NT gurus..what causes a Machine_Check_Exception?

[DarkSyd]

If I see Stop....0x0000009c yadda yadda yadda one more time I'm going to pitch the freaking thing out the window.
Just started happening since SP6..related to the 112mhz bus speed perhaps?
Going crazy....must get work done....

Thanks
DS

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Cel 266@448 on Asus P2b (1009), 128MB, OEM G400/16, Quantum Obsidian S12, Fujitsu 5.25gb, MX300, Dlink 530, Grey Cat, Orange Cat (still MIA)
--
Reports of Sig5.2x being 40% more interesting than Sig5.13 were greatly exaggerated...




[This message has been edited by DarkSyd (edited 25 November 1999).]

[PaulS]

Post the full text of the stop error and the module it occured in. A good many of the BSOD's I have come across are RAM related - maybe try some more conservative timings.

Paul

[DarkSyd]

Does that dump to a file somewhere? Or do you want the full 128mb user.dmp?

DS

[PaulS]

Right click on My Computer and change the startup and recovery options.

If the system is set to automatically reboot, clear this (temporarily at least).

Set it to write the event to the system log.

Get rid of the dump file.

Next time it happens, you *may* get the exact error in the system log (use the event viewer). Alternatively hand copy the text of the BSOD screen. The important bits are the 4 parameters after the stop error and the name of the module it occurred in.

If it always the 9C error, it probably is hardware (not a bad driver). The MS description is:

MACHINE_CHECK_EXCEPTION (0x9C)


A fatal Machine Check Exception has occurred.


KeBugCheckEx parameters:

If the processor has ONLY MCE feature available (For
example Intel Pentium), the parameters are:

1 - Low 32 bits of P5_MC_TYPE MSR
2 -
3 - High 32 bits of P5_MC_ADDR MSR
4 - Low 32 bits of P5_MC_ADDR MSR


If the processor also has MCA feature available (for
example, Intel Pentium Pro), the parameters are:


1 - Bank number
2 - Address field of MCi_ADDR MSR for the MCA bank that had
the error
3 - High 32 bits of MCi_STATUS MSR for the MCA bank that
had the error
4 - Low 32 bits of MCi_STATUS MSR for the MCA bank that
had the error

Have Fun!

Paul

[DarkSyd]

Scytale-
That is a possibility. I got the NT free with a student version of MS Visual J. If that is the case, can I just run the SP5 patch again to get rid of SP6, or do I have to completely reinstall?

Thanks guys.
DS

[Scytale]

Sorry DarkSyd, forget about the 'checked build' guess. I was wrong. I found that MACHINE_CHECK_EXCEPTION is a valid Pentium (family) exception after all (INT18), indicating a CPU/cache/memory failure...

The parameters of the exception (see Paul's post) contain an indication for the source of the problem, so if you manage to log these we should be able to find out what's going on.
On a seperate track - if you didn't change any hardware (or BIOS parameters) lately you may want to try reseating stuff (CPU/DIMMs/cards).

If you still want to try removing SP6, you should be able to do so using Control Panel->Add/Remove Programs, unless you explicitly instructed SP6 Setup not to make a backup.

[Scytale]

Looks like you're using a checked build of NT or some components. (The term checked build/version doesn't mean that MS did extra QA on it , it's just a funny way of saying debugging code.)

If you're not using checked components (to your knowledge) you may need to revert to SP5 + individual fixes.

[DarkSyd]

So far so good, wtih SP6 still installed
Got a couple of patches from KTX. Things looking much better now.

Thanks for the help guys...I still may have some underlying CPU/RAM probs, but right now they don't seem to be affecting anything (fingers crossed...)

DS