Windows Critical Stop (blue screen o' death)

Bill Doughty · Post by **Bill Doughty** » Mon Jan 05, 2004 7:34 pm

Hi,

I have been getting blue screens lately at 'pseudo-random' times. I say 'pseudo-random' because though they occur without any obvious preconditions, they always occur when I am taking action with the mouse within the RoutingWindow, either actually routing a device or just manipulating a Bypass button in a MultiFX box or doing some other such internal routing-type thingy. The blue screen message is

DRIVER_CORRUPT_MMPOOL

I've seen others but not this one before. Other info is that this just started occurring fairly recently on my Pulsar I board. I just replaced my Pulsar I today with a Scope board (PowerPulsar) and I still have the problem (I was really hoping I wouldn't!). It doesn't occur frequently enough to drive me crazy, but it's annoying enough that I'd like to figure it out.

Anyone else ever seen this?

Cheers,
Bill

wayne · Post by **wayne** » Mon Jan 05, 2004 7:58 pm

G'day Bill

What is your machine's specs ?

Counterparts · Post by **Counterparts** » Tue Jan 06, 2004 3:46 am

Hi there

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/defau ... s_3e07.asp

Explains it quite well - its most likely going to be the creamware driver(s) that are the problem, but you can use Driver Verifier (referenced in above page) to see which driver is corrupting the pool.

Probably best to uninstall & then reinstall the drivers.

HTH,

Royston

Music Manic · Post by **Music Manic** » Tue Jan 06, 2004 5:20 am

MMPOOL is a memory problem.

Bill Doughty · Post by **Bill Doughty** » Tue Jan 06, 2004 9:50 am

OK, thanks guys. Just for reference, I have the Abit NF7 mainboard with 1GB dual-channel mem, Win XP home, Athlon 2500 - no overclocking. I have a pretty full PCI bus, but the Creamware board gets its own IRQ. I have virtual memory turned off to minimize the size of my system partition for easy cloning/backup/emergency restore. Don't see a need for virtual mem with a gig of RAM anyway...(right?)

Royston, that's a particularly big help. I searched microsoft's support page (not MSDN) and could find nothing. Very nice to know about the MSDN database. This is EXACTLY the kind of info I was looking for. The Driver Verifier tool looks quite slick. Thank you!

I will advise of my findings.

cheers,
Bill

Post by **garyb** » Tue Jan 06, 2004 12:45 pm

a lot of apps just won't run right without virtual memory.(logic and samplitude won't do certain off-line calculations for instance)

Bill Doughty · Post by **Bill Doughty** » Wed Jan 21, 2004 5:16 pm

I just wanted to update this thread with my findings. Using the information from Microsoft that Royston pointed me too, I was able to eliminate my problem. Since changing the registry value 'ProtectNonPagedPool' to 1, I have not experienced the blue screen. This has been true for 12 days running (using SFP everyday). Used to get the blue screen at least once a day, usually more. All researched indicators point to a problem in the SFP WDM driver, but this workaround seems to be solid.

I'm very happy about this. Thanks again for your help, guys.

Bill

ThingsGoBoom · Post by **ThingsGoBoom** » Thu Jan 22, 2004 4:37 am

Following this thread and been giving some usefull info, thanks, maybe you guys know what the following message means which I received after my blue screen: IO system verification error in SynasUSB.sys (WDM driver error 21f) [SynasUSB.sys+3380 at F77FA380]

Can't really figure out what it is.
Anyone?

Andre.

Counterparts · Post by **Counterparts** » Thu Jan 22, 2004 7:03 am

ThingsGoBoom wrote:

IO system verification error in SynasUSB.sys (WDM driver error 21f) [SynasUSB.sys+3380 at F77FA380]

Hi there

I think that SynasUSB.sys is the SX dongle driver (or the USB bit of it...) synsoacc.dll is the other one, IIRC.

I've found one here:

http://thesystemzone.free.fr/LIBRARIES/Libraries.htm

SynasUSB.sys+3380 - I think that's like a DLL entry point and 'at F77FA380' is (was) its address.

As for the 21f error code...I'll have to locate a WDM driver book to look that up!

There's a spanish web page (badly translated) that indicates a problem with this sys file:

http://translate.google.com/translate?h ... oe%3Dutf-8

There's also a thread on steinberg.net that mentions this sys file...from what I've read there, I would try:

uninstall cubase
remove dongle
re-install cubase
restart computer
insert dongle

HTH!

Royston

ThingsGoBoom · Post by **ThingsGoBoom** » Thu Jan 22, 2004 7:29 am

Hi royston,

Thanks for your reply!

I'll try your hints and get back as soon as I,ve tried it.
Fingers crossed, I'm getting tired of the blue screens.
However, there seems to be something wrong with my USB in/out. Everytime I insert the SX dongle or something else, an MT4, the blue screen appears. Already de and re-installed drivers for both apps but doesn't work.

i'll keep you posted.

Andre.

ThingsGoBoom · Post by **ThingsGoBoom** » Thu Jan 22, 2004 9:10 am

Didn't do the job.
Very strange thing.
Guess it's a complete reinstall over again.
It also seems that my USB standard and USB enhanced controller switched IRQ address.
very strange.

Anyway, thanks for the cooperation royston.

Andre.

Counterparts · Post by **Counterparts** » Thu Jan 22, 2004 9:11 am

Ouch. Sounds like a system re-install / repair is on the cards

I've looked up the error code over lunchtime:

"STATUS_REPLY_MESSAGE_MISMATCH error / status

// MessageText:
//
// {Reply Message Mismatch}
// An attempt was made to reply to an LPC message, but the thread specified
by the client ID in the message was not waiting on that message.
//"

That's the *official* meaning. Driver vendors often re-use these error messages for their own meanings; if this is the case then the only way to find out what it means is to contact the authors of the driver!

Good luck to you

Royston

ThingsGoBoom · Post by **ThingsGoBoom** » Thu Jan 22, 2004 9:39 am

Thanks again for the replay!
I've been having problems for a couple of weeks now, not only this but also freezes with SX and Wavelab not recording properly but with a lot of crackles. System is well tweaked, cards are properly seated, everything on it's own IRQ etc. Even did a complete reinstall on new system drive and installed new fan and heatsink on Intel CPU. thought I had the system running properly the last days but no.
Back to the vendor.

Andre.

Counterparts · Post by **Counterparts** » Thu Jan 22, 2004 12:33 pm

Counterparts wrote:

SynasUSB.sys+3380 - I think that's like a DLL entry point and 'at F77FA380' is (was) its address.

I was completely wrong!

A more learned collegue had this to say:

"Its the offset from the base of the code segment in the sys file to the instruction that caused a problem. If there is a .PDB file you could probably get back to the source code that caused the problem with
that offset. If a .MAP file is available you could get the offending function. Given that fault message any competent driver write with the symbols and source code to the driver should be able to figure out whats
wrong."

'nuf

Royston

ThingsGoBoom · Post by **ThingsGoBoom** » Thu Jan 22, 2004 1:16 pm

Hi Royston,

Once again, thanks for the trouble.
Installed everything again on a 2nd system disk which works and made a clone to the first one after formatting. Having two system disks seems like a good thing. At least I know that one is always working. You don't need system restore that way which should be off anyway. Maybe our own studio systems engineer would be a good idea.

Counterparts · Post by **Counterparts** » Fri Jan 23, 2004 5:15 am

Two happy endings in one thread!

It's that Friday Feeling...

Royston

hearnm · Post by **hearnm** » Sat Sep 04, 2004 3:15 pm

Hi,

I have just finished building a new PC with the following spec, and am experiencing the MMPOOL error (so far only when I am powering down the computer):

P4 3.2 GHZ Prescott
Intel D875PBZ motherboard
1 gig Corsair Twin X Pro memory
Radeon 9600XT graphics
Maxtor 60 gig IDE HD
Western Digital 120 gig IDE HD
Windows XP Pro

My IRQ assignment is as follows (I disabled two USB controllers in order to have the Creamware cards on individual IRQ's without sharing with anything else. I couldn't, however, get them to share the SAME IRQ):

0 - System timer
1 - PS2 keyboard
6 - Floppy disk controller
8 - System CMOS / real time clock
12 - PS2 mouse
13 - Numeric data processor
14 - Primary IDE channel
15 - Secondary IDE channel
5 - Intel SMBUS controller
9 - Powersampler
10 - Pulsar II
11 - USB host controller
11 - USB host controller
11 - Radeon 9600 Series

The PC is running in Standard mode with all usual XP tweaks carried out. I tried running the Driver Verifier program to try to identify the problem causing the MMPOOL error, as suggested in an earlier thread. When the computer restarted it didn't make it to Windows but instead displayed a blue screen with the following message:

IO SYSTEM VERIFICATION ERROR in alcacr.sys (WDM DRIVER ERROR 20E) [alcacr.sys+46c at F7B2146C]

Does anyone have any idea what this means, and how to get around it??

I have tried uninstalling and re-installing both Creamware cards but it has not fixed the problem.

Can anyone suggest a solution?

Kind regards,

Michael