Seriously frustrated by BSODs

aburgener · Post by **aburgener** » Tue Sep 25, 2007 3:49 pm

I can consistently recreate this error – If I leave a Live set open and leave my computer idle, I will get a stop error IRQL_NOT_LESS_THAN_OR_EQUAL.

I have looked at the minidump files from the crashes myself, and the only thing I could really decipher was that a lot of them point to USBPORT.SYS. I don’t have any USB hardware plugged into my computer except that my mouse or keyboard uses a USB to PS/2 adaptor, but I find it hard to believe that Vista just doesn’t know how to deal with my mouse.

My system is not set to sleep or hibernate, but the monitors do turn off after 20 minutes (unless that lovely blue screen hits first).

Right now I’m testing to see whether I can still recreate the error with my sound card totally unplugged and uninstalled – so far I have not been able to do that. I think it has something to do with my audio interface, but the fact that it ONLY does this when Live is open kind of concerns me – I don’t want this to pop up later if I get a new sound card.

Here’s what I’m using:

Live 6.0.10
Vista Ultimate 32-bit
Echo Gina 3G

I’ve downloaded all available driver updates and Windows updates for my system, and I’ve flashed the BIOS to the newest version. I’ve installed the latest set of drivers for the Echo Gina3G. I have Windows memory dump files saved from the crashes as well - and I've emailed them to Ableton.

ANY help would be greatly appreciated - if it's my sound card, no big deal. If it's Live, I'm going to be seriously disappointed.

Herne · Post by **Herne** » Tue Sep 25, 2007 5:28 pm

More system details will help: RAM, Board, Chipset, CPU etc.

If it's an 0x0A [IRQ_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL] in usbport.sys it's related to the usbport driver for your usb chipset, and not usb devices. Update your chipset drivers.

The other common 0x0a causes are bad physical ram, and chipset drivers.
Are you sure it's usbport.sys? The commonest error is un USBHub.sys, for which a fix exists [KB929734]

The Echo Gina used to do this in Win'98 [Q232945 page for details], their driver are a bit twitchy.

Pasha · Post by **Pasha** » Tue Sep 25, 2007 5:33 pm

I guess Vista came pre installed on your machine.
I won't point the finger into Live's direction. First I would try with a real USB mouse by eliminating the converter.
Is your PC a Notebook or a Desktop? Windows and Vista is no exception polls USB ports to discover peripherals when you plug them in, it's a normal background process.
Browse at this address http://aumha.org/a/stop.htm you might find more on your error. Pls tell us exactly more information about your computer.

- Best
- Pasha

aburgener · Post by **aburgener** » Tue Sep 25, 2007 6:42 pm

Vista didn't come preinstalled - this is scratch built desktop.

Motherboard: MSI P6N Platinum
Chipset: nVidia nForce 650i SLI
CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600
Corsair XMS2 DDR2 SDRAM - 2 x 1GB

I'm sure it's USBPORT.SYS

Pasha - like I said though, there are no USB peripherals installed right now.

You know, now that I think of it, I've flashed the BIOS to the latest version and installed the chipset drivers from the CD that came with the board - but I don't think I've grabbed the latest chipset drivers from MSI - will try that tonight.

Thank you for the replies - I just want this to be stable so I can start actually making some music...

aburgener · Post by **aburgener** » Tue Sep 25, 2007 11:05 pm

UPDATE !!!!!!!

Gina 3G completely removed from the equation - still got 2 reboots.

It's still removed, but I downloaded all the latest mobo drivers from msi, including onboard audio (which i will later disable when shit is stable) and installed them - so far no blue screens.

i will leave the card out all night tonight and if i don't get reboots today or tomorrow, i'll stick it back in there... if i'm stable then awesome

really i'm just a dipshit for not downloading those right away

Pasha · Post by **Pasha** » Wed Sep 26, 2007 7:38 am

aburgener wrote:Vista didn't come preinstalled - this is scratch built desktop.

Motherboard: MSI P6N Platinum
Chipset: nVidia nForce 650i SLI
CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600
Corsair XMS2 DDR2 SDRAM - 2 x 1GB

I'm sure it's USBPORT.SYS

Pasha - like I said though, there are no USB peripherals installed right now.

You know, now that I think of it, I've flashed the BIOS to the latest version and installed the chipset drivers from the CD that came with the board - but I don't think I've grabbed the latest chipset drivers from MSI - will try that tonight.

Thank you for the replies - I just want this to be stable so I can start actually making some music...

I know you got no USB devices attached but the USB HUB in the Chipset IS an USB device and it's polled. I'm sorry to say that but to avoid conflicts of every kind it's always better to go for a motherboard with Intel Chipset on it,
to avoid potential OEM quirks. But as far as I see you got no BSOD or reboots by now so let's cross fingers. Check the Power Supply it's always considered of minor importance but can really make you crazy...

- Good Luck
-Keep in touch
- Pasha

aburgener · Post by **aburgener** » Wed Sep 26, 2007 2:12 pm

fuck this motherboard... i give up

Pasha · Post by **Pasha** » Thu Sep 27, 2007 2:15 pm

aburgener wrote:fuck this motherboard... i give up

If you can go for an Intel Motherboard. They offer less or no Overclocking options but stability is important for a Music system.
I'm sorry you went thru this, I remember when it was my turn to run on a VIA Chipset. Since then I never bought a non Intel chipset anymore.
However did you were able to determine if Live was the cause?

- Best
- Pasha

aburgener · Post by **aburgener** » Thu Sep 27, 2007 5:16 pm

Pasha,

That was posted in a moment of frustration... I'm not blaming my motherboard anymore.

I'm about 99% sure I just have a bad stick of RAM, if I take out the second DIMM then everything runs fine. I'm RMAing those and going with a different brand.

thanks

aburgener · Post by **aburgener** » Thu Sep 27, 2007 5:31 pm

It wouldn't make much sense to blame Live... everything points to hardware, as far as I can tell.

I think the only reason that Live is even a factor is because when Live is open, the system is actually "doing something"... reading and writing to memory more intensively than when the system is just sitting there idle.

Anyway, I was stable for a day or two with one DIMM pulled out, and i was constantly trying to get it to fuck up. Honestly when I was researching my errors, memory testing was almost always the first thing mentioned - i just assumed that wasn't the case for some reason and suspected other devices.

aburgener · Post by **aburgener** » Fri Sep 28, 2007 11:22 pm

Well, I put some new memory in there and everything appears to be alright so far. I may run some memory testing apps tonight just to be sure, but I'm feeling good about it..

aburgener · Post by **aburgener** » Fri Sep 28, 2007 11:23 pm

Oh and thank you Herne for suggesting bad physical memory like 35 posts ago...