Strange BSOD

[DrNil]

Hi. I installed the latest revision of XMP in my XP SP2 system with all current patches. My system's specs are as follows:

Chassis: Alienware® Full-Tower Case - Space Black
Power Supply: 650 Watt Power Supply
Processor: Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor 560 w/ HT Technology 3.6GHz 1MB Cache
Motherboard: Alienware® PCI Express Motherboard with Intel® 925X Chipset
Memory: 1GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz - 2 x 512MB
Video Card: NVIDIA® GeForce™ 6800 GT PCI Express 256MB DDR3 w/Digital and S-Video Out
System Drive: High Performance - Serial ATA - 74GB Western Digital® Raptor™ 10,000 RPM w/8MB Cache
Storage Drive: Additional Storage Drive - 250GB Western Digital Caviar® SE 7,200 RPM w/8MB Cache
Optical Drive One: Plextor® PX-712A 12x DVD±R/W Drive
Optical Drive Two: Plextor® PlexWriter Premium 52x32x52x CD-RW Drive
Floppy Drive: 3.5" 1.44 MB Floppy Disk Drive - Black
Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster® Audigy® 2 ZS High Definition 7.1 Surround
Network Connection: Integrated High Performance Gigabit Ethernet Adapter
White AlienWiring: AlienWiring - Exclusive Internal Wire Management

OK, with this outta the way, I will explain the problem. First I must say that this box had never experienced BSODs before, and I have been using it for nearly 2 years. No other software was installed that could feasible conflict with XMP either.


I have configured XMP to my liking and chosed as device the Audigy 2 ZS. Everything seems to be going normally when I get a bad_pool_caller stop message and my box BSODs. My initial thought (although the message in the BSOD referenced a "device driver") was RAM failure, so I ran diagnostics on my 2 modules and they are fine. As I stated earlier, I had never encountered these  problems prior to switching from WMP10 to XMP. I don't believe that WMP is conflicting at all BTW.

I would be most appreciative if someone could shed some light on this occurrence, since now my music listening pleasure has taken a hit, since I am constantly waiting for that BSOD to happen again (it happened twice in 1 week). I've done chkdsk /r via RC and nothing was amiss either.

Thanks for your help.

[Torkell]

Reading through the support docs on that stop error shows that it's usually caused by badly written drivers screwing up their memory manaegment. Have a look and see if there's new drivers for your sound card and/or graphics card.

[DrNil]

Hi and thanks for the reply. I have the latest stable and certified drivers for my nVidia card, so I doubt those would cause such problem. As far as the Audigy drivers, there aren't really new ones, and I have just the drivers installed without the rest of the garbage creative thinks it's cool to install. I've never had any problems with them in the past, however the most obvious reason for the problem would point in that direction. Unfortunately there is nothing I can do since there aren't any new drivers, plus new doesn't really mean better. I was thinking that perhaps a setting in XMP was trying to access a virtual address already occupied, and was hoping that the dev might have an idea about it.

[Dotpitch]

A program can hardly create a BSOD on WinXP, most of the time it's drivers or failing hardware. Did you install anything else just before you started getting BSODs?
I've never seen XMPlay crash while playing regular music on WinXP. When does it occur? Like, at a song change, at a specific file, sample rate change, certain user actions?

Could be your Audigy btw:
http://www.techspot.com/vb/all/windows/t-14814-What-is-bad_pool_caller.html (bottom of the page)

[DrNil]

Hi. An application can cause a BSOD, although it's much more common for drivers to be the culprit. The BSODs occurred after I started using XMP (twice in a week). No other soft was installed. It happens during playback, not when changing songs. I was stunned to see the BSOD the 1st time it happened as I was typing a reply in a message board whilst listening to music. I have looked for answers to this problem before posting here, so I did run diagnostics soft from a bootable CD and there is no indication at all that it is a HW problem.

I'll check your link now. Thanks for posting.

[DrNil]

Hi again. Those drivers for the Audigy are the very same ones I have installed in my system. I have been testing music files (MP3s, FLAC, MPC, etc) in WMP without a problem, so I must conclude that there is something in the way XMP either caches data, or accesses virtual memory addresses, that causes the drivers to freak out and BSODs my machine. I am aware that Creative is not quite adept nor helpful with their driver support, yet it only occurs when using XMP.

[Ian @ un4seen]

Most of the time, I'm using the same soundcard (Audigy2ZS) and OS (XP SP2) and a P4 with HT, and have never seen a BSOD while using XMPlay. As has been said, it's very unlikely for any application to cause a BSOD on XP.

Have you always gotten the BSOD with XMPlay, and if not, did you install any new hardware or drivers betwen the time it didn't and the time it did?

One thing you could try is using another player that uses Waveout output (not DirectSound), eg. Winamp with the output set to Waveout.

[DrNil]

Hi and thanks for taking part on this thread. No, I haven't installed any HW or SW at all. It happens with XMP randomly. I could be just listening to music, or using EditPlus to code some HTML, it just happens.

I have been using WMP10 with no problems, but I dislike it very much. I could start using Foobar again, but I would rather not. Unfortunately the uninstall process for the Crteative drivers and sundries is a nightmare, as I would need to uninstall them via Device Manager, as there is no entry at all in the Add & Remove Programmes applet. In any case, what truly puzzles me is why does it not happen with WMP and it does with XMPlay?

[Dotpitch]

In any case, what truly puzzles me is why does it not happen with WMP and it does with XMPlay?

...Waveout output (not DirectSound)...

WMP is completely DirectSound... probably the drivers have some problem with WaveOut. Pretty nasty if it's true though, you'd expect it to run without problems .

[Rah'Dick]

One more reason to get DirectSound as alternative output device.
I also found out that DirectSound has a much lower latency when using VVVV's AudioIn module.

[DrNil]

Yes, it would be nice to be able to choose DirectSound as an output option, as it is even better as far as latency, yet I am still pissed off at the Audigy drivers flaking out on me.

Just out of curiosity, what version and date are the drivers you are running Ian @ un4seen?   

[Ian @ un4seen]

The driver version is 5.12.8.1164 (08/12/2005). Btw, I wasn't saying that Waveout was the problem (it seems unlikely), just that it's something to try

[DrNil]

Hi. Thanks for your reply. It would appear that the WaveOut is the problem with my current drivers, as DirectSound works fine.

BTW, is there any way to get just the drivers without the extra craptacular garbage that Creative bundles with them? I can dl drivers from either Creative or from Alienware, and the ones listed on Alienware date back to 2003, but they are the barebones drives, without the surrounding apps and the bloat.

I looked at the Creative site and I did notice they have new drivers, however I didn't want to have to install the extra baggage, plus the procedure listed at Creative to get rid of old drivers wouldn't apply to my situation, since the drivers aren't listed in Add & Remove, so I'd have to nuke them manually. Unless I want to go with the Automatic thing via ActiveX that will scan my box and update my drivers (something that coming from the people at Creative Labs I wouldn't trust to work).

[DrNil]

Hmm, this is strange, but the latest driver for my card is this one accoring to Creative.

[DrNil]

Well, it's definitely a WaveOut problem with my (outdated, as it seems) drivers. I have been listening to music in all formats with WMP10 whilst torrenting, and Photoshopping, and burning at the same time without a problem. I did all this on purpose to rule out other posibilities. I've re-run diagnostics soft on my box and HW is fine, so it is the bloody devide driver concocted by Creative that is unable to handle WaveOut.

Again, I would appreciate a link to the 5.12.8.1164 (08/12/2005) drivers as everytime I search the 9un)Creative site I'm shown drivers circa 2004 or beta drivers (the least I could ever want) from 2005. Thanks very much for your time. I do really want to make XMPlay my default player, and I guess it is high time I register with these forums.

Thanks again for a fine product and your help.

[DrNil]

OK, I am a member now.

[piovrauz]

If you don't like the Creative crap and want try some alternative, you can experiment with the kx drivers: go to http://www.driverheaven.net/showthread.php?t=97845.

Maybe at first seems strange, but you'll hear the difference (clearer sound). I don't know if your soundcard is supported (I think it is, but I'm not so sure), but since they don't let crap around when removed, you can give them a try.

[Ian @ un4seen]

I looked at the Creative site and I did notice they have new drivers, however I didn't want to have to install the extra baggage...

If I recall correctly, the downloadable drivers do not include the "extra baggage" that comes on the installation CD. The latest (non-beta) drivers seem to be from 24/01/2006.

http://uk.europe.creative.com/support/downloads/download.asp?sOSName=Windows+XP&region=3&Product_Name=Audigy+2+ZS&Product_ID=4915&modelnumber=&driverlang=1033&OS=10&drivertype=0&x=19&y=17

[DrNil]

Thanks for the link. For some reason I couldn't access those drivers from the NA region, however after getting them from the UK site, I was able to find them on the US site as well. Strange stuff. Thanks again.

If you don't like the Creative crap and want try some alternative, you can experiment with the kx drivers.

I've read about them, and I have mixed feelings about installing unsupported drivers (unsupported by Creative though). Thanks for your suggestion.

[DrNil]

I guess my next question is ...will XMPlay support DirectSound in future revisions?