Vista - COH crashes/xSODs

First off, thanks for reading...this is my first ever online post (yeah yeah, im a noob, etc, I get it) but I'll do my best...

I put this thread in 'games' because I didn't know where else to put it. I'm a moderately tech savvy guy who just put together a beast of a rig... (it got a 5.9 performance score) and everything was working great. Notice the 'was'...that's why I'm here, lol.

*I have no idea how much information ya'll will need, so I'm gonna try to put as much as I can. Forgive me if its too much.*

In short, while playing Company of Heroes my system randomly locks up, loops the last sound (usually gunfire) and the monitor goes completely white, olive/green, or blue. This usually happens after about an hour of playing. I read up on the problem, and found out that many people were having the same trouble I was. I've tried turning off DX10 and changing all of the visuals to 'high' (no ultra) which apparently has cured many other peoples' COH crashes...but it hasn't cured mine. To make matters worse, my system just crashed for the first time outside of COH today, while I was watching YouTube. Once again, an audio loop, and a WSOD.

People have said that installing DX9 is the way to go, but that seems silly to me...and whats the deal with all these new Colors of Death? Is Microsoft trying to be a bit more colorful these days, or do they mean something?

Now, I wasn't really concerned about the crashes until it happened when I was surfing the web---these crashes had never happened during my marathon sessons of Farcry2, or outside of COH...until today.

Disclaimer: I'm a noob. I get it. However, even noobs need love too, even when they live in Silicon Valley! My rig:

CASE: Coolermaster HAF
POWER SUPPLY: Ultra X3 1000w fully modular
OPTICAL: LG Super Multi Blu
MULTICARD READER: Generic Floppy/SD Card Combo
FAN CONTROLLER: Scythe Kaze Master
MONITOR: Samsung T260HD

CPU: Intel i7 920 @ 2.6 (no OC)
CPU COOLER: Coolermaster V8
MOBO: Asus P6T Deluxe
GPU: EVGA Geforce 260 Core 216 OC (factory overclock)
RAM: Corsair 6GB 1333Mz DDR3 Tri-Channel (3x2GB)
HARDDRIVES: (2) Western Digital 500GB [32MB] 7200 Caviar Blacks in RAID 0
(1) Western Digital 1TB [32MG] 7200 Caviar Black
SOUND: Onboard (no additional soundcard)
OS: Vista Ultimate 64 SP1

My overall system temperature hovers around 23-26 degrees (c) depending on my level of gaming. My CPU temp hovers around 35, with a range of 30-55 (c), and I've never seen it over that save for the first few days when we failed to have the CPU cooler screwed down tight enough. MOBO temps stay around 35, with a range of 30-50 (c). [Temps read from PC Probe II).

(I built it myself with the help of two of my buddies...it was my first build, one of many for them.)

My major apps are few: Company of Heroes, Farcry2 (has never crashed), itunes, etc...I just finished building the thing a couple of weeks ago.

I'm fairly sure (99%) that I have updated all the drivers for my videocard, monitor, devices, and have installed all of the Windows 64 updates. What I HAVENT done yet is install the two BIOS updates from Asus.

Obviously, the BIOS updates will be tops on my list, probably sometime tomorrow. (I'm having a buddy over to help, I'm honestly a bit scared to do it myself). And I'll make sure that all my drivers/updates are up to date as well. (Side note: is there a program that can help me fetch all of my driver updates at once, or at least make it moron-proof?) Lol, yeah, I know, noob.

However, here's the point: I wanted to see if there was anybody out there that was having the same problem as me, and could shed a bit of light on this stupid situation. Anything that I'm missing, haven't thought of, etc? I would also appreciate any random advice you could give me...new and better programs, software, hardware, whatever floats to your mind, etc.

Thanks in advance for your help,

GO SHARKS!

Hi A197,

That means its graphics related, Do you have the BSOD code from the crash? I can help identify the cause more specifically

If you dont have the BSOD code, You can find it listed under "Control Panel\Problem Reports and Solutions" and clicking "View Problem History"

Stevem

Hey Stevem,

Hey man, thanks for the quick reply. I know I have a few more bases to cover and probably should have waited to post, but I'm tired, and just want to be pointed in the right direction, ya dig? lol

Anyways, I have tried to check out the BSOD code (i saw that suggestion on another post before I posted) but I had no idea what it meant. I'll run my rig tomorrow and when it crashes I'll post the code as an EDIT. (I read somewhere that the code resets and that you should copy/paste it right after reboot or else it won't be accurate---doesn't make sense to me, but I have no idea if that's true)

Anyways, should I post the whole thing? It seemed extremely long. Perhaps just a shorter section? I'll keep google-ing it in the meantime.

Thanks again bro,

Sal

EDIT/UPDATE

I installed the BIOS, updated my gtx260 drivers, and the crash still happened again. (I have every available update for the game, and am running it on DX9, with 'high' settings). This time it took about two hours of playing COH, and JUST when my hopes were raised that the problem was solved, the GSOD with the accompanying audio loop popped up. Once again, I could not control/alt/delete, and had to hard shut down. Strangely enough, COH would crash in about an hour before my updates. Could the problem be that I'm running it on DX9 instead of DX10? I have DX10 installed. Once again, I'm a noob.

I went to the 'problems/reports/solutions' folder, and lo and behold, there were no 'problems' with COH. In fact, it wasnt even listed once. Thats nice.

What I DID find, however, was a problem with FarCry2. This may not help (because it was pre-BIOS updates and a different game) but it was the SAME exact loop xSOD that I keep getting with COH. I just copy/pasted as much as I could of it for you below:

Description
A problem caused this program to stop interacting with Windows.

Problem signature
Problem Event Name: AppHangB1
Application Name: FarCry2.exe
Application Version: 0.1.0.1
Application Timestamp: 4942e3f6
Hang Signature: d561
Hang Type: 2048
OS Version: 6.0.6001.2.1.0.256.1
Locale ID: 1033
Additional Hang Signature 1: 733c2cc5bd93d5915757eda66dc635ad
Additional Hang Signature 2: 9610
Additional Hang Signature 3: 3ff4596104d308ee985f9136cb173ec6
Additional Hang Signature 4: d561
Additional Hang Signature 5: 733c2cc5bd93d5915757eda66dc635ad
Additional Hang Signature 6: 9610
Additional Hang Signature 7: 3ff4596104d308ee985f9136cb173ec6

Extra information about the problem
Bucket ID: 413740200


I also checked out the 'reliability and performance' program on vista...It at least shows my history of crashes, but I can't find any relevant information...which sucks, because I found a huuuuuge list of code the other day that pertained directly to my COH problem, and have since forgotten where I found it.

Anyways, I'm gonna keep trolling and keep plugging away at this thing...any help would be most appreciated.

Best,

SJ

A new thought...could this be a sound issue? I was poking around in MSCONFIG and I saw that my SOUNDMAX integrated sound was 32 bit. Thinking that one of my buddies installed it wrong I downloaded the driver from Asus, only to find that my MSCONFIG still says 32 bit. Apparently there have been a few people online that have had similar problems. (It seems as though there is no 64 bit SOUNDMAX for Vista, but there is one for XP. Would I be better off installing the 64bit sound for XP, or would that just make things worse?) Am I just barking up the wrong tree, or could a 32 bit program as important to gaming as sound be causing my freezes?

Thanks,

SJ

PS: Just ran MEMTEST86 for over 2.5 hours, and it said that my memory passed with no errors.

could be ram ?
take out one 2 gig stick, see if it runs.
if it doesn't, replace 2 gig stick, remove another stick, see if it runs.

repeat 2 more times till you figure out which one is bad?

i own this game & also suffer from various fatal errors, at first i though it was driver related but after trying several i started looking elsewhere, i tested my RAM & it was clear..

after playing around with various graphical configs i have come to the realization its a coding problem with COH itself it seems to be completely random for me, i can play for hours with no probs & other days it will crap out in minutes..?

but i stared playing ''Opposing fronts'' & touch wood it has yet to happen, its a shame b/c its a BRILLIANT game.



SK

Klaudius: I just did MEMTEST86, and it said my RAM was fine. I honestly have no idea how reliable MEMTEST86 is, but I've heard good things. If I can't figure it out, I'll just play rotate the RAM, lol

Skunksmash: You know, I think you may be right. Judging by COH's various other annoyances (the game kept telling me that my serial number was in use, even though I had just bought the thing! Could only install it on its singular specified path...I could go on...) I honestly think that the game is just buggy and un-usable...which, of course, blows, because I agree that the game is amazing. However, I'm gonna wait for a looooong time to buy the expansion (Valor) just to make sure that the game works...and that Relic/THQ arent stealing my money. Then again, this whole thing could be my fault. Or Bill Gates', lol...too much emphasis on the xbox?

Ugh, I miss my 360...think I'll go pop in any one of my 839475 games for my various consoles that all have and continue to actually WORK.

Thanks for your time fellas...if anybody else has any thoughts for a confused noob, feel free!

PS: so here's a new theory...add ons. Apparently I have hella addons running on my internet explorer. However, I never even use IE, I use firefox. From what I saw, Firefox doesnt have any addons. Does anybody know if addons (including Norton Antivirus) could or do crash games? Thanks again