WinXP stopping: error 0x8E

[HL]

Hi all

I'm having some real problems with my machine and I hope you folks can
help!

My Windows XP SP1a (with all current MS patches) has started
bluescreening with the following STOP error (0x8E), only when I play
The Sims (any version) or Championship Manager 03/04) for about 30
mins. I've got so fed up with this I've not tried any other games yet.
I have also obtained, and run 827663 with no effect.

From reading MS, aumha.org, Usenet, hunting and chatting with others I
understand this is usually a hardware fault. Day to day running of the
system is fine. The system has also been operational for the last year
with no problems.

So to the details:
P4 2.8Ghz CPU (not overclocked)
ECS motherboard (model L4S8A2 )
1GB DDR Ram (184 PIN, 2 x 512 MB sticks)
8 x AGP with Radeon 9200 256MB DDR Ram
Creative Audigy 2 card
Western Digital 120GB HDD
On board USB (ACLi chipset) - currently disabled, no USB devices
attached)
On board firewire (native drivers) - currently disabled, no firewire
devices attached)
On board networking (SiS 9600 chipset)
PS2 k/bd, mouse

Software - Norton AV, Digiguide, Office, Tiny Personal Firewall
(configured to allow pop/smtp, port 80, digiguide, and Live Update. It
doesn't use anything else.

I've patched The Sims, CM, and WinXP, as well as updated all the
drivers and I do have the latest versions of everything, except the
BIOS.

I also don't think NortonAV is the problem. I have applied a reg fix
to set kernel mem allocation at 12bytes as recommeded by Symantec
(just in case). I have uninstalled Norton too, and it still happened.

In order to try and find out what the hardware is I have also run with
half memory, and tested each stick individually, both with the MS mem
diag/test tool, and with mem86. The memory is reported as fine. I have
tried to run both games in low graphics mode, and without sound. Still
crashing.

I have swapped out the graphics card, sound card, and also the hard
disk, just in case. I have also changed the position of the machine,
and installed additional cooling, in case it was overheating. Nothing
has had any effect, it still crashes.

Have I missed anything obvious? I am starting to consider the
motherboard is faulty. I went on holiday for two weeks and my
neighbour left it on for those two weeks. I saw that it had rebooted
itself when I got back, but nothing was in the event log, so I am
wondering if it's overheated and damage has been caused.

I've now gone over the mobo with a toothcomb. I can't see anything
that seems cracked or swollen. However I have noticed that the boards,
once nicely seated, are now at a slight angle, and the screw holding
them in place on the case slot is now doing more than just tightning
them up - it's almost like it's now holding them in place. If I
release the screw they will move slightly.

Will overheating cause this?

As far as I can see there are no infections. I've scanned online with
Sophos, Panda, Trend and also (although a bit belated) put a
heuristics scanner on the machine to see if any files are being abused
in some fashion.

Any input appreciated!

Thanks in advance

 

[Joshua Smith [MSFT]]

Here is what an 0x8E bugcheck says. Without more of the error it will be
hard to tell what was causing the problem as 0x8E is pretty common, it could
be as simple as a developer left a hardcoded breakpoint in their driver. The
stop screen should name a module that the bugcheck happened in. You can use
that name to do a search on the Internet to see who writes that file and
then you will know at least what to look at for updates, or see if you have
bad hardware. If it is your video card you can try some older drivers to see
if that helps, although that might just introduce other issues.

KERNEL_MODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED (0x8E)
PARAMETERS
1 - The exception code that was not handled
2 - The address that the exception occurred at
3 - Trap Frame

DESCRIPTION
This is a very common bugcheck. Usually the exception address pinpoints
the driver/function that caused the problem. Always note this address
as well as the link date of the driver/image that contains this address.
Some common problems are exception code 0x80000003. This means a hard
coded breakpoint or assertion was hit, but this system was booted
/NODEBUG. This is not supposed to happen as developers should never have
hardcoded breakpoints in retail code, but ...
If this happens, make sure a debugger gets connected, and the
system is booted /DEBUG. This will let us see why this breakpoint is
happening.

An exception code of 0x80000002 (STATUS_DATATYPE_MISALIGNMENT) indicates
that an unaligned data reference was encountered. The trap frame will
supply additional information.

Joshua Smith
DirectInput and OpenGL Test Labs
Microsoft
-----

Get Secure! www.microsoft.com/security

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights

 

[HL]

Here is what an 0x8E bugcheck says....

Hi Josh

Thanks for the reply

The problem I have is that no module is named. After the dmp file is
written I can then go back in and have a look at the Event Viewer, but
there's no warning/critical symbols.

Is there anywhere I can get my dmp files analysed? That might help,
however my experience of using the debugging tools to analyse dumps is
limited.