And i thought the days of BSOD's were behind us...

Ok ive been getting this BSOD and i cant seem to pin it down because i dont have any extra replacement parts readily available nor the budget to replace parts willy nilly

I did replace an old unreliable PSU in hopes that it was the problem..but to my dismay it was not..my brother, incarnate3108, recently replaced some mem so i switched my mem to see if i had a bad piece of mem..but yet to no avail..Ive replaced IDE cables in hopes, but still no help.. removed my sound card and switched over to the onboard sound..nope still havin probs

I guess this leaves my viddy card, Mobo, and CPU

Here is the piece of code i get each time:

MACHINE_CHECK_EXCEPTION

*** Stop: 0x0000009C (0x00000004, 0x80545FF0, 0XB2000000, 0X00070F0F)

My Specs:

vnf4 ultra chaintech brand socket 939 (24 pin board)
AMD Athlon(tm) 64bit Processor 3000+ winchester
1dvd rom
1 cd-rw
1 IDE HD maxtor diamond max 160GB
Sapphire RADEON X700 PRO pci express x16
Creative Audigy Audio Processor (WDM)
RAM 512mb samsung 3200
7 fans

Any ideas where i should try to go from here.. anything i can test, try, or do

Thanks for any help you give me , Dan

You could see if its the vid card by un-installing the drivers, which will basically mean its un-usuable, windows should still load through software, if you get the BSOD then its likely to be something else.

Found this. http://www.mcse.ms/archive62-2005-4-1572864.html
Guy was getting same thing and it turned out to be his harddrive.

Is there anything you changed in your system just before this started , like updating a driver adding hardware ???

couple things to try

uninstalling your vid driver **like stated above**
installing and older driver
Reinstalling your motherboard drivers
If possible , swapping out the hard drive ,

Although a video card could be the problem, I hate to say it but a MCE error is more often due to memory or cache ** CPU** then to a video card. hardware is the cause IMO. I've had this happen to me before and it ended up being the proc, hope thats not the case for you.

Here's a link that might help a bit to explain the error
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=329284

as werid as this sounds... also check the powersupply.. if your system is underpowered this can cause the bsod...

Well I Just replaced an under-powered PSU with the help of the PcApex Forums..i upraded to :

ENERMAX Liberty 500watt Dual Rail +3.3V@28A, +5V@30A, +12V1@22A, +12V2@22A, -12V@0.6A, +5VSB@3A http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817194003

I just Did a reinstall less than a week ago after breaking my 160gig partition into a 100 gig and a 60gig...checking if my partition size was to large (over 137gig)

I am going to uninstall the VIddy drivers in hopes that the ATI drivers are just in need of a possible roll back but doubtful...

I am begining to think it is my HD after reading a preceding link about another HD

Quote: Found this. http://www.mcse.ms/archive62-2005-4-1572864.html Guy was getting same thing and it turned out to be his harddrive.

so it may be time to upgrade to SATAII out of my IDE sooner than expected...time to rework the budget

Quote: Originally Posted by incarnate9143 Well I Just replaced an under-powered PSU with the help of the PcApex Forums..i upraded to : ENERMAX Liberty 500watt Dual Rail +3.3V@28A, +5V@30A, +12V1@22A, +12V2@22A, -12V@0.6A, +5VSB@3A http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817194003 I just Did a reinstall less than a week ago after breaking my 160gig partition into a 100 gig and a 60gig...checking if my partition size was to large (over 137gig) I am going to uninstall the VIddy drivers in hopes that the ATI drivers are just in need of a possible roll back but doubtful... I am begining to think it is my HD after reading a preceding link about another HD so it may be time to upgrade to SATAII out of my IDE sooner than expected...time to rework the budget

lOOK HERE:

http://www.alibutt.com/?p=27

Too bad, most BSOD's could be a hundred different things. Does it happen all the time? Does it happen in safe mode?

I recommend Drive Fitness Test for testing the hard drive. You can put it on a floppy, CD, or USB drive and boot into that then run the advanced diagnostics. It isn't always descriptive but it does help find the bad drives.
I also found a good tool called debugwiz over at www.windowsbbs.com that is usefull for analyzing the minidump files that most BSOD's create. It works in conjunction with the MS debugging tool

Quote: Originally Posted by kardiacc I recommend Drive Fitness Test for testing the hard drive. You can put it on a floppy, CD, or USB drive and boot into that then run the advanced diagnostics. It isn't always descriptive but it does help find the bad drives. I also found a good tool called debugwiz over at www.windowsbbs.com that is usefull for analyzing the minidump files that most BSOD's create. It works in conjunction with the MS debugging tool

I have The PowMax Program from maxtor and ran the full gambit of test and all was well before i reinstalled..but i i'll look into the drive fit test...

Im goin to try switchin drives between my two home comps and see if it is the maxtor being a pain or if i get the same prob from the hitachi....

BTW is there any way to read the bit of code after the "Stop: 0x0000009C " Or is it only privy to 2 programers buried deep in microsoft's bomb shelter?

thanks for the help, Dan