Machine_check_exception Error

[TheBlackMan]

I get a blue screen that says "MACHINE_CHECK_EXCEPTION Error" every time I try and play a game. It usually runs fine for about ten minutes and then the blue screen of death comes. I've read around about it having to deal with memory and what not. Has anybody had this problem before, and more importantly how can i fix it! Any help at all would be appreciated. Thanks!

P.S. After reading more I read about a program called memtest86. I'm going to try and run those tests. I've also read about my memory having some timing thing set in the BIOS. Any info on that and changing it!?!

[DigeratiPrime]

yes this does sound like a memory problem. Do you have more than 1 stick of memory in your computer? If yes, are they the same type?

You say about 10 minutes...

Does this happen in only one game? If yes, does it occur in the same spot?

Its also possible this could be a Video Card Problem, try updating your Drivers.

[TheBlackMan]

It happens in multiple games and it is always at a different spot. I'm not sure how many memory sticks I have, but I will check. I'll also try updating my video drivers. Could it possibly do anything with my BIOS?

[BeenThereB4]

It happens in multiple games and it is always at a different spot. I'm not sure how many memory sticks I have, but I will check. I'll also try updating my video drivers. Could it possibly do anything with my BIOS?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Possible causes:

1. bad memory

2. overclocking

3. bad driver

4. bad motherboard

5. bad processor

This is more or less the order to check. As always YMMV.

[IcoHolic]

About a week ago, my box decided to start going wiggy.. freezes, bsod's, random reboots. It didnt matter what I was doing. One of the BSOD's was the Machine_Check_Exception Stop:0x0000009c... among a pile of others for the file system, something to do with USB, on and on and on.

The point to my post?

After swapping out hardware upon hardware and troubleshooting for a good 20 hours. I had RMA'd the Motherboard and bought new RAM. The freezes stopped.. but not the **** Machine_Check_Exception.

How did it get solved?

New CPU.

I was running an Athlon64 3500+ (Socket 939).

After the swap of the CPU, all is well. I hope this helps someone out there.

[Deathshrimp316]

I get many machine_check_exception errors and freezes on my computer. I thnk its a software prob though because it never freezes while im playing age of empires 3 trial. Any ideas why?

[RJARRRPCGP]

If you're OC'ing your processor, increase the Vcore.

[Deathshrimp316]

I'm not overclocking but i installed older video and sound drivers and it seems to be working ok now. At least its good for me to know that my hardware is okay.

[cluberti]

This exact error happens when the CPU in your PC comes across an unrecoverable hardware error. In all x86 CPU's since the Pentium 1, there exists something called the "Machine Check Exception" (called the "Machine Check Architecture" on Pentium Pro processors), which is designed to catch hardware errors that it cannot rectify.

These errors are ALWAYS caused by a physical hardware error and are almost always memory errors, although I've seen these with cache or TLB errors on the processor. I've also seen these caused by a system bus signaling error, usually caused by something on the bus (PCI or AGP card, for example).

If installing older drivers solves the issue, then you should probably find out which driver was actually causing the problem, because that will direct you to the problem hardware that you should at least consider replacing.

Edited November 11, 2005 by cluberti