Windows 7 Brand new computer - no games will run

[EgonTowst]

Hey everyone. I hate doing this when I know there are already other similar discussions, but I haven't found any solution to my problem and since it sounds like most others who have experienced this problem have done so after upgrading to Windows 7 from a previous OS, which is no the case with me, I thought I should ask.

So I've got a brand new Dell studio laptop. It is not even 24 hours out of the package, so I haven't played around with overclocking my CPU or anything like that. I've done nothing to the computer at all but install firefox, a few games, and update my video and sound drivers. It came with Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit installed on it, and I'm having some strange problems with it.

First, all games I try running end up crashing. A few of my older games, such as Homeworld, don't even make it past the intro movies. I'm not sure if this has something to do with compatibility issues (the game was released in 99) ... please be patient with me, I'm not particularly computer savvy. The one game I've tried that I was actually able to play any was The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, but it too crashed about 5 or 10 minutes in, at the moment I tried slashing someone open . It will work fine if I just let it sit there. But once I pull out a weapon or try interacting with a character, it freezes for about 10 seconds, then the screen goes black and soon I'm sent to Desktop with an error message saying the program had to close.

Like I said I've updated my video and sound drivers. I tried running the games before and after doing so, but no change. DirectX 11 came on the machine so I assumed I didn't need to mess with that.

Any thoughts or suggestions? Below are my specs. I can't imagine that it would be a CPU or memory issue if the PC is at stock settings, but again, I'm not very computer savvy so I'm not even sure how to check that stuff. So any help would be much appreciated.

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System Information
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Time of this report: 3/27/2010, 12:07:21
       Machine name: SCOTT-PC
   Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit (6.1, Build 7600) (7600.win7_rtm.090713-1255)
           Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: Dell Inc.
       System Model: Studio 1558
               BIOS: Ver 1.00 BIOS A04 PARTTBL
          Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5 CPU       M 520  @ 2.40GHz (4 CPUs), ~2.4GHz
             Memory: 4096MB RAM
Available OS Memory: 3956MB RAM
          Page File: 1679MB used, 6231MB available
        Windows Dir: C:\Windows
    DirectX Version: DirectX 11
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
   User DPI Setting: Using System DPI
 System DPI Setting: 96 DPI (100 percent)
    DWM DPI Scaling: Disabled
     DxDiag Version: 6.01.7600.16385 32bit Unicode
          Card name: ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4500/5100 Series

I don't know how to check CPU temp and all that, so if more info is necessary I could use some pointers there.

 

[kemical]

To load SATA drivers in XP they need to be on a floppy and you press F6 when the windows disc starts to boot. Then after while you press 'S' to actually load the drivers.

That's it... Thanks nmsuk I just couldn't remember it exactly..

 

[EgonTowst]

Well there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with the memory. I'm still kind of suspicious that might have something to do with it though. When I ordered the computer it was a few weeks late getting here because whoever was building the thing must not have known what he was doing. I got a couple e-mails saying my order had been canceled/delayed, and had to call Dell support to see what was going on. We got some guy from India on the phone who could barely speak English telling us that they were out of the RAM that I had ordered, and wanted to know if they could put in a slower speed (for the same price). We told them no, we'll just wait. Then, the computer actually ends up coming earlier than they said it would after the delay, and it has the memory that I asked for, but a smaller screen and a different processor (though a faster one, so I didn't complain). So I'm not too sure what was going on there.

But like I said I can't find anything wrong with the memory.

where exactly is that point?

At the beginning of the installation process, while you have the "Setup is loading files (...)" messages at the bottom of the screen. It will start, but about half-way through I get the stop error message. However, if I have it set on AHCI with the SATA drivers, it makes it all the way through the "Setup is loading files (...)", but I get BSOD as soon as it finishes, when it says "Setup is starting windows".

To load SATA drivers in XP they need to be on a floppy and you press F6 when the windows disc starts to boot. Then after while you press 'S' to actually load the drivers.

My problem is this is a laptop with no floppy drive. So what I tried doing was using nLite to copy the winXP disk onto my HDD, integrate the SATA drivers into the installation, make an ISO out of that and burn it to a blank CD to use as a boot disk. I wasn't sure if that would work or not but it was suggested to me on another forum and I didn't know what else to do.

When I hit 'F6' and 'S' it just tells me no floppy drive found, and gives me the option to exit setup.

 

[EgonTowst]

...so, that's what I've been doing: trying to install windows XP with a copy I made of the WinXP cd that has the SATA drivers on it (at least, I think it does, assuming that the drivers linked to earlier in this thread are right). And when I do this, no longer do I get BSOD during the "Setup is loading files (...)" portion of the installation, which led me to believe that it was recognizing the files. But then I still get BSOD as soon as it finishes, when it says "Setup is starting windows" (Before I actually get to that point where I can select a partition to install on)

 

[EgonTowst]

I was just in a chat session with Dell tech support. They're wanting to charge me $130 to talk to somebody who they promise will resolve my issue. I'd kinda rather not do that lol. Are there any other thoughts? :\

 

[ickymay]

I was just in a chat session with Dell tech support. They're wanting to charge me $130 to talk to somebody who they promise will resolve my issue. I'd kinda rather not do that lol. Are there any other thoughts? :\

I would ask them for a confirmation email of that conversation , then forward it to zdnet or neowin , I think that is a bit like selling someone a car then asking them for an extra $150 for the driving seat

 

[kemical]

I think that's awful about the offer from Dell.. Talk about slap in the face!
When you say the memory is ok could you give a run down of what you actually did and for how long?

 

[Agent Data]

post the BSOD code to look into it

 

[EgonTowst]

kemical, I have two 2gb sticks; I took each one out individually and booted up the machine both times without any trouble. Then I put both sticks back in and booted off a disk with the software you linked me to. I let it run for three passes and it didn't find any errors.

As for BSOD, this is the message I'm getting:

A problem has been detected and Windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer.

If this is the first time you've seen this Stop error screen, check to see you have adequate disk space... blah blah. It mentioned checked to see you have adequate disk space, try changing video adapters, and make sure your BIOS is updated.



Then it just gives me this under "Technical information" :

*** STOP: 0x0000007E (0xC0000005, 0xF73D1466, 0xF78D5ED4, 0xF78D5BD4J)

*** acpi.sys - Address F73D1466 base at F73C6000, DateStamp 3d6dd69f

 

[EgonTowst]

I really don't like the BIOS version on this thing. I have the latest version listed on the dell website though under the Drivers & Downloads page that comes up for my computer when I enter my service tag, so I assume it's up to date.

 

[Agent Data]

okay, try this, install OS with only 2GB ram - it may work fine and when finished put the other sticks in.

 

[EgonTowst]

Beat you to it ... just thought about that and tried it; no go . Still the same stop error when it finishes loading the files. Tried it four times just to double, double check ... once with one of the sticks in each slot, and then tried the other stick in each slot, but no difference.

 

[EgonTowst]

Found something interesting. Not sure what any of this means or if it has anything to do with my problem, but I noticed in the Event Viewer that this series of 13 reports is logged at about each time I get BSOD (or maybe right afterward, when I'm booting up again into Windows 7, not sure):

0000000001: 2010-05-06 22:44:05:367    Failed to merge manifest file: C:\Program Files (x86)\ATI Technologies\ATI.ACE\MOM-InstallProxy\mom-installproxy.xml with exception: Could not find file 'C:\Program Files (x86)\ATI Technologies\ATI.ACE\MOM-InstallProxy\mom-installproxy.xml'.
 Error      Called by: ATI.ACE.CLI.Foundation.XManifestation::ReadManifest                                              processID:03396 threadID:(                ) domainName:(CCC.exe                    ) assemblyName:(CLI.Foundation.XManifest, Version=2.0.3713.40522, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=90ba9c70f846762e)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

0000000002: 2010-05-06 22:44:06:054    RT_GC_N
 Error      Called by: System.RuntimeMethodHandle::_InvokeConstructor                                                   processID:03396 threadID:(CCCThreadNew:Runtime) domainName:(CCC.exe                    ) assemblyName:(mscorlib, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

0000000003: 2010-05-06 22:44:06:522    FAILED:ADL_Display_SLSGrid_Caps and return value is: -1
 Error      Called by: ATI.ACE.CLI.Caste.Graphics.Runtime.RT_GraphicsAdapter_N::CheckSLSSupported                       processID:03396 threadID:(CCCThreadNew:Runtime) domainName:(CCC.exe                    ) assemblyName:(CLI.Caste.Graphics.Runtime, Version=2.0.3713.40390, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=90ba9c70f846762e)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

0000000004: 2010-05-06 22:44:06:646    Exception: Attempted to read or write protected memory. This is often an indication that other memory is corrupt.
 Exception  Called by: ATI.ACE.CLI.Caste.Graphics.Runtime.RT_GraphicsAdapter_N::RefreshDisplaysManagerAdapter           processID:03396 threadID:(CCCThreadNew:Runtime) domainName:(CCC.exe                    ) assemblyName:(CLI.Caste.Graphics.Runtime, Version=2.0.3713.40390, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=90ba9c70f846762e)
************************************************************************************************************************

0000000005: 2010-05-06 22:44:06:865    FAILED:ADL_Display_DisplayMapConfig_PossibleAddAndRemove is: -8
 Error      Called by: ATI.ACE.CLI.Caste.Graphics.Runtime.RT_GraphicsCaste_N::GetAddOneRemoveOneDisplayIDList           processID:03396 threadID:(CCCThreadNew:Runtime) domainName:(CCC.exe                    ) assemblyName:(CLI.Caste.Graphics.Runtime, Version=2.0.3713.40390, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=90ba9c70f846762e)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

0000000006: 2010-05-06 22:44:06:943    FAILED:ADL_Display_SLSGrid_Caps and return value is: -1
 Error      Called by: ATI.ACE.CLI.Caste.Graphics.Runtime.RT_GraphicsAdapter_N::CheckSLSSupported                       processID:03396 threadID:(CCCThreadNew:Runtime) domainName:(CCC.exe                    ) assemblyName:(CLI.Caste.Graphics.Runtime, Version=2.0.3713.40390, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=90ba9c70f846762e)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

0000000007: 2010-05-06 22:44:06:943    FAILED:ADL_Display_SLSGrid_Caps and return value is: -1
 Error      Called by: ATI.ACE.CLI.Caste.Graphics.Runtime.RT_GraphicsAdapter_N::CheckSLSSupported                       processID:03396 threadID:(CCCThreadNew:Runtime) domainName:(CCC.exe                    ) assemblyName:(CLI.Caste.Graphics.Runtime, Version=2.0.3713.40390, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=90ba9c70f846762e)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

0000000008: 2010-05-06 22:44:07:660    Unable to obtain Color Correction information, dem status: -2
 Error      Called by: ATI.ACE.CLI.Aspect.DeviceLCD.Graphics.Runtime.RT_DeviceLCD::Parse                                processID:03396 threadID:(CCCThreadNew:Runtime) domainName:(CCC.exe                    ) assemblyName:(CLI.Aspect.DeviceLCD.Graphics.Runtime, Version=2.0.3713.40467, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=90ba9c70f846762e)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

0000000009: 2010-05-06 22:44:08:456    Name of null object is [SAspect:MMVideo]
 Error      Called by: System.RuntimeMethodHandle::_InvokeMethodFast                                                    processID:03396 threadID:(CCCThreadNew:Runtime) domainName:(CCC.exe                    ) assemblyName:(mscorlib, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

0000000010: 2010-05-06 22:44:12:028    Unable to obtain Color Correction information, dem status: -2
 Error      Called by: ATI.ACE.CLI.Aspect.DeviceLCD.Graphics.Runtime.RT_DeviceLCD::Parse                                processID:03396 threadID:(                ) domainName:(CCC.exe                    ) assemblyName:(CLI.Aspect.DeviceLCD.Graphics.Runtime, Version=2.0.3713.40467, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=90ba9c70f846762e)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

0000000011: 2010-05-06 22:44:12:169    Unable to obtain Color Correction information, dem status: -2
 Error      Called by: ATI.ACE.CLI.Aspect.DeviceLCD.Graphics.Runtime.RT_DeviceLCD::Parse                                processID:03396 threadID:(                ) domainName:(CCC.exe                    ) assemblyName:(CLI.Aspect.DeviceLCD.Graphics.Runtime, Version=2.0.3713.40467, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=90ba9c70f846762e)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

0000000012: 2010-05-06 22:44:13:042    Could not find Type [ATI.ACE.CLI.Aspect.CrossDisplay.Graphics.Dashboard.DB_CrossDisplay] from [CLI.Aspect.CrossDisplay.Graphics.Dashboard] in assembly [CLI.Aspect.CrossDisplay.Graphics.Dashboard, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=90ba9c70f846762e]
 Error      Called by: ATI.ACE.LOG.Foundation.Services::LoadAssembly                                                    processID:03396 threadID:(                ) domainName:(CCC.exe                    ) assemblyName:(LOG.Foundation, Version=2.0.3713.40375, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=90ba9c70f846762e)

0000000013: 2010-05-06 22:44:13:042    Could not find Type [ATI.ACE.CLI.Aspect.CrossDisplay.Graphics.Dashboard.DB_CrossDisplay] from [CLI.Aspect.CrossDisplay.Graphics.Dashboard] in assembly [CLI.Aspect.CrossDisplay.Graphics.Dashboard, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=90ba9c70f846762e]
 Error      Called by: ATI.ACE.LOG.Foundation.Services::LoadAssembly                                                    processID:03396 threadID:(CCCThreadNew:Dashboard) domainName:(CCC.exe                    ) assemblyName:(LOG.Foundation, Version=2.0.3713.40375, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=90ba9c70f846762e)

http://www.aumha.org/a/stop.php

 

[Agent Data]

I read something about a retarded Alienware DVD drive - is that yours in the Dell?

only solution mentioned get an external DVD and install from there and it should work.

 

[EgonTowst]

Don't know anything about a retarded Alienware DVD drive lol. I have a Slot Load DVD+-RW Drive, listed as "PLDS DVD+-RW DL-8ATS ATA Device" in the Device Manager.

 

[Agent Data]

when you google Dell Studio/stop error.../install win7 there are a lot of problems making me believe it's a Dell specific problem. If you have a pal who can lend you an external dvd your problem likely is fixed - two people confirmed it fixed the stop error!

other than that I am out of options but you still can talk to Dell directly

 

[EgonTowst]

I'll see what I can do about that then. I may have to purchase one. I've got someone loaning me a WinXP Service Pack 3 disk tomorrow (I've got SP1 and SP2 disks only); I don't know if that'll make any difference but I'm going to give it a try first. If no go then I'll see what I can do about the external DVD.

 

[EgonTowst]

Thanks for that suggestion ... with a quick Google search I ran across this page, which details exactly what my problem is: Link Removed due to 404 Error

Sounds like XP simply isn't compatible with this laptop without a BIOS update. Unfortunate thing is this discussion was started back in February, and there still hasn't been the BIOS update they're asking for.

Several others folks I've talked to have suggested that I go into the BIOS and disable the caching and shadowing options. They claim this would likely fix it. Funny thing is, I know I've seen those options in BIOS versions before on other computers, but the BIOS I have in this one has no such options. Almost seems like Dell is trying to force their customers to use Windows7 ... in fact I think that's exactly what they're doing. Only sad thing is there's been plenty of complaints as well about software not running properly with this OS!

I guess I'm back to my original problem: figuring out why games won't run.

 

[EgonTowst]

Well I just discovered that some games will run decently on lowest graphics settings and 640 x 480 screen resolution. Others (like Oblivion) still crash after about an hour or so on lowest settings.

 

[Agent Data]

you wonder?

Card name: ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4500/5100 Series

is what you got and that is seriously good for Office but not 3D games

 

[EgonTowst]

Sure, but that can't alone be the reason for the crashes. It's a better card than I had in my older computer, yet I could run much higher graphic settings with no difficulty like what I'm facing now.