Anyone help with 1003 events?

[Mainframeguy]

I found the threads for Verrifier after reading Q244617 over on MS support.... but it has not helped me with finding cause of my 1003 events (various codes, maybe x'0A' most common and IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR EQUAL).

I am plagued by 1003 events that cause blue screens and reboots and general mayhem, yet I cannot locate the driver responsible.

I cannot post at great length, because machine will probably crash on me while I type! It's that bad.... I have tried memory checks too, so honestly believe this is down to driver. Tried three different Nvidias for my FX5200 - old, new, and third party... still no joy... tried my ADSL modem drivers - still bad. Suspicious of USB issues - taken all MS updates in all relevant areas.... still bad.
Have done reinstall of XP Pro, but note that that took FOUR attempts due to crashing during install! (This means I have not ruled out hardware, but want to try to find driver if I can).

Ran verifier on ALL drivers (drove the machine a bit!) but didn't see anythign to help me.

Any help or ideas very much appreciated.

Hope I have posted in correct forum....

 

[Daniel Rossi]

hey i had similar troubles same error msg as well and i found it was my ram, when it got hot it went faulty, if you can borrow some friends ram and see if the computer works ok if you still have the same trouble well you definately know it aint the ram

 

[Mainframeguy]

HMMmmmmm I have worried about my temperatures a bit and that would make a kinda sense.... so what I am doing now is running with a side off and a floor fan blowing into the case - taken the CPU down to 40 and the board to 29.... which seems decent enough - so we'll see if that keeps it stable.

 

[Shamus MacNoob]

IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR EQUAL

this is often caused by faulty drivers , I used to get that on my old sound card until I found a good set of drivers for it, but it would only happen in one game which made me think it was the game that was wacked, if it were Ram related he would have other things happening , games crashing to desktop , randon reboots , as for temps mid 40's to lower 50's is no problem

 

[Mainframeguy]

Indeed Kermit - I tend to agree, but the only way to be sure is to eliminate one cause at a time - with side off and fan blowing in I know my temperatures are respectable (they do rise about 10 degress if I shut up and remove floor fan). So I shall try running this way and, if the errors disappear over a long time I will know it was the RAM could not handle the heat - I guess.

 

[Shamus MacNoob]

When did all this start had you made some changes to your setup?

 

[Mainframeguy]

Nope Kermit - I have had the problem with this machine from day one just about - I went right back to a reformat and reinstall of XP.... think i got as far as the graphics drivers install before it hit me again, I have been struggling with this for quite a while now.

 

[Shamus MacNoob]

I guess one way is too strip it down barebone and try and install with the least amount of things in place. Have you tried to run memtest on the ram >? What sound card? Vid card ? mobo ?

 

[Anakist]

I am getting this as well. IRQ, and 0xd0. No idea what it means. I have been having problems with my mobo though, so I think it has something to do with ram.

James

 

[Iceman]

Ram is prolly the main cause of this, i would switch out a stick of ram for another one and see if you can find that bad stick, but really it could be alot of different things, but check that ram first.

 

[Mainframeguy]

OK OK OK

I have to post here first (this is a thread mop-up, so appologies to any mods who read this more than once, at least I warned ya up-front!)

I wish, oh how I wish, I were a better listener! Many told me to try taking sides off and pointing fans - having got (I thought!) a decent well-appointed barebones off E-bay (99.9% satisfaction) I did not take that seriously.

Now I know better....

After... many many restarts,
STOP errors (1003 events, almost always),
Driver updates, trials, tribulations (I am sure you know),
XP complete re-install (traumatic!)
second (or was it fourth!) reinstall to get a clear one?
Ventures into recovery mode (for missing windize DLL!)
experimentation with Knoppix Linux to eliminate hardware failure,
Burnt out DVD R/W from failed firmware burn with system (ouch!)
.....

anyway - after all that and all it cost me in lost earnings while I was not developing/maintaining the ancient software upon which I labour (see user name)... Guess what I found out...??

My DDR RAM, whilst completely within spec., appears unable to tolerate case temps (as measured by ASUS/MBM) much beyond the 42/43oC mark before instability results. missed this initially because I was more or less completely focussed on the processor heatwise (this is well protected and has not given problems).

It took me a while to test - apart from frantic driver bashing I need to allow time to learn something is stable. Once side was off and floor fan blowing in (reducing temps about ten degs all around) then system suddenly had no more bad memory reads!

Thaink about it - drivers are "driving" all the time - if memory fails they will report it about nine times out of ten (I know from bitter experience!). And of course in this case when you run memtest, or any other tester of memory your system is not driven hard enough to raise the temp to fail memory! I should write to the memory testers to suggest they drive processore up to 95% while testing and use a little graphics on top.... then they would have failed MY memory!

So there you have it

I will be contacting my barebones supplier on Monday - if he odes not ship fans he looses goodwill/future order/a possible 0.1% off his Ebay rating!).

I hope this is of some help to anyone who had the misfortune to follow my threads of woes - and I thank you all for your support through what has been tricksome times!

PS - currently testing with floor fan blowing into closed case - as kinda "road test" for adding fans, it is looking good, but borderline - anyone thinks this test valid? Will fans be better, or worse than floor fan blowing into vent slot?

PPS - It's not all bad news, despite loosing DVD R/W I have installed router (WHY or WHY did I not get one sooner?) and gone wi-fi (oh yeah, that was why!)

Laterz - thanks again guys - threads to mop now...

PPPS - Yeah Iceman - I tried stick swaps and forgot to list that! lol you were right in one way, but it was temp and sticks - I'd love to know if there are high temp tolerant sticks - because us AMD devotees should be told that kinda stuff!