BSOD Driver Power State Failure :/ (going on a full year now, lol)

Skeptikal585 · 27 Mar 2013

I ran the tests and no errors occurred. But no graphs either?

Either way, max temp this time was 74C.
Started at around 58C.
After 15 minutes it was up to 63C. Then I paid more attention to my homework :P

I used shader level 3 and got a solid 40 fps, it was aiming for 60 so I know my GPU was maxed out.
I did a full hour with zero errors.
And did 10 passes of the memory with zero errors.
No artifacts. No BSODs. And reasonable temps for the task it was handling.

Skeptikal585 · 27 Mar 2013

And a little sidenote, when it was all done, my computer started acting a little funny.
Just kinda sluggish mixed with taking a while to shut down.
And once it got back up, the Hardware monitor no longer showed any stats for my Gfx Card.
I'm gonna try a game of league and see if I get my normal fps.
I'll get back to you on if it ran smoothly.

Skeptikal585 · 27 Mar 2013

Well, my gfx did not load or is not taking over..

Skeptikal585 · 27 Mar 2013

And BSOD :P

WhoCrashed still knows nothing.
It says it's within the Windows kernal.

CUPID HW Monitor still does not recognize the sensors on my gfx card.

and I'll have a new SF Diagnostics soon.

Skeptikal585 · 27 Mar 2013

123

Skeptikal585 · 27 Mar 2013

Well, my graphics card is running again :)
140 fps in LoL

x BlueRobot · 28 Mar 2013

Code:

BugCheck 9F, {3, fffffa8007fbaa10, fffff80000b9c3d8, fffffa8009aadb10}

Unable to load image \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\nvlddmkm.sys, Win32 error 0n2
*** WARNING: Unable to verify timestamp for nvlddmkm.sys
*** ERROR: Module load completed but symbols could not be loaded for nvlddmkm.sys
Probably caused by : pci.sys

I went and obtained a raw stack text, and found some likely drivers:

Code:

fffff800`00b9c868  fffff880`0149951f Unable to load image \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\iaStor.sys, Win32 error 0n2
*** WARNING: Unable to verify timestamp for iaStor.sys
*** ERROR: Module load completed but symbols could not be loaded for iaStor.sys
 iaStor+0x2951f

Code:

0: kd> lmvm iaStor
start             end                 module name
fffff880`01470000 fffff880`015c4000   iaStor   T (no symbols)           
    Loaded symbol image file: iaStor.sys
    Image path: \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\iaStor.sys
    Image name: iaStor.sys
    Timestamp:        Tue Sep 14 02:23:32 2010 (4C8ECE94)
    CheckSum:         00073894
    ImageSize:        00154000
    Translations:     0000.04b0 0000.04e4 0409.04b0 0409.04e4

It's rather outdated and needs to be updated, follow these steps for installing the driver:

Start
Type: Device Manager
Expand Disk Devices
Remove all drivers for each device
Reboot - Windows should configure the msahci.sys driver automatically
Install latest iaStor.sys driver
Reboot

Intel® Rapid Storage Technology (Intel® RST) RAID Driver

You may want to roll back to the recommended driver on the Dell Alienware support page, here's the link:

NV Graphics Driver Update for Win 7 & Win 8 for Alienware M17xR3, M17xR4, M14x, M14xR2, M18x, M18xR2

carwiz · 28 Mar 2013

When I see BugCheck 0x9f involving the display driver and pci.sys, it more than likely indicates incompatible driver/BIOS. I checked the Dell site and there's several updates that you missed. I would also use the Nvidia drivers posted for your system directly from Dell along with the Vbios update. These OEM driver packages usually contain machine specific INF files for the chip set.

The complete list of updates for your system can be found at the Dell support website for your system. I would suggest that you, at least, download the following updates:

1. BIOS update to A12. Link.

2. Vbios Flash for GT460M. Link

3.NV Graphics Driver Update for Win 7 & Win 8 for Alienware M17xR3. Link.

Skeptikal585 · 28 Mar 2013

I'm doing three of updates you guys recommended now.
The NV Graphics Driver Update will take to long to download through my phone. I'll do that tomorrow.

Skeptikal585 · 28 Mar 2013

Just so you know, I have no idea how to read a BSOD readout like the one I gave you :P
And the DELL website is absolutely horrid to try and find if drivers are outdated..
The list I receive includes outdated and current drivers alike... haha

Also, the last time I talked to DELL (maybe 6 months ago?) they had me do a reinstall of Windows.. (Twice)
And they required themselves to install all of the current drivers.
Then they told me my system will stop having issues for a while.
It BSOD while I was still on the phone. lol.

That being said, you guys are awesome, :) and I hope you don't mind if we keep this up until my system is back to it's optimal workforce