My quest with a BSOD

[MikeB]

I have a 7-year old IBM Aptiva with an AMD 850Mhz and 512M memory. I
recently upgraded this to Windows XP and have now run into a baffling
Blue Screen of Death scenario.

One of my daughter's games (Liberty's Kids) would BSOD, claiming an
error in the Video driver. Now the BIOS says the Video is ELSA ERAZOR
III Ultra, but Device Manager says it has an Nvidia Riva TNT2 video
driver. So I went on a hunt for a video driver update. The IBM site
didn't even recognize my make/model anymore. So I tried Nvidia and
couldn't find anything that seemed to fit, so I did a Google search and
found several Device driver sites that claimed they had drivers. Paid
$4.95 for a device driver on one site and $29.95 for a lifetime
subscription on another site. THe first site's install ran and said it
couldn't find anything applicable to my system. The 2nd site is where
the problem hit. It started installing and asked whether to replace
files where the source was older than the target. I smelled a rat and
tried to abort the install, but was too late - after the aborted
install I was left with what seemed the default VGA driver 800x640. I
tried uninstalling from add/Remove, but no improvement.

So finally I did a System Restore to a restore point the day before.
Thankfully it resolved my video problem and I was back in 1024X768
mode. I ran the game again and lo and behold, this time the graphics
ran past the point where it would always previously BSOD. But now the
sound has vanished - previously it had sound, but died, now it ran, but
no sound. ???? Unfortunatly, as soon as it came back to the Win XP
desktop it gave another BSOD, this time for an unknown device driver.

So I'm perplexed. The game site and box says it is XP compatible, yet
it crashes. I don't know if my system restore has now messed up my
sound device - although it works with normal system sounds.

Any advice? Anything I can look for/at? I don't really want to go back
to Win 98 just so she can play the game - I'd rather use the machine's
other disk drive as backup for my laptop.

Thanks
MikeB

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

Windows Game Advisor
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/games/gameadvisor/default.mspx

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows - Shell/User
Microsoft Community Newsgroups
news://msnews.microsoft.com/

---------------------------------------------------------------------------­----------------

:

| I have a 7-year old IBM Aptiva with an AMD 850Mhz and 512M memory. I
| recently upgraded this to Windows XP and have now run into a baffling
| Blue Screen of Death scenario.
|
| One of my daughter's games (Liberty's Kids) would BSOD, claiming an
| error in the Video driver. Now the BIOS says the Video is ELSA ERAZOR
| III Ultra, but Device Manager says it has an Nvidia Riva TNT2 video
| driver. So I went on a hunt for a video driver update. The IBM site
| didn't even recognize my make/model anymore. So I tried Nvidia and
| couldn't find anything that seemed to fit, so I did a Google search and
| found several Device driver sites that claimed they had drivers. Paid
| $4.95 for a device driver on one site and $29.95 for a lifetime
| subscription on another site. THe first site's install ran and said it
| couldn't find anything applicable to my system. The 2nd site is where
| the problem hit. It started installing and asked whether to replace
| files where the source was older than the target. I smelled a rat and
| tried to abort the install, but was too late - after the aborted
| install I was left with what seemed the default VGA driver 800x640. I
| tried uninstalling from add/Remove, but no improvement.
|
| So finally I did a System Restore to a restore point the day before.
| Thankfully it resolved my video problem and I was back in 1024X768
| mode. I ran the game again and lo and behold, this time the graphics
| ran past the point where it would always previously BSOD. But now the
| sound has vanished - previously it had sound, but died, now it ran, but
| no sound. ???? Unfortunatly, as soon as it came back to the Win XP
| desktop it gave another BSOD, this time for an unknown device driver.
|
| So I'm perplexed. The game site and box says it is XP compatible, yet
| it crashes. I don't know if my system restore has now messed up my
| sound device - although it works with normal system sounds.
|
| Any advice? Anything I can look for/at? I don't really want to go back
| to Win 98 just so she can play the game - I'd rather use the machine's
| other disk drive as backup for my laptop.
|
| Thanks
| MikeB

 

[Talahasee]

I have a 7-year old IBM Aptiva with an AMD 850Mhz and 512M memory. I
recently upgraded this to Windows XP and have now run into a baffling
Blue Screen of Death scenario.

One of my daughter's games (Liberty's Kids) would BSOD, claiming an
error in the Video driver. Now the BIOS says the Video is ELSA ERAZOR
III Ultra, but Device Manager says it has an Nvidia Riva TNT2 video
driver. So I went on a hunt for a video driver update. The IBM site
didn't even recognize my make/model anymore. So I tried Nvidia and
couldn't find anything that seemed to fit, so I did a Google search and
found several Device driver sites that claimed they had drivers. Paid
$4.95 for a device driver on one site and $29.95 for a lifetime
subscription on another site. THe first site's install ran and said it
couldn't find anything applicable to my system. The 2nd site is where
the problem hit. It started installing and asked whether to replace
files where the source was older than the target. I smelled a rat and
tried to abort the install, but was too late - after the aborted
install I was left with what seemed the default VGA driver 800x640. I
tried uninstalling from add/Remove, but no improvement.

So finally I did a System Restore to a restore point the day before.
Thankfully it resolved my video problem and I was back in 1024X768
mode. I ran the game again and lo and behold, this time the graphics
ran past the point where it would always previously BSOD. But now the
sound has vanished - previously it had sound, but died, now it ran, but
no sound. ???? Unfortunatly, as soon as it came back to the Win XP
desktop it gave another BSOD, this time for an unknown device driver.

So I'm perplexed. The game site and box says it is XP compatible, yet
it crashes. I don't know if my system restore has now messed up my
sound device - although it works with normal system sounds.

Any advice? Anything I can look for/at? I don't really want to go back
to Win 98 just so she can play the game - I'd rather use the machine's
other disk drive as backup for my laptop.

I'm not a tekkie, so I'm going to state that up front. And I
cant' give you a mile (or even a yard) of tekkie jargon.
What I can do is speak from 25 years experience with PCs in
the work world as a tech writer, and "what has worked for
me."

My FIRST take (having admittedly SKIMMED for clues) you
aren't going to like. My PC died several years ago, and my
brother kindly gave me $300 for a new machine. Someone in my
building was selling an Aptiva 750 Mhz, and I grabbed it.

I have never ever ever had so much trouble with a computer
in my entire life.

After a year, thankfully, it went belly up at a point when I
had the $$$ to piece it out with an upgrade. I priced and
went AMD. I've never been more happy-- not that my computer
died, but that I upgraded to a "real computer" that was
affordable.

So my first take is to have you get rid of the Aptiva and do
a cheap upgrade. Find an AMD board that will do what you
need graphics-wise, and part out the Aptiva (chuck the
board, chuck the CPU). Keep your video, keep your RAM, etc.

You'll likely want to replace your power supply (my systems
engineer buddy says it's ALWAYS good to start a build with a
new/in the box power supply). You'll likely want a $30 brand
new box to put it all in.

If you're short on $$$, find a buddy to build it for a
"Thank you" and $50.


2nd suggestion. Keep what you have and back up all your
data.
Partition and reformat your hard drive (C) as two hard
drives. Make the 2nd hard drive (logical D) small, not over
30 Gb.

When you have 2 FAT32 formatted partitions on the C drive
(physical 1st hard drive), install Windows 98 on the D
drive. Once you get it installed successfully (so you have a
Desktop), start all over again by putting your XP disk in
the CD drive, and boot from it and install XP on your boot
disk (C).

Once that is done, Windows XP will recognize two OSs on two
partitions, and it will give you a boot-up screen menu in
which you can SELECT the OS you wish to boot into.

It is my impression that Windows XP won't care that you have
98 on your logical D drive. You can put whatever else s/w or
data on D that you like, but when you want to run 95 / 98
based programs/ your kids' games, you can boot to 98, and
run them.


I have tried any number of times to get 98 games to run on
XP, with little or no success.

I can't give you the technical specifics, but a D partition
on which you place 98 should resolve your problem.

3rd take is to get her a separate PC on which you load 98
JUST for her 98 games.

4th take is to go on eBay, find some "kids' games sales",
and BURY her in so many NEW (others' discards) games she
will have little time to mourn the one she can't play.

Kids are very forgiving; they just need the opportunity to
say, "It's ok, daddy, I love you anyway!"

I hear that from my kid frequently. Makes me cry every time.


Let us know how it goes,


Good luck!


Tallahassee

 

[MikeB]

Windows Game Advisor
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/games/gameadvisor/default.mspx

Thank you for that link. According to it there are only 29 games
suitable for children 6-12 in the educational category. It has no
listing for any of the games that we successfully run on Windows XP.
I'm sorry I wasted your and my time. Time to dig out the Win 98
Recovery CD.

 

[Steve N.]

I have a 7-year old IBM Aptiva with an AMD 850Mhz and 512M memory. I
recently upgraded this to Windows XP and have now run into a baffling
Blue Screen of Death scenario.

One of my daughter's games (Liberty's Kids) would BSOD, claiming an
error in the Video driver. Now the BIOS says the Video is ELSA ERAZOR
III Ultra, but Device Manager says it has an Nvidia Riva TNT2 video
driver. So I went on a hunt for a video driver update. The IBM site
didn't even recognize my make/model anymore. So I tried Nvidia and
couldn't find anything that seemed to fit, so I did a Google search and
found several Device driver sites that claimed they had drivers. Paid
$4.95 for a device driver on one site and $29.95 for a lifetime
subscription on another site. THe first site's install ran and said it
couldn't find anything applicable to my system. The 2nd site is where
the problem hit. It started installing and asked whether to replace
files where the source was older than the target. I smelled a rat and
tried to abort the install, but was too late - after the aborted
install I was left with what seemed the default VGA driver 800x640. I
tried uninstalling from add/Remove, but no improvement.

So finally I did a System Restore to a restore point the day before.
Thankfully it resolved my video problem and I was back in 1024X768
mode. I ran the game again and lo and behold, this time the graphics
ran past the point where it would always previously BSOD. But now the
sound has vanished - previously it had sound, but died, now it ran, but
no sound. ???? Unfortunatly, as soon as it came back to the Win XP
desktop it gave another BSOD, this time for an unknown device driver.

So I'm perplexed. The game site and box says it is XP compatible, yet
it crashes. I don't know if my system restore has now messed up my
sound device - although it works with normal system sounds.

Any advice? Anything I can look for/at? I don't really want to go back
to Win 98 just so she can play the game - I'd rather use the machine's
other disk drive as backup for my laptop.

Thanks
MikeB

For future reference, you should never have to pay for a driver update.

Download and install Everest Home from www.lavalys.com and run it. It
will enumerate all the hardware and drivers. Check for updates from the
manufacturer of the devices. Start with the chipset drivers, then video,
audio, etc.

Steve N.

 

[Malke]

For future reference, you should never have to pay for a driver
update.

Download and install Everest Home from www.lavalys.com and run it. It
will enumerate all the hardware and drivers. Check for updates from
the manufacturer of the devices. Start with the chipset drivers, then
video, audio, etc.

Hi, Steve. Lavalys discontinued the free Everest Home. Naturally you can
still download it from around the Net, but not from Lavalys any more.
Here are two alternatives (which you probably already know about):

http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html - Belarc Advisor
http://www.aumha.org/free.htm - Aida32 (hosted on Jim Eshelman's site)

Aida32 is older - the person who wrote it went to Lavalyst - but it
still works and since the OP had an older box anyway, it would be just
fine.

Malke

 

[Steve N.]

Steve N. wrote:




Hi, Steve. Lavalys discontinued the free Everest Home. Naturally you can
still download it from around the Net, but not from Lavalys any more.
Here are two alternatives (which you probably already know about):

http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html - Belarc Advisor
http://www.aumha.org/free.htm - Aida32 (hosted on Jim Eshelman's site)

Aida32 is older - the person who wrote it went to Lavalyst - but it
still works and since the OP had an older box anyway, it would be just
fine.

Malke

Thanks for the heads up Malke.

Steve N.

 

[Guest]

I ran into a similar problem with my kids games going from 95 to XP. I found
that the websites for the game manufacturers had fixes on their website for
this. At least for the games I was working with.