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BSOD alternating between crashes in hal.dll and ntoskrnl.exe
I have been struggling with constant game freezes on my Nvidia GT 520 ever since I got it back at the beginning of this year. At first, all was fine but then I started playing some demanding games like Prince of Persia the Forgotten Sands and the 520, of course, couldn't run it at 60 fps but that was ok with me. A few weeks in, I started getting computer lag when playing the game. After something like 2 hours of playing, the screen would go black for a few seconds, then the game would resume. Ok, no big deal I guess the game install has a bug or something. If life were that easy. Eventually, the computer started all out just turning off when I played the game for a few hours. It didn't blue screen but it did sound loop and crash.
A few months ago, I decided that I had had enough. I bought a Diamond Radeon HD 7870 (upgrading my PSU of course) to try and fix the problem. If life were that easy. This time when I played video games, it would run everything I throw at it at 60 fps on max settings, it was a beast! ...for the first 2 minutes and then it crashed and boy was it messy, 100 percent fan and a sound loop, sounded like a leaf blower was inside there, scariest thing ever.
It was time to take action; I went benchmarking. Ran memtest for 7 hours, no errors. Downloaded diagnostics tool for my Hard Drive, no errors. Ran CPU benchmarks with AIDA 64, no errors (although the separate FPU test heated my CPU up quite a bit, I had to stop it. I also had problems when I ran Prime95 and my CPU temp shot up as well). Replaced PSU, problem persists. Switched the card to a GT 520, still the same problem, everything I had done had no effect. There was something going on here.
These crashes continued on and on and I had to endure them because I didn't have the time required to correctly diagnose what was going on but now that it's Winter Break, I hit it with full force because I don't want a 300 dollar paperweight in my computer.
I downloaded AppCrashView and BlueScreenView from Nirsoft and I looked at the error reports. Turns out, that sometimes the computer actually crashes but other times it just disconnects from my monitors. From the crash reports that I WAS able to extract, it turned out to be a 0x124 error which was a hardware error. I did a bit of searching and decided to do a system re-install, maybe it was a driver issue. Did it, didn't work.
I then decided to do another system re-install and put in my GT 520 with just its drivers on there, no AMD drivers. Did it, didn't work.
This time though, I'm getting a different error. Last time around (when my 7870 was in) BlueScreenView was telling me that hal.dll was causing the error with ntoskrnl.exe in second place on the list of files at the bottom. This time with the 520 in, the error is caused by ntoskrnl.exe with hal.dll in second place. The files alternate when I switch cards. WTF!
Another tid-bit that threw me off is that when I run furmark benchmark on my 7870, it runs fine until I turn on the "Dynamic Camera" option which is when it disconnects/crashes within the first few seconds. All the other benchmarks are fine, the only one that fails is Furmark but it's obviously not a graphics card problem.
TL;DR: EVGA GT 520 causing crashes. Switched with Diamond Radeon HD 7870, same thing only crashes appeared faster. Diagnostics and benchmarks ran fine (except maybe for CPU) only thing that crashes is Furmark and only when Dynamic Camera is selected. Re-installed windows to clear drivers, installed latest Catalyst drivers: same crashes. Re-installed windows again, switched in my GT 520, installed only its drivers: still crashing although it actually displays a blue screen as opposed to just turning off as happened with the Radeon HD 7870. BlueScreenView said hal.dll caused crashes with ntoskrnl.exe in second place, while when I switched in the GT 520, ntroskrnl.exe was causing the crashes with hal.dll in second.
Attached is my SF Diagnostic while I'm using the GT 520
System Specs are here:
HP Pavilion p6740f Magnesium Gray Edition Desktop PC Product Specifications HP Pavilion p6740f Desktop PC | HP® Support
Only thing I've added is the Radeon HD 7870/GT 520 and a PSU that is the Silencer MK II 750 watt.
The bottom line is that I am getting errors that look like a graphics card fault when they clearly aren't can anyone shed some light as to what might be causing this?
Last edited by gogonimago; 27 Dec 2012 at 13:59. Reason: Added msinfo32 files