[prev in list] [next in list] [prev in thread] [next in thread] 

List:       ngw
Subject:    Re: Blue Screens of Death (BSD) - long
From:       "Andy Howell" <andy.howell () uk ! symbol ! com>
Date:       1999-11-25 13:02:13
Message-ID: s83d3373.044 () uk-mhsgw ! uk ! symbol ! com
[Download RAW message or body]

Hi

We have seen Fatal Exception errors on Dell Optiplex PCs since upgrading to 5.5.2.

My users have been complaining that the errors are occurring at random times, not \
after a specific event (e.g. sending an e-mail).

At one site we seem to have resolved this by installing Winsock2 and the latest \
version of the NetWare Client.

Andy Howell
Symbol Technologies

> > > "Thomas Roe" <bdroet@budget.state.ny.us>

Tom - No Dells here, so far we have seen the problem on our Gateways, models P5-166 \
and E-3000, using the ATI 3D RAGE II and RAGE PRO.  Thanks.

> > > "Tom Kustner" <tom.kustner@emjay.com> 11/22/99 07:18PM >>>
We are seeing this problem at our site as well.

Tell me about the hardware makeup.  What is the PC make and model?  Video card brand?
For me (so far): Dell Optiplex GL+, S3 video chip.

Tom Kustner
Emjay Corp. - A Wells Fargo Company

Any opinions are my own and not necessarily those of Emjay or Wells Fargo.

> > > "Thomas Roe" <bdroet@budget.state.ny.us> Friday, November 19, 1999 3:09:13 PM \
> > > >>>
I'm very happy to see this problem being discussed.  We currently have an open \
incident (since 10/1) on the BSOD problem.  

Since upgrading to 5.5.2, this has been our nastiest problem.  We are a site of about \
400 and get 3 or 4 calls on this every day; the actual number may be somewhat higher. \
98% of the time the error message is exactly the same (Fatal Exception 0E has \
occurred at 0137:Bff9A3C0) and occurs at exactly the same time (when users hit the \
SEND button).  Unfortunately, there do not appear to be any steps that reliably \
reproduce the problem.  Before moving to 5.5.2 (from 4.1a), the client was very \
stable.

Tech. support has indicated to me that NO other sites have called to report the BSOD \
occurring when sending mail, so I will make sure they know that this is happening \
elsewhere.  If it's happening to you, please do whatever you can to make Novell aware \
of the problem.  On PCs which experience the problem here, we currently:

- Reload the machine (PC is formatted and all software reinstalled)
- update the video driver
- turn off hardware acceleration
- make sure colors are 256 and not any higher
- update the NIC driver

Initially, we took a piecemeal approach with the above troubleshooting steps in an \
attempt to isolate the problem, but since none of the individual steps prevented the \
error from repeating, we now complete all steps.  Unfortunately, applying the steps \
"en masse" has not stopped the problem either.  All machines are already at Win95 \
OSR2.  

The problem seems to occur most often on our lower-end machines (Gateway P5-166 and \
E-3000 models with 32 mb.) so we have very recently increased memory to 64 mb. for a \
small test group.  It's still to early to tell if this measure will have any impact \
on the problem.  One of these new test group members also has a non-ATI based video \
card.  (If you search Novell's support site on "ati" you will see that this card or \
it's drivers seems to be related to a variety of problems)

Anyway, we will continue fighting this problem, including investigating the more \
recent suggestions (below) from this list.  If anything new happens, I will post an \
update.

Thanks. 

> > > "Monica Jackson" <jacksonm@cna.org> 11/18/99 09:09PM >>>
Oh boy the despised four letter word at our company. In fact, a Novell consultant is \
at our site for another day to tackle this problem. The resolution appears to be a \
multi-pronged attack, not a one size fits all.

Our primary culprits are errors 016F:BFF9A25B, 0028:C00829FA in VxD IFSMGR(01) , or \
PC freezing.

Our PC configuration is as follows: Win95 B, 64 MB Ram, MS Client for NW, MS four \
updates for client, Winsock 2 update, Gateway G6-233 or E-4200, 3Com Fast EtherLink \
XL 10/100 MB (3C905-TX), ATI Rage Pro Turbo 2X (3/98).

Before the consultant arrived the following fixes have been attempted to varying \
degrees of success: removed Notify from startup, ran NRE & installed 5.5.2 client, \
modified virtual memory, reduced video resolution & graphics hardware acceleration, \
ran GWCheck, provided new ghosted image hard drive, deleted C:\Windows\Temp contents, \
re-created user.db, & installed Client 32 v3.1. The latter 2 had the highest \
sustained success rate (hardly ever gets client errors).

So stay tuned as I will report our findings once the dust settles. 

Are you having fun yet? Just think only 43 more days before all the excitement \
starts!  I'm going home to watch ER.

Monica Jackson
The CNA Corp.

703-824-2324

> > > "Robin King" <RKING@brook.edu> 11/18/99 01:51PM >>>
Jon,

The TID you mention seems to imply that this happens over "high-delay" networks such \
as satellite links.  That definitely is not the case in our organization as we are \
fairly self-contained and recently upgraded our infrastructure.  However, if you are \
willing to explain how you think this might apply, and how we might test to see if \
this is our problem, I'd be glad to listen.

I tend to believe that this problem is directly related to GroupWise and the way the \
client talks to the POA since it is fairly predictable in that it happens only while \
running GroupWise, only after clicking send, and at times while running nothing other \
than GroupWise.  And it doesn't happen when other applications are being used in the \
foreground.  GroupWise is the only common thing happening on all the various types of \
hardware and operating system versions.  If the network or operating system were the \
problem, why don't we see this while running other programs?  
> > > "Jon Christensen" <JON@novell.com> 11/18/99 12:52PM >>>
You might also want to take a look at Microsoft's document Q236926 on their support \
web site.

Jon

Robin King
rking@brook.edu 
Information Technology Services
The Brookings Institution

> > > mpuchalski@couzens.com 11/18/99 10:12AM >>>
I used to see quite a few of these, but they seem to have tapered off since I \
implemented the suggestions in \
http://support.novell.com/cgi-bin/search/tidfinder.cgi?2930480.  

> > > Martha Lederer <MJL@crs.loc.gov> 11/18/99 12:08PM >>>
We have also been getting blue screens, usually with an OE at 016F:BFF9A25B.  It \
usually occurs when the user does an Alt-D for Send.  Sometimes it is when adding an \
attachment.

Martha

> > > "Robin King" <RKING@brook.edu> 11/18/99 11:29 AM >>>
Barbara,

Are the fatal exceptions 0D with 0157:BFF and then some other numbers?  And also 0E?  \
We see this very frequently here and most of the time after we click the send button \
in GroupWise.  I've been going crazy trying to solve this problem because it isn't \
reproducible on demand.  Our WINSOCK is up to date, it happens on various machines, \
various versions of Windows 95 and 98, and after speaking with Novell, I have no \
insight.  I've tried updating video drivers, disabling video acceleration as a TID \
from Microsoft suggested, but still no luck.  We've taken to trying BIOS upgrades at \
this point.  If you get anywhere I'd definitely appreciate any info.


> > > Barbara Clark <bjclark@lnc.com> 11/18/99 10:29AM >>>
This happened occasionally in earlier releases, but we have upgraded to GroupWise 5.5 \
sp 2 and users are now getting the infamous 'blue screens of death' more often.   It \
appears to happen after they hit the SEND button when replying to a note.   Any \
thoughts?

Barbara Clark
bjclark@lnc.com 
Lincoln National Life
Fort Wayne IN
                                                                                      \


                                                                                      \
                !
!
!
!
!
!
!
                                                                                      \



***********************************************************************
This message is a private communication.  If you are not the intended
recipient, please do not read, copy, or use it, and do not disclose it
to others.  Please notify the sender of the delivery error by replying
to this message, and then delete it from your system.  Thank you.


[prev in list] [next in list] [prev in thread] [next in thread]