Blue Screens and IRQ sharing? DP35DP

[Andy_F]

Until recently i'd never had a blue screen and the computer was build in 2008, used daily..

The recent changes are that ive added a second scope pci card and started using Scope ASIO

My system..

Intel Q6600
Intel DP35DP
2GB Corsair RAM
NVIDIA GeForce PCX 5300
- Running Win XP Service Pack 2 and Scope 5
RME Fireface 400 (Synced Master via ADAT) Pulsar 2 and Scope pci cards (slave to RME Fireface)
2x UAD-1e PCIe cards

So far ive had these blue screen error messages
- driver corrupted scscope.sys STOP 0x0000008E
- kernal.data.inpage.error atapi.sys STOP 0x0000007A
(ive written down the full messages in case anyone needs more info?)

The first would happen randomly with the ASIO driver in Cubase, sometimes my own fault for not loading the scope asio modules first or changing drivers with everything loaded.
But has also happened with normal use such as building something Modular 3, scope would crash giving me the windows error report box. Then suddenly BSOD

The second one happened last night with the whole system freezing and this morning the computer wouldnt boot at all saying "system32\config\system is corrupted"
I managed to repair with my windows disc and started to back up important things, soon after it went with the same blue screen.

Im not sure if that second one is scope related although ive done some reading online and found it could be a hard drive issue...
My pulsar 2 card is sharing IRQ with the SATA controllers, could this be the problem?

Im thinking about a totally fresh install on a new hard disk but just wanted to see if anybody here knows about these errors?

[Andy_F]

Here are screen grabs from the hardware conflicts screen

irq 1.JPG (108.76 KiB) Viewed 2890 times

irq 2.JPG (52.73 KiB) Viewed 2890 times

Ive already disabled some USB controllers and managed to get the big scope card not sharing with anything else (IRQ 22)

Its just the Pulsar 2 sharing with those SATA controllers im not sure about and also whether that graphics card is causing problems? I dont know anything about graphics cards and only bought that in 2005 so i could run dual screens.

[next to nothing]

Just some quick tips

- Did you add any hardware lately?
- Have you tried re-seating the Scope cards? They might be slightly out of the socket.
- Oh, and also try running an antivirus, just to rule that out.

[Andy_F]

Thanks for the reply.
Only hardware ive added is the new Scope board, i'll try taking them all out and re-seating.

Ive got that freeware Malware bytes virus checker which has not found anything, the computer is not on the internet so virus checker will probably need an update. I think i might put a different one like AVG on just to check.

Ive also just checked the hard drive with the seagate test tool and it passes 100%

My only other theory could be that my 430W PSU is under powered, ive heard that can lead to this sort of instability

[garyb]

if you are not using those sata ports, they can also be disabled, but that's not the cause of your problem, there's no irq sharing issue to be seen.

it's possible that the power supply ifs giving you trouble, but it's big enough if it's a name brand, first quality one(no harm in a bigger one for sure).

blue screens are usually hardware issues. you might have a bad motherboard(unlikely), ram or videocard. you can try with one stick at a time, and maybe swap out a video card to be sure.

what versions of software are you using? if it's cubase 4 or 5 and Scope 4x, did you try the asio patch?

unfortunately, the error code probably won't tell what really went wrong. we'll have to slueth it.

[Andy_F]

Thanks for taking time to read and reply Gary

The PSU is a Antec Truepower 430. Ive used their power calculator and it recommended i use a 650W PSU.
I do get the feeling their calculator may be over estimating a little but i dont think its a bad idea getting a new one just to be sure.

Main software is Scope v5 and Cubase 4

So IRQ sharing with SATA is fine?

The Pulsar 2 card is currently in the 1st (top) pci slot but could be put in the 3rd slot which is on IRQ 18, i wasnt sure which would be best as either way something is shared.

Im just doing a fresh Windows install now and cleaned both cards gold contacts, re-seated I/O boards etc

Could be the graphics card as ive had other strange graphics glitches but i dont have any other to try.
Is there a relatively cheap graphics card that many scope pci/intel dp35dp users have success with?

Hopefully the fresh install and card reseating will solve it.. i'll post back when ive tested it out but its one of those random occurrences so hard to test

[dbmac]

The Pulsar 2 card is currently in the 1st (top) pci slot but could be put in the 3rd slot which is on IRQ 18, i wasnt sure which would be best as either way something is shared.

I think PCI slots 2 & 3 are your best choice. PCI slot 3 will share IRQ18 with some USB controllers, so make sure any hardware using those ports is set up before installing the Scope board.
I have 3 scope boards on an Intel DP35DP, working fine.

Is there a relatively cheap graphics card that many scope pci/intel dp35dp users have success with?

I'm using an Asus (NVidia Geforce) 8600 dual head - cheap, works.

/dave

[garyb]

yeah, the graphics card is probably bad if there've been glitches. probably, you're using cpu for graphics. you should be able to get a nice nvidia based card for less than $100 with 512mb of onboard memory and that'll work great.

[Andy_F]

Ive given my system a much needed fresh install, reseated cards and currently running ok, slowly reintroducing different bits of hardware.
So at the moment i dont have the UAD cards, RME Fireface or an older IDE HDD connected.

Ive ordered a new more powerful PSU as well, so far so good

[garyb]

keep us informed...

[Andy_F]

I had a couple of blue screens with the new windows install.

When shutting the computer down Scope prompts to save the project and if you dont click yes or no in time, the box changes to "not responding"
Well a couple of times this has ended up with a blue screen saying driver corrupted.


I fitted the new PSU yesterday and have been using the computer all day today without any problems so far. Also updated to Cubase 4.5 rather than 4.1 i had previously.

[garyb]

of course you close Cubase before closing Scope, no?

[Andy_F]

Yeah Cubase always closed first.
But in the past a Cubase crash has caused the blue screen as well.

It does seem to follow the "not responding" error message

[Andy_F]

Im now running the RME Fireface off a PCI to FW card and have disabled the on board FW.

Had a busy studio session the other day and not a single problem

Im still not sure what the problem was but more than likely the combination of underpowered PSU and using that onboard FW. Even the Cubase update helped though.

Thanks again for all the advice