Machine Check: Regs in event viewer on boot

[theefool 0]

Also, read the following:

 

Machine Check Architecture (MCA) is an internal architecture subsystem which detects and captures errors (i.e. faults) occurring within the microprocessor's logic.

 

This info was found through an intel site. So, I can only guess that both intel and amd have this feature, which the os reads. Perhaps that app popup just signifies that everything is good.

 

Does this happen on intel processors? I just now checked for this even on two machines here at work. Neither have this event in event viewer.

 

I've also checked this on an Athlon xp, sempron, amd 64 and amd 64(sempron). All of these computers show this popup.

 

Does MS correctly read the MC from intel cpus and not from amd? Or does windows mininterpret amd's version of the machine check.

 

Yes, this is also related to the linux world. Well, atleast now we know how to disable this "feature" in windows.

[RBogan 0]

Originally posted by theefool:

Quote:

Or does windows mininterpret amd's version of the machine check.

 

 

I'm leaning that direction I think the smart money's riding on that as a very valid possibility.

 

Thanks for the info above

[bo_bo 0]

You can add me to the list of those with this problem.

 

Thanks to RBogan for the registry fix - I just went in and changed the value; has everyone seen an improvement on the number of lock-ups after changing the key?

 

I also went in today and did a fresh round of driver updates.

 

I do have the Via chipset that was discussed above...

 

I've gone round and round with this; its nice to find others that have shared in my misery.

 

Let me know how you have all made out.

 

Bo

 

********

Soyo kt400

amd athlon xp 2500

wintv pvr

geoforce fx 5200

win xp pro sp2

 

 

 

[bo_bo 0]

well, my machine froze again today - I'll check it out later - but I have a question - is it possible that whatever process/service (guessing its a process/service and not memory or hardware) that's causing this freeze does so before an event log can be generated?

 

thanks in advance for the edjumacation.

 

bo

[mainhack 0]

I have this problem too..

 

Windows XP Pro SP2 - all updates

AMD AthlonXP 1600+ on Shuttle AK31 Rev. 3.1

VIA KT266A Chipset, 512 MB DDR-266

Creative SB Live PCI, Network Card, TV-Card,

DVD-ROM, DVD-RW, 2xHDD, FDD, 1xUSB used,

Gainward GF5900 AGP

VIA 4in1-Driver 4.56

 

First I thought it was a problem about my ram, but

memtest didn't find anything. My next choice was

the power supply - a 300W one.. a new one is ordered

and iam waiting for it. Because of I have to wait for

my new ps I looked a bit around and the next thing I

suspected to cause the problems was the NoExecute Feature

of the built-in Windows SP2 Firewall. I switched it off

in the boot.ini - because the CPU doesn't have this

feature. No changes from this, but a good feeling to

know it's disabled

 

Problem: Machine Check: Regs (sometimes without Regs)

on every cold boot. Some crashes in unspecified situations

like listen mp3s and surfing the internet, using Trillian (ICQ,MSN,Yahoo) and so on..

 

Since I have changed the case to a Chieftec Big-Tower with

proper cooling abilities, I haven't had any crashes - hope this is going on this way. BTW, I don't think it's the best way to disable the MCA feature, but that's an everyone´s selfmade decision.

 

Results:

bad RAM - no

bad PSU - maybe for crashes, but not for Machine Check "Information"

bad CPU - no, everything was fine until SP2

bad VIA Driver - maybe, has anyone checked it with older drivers ? (to avoid the crashes and/or the Machine Check thing)

 

If I find any other issue to solve the problem, I will post it here.

 

@bo_bo: If you find no Event for this (i never did) it's an error that occurs in the hardware or in a high kernel level. If it is anything else, Windows will give out a BSOD/reboot, and you have the Event for a saved Minidump to check. AFAIK..

 

Best regards

mainhack

[pdraganov 0]

[steadyeye 0]

I wonder whether you have optical usb mouse as I have logitech MX300.

[Edited by steadyeye on 2005-10-09 13:05:15]

 

[steadyeye 0]

Sorry, the mouse issue must not be related to this problem.

I removed optical mouse, its driver but my computer still freezes up with machin check log msg.

[steadyeye 0]

I solved the problem in my case.

 

I had both computer freezing and 'machine check' log msg.

 

I tried to find the cause by any kinds of methods.

 

Finaly, I pluged off the power from M/B. Then i suprised that power 2 plastic pins connecting to M/B had been burend among total 20pins.

 

I guess irregular power was the cause. and I have experienced no freezing and no log msg after replacing burned power to another power.

 

If freezing and log msg occur, i will reply here again.

 

Good Luck to all

[ZeppelinDom 0]

I have what seems to be the same issue.

 

Unfortunately, I believe there is a problem with the machine, and this message is not just for "Information". The problem is that the computer runs fine for a couple of weeks, then when I boot the computer, Windows will not load and display "The file c:\windows\system32 is missing or invalid". I need to restore the registry and then it works again for a couple of weeks.

 

I'm running a AMD Duron 1200 on a VIA-KT133 chipset (I'm not 100% sure about the KT-133, but it's definitely a VIA). Unfortunately, the machine is at home, and I'm at work. On every boot, I'm getting 4 instances of "Application Popup" Machine Check logs in my event viewer. Only 1 of the 4 has "Machine Check: Regs", the other 3 are just "Machine Check". This is on a clean install of WindowsXP with Service Pack 1. No changes to the system have been made since the OS install (no other software has been installed either).

 

These are the only "problems" that show up in the event viewer. Every other event is normal. The strange thing is that if I run a chkdsk /f, the very next boot doesn't show the Machine Check in the event viewer. It then shows up on the following boot and every subsequent boot.

 

I've disconnected all hardware (pci cards, drives, etc..) except for the HD, ram, and processor. I've switched out the video card and still get the same errors. I've ran memtest on the ram and it is okay. Tonight, I'll be running diagnostics on the HD to verify the HD is 100% okay.

 

The point of this post is to say that I think, although it might have not manifested itself, that the "Machine Check: Regs" information in the event viewer may be because of a critical error somewhere. I can't find much helpful information anywhere else. Also, I'm going to try to disable write behind caching on the HD. I've read that the Machine Check message may display when the system powers off before windows is done writing to disk on shut down.

 

Anyway, if anyone has an idea why I get the "The file c:\windows\system32 is missing or invalid" after a couple of weeks on my machine, I'd appreciate any ideas. I figured that if I fix the "Machine Check: Regs" problem, that I will not get the system32 missing or invalid error.

[Lunchbox 0]

I've had lots of experience with this error message on many computers, and I don't think it can really be blamed on AMD or VIA. I took apart and rebuilt about 40 older pentium systems and had this problem pop up quite often. Power issues could definitely be causing it, like someone else just said... (the power supplies on these machines were quite prone to sudden death.

However, to me it seems more like a memory issue. Not necessarily bad memory sticks, but possibly wrong settings. I've gotten the errors to go away (some of the time anyway) by changing the memory settings (timing, etc) and moving the sticks around. Messing with other settings in BIOS has worked for me as well.

One thing I have noticed is that when I have a computer thats getting those "machine check: regs" errors, windows seems to slowly but gradually get corrupted and almost always needs to be reformatted, although it can take months to a year before it gets that bad. This is what leads me to believe it could be a memory related error message... even if your memory sticks pass memtest etc, maybe they just don't work well with your particular motherboard?

 

Just my thoughts,

Peace

[alfei 0]

I've been running my AMD Duron 1100 / Gigabyte GA-7VAX (VIA KT-400 chipset) for a couple years now, through several peripheral hardware upgrades (disk, cdrom, cpu and case fans, etc.) and have always had the same problem. I just upgraded to WinXP so I can now see the event log messages ("Machine Check" and "Machine Check:Regs" repeated 4 times) but the appearance of the problem for me was the same under Win98SE.

 

It only ever seemed to happen under absolute "cold" bootup. This means leaving the PC off for a long time (like overnight). Never happened on a reset/reboot or even complete power off and power on after a few minutes. Also, if I cold booted and went into the bios setup for a minute to let the system "warm up" the problem didn't happen.

 

Under both Win98 and also XP, the most regular appearance was McCaffee Virus scan startup reporting "corrupt signature files" or something similar. XP sometimes reports some other errors too (i.e., corrupt registry recovered). The problem always goes away after rebooting. A 2nd reboot is sometimes, but usually not needed.

 

I always suspected the power supply but I upgraded that and the problem still happened. I also suspected a mechanical (thermal) contact issue but I've seated/unseated/reseated cards, cpu, cables many times through many upgrades and still the same problem. Once the system warms up and boots cleanly, never a problem. No memory test or cpu test ever indicated a problem.

 

Actually, now that I have XP, my system boots up much more quickly and the dreaded scandisk that used to take forever seems to be much rarer so it's become much less of an annoyance for me.

 

Still, like everyone else here, I'd like to know what's actually causing these machine checks and whether it's really ok to simply ignore them (suppress in registry)? And does anyone know what type of processing McCaffee viruscan might do at initialization that causes it to see this problem when everything else going on at boot up seems to be ok?

 

alfei

[alfei 0]

Just a quick update to my previous post.

 

I did some more experimenting and the McCaffee startup problem may not be directly related to the "machine checks". I only get McCaffee errors on an absolute cold bootup (as described). The machine checks appear in the log on *every* cold bootup, even if the power was off for only 10 seconds and no McCaffee errors show up.

 

alfei

[Sampson 0]

Just a question - errors like this happen especially with a machine that was overclocked - not just because it was overclocked but because of the excessive heat. The thing is, the heat is not distributed over the CPU evenly meaning that certain areas of it are exceedingly hot and others are "normal." So, here's the question, have you swapped out your CPU with a new one and had the problem disappear? Could it be that the alloy within the CPU is changing the electrical flow or causing it become erratic either changing the timing or "misloading" the internal cache bacause after being sufficiently "cold" the alloy has to be rewarmed to operate within spec again? Could it even be one of the pins has oxidized? The question is - have you changed your CPU to see if it is the problem?

[alfei 0]

Thanks for the suggestions.

 

I've never run with a different CPU (been wanting to upgrade to an AthlonXP-Barton but the prices keep going UP) but about a year ago I upgraded my CPU heatsink/fan. I removed the CPU and cleaned the surface (thermal compound was dried out) and applied new thermal compound in the process. The problem, though, has always happened as far as I can remember. Also, I've never overclocked this system.

 

That upgrade was for heat concerns (after I started using MBM) and included adding a case fan or two. Since then, I've been more careful about keeping power & other cables neat to improve air circulation inside the case. I have a desktop case which was chosen based on physical space requirements in my apartment before I paid any attention to heat build up.

 

It seems the more monitors I have (MBM, now WinXp logs) the more there is to worry about .

[levicki 0]

I joined just to let you know that this is not AMD/Via specific. I have gotten the same messages as you after a cold system crash on my rig.

I have Pentium 930, 2x512MB DDR2-667 Geil dualchannel kit, eVGA 7800GT, Asus P5LD2 mainboard , WD2500JS 250GB HDD, and 550W PSU.

It happens to me while watching DivX video (only if I use 6.x codec) and while playing Battlefront. It didn't happen on the same system with Pentium 630, all the rest being the same. Nothing is overclocked and nothing is crossing 60°C.

 

MCA (machine check architecture) is designed to detect and report machine (hardware) errors such as bus errors, ECC errors, parity errors, cache errors, and TLB errors. Machine check exception (also called fault) is being generated when such an error occurs and the CPU must be reset in order to continue. When this exception happens, OS suspends any software running and records exception information from CPU MSR registers and then it crashes/reboots.

 

It beats me what could be wrong with my computer though because I have used all branded components to put it together.

 

[Baskii 0]

Hi all,

 

I just came across this thread and I can't believe I've finally found some reference to the problem that has dogged my computer for two years!

My situation sounds amazingly similar to Alfei's. Everything was fine until I got some new hardware, namely: Gigabyte GA-7VXP mobo, Athlon XP 3000+ CPU and Western Digital WD800JB hard drive. These weren't all bought at the same time so it's hard to pin down what specifically may be causing the problem. In any case, since that fateful upgrade I get a lot of system errors when starting from a cold boot (for example, graphics card drivers failing to start with the dreaded "Machine Check"). For a while I suspected that Norton AV 2004 was the culprit as it reported that it had been "tampered" after a cold boot (much like Alfei's McAfee problem). I can now see that it was only a symptom of a different issue.

In addition to the problems reported elsewhere I seem to get a lot of data corruption on my hard disk, particularly with downloaded files but also with my iTunes songs, although this may be a different issue (anyone else get songs skipping or brief "screech" noises on their iPod?)

Since I became aware that there was a problem and it was probably hardware related, I've changed everything in the system except the mobo and CPU (and the hard drive is the same model but a warranty replacement as I thought it may be to blame). However the problem remains! I'm way beyond being out of patience and a new mobo and CPU are on the cards.

Like Alfei, no tests I've run have ever indicated a problem, but I will be happy to run any tests suggested and post the results for inspection!

 

Regards,

 

Baskii

 

Originally posted by alfei:

Quote:

I've been running my AMD Duron 1100 / Gigabyte GA-7VAX (VIA KT-400 chipset) for a couple years now, through several peripheral hardware upgrades (disk, cdrom, cpu and case fans, etc.) and have always had the same problem.

...

It only ever seemed to happen under absolute "cold" bootup. This means leaving the PC off for a long time (like overnight).

...

the most regular appearance was McCaffee Virus scan startup reporting "corrupt signature files" or something similar

...

No memory test or cpu test ever indicated a problem.

...

alfei

bold textbold text

[damianp 0]

Hi all, I've been getting this problem with my desktop pc for around a year now and it's slowly driving me mad. Being a newbie, I've only just discovered the application popup with event id 26 in the event log and so have only just come across this page. I have suspected a power supply problem because it seems to happen more often when I'm accessing a drive or an unpowered usb device, and especially after cold startup.

I've recently bought a laptop and found an event id 26 with application popup in the event log when the low battery warning came on. Not sure if this adds evidence to my theory of a power supply problem with my desktop pc - perhaps someone might know something about this??

Also when looking at my motherboard, there seems to be a row of components that have rust coming out the top of them!! There are a line of 6 of these components just beneath the fan and they say 6.3v on them. This cannot be healthy! Dunno if this is related to this problem? Once it's warmed up a bit my computer runs well so I don't really want to get a new one yet. Hope somebody who is in the know can shed some light on this. Many thanks in advance.

 

System info:-

Processor - AMD Athlon XP 2200+

Motherboard - Jetway V333/V333pro

Mainboard - KT333-8235

Chipset - VIA VT8366/A,Vt8367 Apollo KT266/A,KT333

Video adapter - Nvidia Geforce4 TI 4600

 

 

[Expat 0]

Thanks to all for the different information on this BSD problem. I fixed mine but it was so different from anything on here I thought I should share it.

 

Basic machine specs:

 

Planar - ASUS AN8-SLI Deluxe (with a replaced fan for the video chip - grumble, grumble)

CPU - AMD Athlon 64 FX-55

Memory - 2GB DDR400 RAM

Vidoe - 2 x nVidia 6800 Ultras

PSU - Thermaltake PurePower 680w PSU

 

and various other stuff all relatively new (less than 2 years).

 

Another background note: the Machince Check BSD only occurred when trying to rip a CD to my HD. Everything else seemed to work fine (although I didn't try games and such).

 

At first I thought this was due to a recent monitor change (out was the Viewsonic VX-900; in was Apple's 23" HD Cinema) as I was having some other anomalies surrounding it. I read through all of the posts and then realized that couldn't be it and began to think it was a PSU or heating problem. That was quickly dispensed with since the room in this house (I live in North Yorkshire) is always nice and cool and the system's PSU is a beast. I then thought it might have been the UPS, but that proved to be a dead end too.

 

So then I started working backwards to my own "last known good" and then in an ephinanic moment it dawned on me. All of this started after I popped in a Sony CD that contained the XCP software. Norton caught the spyware but something else must have been causing this problem. I did some research and went to Sony's site, downloaded and used their removal tool, rebooted, and voila - NO MORE PROBLEM.

 

I stopped trying to figure out why and decided just to be happy that it's fixed. For the life of me I have no clue why this worked...

 

Thanks again to everyone for the good information!

 

Regards,

Scott

[toncica 0]

In my opinion there are many different problems described in this thread and the "machine check" thing being a false link of these problems.

After all this event is just information in most cases and not an error. In my case there were three pairs of "machine check" and "machine check:regs" in the event log. The system is busy and not responding for about 1 minute after the desktop comes up, then my system runs fine and stable.

Finally I got the meaning of these events when I disabled auto chkdsk for all drives at cold boot. chkdsk searches for the "dirty bit" (set after inproper shutdown) and moves along if it's all right. I have three harddisks installed and I had three pairs of "machine check", could make sense.

So there are now no more application popup events at startup but I still have the 1 minute waiting period when the destop appears and I still don't know why is that, the search continues...(it's not network related)

[TheMongoose 0]

I've been getting this problem in the last few days, most annoying.

After a bit of detailed analysis in Event Viewer I noticed that every time the windows WMDM PMSP service started about 5 seconds later I would receive four of these error messages in system log and the PC would freeze. Having tried to stop PMSP in services, it wasn't having any of it so I used Security Task Manager to Quarantine it. So far, I haven't had the machine check freeze since.

Hopefully this might be of some help to someone, I'd advise to check your event viewer and look in both System for the Application Pop-up Machine Checks and then Application to see if there's any events starting at around the same time.