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47 Posts
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21018
Dimension E310 blue screens too often
I have just acquired what I thought was going to be a great little second hand Dell for my brother. It does not appear to have been modified from the time it came from the factory but the onboard video does appear to have been fried at some time in the past. For this reason it came with a S3 video card that, for my brother's purposes, seems to work very well. When using the onboard video the screen is almost totally inundated with multicolored horizontal lines which, to me, means the video memory is shot.
Just to be safe I made a fresh reinstalation of the OS with XP Pro, sp2 to begin with. After the OS and driver installation I went to the Windows Update site and found that there was 105 critical updates to download and install so I broke them up into manageable sections as I installed them. After they were downloaded the OS became very unstable with BSOD that seemed to center around the onboard video driver, specifically the ialmrt5 driver error. A couple of OS reinstalls later, due to the fact there were other deeper OS problems that cropped up, I used a Dell OS reinstall CD that had XP Pro, sp3 on it to avoid possibly installing the 105 updates in some incorrect order that may have caused the other errors. This seemed to help considerably ... for a while.
After downloading all the remaining critical updates and extra downloads I thought necessary (I disabled the onboard video in XP Device Mgr. to avoid the new hardware detection notice) I began to get BSODs like 0x0000000A IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL and 0x0000008E with no message showing up. This was a couple of days after I used the XP Pro, sp3 installation CD and for the day or so after I'd installed it everything was going very well. I booted off the Dell Driver CD and ran a full diagnostic pattern on the computer but the only thing that turned up was an Error Code 00F0:2871 - Optical drive BIST - flash ROM test failed. The other errors centered around the less capable and older S3 video card not being able to display the higher resolutions the onboard video would have been able to if it was operable. After doing all of that I thought I'd try and download Apple's latest Quicktime since my brother doesn't have a fast Internet connection yet. When I tried to install it and the version just prior to it I'd had cached on another comptuer I, again, got BSODs.
My question is could there be more damage to the motherboard that would turn up as some kind of corruption in the OS? The memory and hard drive checked out clean with the diagnostics so I don't think there's a problem there. The memory DIMMs were well seated in their slots so they didn't seem to become dislodged in shipping. Frankly, I've reached my limit on hardware testing and am beginning to wonder if Microsoft's sp3 is just a major factor in all of this and perhaps I should just leave the OS at sp2 ... ? Or ... could the old S3 video card be a factor? There are no AGP slots on the motherboard so I'm not sure what other kind of card would be appropritate for it.
Any thoughts are greatly appreciated.
Dana
danak
47 Posts
1
December 11th, 2008 13:00
Unless, and I'll check, there's an update to the BIOS the only options regarding the video card is whether or not you want to recognize an add-on or not. It doesn't actually disable the onboard video as I wish it would.
As I said, I disabled it in Device Manager and this stopped the incessnant call for drivers due to new hardware detection. I have seen the updated driver in Windows Update but have not installed it. In general they don't USUALLY cause problems but, like you, they can include one massive headache in their installation.
Thanks.
The_Namek
2.8K Posts
0
December 11th, 2008 09:00
Dana,
It's possible there could be more issues with the motherboard but given that the majority of your symptoms appear to center around the integrated video I'd stick with that being the root of your problem. If you have an actual video expansion card in that E310 you need to disable the integrated video in BIOS so it doesn't conflict with the add-in card. Oh, and make sure you aren't getting any device drivers as part of those Windows Updates. I've seen Microsoft drivers cause all kinds of weird problems with hardware over the years.
danak
47 Posts
1
December 11th, 2008 14:00
I have no idea what I've done. There's an option at the base of the messages that say "mark as not answer" that I hit, now there's two copies of my last. Don't know if I like this new forum or not....
Dana
The_Namek
2.8K Posts
1
December 11th, 2008 14:00
:emotion-40: Interesting. It's definitely not disabling the integrated video if you set the option to recognize an add-on card & integrated video still appears in Device Manager. Do you have a known good PCI video card to test in the system?
My rule for getting device drivers from Microsoft is unless they're for Microsoft hardware I don't use 'em. :emotion-1:
danak
47 Posts
1
December 12th, 2008 11:00
Well, the BIOS is the latest one offered. It may be that the symantics of the video options need to be worked on a bit in that choosing the Auto selection in Primary Video indicates that the system is supposed to use the add-on video. It doesn't actually say that it disables the integrated video and I strongly suspect that it doesn't since without disabling it in Device Manager you get all the "new hardware found" notices.
One thing, however, is the second choice regarding system memory reserved for video. The default is 8mb and the other choice is 1. I don't know if the old S3 PCI video card will actually address that much. It has 2Mb on it with sockets for more. I don't remember much about how video works with reserved memory but would the card need to actually have 8Mb onboard in order to address an additional 8Mb?
electromagnetic
556 Posts
1
December 12th, 2008 12:00
Buy a better graphics card, what do you want to do with the PC, office, game, other ?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814187042 8400GS 512MB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814139033 6200 512MB
The_Namek
2.8K Posts
1
December 12th, 2008 13:00
The second choice you refer to controls how much of the system RAM the integrated video can make use of. It's there to boost the performance of the onboard video chipset since it's pretty feeble compared to dedicated video cards.I'm inclined to go with electromagnetic's suggestion here and advise you to get a better video card with more RAM on it.
IamMichael
15 Posts
1
December 13th, 2008 19:00
I am still using my Dell Dimension 3100 which I believe is also referred to as the E310. If I am mistaken forgive me.
In the BIOS, it is a matter of switching from "AUTO" to "ONBOARD"!!! Auto is the factory default setting and is to be used with the add-in video controller/card. It is factory set to use 8MB of system memory. When in BIOS setup be sure to use your enter key to move around in side with this system.
I have not tried a PCI card in my system because I have no problems with this Dell system at all... (Knock on wood.) :emotion-1: Any way you should have at least three PCI slots available in which you can use a pci video card with no problem... I have added a link for S3 Video card drivers, if you need the driver you may find the driver for your S3 card, and a good PCI Video card link.
s3 video card link for drivers = http://www.nodevice.com/driver/company/S3_Graphics/Video_Card.html
PCI video cards http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161011
I wish you well...
danak
47 Posts
1
December 14th, 2008 13:00
It's been so long since I shopped for video cards I don't know if they still make PCI cards or not. It will be primarily an office PC with Internet capabilities. No games. I'm surprised they don't have an AGP slot available on this board but it's a low-end PC. I'll check out the links electromagnetic offered above as well as yours and let my brother know if he decides to get a better card.
As I'd mentioned in previous posts the onboard video memory is fried and, possibly, the old S3 video, which is using Microsoft's default driver it assignes to it, could be causing the BSODs. Don't know for sure. Did not experience any on Friday and I can see how QuickTime would probably require more performance than this card provides.
Thanks to all three of you.
Dana
danak
47 Posts
1
December 16th, 2008 12:00
Don't know whether anyone is monitoring this still or not but this system started blue screening on me again today. This time I get error 0x000000c2, BAD_POOL_CALLER. The hotfix for it is a "new" file MRxSMB.sys file but it's version is older than the one that comes with XP's sp3. On top of that nothing shows up in the Device Manager and I don't get a network icon in the system tray.
Yesterday I was told that many computers on our local state college campus were blue screening like crazy after downloading sp3. Is this latest sp truly a dog or what? I have a full scan disk running right now but no errors in the files were found and I'm sure there's going to be no errors found in the free space either. I'm thinking the best route to take is only install XP with sp2 and never install sp3.
The_Namek
2.8K Posts
1
December 16th, 2008 15:00
Hi Dana. I'm sure everyone who has posted in this thread is getting email notifications every time something new is added (this site currently doesn't seem to allow notifications to be disabled, at least not easily) but some may have already marked Dell emails as spam in their email programs.
PCI video cards are still out there although they're tougher to find than they used to be.
It's possible the generic driver for that S3 card could be causing the 0xC2 Stop error. MSDN's bug check info says to activate Driver Verifier to obtain more info about that particular one. If you've never used Driver Verifier you should read up on it here before trying to use the tool.
Unless every computer on your state college campus has the same hardware configuration as your E310 & the Stop error codes are exactly the same it's a bit of a stretch to say SP3 is responsible in your case. That being said, the only way to effectively rule it out would be to uninstall SP3 and see if the blue screens stop with SP2 on your computer.
danak
47 Posts
1
December 17th, 2008 07:00
I think Dell is pretty heavily represented on the campus but I've not been there to see for sure. The technology person for our local school outside of town just received a lot of surplus Dells from that campus but all I know for sure is one of the local teacher's sons is a tech on the university campus and warned her in a text message NOT to allow a download of sp3 on her system a few days ago.
My bet would be that anything found on the university campus has quite a bit more 'horse power' than an E-310.:emotion-1:
Anyway, I've wiped out the OS one more time and I'm going to try and keep it at sp2 and allow updates to come in as they will rather than one huge dump.
The BAD_POOL_CALLER I mentioned yesterday seems to have something to do with not having access to the network or Internet at boot up. At least that was what one of the KB articles I read seemed to be saying. The computer did not have it's Ethernet cable plugged in when it booted up that morning. Plugging it in seemed to help but by then, as I mentioned, nothing was appearing in Device Manager so evidently the damage was done.
This is getting just too spooky for me. I hate to think I'll HAVE to go to Vista but it may happen if Microsoft has sent us a poison pill in sp3.
Thanks.
electromagnetic
556 Posts
1
February 7th, 2009 15:00
Those graphic cards your thinking of getting are below direct 7, on your PC you got directx 9 so get a card with directx 9c on it or higher.
You also got an PCI Express x1 slot on your PC.
http://www.sparkle.com.tw/product.asp?id=65
http://www.sparkle.com.tw/product.asp?id=94
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814187057
Thomas4442
1 Message
0
March 4th, 2012 19:00
One thing I know is that you can run round and round trying to work with some of these PCs. The older ones; 5 years or more, have certain inherent issues. When trying to manipulate any PC, it is advisable to do a little research. The Dell E310 does not agree with any types of VGA alternatives. Dell will tell you that. Sometime you have to weigh the cost of dealing with "gifts" and "hand-me downs", verses purchasing a new PC or a different model. I run a six PC home network, all PCs are older than 4 yrs. I service all of them myself, from ram to Win7 OS upgrades. Two are still XP for reasons. They're as good as they're gonna get, without causing timely issues. You can build your own PC for under $350, and rock and roll for what you're trying to do. Ya don't need to be a rocket scientist to do it either. You'll invest less time into learning to build one, than you invest into the VGA problem!