Vista x64 Ultimate Crashing

[Opus]

Vista x64 Ultimate has crashed on me three times now. In one instance, a
"superfetch has failed" type of message appeared on the screen and an
exception code of 0xc0000005 showed up in the Application log. I have
obtained the same error code from "aspiinst.exe". In one crash, I was
burning a DVD (video) when it apparently hit a bad area on the disc, and in
another I had loaded dozens of images into Windows Photo Gallery reaching
the limits of available memory (1GB) resources. (The Aero UI had bailed
near the end of the image load procedure.) In both cases, the system just
froze so that I had to cut off the power to recover. (Note: I have
successfully burned a DVD since the crash during DVD burn.)

This system has a very large (2TB) RAID-5 volume partitioned into a single
NTFS volume. Each time this has happened, the array manager has had to
undergo a verification of the RAID-5 parity blocks during recovery, but it
has not found any errors. Naturally, this verification process takes a few
hours on such a large volume.

The third crash, which was actually the first, was a BSOD that seemed to be
connected with DreamScene. Being the first crash, it was so unexpected that
I have no idea what all the system was doing at the time. I have not run
DreamScene since, and the BSOD has not recurred. Regardless, it may not be
related to DS at all.

Kind regards,
Opus

 

[Robert Moir]

Vista x64 Ultimate has crashed on me three times now. In one instance, a
"superfetch has failed" type of message appeared on the screen and an
exception code of 0xc0000005 showed up in the Application log. I have
obtained the same error code from "aspiinst.exe". In one crash, I was
burning a DVD (video) when it apparently hit a bad area on the disc, and
in another I had loaded dozens of images into Windows Photo Gallery
reaching the limits of available memory (1GB) resources. (The Aero UI had
bailed near the end of the image load procedure.) In both cases, the
system just froze so that I had to cut off the power to recover. (Note:
I have successfully burned a DVD since the crash during DVD burn.)

Can't speak to this first problem.

This system has a very large (2TB) RAID-5 volume partitioned into a single
NTFS volume. Each time this has happened, the array manager has had to
undergo a verification of the RAID-5 parity blocks during recovery, but it
has not found any errors. Naturally, this verification process takes a
few hours on such a large volume.

Um. Are you using a software RAID for this then? (didn't think windows
workstation supported RAID5). If not then maybe this points to a disk
controller / RAID controller device
driver issue?

The third crash, which was actually the first, was a BSOD that seemed to
be connected with DreamScene. Being the first crash, it was so unexpected
that I have no idea what all the system was doing at the time. I have not
run DreamScene since, and the BSOD has not recurred. Regardless, it may
not be related to DS at all.

OK this I can confirm - I've seen some pretty horrible crashes appear with
DreamScene. I don't touch it now and have less problems. You might be onto
something there.

 

[Opus]

It is an Intel ICH8R (Hardware) Matrix RAID configuration with four Seagate
750GB SATA HDDs with a 65GB RAID 0 for the O/S and 2TB RAID 5 for data.
While Vista does provide a RAID capability using dynamic volumes which can
exceed the 2TB limit of NTFS, I am not using this. The only requirement for
running any O/S on RAID hardware is having the proper drivers. With XP, the
drivers had to be supplied manually during O/S install. With Vista, they
are bundled--at least for the ICH8R.

I have crashed again, and the problem is clearly showing up as memory
management. I made the mistake of hitting the "slide show" button in
Windows Photo Gallery while displaying a photo from a recent family trip
that was in a folder having thousands of very large photos. After a few
minutes of thrashing, the system just seized up and required another hard
reset. Either there is a problem with Photo Gallery or with the way the
system is managing its memory resources. PG should have realized what was
happening and bailed, but instead, the system hurled.

I guess I will have to be very careful what I do until this problem can be
diagnosed and resolved.

Kind regards,
Opus

 

[cvp]

You might want to go to intel.com and load the latest raid driver for your
chipset there. They're very good at providing updates.

 

[Opus]

Latest installment in this saga:

I ran the memory diagnostic utility that is provided with Vista, and it
detected "hardware errors". It did not specify what those errors were but
just said that I needed to contact the computer manufacturer. Well, as this
is a home-built system, that would be...umm...ME!, so I guess I will be
giving myself a call soon to see what can be done.

Seriously, I would like to contact the memory manufacturer, Corsair, but
what do I tell them? "Vista wants a little cheese dip with your chips."
"It says your memory is failing." "It can't remember what it was doing
nanoseconds ago." It would be helpful if the test gave a technical
explanation of the problem that I could report to the manufacturer in
requesting support. If I call them up and say that Vista reports hardware
problems in these chips, will they say, "Okey dokey" and send me out a new
pair or will they just send me the cheese dip?

I am using two identical sticks that were purchased individually in a
dual-channel setup. This should work, but is there some "gotcha" that could
send me packing?

Opus

 

[Robert Moir]

Latest installment in this saga:

I ran the memory diagnostic utility that is provided with Vista, and it
detected "hardware errors". It did not specify what those errors were but
just said that I needed to contact the computer manufacturer. Well, as
this is a home-built system, that would be...umm...ME!, so I guess I will
be giving myself a call soon to see what can be done.

Seriously, I would like to contact the memory manufacturer, Corsair, but
what do I tell them? "Vista wants a little cheese dip with your chips."
"It says your memory is failing." "It can't remember what it was doing
nanoseconds ago." It would be helpful if the test gave a technical
explanation of the problem that I could report to the manufacturer in
requesting support. If I call them up and say that Vista reports hardware
problems in these chips, will they say, "Okey dokey" and send me out a new
pair or will they just send me the cheese dip?

I am using two identical sticks that were purchased individually in a
dual-channel setup. This should work, but is there some "gotcha" that
could send me packing?

It certainly should work. You've not done anything there that millions of
others have not done.

It _could_ be a hardware fault, but as you say the diagnostics don't really
take you any further forward. Might be a simpler issue than that though;
have you tweaked the timings for memory in the BIOS or did you leave it on
SPD settings? What happens if you set the memory settings manually, to the
exact spec that the memory is supposed to be operating at? Sorry if that
sounds vague, that's because it is. But I've seen lots of odd stuff happen
with memory timing and as we try and do more and more elaborate things and
as systems get more and more fussy the problem will surely not disappear.