Not OC'ed but still BSOD'ed

[SoothSayer]

I am currently NOT ocerclocked, and I am still *ROUTINELY* getting BSODs. Almost always with driver "portcls.sys".

I've been troubleshooting this for a while now, and I've already tried uninstalling & re-installing the latest drivers for the following...

Detonators
4in1's
SoundBlaster
Virus SCanner

I am running W2Kpro with all the latest service packs, critical & hot fixes, etc.

The BSODs happen regardless of the game I am playing (D2lod, RTCW, Giants, etc.) <haven't noticed any BSOD in Q3 tho><shrug>

N O T E: I've noticed that my monitor "clicks" and "resets" the image some times - especially at bootup when establishign the desktop. I am set at 1024x 32bit.

Any ideas?
:mad:

[azhari]

Two things that come to my mind:

1) Do you have the latest Highpoint drivers for your raid array?

2) 50C at full load is quite hot. This could be the reason for crashes when you're playing games. Games push your machine to the limit and heat is never good. You may want to upgrade to a better HSF or maybe watercooling if you're gonna oc.

[SoothSayer]

I am not currently using the RAID controller (IDE 3 & 4). I am using the standard IDE controller (IDE 1 & 2).

After the first 3 days of use, my temps dropped. My Max full load is now 109F (42c) Idle temp is 102F (38c). Guess I need to change my sig. :)

[azhari]

Ok, i just did a search on Yahoo for "portcls.sys" and came up with a bunch of hits where they talk about BSODs and Portcls.sys. I'm not sure exactly which one would apply to you, but if you give it a try you may find your solution. Good luck.

[SoothSayer]

Yes, I've searched on "portcls.sys" before. I get a bunch of info on saying that it is a miniport audio driver.

They suggest that the older SB drivers have a memory leak. But I've already installed the latest SB drivers for w2k.

I've even tried replacing the "portcls.sys" file from a working system (dif hardware tho)

And the only other avenue suggested by the search hits is to cal M$ and ask for a new updated hot-fix "portcls.sys" file that is not available to the public (meaning beta).

Is it ok to cry now? :(

[Mpegger]

On another board that deals with music, there have been alot of ppl with SB Live cards and W2k (WinME as well?) that have trouble all the time because of Creative's drivers. But if I remember correctly, its both the drivers AND the cards fault for this.

(I'm typing the rest from memory, so those who know better, please correct me!)

The SB Live card whenever accessed tries to "grab" the whole PCI bus for itself. In W2K this is a no-no, for you get either breaks in sound, programs that crash, lock-ups or in your case BSoD. Unfortunetly, (if I remember correctly) there is no real work-a-round currently except dual-booting (W2k-Win9X) or getting a different sound card.
But with WinXP out and the newer SB Live cards, Creative may finally release drivers that will work with W2k.
Maybe the WinXP drivers will work with W2K? :confused:

[SoothSayer]

We'll, I do know that W2k put PCI devices into a shared IRQ pool (on Irq 11 I think).

Is it possible to remove the SB from that pool (manually setting it's properties in devide manager like in Win95?) and put it on another IRQ, and if so, would that resolve this problem?

[6502kid]

You might also want to jank out your memory and reseat it.

It is probably a long shot, but I had some strange problems
such as that once with a new motherboard, and had to
reseat the dimm's 3 times before everything was stable.

They were real hard to push in on that board, but I didnt
change anything else, and it fixed all instablity....