PC games... blue screen o' death!

[SgtPappy]

I've been looking everywhere for help but none of the blue screen examples match mine exactly. I have installed the HAWX demo and I got the screen. I simply updated my NVIDIA Geforce 6100 drivers and everything worked fine. I traded in Birds of Prey for the full-version of HAWX and got a blue screen. The people at the Ubi forums seem unresponsive or just aren't helping much.

I made sure that I went to the Realtek/Nvidia websites to get my sound card and graphics card drivers updated.

My specs are as follows, with the game's requirements and the screen of death right after.

System:

OS: Microsoft Windows XP PRofessional (5.1, Build 2600)
System Manufacturer: Gateway
System model W3107
BIOS: Pheonix - AwardBIOS v6.00PG
Processor: AMD Sempron(tm) Processor 3100+, MMX, 3DNow, ~1.8GHz
Memory: 1470MB RAM
Page File: 381MB used, 2409MP available
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)

Display: NVIDIA GeForce 6100
Sound: Realtek AC97 Audio

GAME REQUIREMENTS:

Suppoerted OS: Windows XP (SP3) or Windows Vista (SP1) (only)

Processor: Intel Pentium4 2.0 GHz, or AMD Athlon XP 2000+ or higher (Intel Core 2 Duo 6320, AMD Athlon X2 4000+ or higher recommended)

RAM: 1 GB Windows XP, GB Windows Vista (2 GB recommended)

Video Card: 128 MB DirectX-compliant, Shader 2.0 - enabled (256 MB DirectX 10.0/9.0c - compliant with Shader Model 3.0 or higher)
    - supported cideo cards at time of release: NVIDIA GeForce 5900/6/7/8/9 series, ATI RADEON X800/9800/X1300XT/X1650-1950/HD 2000-4000 series

Sound car: DirectX 9.0c-compliant
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c or 10.0

DVD-ROM: 4X Dual-layer drive

Hard Drive Disk Space: 9 GB

Peripherals suppoerted: Windows-compliant

A problem has been detected and Windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer.

The problem seems to be caused by the following file: nv4_mini.sys

An attempt was made to write to read-only memory.

If this is the first time you've seen this Stop error screen, restart your computer. If this screen appears again, follow these steps:

Check to make sure any new hardware or software is properly installed. If this is a new installation, ask your hardware or software manufacturer for any Windows updates you might need.

If problems continue, disable or remove any newly installed hardware or software. Disable BIOS memory options such as caching or shadowing. If you need to use Safe Mode to remove or disable components, restart your computer, press F8 to select Advanced Startup Options, and then select Safe Mode.

Technical information:

*** STOP: 0x000000BE (0xB0E6F000, 0x0E2CE121, 0xB84c7c80, 0x0000000A)

*** nv4_mini.sys - Address B787A1DB base at B7343000, DateStamp 4b4c0937 Beginning dump of physical memory


PLEASE help.

Thanks!

[Denholm]

Which version of the NVIDIA drivers do you have? I'll refer you to the latest warning, courtesy of Skuzzy:
http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php/topic,284786.0.html

[SgtPappy]

I'm running 196.21 apparently.

[Mar]

Lately I've been having the same thing. I reformatted since I posted in that thread, but it's still happening. It might have something to do with battlefield 2. Haven't been able to test on other games yet.

I get IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL. I've been seraching around and found this can go anywhere from bad video drivers to bad RAM or hard drive. This is a brand new system, and the video drivers are 196.21. Unless this is very closely related to Battlefield 2 patch 1.41, I really have no clue what's happening.

[SgtPappy]

Yea, mine is pretty new, first time I've used it was ujst a couple weeks ago.

Don't know what's up. For my demo it was just the NVIDIA card needed a driver update, but now, nothing works and my computer's just auto-restarting every time I try to run the game.

[Fulmar]

Honestly, I'd be amazed if you could run that game properly on an onboard Geforce 6100 chipset.

[SgtPappy]

Mar is running Bad Company 2,

I'm running HAWX... or at least TRYING to.

[Mar]

Actually just Battlefield 2 patch 1.41. However I do run Crysis with maximum settings and I get far fewer bluescreens.

[Reschke]

This might be your problem:


AMD Sempron(tm) Processor 3100+, MMX, 3DNow, ~1.8GHz

Specs clearly state 2.0GHz or better for the game. What you have is a 6 year old CPU trying to run a game that is way newer than that and pushing it to the edge and probably way past on the Gateway stuff which hasn't been top of the line components since about 1999-2001. My opinion is its time to drop that system down to a kid in need to help them learn or donate it to a local charity. You are in need of a serious upgrade in the CPU area. The Sempron line from AMD was never in my opinion a stellar chip and may not even be close to the stated speed although AMD guarded themselves by using the ~ symbol meaning its in the same ballpark. Although that could mean the CPU is in the nosebleed section instead of down in the good seats or even right on the sidelines.

GAME REQUIREMENTS:

Suppoerted OS: Windows XP (SP3) or Windows Vista (SP1) (only)

Processor: Intel Pentium4 2.0 GHz, or AMD Athlon XP 2000+ or higher (Intel Core 2 Duo 6320, AMD Athlon X2 4000+ or higher recommended)

RAM: 1 GB Windows XP, GB Windows Vista (2 GB recommended)

Video Card: 128 MB DirectX-compliant, Shader 2.0 - enabled (256 MB DirectX 10.0/9.0c - compliant with Shader Model 3.0 or higher)
    - supported cideo cards at time of release: NVIDIA GeForce 5900/6/7/8/9 series, ATI RADEON X800/9800/X1300XT/X1650-1950/HD 2000-4000 series

Sound car: DirectX 9.0c-compliant
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c or 10.0

DVD-ROM: 4X Dual-layer drive

Hard Drive Disk Space: 9 GB

Peripherals suppoerted: Windows-compliant

[Skuzzy]

Not to mention the fact the NVidia 6100 video chip has 0 dedicated video RAM.  It makes use of system RAM, which is incredibly slow as compared to GDDR[2345] memory.  It simply cannot run shader 2.0 shaders in real time.

Try going back to an older driver (circa 190.xx).

[Kermit de frog]

I agree, try using an older driver which you can find in the nvidia driver archives.

Also make sure your WinXP has been updated to SP3.

[Denholm]

I'm not sure if upgrading the Service Pack will be too beneficial. A few people who updated to XP SP3 mentioned their older systems ran faster with XP SP2. Also, remember that XP SP3 uses some additional memory. Since he's using shared memory, that's also not beneficial.

[Kermit de frog]

I'm not sure if upgrading the Service Pack will be too beneficial. A few people who updated to XP SP3 mentioned their older systems ran faster with XP SP2. Also, remember that XP SP3 uses some additional memory. Since he's using shared memory, that's also not beneficial.

He hasn't stated which Service pack he has installed.
Game requires SP3

That's all I know based on his post.

[SgtPappy]

Thanks Reschke. The weird thing was, the demo ran fine and the site stated the same requirements.

Damn, I don't have a system restore point. Any other way I could attempt to roll back on the NVIDIA update without destroying anything?

[SgtPappy]

Sorry to bump the thread, but I ran the hardware detection tool and this is what it shows (note the message about the processor frequency at the bottom):



I even rolled back the NVIDIA drivers.

Any hints, fellas?