Complete Freeze up's - No BSOD - possible cause = WMP - Update

Morning all,

I've had this problem for a while now and it's really annoying me.

I get random and total lock up's sometimes, no bsod, and the only way to resolve the problem is to press the restart button. I'm running Vista HP 32-bit atm. I am now SURE it is WMP 11 causing the problem as this has been open, in some way, shape, or form every time it happens. This could range from streaming radio in an embedded player to watching an avi or a dvd.

I'm not sure when exactly this started but I have a sneaky suspicion it maybe to do with my Creative X-fi music. I've rolled back drivers, uninstalled everytihng to do with it, updated, the works, nothing solves it.

I've done it with all the gfx drivers too just to be sure.

I was contemplating formatting and going to 64-bit anyway as there are now stable drivers for more or less all the hardware I have, but regardless of 32-bit or 64-bit, do you think a format might help it out?

 

I now think this is solely a wmp issue as I don't get problems with VLC.

EDIT:


might give that a go then.

Even so, still have't got a real solution to this, really has no one got any ideas?!!?

 

Oooook, it's still doing it.

It's definitely only wmp that is affected, but it is happening more and more frequently now.

Any idea's?

 

I don't have an X-Fi card, but do have a couple of ideas.

Try putting the card in another PCI slot (and resetting IRQ allocations in the BIOS if possible), or installing the ALchemy software if you haven't already, info available here:
http://forums.creative.com

 

Have you removed the card and drivers to see if that stops the lockups?

I had a problem with my wife's new laptop and had to do a system restore to get it working without any BSODs.

Have you examined the event viewer?

Andy

 

Andy, what's the event viewer? I seem to remember something about this but cannot find it for the life of me.

I was thinking about physically removing it and the drivers, rolling back to before it was installed and then try it out again.

I wish I was getting BSOD's, it just stops completely with no warning, how frustrating!

I don't know if I'll be able to put the card in a different slot due to other cards in there but I'll give it my best shot.

 

Type Event Viewer into the vista search box in the start menu. You can view system event logs for Application, Security, System etc..

 

awesome, I'll check this out when i get back from work and let you know what I find out.

 

Why not just use something other than WMP11? Mplayerc + winamp Cheesecake.

 

I like wmp11 though, it makes me happy!

 

OK, been in the event viewer, found this just before it froze today, there were 6 events like this, all reporting different PCI slot numbers, looking at previous crash events, this has happened before, but there are also different errors (I think):

IRQARB: ACPI BIOS does not contain an IRQ for the device in PCI slot 24, function 0. Please contact your system vendor for technical assistance.

This is the full error report:

Code:

+ System 

  - Provider 

   [ Name]  ACPI 
 
  - EventID 6 

   [ Qualifiers]  49157 
 
   Level 2 
 
   Task 0 
 
   Keywords 0x80000000000000 
 
  - TimeCreated 

   [ SystemTime]  2008-02-18T19:31:35.030Z 
 
   EventRecordID 24525 
 
   Channel System 
 
   Computer powerhouse 
 
   Security 
 

- EventData 

    
   IRQARB 
   24 
   0 
   000000000400300000000000060005C0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Binary data:


In Words

0000: 00000000 00300004 00000000 C0050006 
0008: 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 
0010: 00000000 00000000   


In Bytes

0000: 00 00 00 00 04 00 30 00   ......0.
0008: 00 00 00 00 06 00 05 C0   .......À
0010: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ........
0018: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ........
0020: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ........

SO, I'm going to uninstall the drivers, take out the card, system restor to happier times and update the bios.

Does anyone think that is the wrong way round of doing things?

 

If you're happy doing all that, I don't see a problem with the order. If you can, to be on the safe side, stick the card in a different PCI slot when you put it back in. Or at least check the motherboard manual and make sure it's not sharing an IRQ where it is.

 

hmmm hadn't thought of that IRQ conflict, yes I'll swap the extra usb ports around so I can put the sound car in a different slot.

I probably won't get round to formatting until the weekend, but i'll try the other steps tomorrow night when I've got some time and then I'll report back.