Crash due to device driver

[John Zodrow]

My computer crashes about once a day. Upon restart, it
send a message to Microsoft and tells me that a device
driver is causing the problem. I have a standard setup
w/ CDROM (not read/write), no printer (network only) and
little ancillary stuff (just a CLIE handheld). I'll be
working along and the computer crashes, as if the power
is lost. Screen goes black, syays "No Signal," and hum
of computer stops. Momentarily, the computer restarts
and reboots. It's not a freeze up kind of crash. More
like a pull-the-plug kind of crash.
Any insights? I am willing to provide an equal amount of
legal advice in exchange for the answer and solution.
John Zodrow, attorney (e-mail address removed)

 

[Aaron C. Smith]

John,
Can you please contact me via e-mail? I would love to
help you find out what is wrong with your system.
My direct e-mail is: (e-mail address removed)
Thanks in advance for your help!
Aaron C. Smith
Microsoft Video Driver Online Crash Analysis Team Lead

 

[Rick]

John and Aaron:

This may not be the cause of YOUR particular problem, but
it was a very similar one that drove me crazy for a
while. While you're struggling with O/S and drivers to
solve a mystery crash/shutdown problem you may want to
check this also. It's one of those problems in
the 'sometimes the solution is in the last place we look'
category ...

Was working on an older computer that, out of the blue
started to either BSOD or reboot for no apparent reason
several times a day. When it could, the O/S pointed to a
driver for the display controller.

Checked the vintage/WHQL status of all graphics device
drivers and health of the controller card, all appeared
normal - problem repeated.

Checked the installation history of apps and updates and
determined that none was recent enough to be the direct
cause.

Checked CPU, mobo, drives, and P/s - no problem found.

Eventually I took the controller card out of that machine
and installed it and its drivers in another computer - no
problem found.

Put them back into the problem computer - and rebooted -
lo and behold the problem disappeared.

BUT, when I put the case back on and rebooted - problem
repeated.

Turns out it was a heat problem. One of the front chassis
fans had completely stopped. This permitted the graphic
controller chip (which had no fan of its own) to
occasionally get too hot, misbehave or complain, and
force the machine to crash in a variety of ways. The chip
cooled quickly enough so that it permitted the system to
reboot itself only to later repeat the process ... over
and over ...

Rick

 

[adiletante]

Rick,

I was recently told to update my ATI Rage 128 driver with
a newer version due to system crashing. It's been very
hot where my computer resides. I did download the
update - which was dated 10/01 (mine is 8/01),
uninstalled the old driver, but then when I tried to
install the new one, was told that it wasn't compatible
with display adapter I had. I checked and apparently
uninstalling my display driver is an impossible thing.
(at least with my particular level of knowledge). Any
advice on this?

adiletante

 

[Rick]

Just because there is an ATI controller on the board does
not necessarily mean the entire board was made by ATI.
I suggest you first determine the actual board you have
installed (check here:
http://mirror.ati.com/support/identify/index.html )

then, based upon your determination, go either to the ATI
or OEM site to retrieve the latest driver for that
particular board. If it is "built by ATI" then go here to
get it http://mirror.ati.com/support/driver.html
else go to the OEM site.

If you do in fact have a problem with an ATI board, you
can go to http://apps.ati.com/cservice/webform.asp to
send them an email about the problem.

If XP had a native basic driver for your board (a driver
that was built into XP and installed by XP), you should
be able to go back to that one until ATI or the OEM helps
you further.

It's difficult to know if your original driver was at
fault unless it always caused the problem you
experienced. Unless you had installed new H/W and driver,
or updated some element of the O/S (i.e. directX), or
changed the BIOS rev. or BIOS settings immediately prior
to the problems starting, a hardware related problem
(failed/failing component or heat) should be included in
the troubleshooting procedure.

Rick