Very Weird Bsod Error!!

Question

Hi all,
  I have had my setup for about 6 months and have been satisfied with its performance and have had almost no problems.
Today a big problem came, I turned on my computer from a cold boot and after the windows xp splash screen was halfway done I hear a click from inside my case and then a blue screen of death on my monitor with MACHINE CHECK EXCEPTION.  I could do nothing but power it off and turn it back on.  When windows loaded successfully this time, I get the infamous "Your system has recovered from a serious error." message, and I could few the details but it looks scrambled and foreign to me, I don't know what the error is pointing at.
I am pretty sure this is a hardware error and I am leaning towards my harddrive because it is the oldest component I have and I have tested my ram with memtest and friends computers and no problems whatsoever.
I am stumped except for two possible solutions I could try:
1.  I read on this forum something about upping CPU voltage?  I have it at default 1.50V.  What should it be and will it do any harm?
2.  I currently have official bios 1.4.  I could flash to 1.5 to see if my problems are solved but I don't exactly know what has been fixed in the newest bios.
So being somebody who never got BSOD, and now I get them about once every 2 weeks and cannot get it to repeat because it is random at windows xp startup I am out of ideas.
Any help or insight appreciated.  Thanks in advance!!

Answer 1

I had a similar issue with a 32bit system that popped like that with a BSOD but I know something fried because of the burning smell. It worked fine after that and had the same issue...random BSOD's. I thought I inspected the board closely the first time and even when I decided to swap boards, the problem continued.
I kept the original board as I figured it was probably ok and would eventally use it. Well, it came time where I had the opportunity to use it and lo and behold, I found a burn mark hidden under a PCI slot.  Needless to say, I had it replaced under warranty.
Now I tested my RAM several times with  Memtest86 and recieved no errors, so I continued on until I recieved the board in my sig. I got new RAM for this rig and took my Abit AN7 and PC2700 RAM and assembled another PC for my son. Once I got up and running, I decided to do further in depth testing. I discovered I was able to get errors with certain timings during one spcific test pass. All others passed with various timings except  2 2 2 11 which I knw would pass on all similar systems. I had the RAM replaced under warranty and when I recieved the new modules 2 days later, it passed all my tests with flying colors. BSODS are now a thing of the past and that PC is a model of stability, I almost wish I kept it as I miss the nvidia onboard sound.
The moral here is that one simple test doesn't always reveal a problem, it's a great tool, but it's not a definitive catch all.
Just something to consider...
There may also be a driver or IRQ issue as well.
Post your IRQ's from System Information like this:
Heres mine
IRQ 0   System timer   OK
IRQ 1   Standard 101/102-Key or Microsoft Natural PS/2 Keyboard   OK
IRQ 4   Communications Port (COM1)   OK
IRQ 5   WinFast TV2000 XP WDM Audio Capture   OK
IRQ 6   Standard floppy disk controller   OK
IRQ 8   System CMOS/real time clock   OK
IRQ 9   Microsoft ACPI-Compliant System   OK
IRQ 11   NVIDIA nForce PCI System Management   OK
IRQ 12   PS/2 Compatible Mouse   OK
IRQ 13   Numeric data processor   OK
IRQ 14   NVIDIA nForce3 250 Parallel ATA Controller (v2.6)   OK
IRQ 15   NVIDIA nForce3 250 Parallel ATA Controller (v2.6)   OK
IRQ 16   RADEON X800 XT Platinum Edition   OK
IRQ 17   WinFast TV2000 XP WDM Video Capture   OK
IRQ 20   Standard OpenHCD USB Host Controller   OK
IRQ 21   Standard Enhanced PCI to USB Host Controller   OK
IRQ 22   NVIDIA Network Bus Enumerator   OK
IRQ 23   Standard OpenHCD USB Host Controller   OK
IRQ 23   NVIDIA(R) nForce(TM) MCP Audio Processing Unit   OK
The last two are normal as I've forced nVidia's sound drivers and Sound Control Panel so your's probably wont look the same. I don't recommend doing this, it was only an experiment and a crappy one at best.