion problem at 0*0000E...stg... any idea what can it be? If needed later i can record the exact text, it seems to be the same details every time. I recieved it already with the 2 graphic cards, and still with only one now i get the same.

[Ricky Willox]

Hey Atti,

Sorry to hear about your GFX card they aint cheap.

The stop code from the blue screen might be helpfull. It will probably after a search of google or the microsoft technet site reveal the source of the issue or at least give you some pointers as to what it could be.

Post the info and with a whole community looking im sure well find something.

[Attila Domján]

The error message is coming just simply during shutdown, no blue screen nothing, and when i click on it OK, then it shuts down the PC as it should normally. I will write down the exact failure message then, maybe someone can help to sort it out why it is coming. thanks in advance!

[Attila Domján]

Ok, i succeeded to write down the exact failure message:

(unknown software exception 0x0000005) at the following location 0x7514be16

any PC guru please can you help me what the hell is this about...?

thanks in advance: Atti

[Jarrod Crossley]

If you were running in SLI mode two things that could cause an error if not altred:

One in your computer bois have you disabled SLi Mode if needed. Two have you told the Nvidia software that is no logger needed to run in SLI mode also.

[Attila Domján]

Nvidia software there is already no possibility to select SLi mode, but in Bios, maybe SLi is still enabled, this i did not change.... i will check, thanks.

In this case why i had the same error message with the 2 cards inside the PC, and SLi enabled in Nvidia software and Bios? Can it be that 1 card already was not working?

[Jarrod Crossley]

There are many causes to the "unknown software exception 0x0000005".Some are hardware base and a few software based.

Its a case of hit and miss, narrowing down the field ussally helps find the problem.

Few ideas:

Try running MemTest. Either burn to a CD or write to a floppy and boot from it. Let it run for a few hours (minimum 5 passes is my recommendation), so probably overnight unless it finds errors sooner. If it doesn't, then it could be a heat related issue (CPU overheating). Might check your HSF and see if it's seated properly or needs more thermal grease. Could also be a faulty PSU. Bad power can cause all sorts of issues. CPU is the next thing to consider (bad processor leads to bad output). As you can see, there's a lot of things that can cause a crash.

If running XP sp2 check for any new software that runs DEP Data Execution Prevention and turn off the DEP option.

[Attila Domján]

ok, now you made me scared....
i run Vista Ultimate 64 bit

the strange thing is that i do not find now any abnormality in the PC behaviour, just this error message at shut down, which started already with 2 graph cards, shortly after (1 day) one card died, and now PC is running with 1 card and same error message.

First i check BIOS for SLI setting... pffff.....

[Ramon van Rijn]

There is no SLI setting in BIos Atti. Its in fact in the NVidia driver.

When you initially inserted 2 videocards, the driver will display a message in the systray about SLI is disabled and you have to enable it manually.

I suggest you open the NVidia driver control panel and see if SLI is disabled since you removed one of the cards.

[Attila Domján]

I did it, and there is no option even now at the Nvidia software to enable SLi. When i had physically 2 cards it was enabled, then i did not change anything in the software, just phyisically removed 1 card, and now the SLi option is not even there, so i guess the software handled the situation.
I remember an SLi setting possibility in BIOS, cant recall exactly what it is, will check it at home, stg like enable SLi read memory or what, but i think it was all the time disabled anyhow... i dunno, need to check.

[Jarrod Crossley]

You say you had this error message long before you removed your second card. By any chance can you rember if you ever had a point where you didn't have the massage and at what piont you started picking it up. Was it after a hardware / OS update or a new insallation of software?

If you can place a time period when you didn't revice the message see if you can do a system restore to that point (Don't forget to backup any software before hand).

Once yoy have rolled back slowly bring your system upto date noting when you pickup the error this will piont out were your reciving the error.

[Attila Domján]

I started to get this message 1, or max 2 days before my vid card died (which happened this Monday), no any new porgram, nothing installed or updated before.

Last update was approx 2 weeks ago or so, the new beta driver for Soundcard, was hoping to get rid of the freezings in Race 07 also with that, in the release note they say they fixed random freezings in 3D game applications.

[Ramon van Rijn]

Originally Posted by Attila Domján

I did it, and there is no option even now at the Nvidia software to enable SLi. When i had physically 2 cards it was enabled, then i did not change anything in the software, just phyisically removed 1 card, and now the SLi option is not even there, so i guess the software handled the situation.
I remember an SLi setting possibility in BIOS, cant recall exactly what it is, will check it at home, stg like enable SLi read memory or what, but i think it was all the time disabled anyhow... i dunno, need to check.

I am not sure if the software is handling this. I will try to search while I am at home if there is a registry setting for it.

[Attila Domján]

Thanks m8.

[Oliver Amos]

Last resort: Have you tried a system restore?

[Jarrod Crossley]

Only reg entries I can find for enabling SLI:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\NVIDIA Corporation\Global\NVTweak]
"NvCplEnableMultiChipConfigurationPage"=dword: 1
"NvCplEnableMultiGPUConfigurationPage"=dword:1

[Ramon van Rijn]

Originally Posted by Jarrod Crossley

Only reg entries I can find for enabling SLI:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\NVIDIA Corporation\Global\NVTweak]
"NvCplEnableMultiChipConfigurationPage"=dword: 1
"NvCplEnableMultiGPUConfigurationPage"=dword:1

Then Atti should set this on 0

[Attila Domján]

Oookay, can you please explain as to a newborn baby where i can find it and how to change the setting? and which one? i guess the multigpu only?

p.s.: i have Vista OS...

[Jamie Wilson]

Looks more like a RAM issue to me; try both memtest86 as suggested above, and also try running with one stick less for a day or so.

Failing that, it could be dust in the GPU(s) underneath the heatsink (had problems in the past with that on nVidia 6800 cards years ago); something else to investigate. Taking it apart and blasting the shit out of it with some of that canned air stuff worked a treat.

[Jarrod Crossley]

in the seachbar in the start menu type regedit and hit return.

once you have Registry Editor open Head over to :

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE within that find SOFTWARE and then onto Nvidia so on so forth

within there youll see the reg keys right click on the cooasponing reg and select modify chane the data value from 1 to 0.

[Jamie Wilson]

As far as I know, SLI is totally automatic these days; those registry keys are just to enable the config dialogue (which'd say "disabled" or just crash if set to 1 without SLI operating).

[Ramon van Rijn]

Originally Posted by Jamie Wilson

As far as I know, SLI is totally automatic these days; those registry keys are just to enable the config dialogue (which'd say "disabled" or just crash if set to 1 without SLI operating).

On XP, switching ON is for sure not automatically. Thats why I suspect switching OFF is also a manual operation.
Cannot tell about the Vista Drivers; I hate Vista.

[Ricky Willox]

Is there any more info in the error. Like a reference to a file/dll or something.
If there is a reference to a file is it always the same file? maybe indicating a problem with the driver/software associated with file or different file at same memory location every time could indicate bad memory.

One thing I would try if you have not already done so is to remove the video driver and reinstall it. Just in case its messed up some how since removal of 2nd card.

[Attila Domján]

So, progress:
- checked BIOS, there is 2 settings related to SLi,
one is SLi read memory, it was set all the time disabled, also disabled now
second is SLi Broadcast Aperture, it was set to Enabled, now i disabled it

Tried few PC shutdowns, no failure message now, instead of it a warning signal comes as normal windows pop up, that warning, Taskmanager has scheduled task, which is also running now, and option to close running program and shut down, or abort shut down. Strange, i checked scheduled tasks, and there is nothing shceduled inside (also i never ever used it in my whole life, so for sure i did not schedule anything)

In regedit i did not found the cooasponing reg in none of the available Nvida folders, also i run a search for it within regedit without finding, attached a screenshot of all the subfolders i have within regedit, where shall i look for it?

[Jarrod Crossley]

Well your in the right place via reg so as Jamie said it must be automatic or hardware driven espeacily around vista.