Feel my pain...

edited March 2007 in Chit chat
...or sit back and laugh yourself sick.

Recently upgraded to XP Pro. Getting intermittent crashes/reboots - nothing in event manager.

OK reinstall the nvidia drivers.

BSOD on every reboot with PICDE.SYS

Same with Safe Mode and Last known good just goes black and hangs.

F*** I am in hell.
Post edited by dekh on

Comments

  • edited March 2007
    Are you certain it's that filename, and not PCIIDE.SYS?

    I can find no reference to PICDE.SYS
  • edited March 2007
    Can you post the BSOD error code? (they're mostly in 0x123456AB format e.g. 0x0000008E)
  • edited March 2007
    Those error codes are actually useful? I thought they were just some in-joke between support geeks that translates as: 'Ha this sod is buggered, this PC will never work again!' and 'Tell the fool to reinstall everything again, like it will make any difference whatsoever....'

    It just goes to show, you live and you learn...
  • edited March 2007
    Windows is funny. I once installed XP Pro on an fresh disk, and got a problem with file-requesters showing only the lower half of the filenames.

    I re-installed Xp again from the same cd, with the same hardware, and then it worked fine.

    Who knows, if you install it from scratch once more, maybe it'll work.
  • edited March 2007
    Well, you can search them out at:

    * the Microsoft's page - definitely USELESS, they tell you it's a device driver error etc, rarely they're accurate

    * Google - you might find other guys having same or similar problems with maybe helpful solutions from the others
  • edited March 2007
    Recently upgraded to XP Pro. Getting intermittent crashes/reboots - nothing in event manager.

    I did the same and had the same problem. BSOD every 5 - 10 minutes, CD's would fail to verify after burning, all kinds of problems. I believe some may be documented on here as I was REALLY annoyed at the time and came here for advice. Anyway, I eventually found the problem to be bad RAM. Replaced my 256M strip with a new pair of 256Mb ones and have never had any real problems since.

    OK reinstall the nvidia drivers.

    Think I read somewhere that Nvidia drivers cause problems - howeever, my 440 Mx (I think) drivers work fine and have never caused a problem. What Nvidia drivers do you need? I could send you mine if your card isn't reasonably new :)


    F*** I am in hell.


    Hell? Hell ain't a bad place, according to Iron Maiden :D

    Whilst I don't regret upgrading to XP Pro from 98SE, the way was not a smooth ride. I tried at least 5 times to get XP onto the system and get it stable, and failed. It wasn't until the RAM change that things went reasonably smoothly. 98SE was having probblems too, so it wasn't XP being overly fussy or anything. That bad RAM really was hard to track down, as several RAM test programs I had all said the RAM was ok. I have to admit, I probably would never have changed to XP if I didn't have to - it's made a lot of my most used software pretty useless (Taper is a good example). I always find that XP holds your hand too much.
    Oh bugger!<br>
  • edited March 2007
    First time it stopped on NVAPU.SYS

    All subsequent time :

    PCIIDE.SYS
    0x0000007e

    Managed to get back into the machine so I've recovered all my junk. I'd managed 7 whole days without doing a backup and then fizz. Must be more thorough in future.

    Keep getting enexpected errors in FireFox too.

    Managed to reinstall Asus version of the nvidia drivers so I'm gonna play with the memory. Maybe juggling?

    The problem I was trying to fix is intermittent stops. I ran the machine on test for 3 - 4 days. I found some data no one seemed to want and streamed it. And also did the usual stuff - surf email word excel at the same time. Not a hiccup. After 4 days. switch off for a couple of hours. reboot - 5 minutes later just email and WOS I think. Crash.

    Maybe it's WOS?
  • edited March 2007
    DEATH wrote: »
    Anyway, I eventually found the problem to be bad RAM. Replaced my 256M strip with a new pair of 256Mb ones and have never had any real problems since.

    Same here, I think I covered it in my precious PC problems thread. I switched the RAM and it works ok now. Haven't had any BSOD for months now.
    DEATH wrote:
    OK reinstall the nvidia drivers.

    Think I read somewhere that Nvidia drivers cause problems - howeever, my 440 Mx (I think) drivers work fine and have never caused a problem. What Nvidia drivers do you need? I could send you mine if your card isn't reasonably new :)

    I have the same GFX card :) I use the windows default NVidia drivers. Can't be arsed to update it because it was the new drivers that caused me most of the GFXcard-based BSODs and infinite loop errors.

    dekh wrote: »
    First time it stopped on NVAPU.SYS

    All subsequent time :

    PCIIDE.SYS
    0x0000007e

    The 0x0000007e error can be caused by the following:

    -damaged BIOS or pagefile
    -Video drivers
    -Faulty RAM
    -Other driver issue
    but it most cases it indicated RAM, Pagefile or BIOS error.

    The PCIIDE.SYS file is a Generic PCI IDE Bus Driver. SO something with the IDE Bus? I don't know for sure.
    dekh wrote:

    Managed to get back into the machine so I've recovered all my junk. I'd managed 7 whole days without doing a backup and then fizz. Must be more thorough in future.

    Keep getting enexpected errors in FireFox too.

    Managed to reinstall Asus version of the nvidia drivers so I'm gonna play with the memory. Maybe juggling?

    The problem I was trying to fix is intermittent stops. I ran the machine on test for 3 - 4 days. I found some data no one seemed to want and streamed it. And also did the usual stuff - surf email word excel at the same time. Not a hiccup. After 4 days. switch off for a couple of hours. reboot - 5 minutes later just email and WOS I think. Crash.

    Maybe it's WOS?

    If you are gettin all these errors, first try formatting and installing XP again. If you still get errors, try changing the RAM, hopefully it'll work.
  • edited March 2007
    I've had no end of problems with my nvidia drivers. Last time it crashed repeatedly I had to revert back to an older set of drivers.

    If you can boot to safe mode, try disabling the nvidia card and reboot. If you can do this 5 times in a row but fail when you have the card enabled you can blame the video drivers.

    DEATH makes a good point about memory card issues. They are a b***h to pin-point. Usually, if it's an unstable system it's probably memory problems.
  • edited March 2007
    I have had no problems with Nvidia drivers for... well... always. I've never had any drivers that caused crashes.

    Memory problems? I can go one better. I had a memory SLOT that was faulty, and it took me over a month to work out that problem!
  • edited March 2007
    Memtest86 and/or Memtest86+ should help determine whether or not it's a memory-related issue.
  • edited March 2007
    StuBruise wrote: »
    Memtest86 and/or Memtest86+ should help determine whether or not it's a memory-related issue.

    You'd think, but it never helped me with my problem, nor did it help to find my friends who did have a dodgy RAM chip.
  • edited March 2007
    I'd already run memtest (admittedly only 2 passes) but with 3 GB to check, that's forever...

    Current favorite is the nvidia drivers. I think in my eagerness to get the 120+ patches on after SP2 I agreed to install some hardware drivers from MS.

    Whilst attempting to get BF1942 to work I noticed the Display adapter drivers had acquired an MS signature. So I've gone to Nvidia direct and got their drivers (again). So far fingers crossed...

    Id only decided to install BF1942 coz it hammers the crap out of memory/processor and graphics card. Honest gov.

    No doubt my next post will be $#1+ it's all fubar again.

    I notice MS Update is trying to foist "New" nvidia drivers on me again...

    Not a happy bunny. But thanks a heap for all the help! :)
  • edited March 2007
    You have HOW MUCH RAM? I'm green! I think it's envy, but it may have been the sausage roll I had for lunch ....... :D
    Oh bugger!<br>
  • edited March 2007
    3 of these :

    http://www.crucial.com/uk/store/mpartspecs.aspx?mtbpoid=14B96AAAA5CA7304

    65536 times more ram than the speccy (48) had.

    I'm not affiliated with Crucial in any way. Kingston are also a reputable supplier. And I'm not being paid for the add. I will add that although crucials system scanner is useful it is not accurate, it quite often gets the memory config wrong.

    I could probably get away with 1 GB but I don't like waiting for my disk to swap or restricting the number of open apps.

    Anyway, I've got to give all my spyware something reasonable to work with :)
  • edited March 2007
    You'd think, but it never helped me with my problem, nor did it help to find my friends who did have a dodgy RAM chip.

    As with all computer-related things, YMMV; it diagnosed a friend's faulty RAM and was invaluable for tracking down what turned out to be a memory-related problem of mine.

    dekh: Have you tried swapping out various combinations of RAM? If you find a single stick that consistently causes crashes (or Memtest does eventually find some faulty RAM) then you know that you can get a free replacement from Crucial don't you? (I only ask because said friend with faulty RAM didn't know you could -- didn't bloody buy me a pint with the money he saved though did he, grumble grumble etc.)
  • edited March 2007
    Yep, I know, but I'm betting it's the nvidia display adapter drivers foisted on me by MS update.

    Well I'm hoping anyway.
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