BSOD - ctpci9x.vxd

[d2]

Hi all.

I have a customer that is having strange lockups, page faults, illegal operations, and BSODs. With various driver upgrades, tweaking, etc I have reduced the errors down to one. BSOD coming from ctpci9x.vxd while playing online games at SimSlots.com and Bingo.com (these are the main reasons for having the PC, so please don't suggest avoiding these crappy websites).

P3-450
ASUS motherboard (I don't recall the model)
64 Mb ram
Win98SE
ATI Rage 128 AGP
WD 8.4 Gb
Sound Blaster 16 PCI (Vibra 128)
56K Diamond Supra Express 56i
Lexmark Z32 printer with software

The hard drive was replaced not too long ago and other techs have formatted/reinstalled Win98SE. The video card was replaced because he did not like the TNT2 M64. The problems occurred with the old hard drive and the old video card. Because of the ctpci9x.vxd, I disabled the sound card in Device Manager and the problems disappeared. Within 15 minutes of enabling the sound card, the BSOD occurred again.

So, I replaced the sound card with another Vibra 128, no change. There are no IRQ conflicts and I even put the sound card in a diffent PCI slot, no change. I tried an old ESS AudioDrive ISA sound card and the sound got jittery and so did the video when the sound distorted. The sound usually distorts just before the BSOD, but with the ESS no BSOD.

Any suggestions, advice, comments?

Thanks,
d2

[golfcart]

Just for kicks, try replacing that vxd with this one. (http://www.troll.com.pl/atlantic/sterowniki/creative/sb128pci/audio/deutsch/drivers/win9xdrv/ctpci9x.vxd) Please note, I just found it by doing a search. You may want to run a virus scan on it. This probably won't help, but ya never know http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

[TOAD6147]

That appears to be a Creative file and it may be missing or corrupt. Have you tried removing the SB properly through Device Manager? Are you sure you're using the proper drivers? You actually have to have the number off the card to match for drivers. Also, try going into Safe Mode and check all devices and remove everything that is listed more than once and let Windows re-detect everything. With all that you've installed and removed and re-installed your Registry may be really mucked up now. Do you have GOOD virus detection on that machine? Like golfcart said, "Ya' never know". You might try Creatives tech support as well.

[d2]

I don't believe that the file is missing or corrupt because the sound works for a while and then quits and I have used different driver versions with the same results. I have removed the sound card from device manager properly several times and have used different drivers (from install cd and from Creative's website) and there is no support for this product at CreativeLabs.com.

I searched for drivers using the model number on the card, CT4810. I have run McAfee and F-PROT with the latest DAT files.

When I go back to work on Tuesday, I'll try the Safe Mode idea and check the registry.

Thanks for the suggestions.
d2

[d2]

I forgot to mention that I had installed DirectX 8 and updated the Java VM as well as the drivers to try to eliminate the problems.

I am thinking that this is a software configuration problem even though the hard drive has been reloaded several times (not by me though). I believe that the ram was swapped before I got there to try and solve the problem. The customer's machine is still under warranty and the manufacturer can't find any problems with it.

Could the CPU or motherboard cause problems like this? I doubt it very much, but stranger things have happened.

Thanks,
d2

[n715dp]

More than likely it is a combination of a few things... first of all, that is definately the sound card VXD as already discovered by one of the previous posts... DX8 is probably another culprit. Another thing is the possibility of a conflict of IRQ's... Check the BIOS, you should have plug and play OS turned off (disabled). Much better to let the BIOS dish out IRQ's then to trus Windows to do it. I would suggest, making that change, throwing a different HD in and loading Win98 and try to reproduce it. Sounds to me like the best thing is a format a reload after all you have already tried.

[rhino49]

creative.com has SBAUDIOSetupus.exe dated 1/5/2001 that supports CT4810
NOTE: requires sbapw9x.lib to be downloaded & in same directory before running setup - if this isn't one of the drivers you tried, worth a shot. Good luck.

[egg]

I'm having a similar problem with my sound card of the same model, except no BSOD. It does cut out after a while for no apparent reason, and no amount of software or hardware tweaking seems to do any good.

I would like to know if any solutions arise http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

-egg

[d2]

Ok, here's an update.

I updated the SB drivers to the latest and installed better drivers for the video card. Still gets BSOD in ctpci9x. It is taking 2 hours to occur, but it is still occurring. The first crash last night was in SimSlots after 2 hours of playing and then after a reboot it took 30 minutes to crash in the slots at Bingo.com.

I removed the sound card in safe mode, rebooted and installed the card with the new drivers. In the BIOS, PnP OS is set to NO.

He has told me that his Hoyle Casino game won't play in his cd-rom if the sound card is disabled, but it will with the sound card enabled. I could read audio and data cds (not Hoyle, though) with the sound card enabled or disabled.

I also believe that there are power issues at his house. He uses a power bar, but when I let him borrow a UPS, the alarm went off once for "no apparent reason". The number of errors dropped drastically. Unfortunately, he can't afford to buy the UPS.

Could the power supply be a cause of the problem? Motherboard? Power sags? CPU?

Thanks for your help
d2