A8N-SLI 'Stop' Error

[Pete]

Hi,

Before I start, I'll describe my machine,

Asus A8N-SLI Premium Mobo
AMD 64 X2 3800+ (2.0GHz)
2 x 512Mb Corsair CMX512 - 3200C2PT XMS3200
2 x WD Raptor 74Gb 10k RPM
DabsValue GF6500 256MB DDR2 PCI-E Graphics Card
NEC 4550 DVD RW + 3.5" Floppy Disk Drive
Antec ATX-2.0 500W SmartPower PSU (24-pin)

I assembled this into a large Antec case with lots of cooling and a
120mm Zalman Super-Flower CPU cooler. The hard disks were initially
arranged into a RAID 0 array to increase speed.
Upon installing Windows XP, I encountered a blue screen containing the
following data...

IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
**** STOP 0x0000000A (0x00000300, 0x000000FF, 0x00000000, 0x80544E2D)

I thought this might have been a 'one-off' and continued installing XP.
I was able to get XP running, but within 5 minutes the same BSOD
recurred with the same error.
I tried re-installing WinXP with only 1 hard-disk, then with all the
surplus features in BIOS (SIL RAID, NV RAID, Marvell LAN, NV LAN, Midi
port, Game port, Parallel Port, etc) turned off incase they were
creating a conflict. This had no effect and I am still getting the
same error to such an extent that I cannot get through an XP install
without it crashing.

I have tested my memory with memtest86 3.3 and memtest86+ 1.65 for
about 3 hours and found 0 errors (using a boot cd (UBCD))

Any help in the resolution of this problem would be greatly apreciated,
as I really could do with this machine running to do my coursework :-S

Yours,

Pete

 

[Paul]

Hi,

Before I start, I'll describe my machine,

Asus A8N-SLI Premium Mobo
AMD 64 X2 3800+ (2.0GHz)
2 x 512Mb Corsair CMX512 - 3200C2PT XMS3200
2 x WD Raptor 74Gb 10k RPM
DabsValue GF6500 256MB DDR2 PCI-E Graphics Card
NEC 4550 DVD RW + 3.5" Floppy Disk Drive
Antec ATX-2.0 500W SmartPower PSU (24-pin)

I assembled this into a large Antec case with lots of cooling and a
120mm Zalman Super-Flower CPU cooler. The hard disks were initially
arranged into a RAID 0 array to increase speed.
Upon installing Windows XP, I encountered a blue screen containing the
following data...

IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
**** STOP 0x0000000A (0x00000300, 0x000000FF, 0x00000000, 0x80544E2D)

I thought this might have been a 'one-off' and continued installing XP.
I was able to get XP running, but within 5 minutes the same BSOD
recurred with the same error.
I tried re-installing WinXP with only 1 hard-disk, then with all the
surplus features in BIOS (SIL RAID, NV RAID, Marvell LAN, NV LAN, Midi
port, Game port, Parallel Port, etc) turned off incase they were
creating a conflict. This had no effect and I am still getting the
same error to such an extent that I cannot get through an XP install
without it crashing.

I have tested my memory with memtest86 3.3 and memtest86+ 1.65 for
about 3 hours and found 0 errors (using a boot cd (UBCD))

Any help in the resolution of this problem would be greatly apreciated,
as I really could do with this machine running to do my coursework :-S

Yours,

Pete

http://www.microsoft.com/resources/...Windows/XP/all/reskit/en-us/prmd_stp_hwpg.asp

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/?url=/library/en-us/dndevice/html/IRQL_Sched.asp

If there was a driver name associated with the errors, that
might help identify the offending hardware. Maybe the problem
is video card related. (I don't know if that 0x00000300 would
help someone identify a particular hardware component or not.)

Load a copy of CPUZ from cpuid.com in the short interval the
system will run. Verify the system settings. (If all else
fails, you'll be down in the BIOS adjusting stuff like
memory timing or clock rates, and having CPUZ while in
Windows will allow you to verify that the BIOS works the
way you think it does.)

If the system won't run long enough to do much of anything,
I'd want to uninstall the Nvidia card drivers and see if
it will stay up longer in vanilla VGA mode.

Try a little more Vdimm for the memory ? 2.6V is the
minimum to make PC3200 work properly, by spec. The
datasheet from Corsairmicro.com for your memory, doesn't
state a recommended max, and 2.75 or 2.8V might be
a reasonable value. Passing memtest86 means the memory
has no stuck-at faults, but it doesn't really guarantee
error free operation - Prime95 (mersenne.org) Torture
Test will tell you that.

Get a multimeter and check the voltages coming from the Antec.
See if +12V is playing up. There is a separate +12V on the
2x2 ATX12V connector, from the +12V on a disk drive connector,
and the value seen in Asus Probe is likely only sampling
one of those two separated outputs. If you don't have a
multimeter, as a last step you could try another spare
power supply.

Paul

 

[Pete]

Thankyou both for your help.

The fault was the RAM not being supplied with enough voltage. I
increased the voltage by 0.1V by increments and the problem solved
itself.
My system is now perfectly stable, having run the Prime95 torture test
for 6 hours without error.

Again, many thanks.

Yours,

Peter