BSOD STOP : 0x0000007E - tcpip.sys

[Jo The Veteran]

My hd broke down so i removed it and replaced it with a WD 10EADS 1TB SATA2. I've installed windows xp pro sp2 from the begining in the new disk and tons of programs that i use and everything went fine. I didn't use any serious internet bandwidth during that time, only for some new versions of messenger live, firefox, vuze, veoh player and some other stuff.
Anyway when i started some videos downloading in veoh player i got a BSOD after about 2 minutes. The timming is precise and goes like this :
PC restarts, about 20-30sec to enter windows and another 10 to start all taskbar programs, veoh is one of them and starts downloading 2 videos simultaneous (about 300-400 mb each vid), it downloads for about a minute and the BSOD hapens, PC restarts...

BSOD info (although if you know what that is, i probably gave you all the info needed already).
STOP : 0x0000007E (0xC0000005, address varies - mine was 0xEC64D5C8, address varies - mine was 0xF3D85B34, address varies - mine was 0xF3D85830)
tcpip.sys Address EC64D5C8 base at address varies - mine was EC64A000 Datestamp address varies - mine was 41107ecf

I've google it without any luck. There are allot of 0x0000007E BSOD posts but not many with the tcpip.sys, and if any they are not solved. While i was doing that and later on composing this post, i've left the pc turned on without any internet activity for about 50minutes and it hasn't crashed once all this time.

Also, i've installed a windows update for the tcpip.sys that was supposed to fix this but regretfully did nothing.

Some help would be cool.

[minidv2dvd]

did you re-install all the motherboard inf/chipset drivers and the nic driver after the re-install?

if the answer is yes, i'd format the hard drive and start over.

[redwudz]

Check Windows\System32\drivers folder and you should see tcpip.sys. If it's not there, then that's a problem, but you wouldn't be able to get on the internet. But it could be corrupted. My tcpip.sys file is 870KB on my XP SP3 PC.

Unfortunately some malware also calls itself tcpip.sys and you might want to do a search for that on your whole system. If you find it anywhere but in the System32 folder, you're likely infected. Most tcpip.sys patches are to get you more internet connections, not to repair/replace the file.

You might be able to find tcpip.sys somewhere on the net and replace yours and reboot. That's if it is the problem. Or copy it from another working XP computer.

[Nelson37]

So this "veoh player", the program that causes a BSOD every time it runs, what happens if you do NOT run this program and just do some normal browsing?

[disturbed1]

Just to echo what redwudz already posted -

tcpip.sys is a windows system file that - in layman's terms - allows network activity. This file can become corrupt, overwritten, deleted, or replaced by malware/virus. Run the system file checker on the file and/or delete it and recopy a known good version.

Run a full scan with a couple of tools in safe mode.

Some people patch tcpip.sys to allow more connections than those set by Windows. Some P2P and bittorrent apps will do this with, or without the end user's knowledge. Not the best idea in the world

Besides a corrupt/hacked/infected tcpip.sys file, could be a simple driver conflict. Try a couple of different drivers. You can bet there will be at least 3 versions. 1)Microsoft's, 2)The Motherboard Maker's own driver 3)The actual chipset manufacturer's.

[Jo The Veteran]

Thanks for all your answers,

To all, sorry if i may sound angry or sarcastic sometimes, bear with me. i'm just frustrated.
Also please keep in mind that i've installed NOD32 antivirus and Spyware Doctor and updated them with the latest virus/spyware definitions just when the pc became online able. I've also scaned the tcpip files with that online antivirus/spyware http://virusscan.jotti.org/en and found not any ill advised software.

To minidv2dvd. Unfortunately i did that in about the 9nth or maybe 10nth long hour of windows and programs installation. It really didn't pass my mind that nforce 3 drivers could be responsible for creating blue screens. Besides, not all hardware had been discovered by windows. I HAD to manually install the LAN driver and some other component from tne motherboard (don't remember the exactly which one). Therefore i installed the "Chipset - NVIDIA Chipset driver for nForce3 series v.510" and the "Marvell Lan driver v.8.61.3.3" found here http://www.giga-byte.com/Support/Motherboard/Driver_Model.aspx?ProductID=1881#anchor_os. So i guess the answer is yes... and not, i've installed some drivers and some of them reinstalled over the xp default ones. I didn't install the "Realtek AC97 v.5.10.00.6160" driver for i use a sblive, the "IDE - NVIDIA IDE - SATA for nForce3 series v.510" driver, for those where installed in the begining of the winxp installation (the hit F6 to provide drivers for scsii though diskete thing) and the "USB 2.0" drivers. If you believe the drivers are the problem, don't you think there is a way to remove them without formating?

To redwudz. I can get online, and actually the pc from where i post right now is the one with the problem. BSODs don't happen if i don't use a heavy duty bandwidth consumption program, like azureus or dc and i guess it's also gotta be p2p because downloading from the browser or posting or browsing don't seem to cause it. The tcpip.sys file is there (v5.1.2600.3244 - filesize 352kb). I did a search including hidden files and folders and i also found it in these locations : C:\WINDOWS\$hf_mig$\KB941644\SP2QFE (i believe that is the old file, prior to the microsoft patch WindowsXP-KB941644-x86-ENU i applied, v5.1.2600.2180 filesize 351kb), in C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers (obviously), in C:\WINDOWS\system32\dllcache (seems like a backup of the later), and in C:\WINDOWS\$NtUninstallKB941644$ (another backup? this one holds the v5.1.2600.2180 file). If replacing it would solve the problem then don't you think applying the WindowsXP-KB941644-x86-ENU, which does exactly that, would be enough? Well that didn't work!

To Nelson37. Yeah, you're right about that. I could do that but this doesn't solve any problems. It would be the same if i get a ps3 that crashes in games for some reason and rather that getting it fixed, i use it just for music cds. It's simply not an option! Becides, prior to this winxp installation i had another one in the exact same pc (with another hd) with no BSODs, ever! I had the veoh player there and worked just fine. The only reason i had to abandon that installation is because the hd died. I'm also pretty sure that the BSOD happens in all p2p programs so i'll try it with Azureus after i post this and tell you what hapened.

To disturbed1. I'll enter safe mode and scan with sfc from there. For some reason it keeps asking for the winxp cd even though it's in the drive.
What tools do you mean?
So you're saying that the tcpip file is a driver that's included in the motherboard driver. In that case i've used all three options you laid down there. Because the mb maker provides the chipset driver and there is no "he Motherboard Maker's own driver" and i've used the winxp driver when i applied the WindowsXP-KB941644-x86-ENU update. Still using that right now.

That was a big reply...

[disturbed1]

To disturbed1. I'll enter safe mode and scan with sfc from there. For some reason it keeps asking for the winxp cd even though it's in the drive.
What tools do you mean?
So you're saying that the tcpip file is a driver that's included in the motherboard driver. In that case i've used all three options you laid down there. Because the mb maker provides the chipset driver and there is no "he Motherboard Maker's own driver" and i've used the winxp driver when i applied the WindowsXP-KB941644-x86-ENU update. Still using that right now.

That was a big reply...

tcpip is a windows system file. If you have a bad driver which talks to tcpip.sys you can get a BSOD.

mb maker provides the chipset driver and there is no "he Motherboard Maker's own driver"

That is the Motherboard Maker's driver Which is dated 2007/02/08, Marvell's driver is dated 4/21/09 - That's a two year difference. Who knows what Microsoft did with the driver ( http://www.marvell.com/drivers/search.do )


It's either a driver issue, which is easiest to trouble shoot. Or you have a rouge program that is causing corruption.

I decided to google tcpip.sys bsod - just about all of the results pointed to driver issues or failing hardware

[Jo The Veteran]

Yeah, i'm also afraid the nic could be fried from what i read in google. Still i did some tests with azureus, adsl online test and youtube videos. They didn't bring the bsod. Then i entered veoh to check if there was any troubleshooting there and my player downloader activated without me noticing. When i noticed, it had already downloaded half a vid (150 mb) and was starting others i had queued before.
Now it's past 10-15 minutes without the bsod. I don't get it. I haven't changed anything, still...

One last thing. Last night i put my pc to close automatically though bsplayer, when movie was over. I fell asleep so i don't know exactly what happened, however in the morning the pc was off. When i turned it on, a prompt in winxp notified my it had recovered for a serious error. It displayed this about 10 times, i pressed close and another would show the same content.
Also, before testing azureus and the other programs, i turned off my netlimiter. I use a 80Kb/s upload limit to optimize my overal bandwidth so i input the limit in explorer, for all programs to use. could THIS be it?

[Jo The Veteran]

No bsod yet. I have all programs downloading like crazy. Limiter is still on but without the limit activated. I'll activate that too.

[Jo The Veteran]

It run fine after i activated the limiter and when i tried to open a movie it crashed almost imediatelly. Could this be a power issue and running allot of devices or programs together be causing it?
After the reboot the same things happened, downloaded for a minute and then crashed with me never even touching the keybord.
Now that i write this, 4 rth reboot, i've shut the downloads and it's way past 10mins without crash.
In other news, i can't use sfc in either safe or normal mode. It asks for the win cd although it's in the drive, and when asks for i can hear it spining, so i know it can see (a) cd there.

[disturbed1]

It run fine after i activated the limiter and when i tried to open a movie it crashed almost imediatelly. Could this be a power issue and running allot of devices or programs together be causing it?

Possible - check your RAM, TEMPS, voltage levels. Ram can be tested with memtest86 ( http://www.memtest.org/#downiso ) Speedfan can tell you some info on temps and voltage levels - so can your bios. http://www.almico.com/sfdownload.php

It seems like everything is running fine until you launch veoh - I thought Veoh was just a simple hulu type streaming site

Also look for the latest updates for those softwares, and attempt to dial back the number of connections. Start with a low number of connections, then dial it up little by little. If your hard drive is continuously thrashing, turn down the connection number.

[Nelson37]

Not a power issue with many programs, but maybe a memory issue.

Do I see this right that the crashes have only ocurred with either 1. the Veoh player running - or downloading, please clarify this issue - OR 2. the netlimiter program running, and activated? In fact, it would appear that ALL crashes happened with the netlimiter program on and activated? This would be a program I would expect to interact with tcpip.sys. Did the BSplayer crash have any connection with Veoh, such as playing a movie downloaded with this program? Was this particular movie being shared thru P2P?

Your statement about it ran fine after activating the limiter is confusing. Crashing immediately after opening a movie does not qualify as "running fine". Repeat this test. Do it three or more times. What happens? Then turn the limiter OFF, or just de-activate, preferably test each seperately. Then test movie. Several times. What happens?

ISOLATE and IDENTIFY. It does not matter if a program that you really need, or that has worked before, is the one causing the problem. Once you know where the error is, you can go about a systematic process of resolving the issue.

A note on Spyware Doctor. I have twice encountered systems rendered totally unusable by this program. It seems to be a problem processing an update, then the program sucks 99% of system resources at bootup and is somewhat difficult to remove. This program has entered the category of those to be automatically removed when encountered. I recommend Spybot Search and Destroy, Malwarebytes, and either AVG, NOD, or AVAST.

[Jo The Veteran]

To disturbed1. I'll do a RAM test right now, cpu temp is about 30-35 (at least that's what my bios tells me).
You are correct about veoh, it is a video site. I don't know about hulu but if i compare it with youtube i'd say the only difference is that you can download the videos in their original format, and rather than simple low qty .flvs they can be divx/xvid, h264 or wmv. That's what veoh player program does.
I have the lastest sofrware from them, i installed them yesterday from they site.
I don't think it's p2p at all. When you download it gives you a number of connections that feed your download but these could be veoh servers, and not other users, i'm not sure. Besides, the program itself is very simple, so i can't dial down those connections. I can only queue videos from the site, and then download those videos and that's it. Also if you mean setting it to get one video at a time it doesn't help either, i've tried that.

To Nelson37, i'll check the memmory after this post. All times reported bellow are related to my posts.
I believe it's when veoh is downloading but i'm not sure, i'll test that now. I was suspecting netlimiter for the same reason you suspect it also, however i believe it does not cause the crashes. In post my post "19 Jun, 2009 11:49" i notified that limiter was on but without the limit and that i would turn it on. I did that and the computer didn't crash until "12:21", my next post, and that crash hapened when i tried to access bsplayer.
I know i said it run fine, sorry for the confusion, but that's what it was doing at between 11:49-12:21 and it's also driving me crazy too, so it's not just you.
This is what i know till now, system reboot, veoh starts and after 1 minute windows crash, tcpip bsod. WHATEVER i do THIS hapens, either netlimiter when is on/off, or activated/deactivated. When i run Azureus alone once (11:37) to check if it's p2p what causes the crashes it run fine. It continued to run fine when i added veoh by mistake (somewhere between 11:37-11:49) that downloaded 3 videos at that time, then i activated netlimiter (11:49) that was on but deactivated, still run fine for 30 minutes, then i opened bsplayer and it crashed imediatelly.
I'll try other p2p programs and bsplayer together and see if it that hapens.
For spyware doctor, i've used it allot before and never offered me any troubles. It hadn't ever siped my system resources this bad.

[Jo The Veteran]

Ok, i've tested veoh without limiter and with no downloads running and it bsod. then restarted 3 more times without me being here and did the same with downloads running (default setting for veoh) and netlimiter that starts in boot.
I know this because i build a batch counter to represent each boot and puted it in startup.

Date/t>>Restarts.txt
Time/t>>Restarts.txt
echo -------------->>Restarts.txt

(The �˜¨ is presented that way due to the lack of unicode characters, it stands for Friday. The ££ stands for pm)

�˜¨ 19/06/2009
06:26 ££
--------------
This boot is after veoh crashed with no downloads or limiter on.

�˜¨ 19/06/2009
06:28 ££
--------------
�˜¨ 19/06/2009
06:34 ££
--------------
These two boots are with veoh with downloads and limiter activated.

�˜¨ 19/06/2009
06:38 ££
--------------
This is now, veoh is not running, limiter is on and activated.

I'll do the memory test now.

[minidv2dvd]

i usually reformat at the slightest hint of a problem with a fresh install. faster and less nerve racking then diagnosing what went wrong with the install.

the order i use to install things with the computer disconnected from the net.
windows
low level chipset drivers
other hardware drivers
the anti-everything protection software
go online
anti-everything updates
windows updates
carry on... install one thing at a time and if something goes wrong you will have an idea which program it was.


the nvidia site has a final v5.11 chipset driver that isn't on gigabytes site
http://www.nvidia.com/object/nforce3_winxp_5.11.html

[Jo The Veteran]

Thanks minidv2dvd, i'll try that.
About the order for installing windows, i do pretty much the same. However the problem i have appears in the less importand programs, a file downloader. Those are the last in my list to install or test, so i can't just scrap the whole installation now, it just took allot of time. Besides i'm pretty much sure that even if i did a fresh install, i'd still experiense the same BSOD. It's just my damw luck.

On other news, the memory test showed 0 errors and run straight for 4:30 hours without crashing, so i don't think it a memory thing.

I'll switch the power unit with an apu i have from another pc tomorrow and i'll let you know.

[Soopafresh]

I had BSODs galore with both my Wireless Lan Card driver and TCPIP.SYS. I went through months of driver replacement, hardware tests, etc. What fixed it for me was 1) I discovered I had a Seagate 1TB drive with the bad v 15 bios (quick bios flash fixed this) and 2) I created a slipstreamed XP install disk with integrated SP 3 and reinstalled the OS. My PC has been flawless for the past three months (knock on wood).

[Jo The Veteran]

I too have a 1TB disk now! What bios update is that, hd bios or mb bios? So, you intalled bios for the disk or mb and it fixed your problem and you did the slipstream for backup purposes? Or you did both the bios and slipstream and you fixed it?

BTW, i've checked the power unit with THERMALTAKE's A2358 DR.POWER PSU TESTER and it checked ok.

Please Soopafresh be speciffic on the bios thing.
Thanks.

[Nelson37]

At this point I would attempt to establish a baseline.

Boot into Safe Mode. Make SURE all software disabled. No internet connection. For the Test, do the following - ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. Let it sit. Overnight, even.

Then, ONE AT A TIME, add conditions. Internet connection, downloads. Test these EXTENSIVELY. Overnight is ideal.

Do not eliminate anything after ONE test. Do it two or three times.

When you find the error condition, again REPEAT to verify. Then start removing previously added conditions to simplify.

I see BSPlayer mentioned often. Use a different player for additional testing.

Also try a different network card.

[Jo The Veteran]

The baseline you refer to Nelson37 is that the "veoh player" program crashes the system, all by itself. I have not found any evidence to convince me otherwise.

I run this computer all day and night already from the day it presented that error (19 Jun). I've tested the internet connection all that time by downloading about 7 Gigs using Azureus and it didn't crash once. I've tested the memory for 4.5 hours and nothing there too. All that time i've watched allot of videos and neither has crashed the pc, all in bsplayer. I've also tested it into doing nothing, by mistake for a whole night, and it normally stoped the disk (after 2 hours), entered standby (after 3 hours) and then hibernate mode (after 4 hours).
I have not switched the nic yet, i have a spare and was thinking of doing that now. However the system is stable now and the only program causing it to crash is veoh. Either by using it to download or simply by opening the program that BSOD appears after 1 min.

It anoying to accept that a program that other users may use normally, i can't! And without knowing the reason to!! However every little thing i change in the system, i'll check with it as well. I'll replace the nic eventually and see what that does, and then maybe do some bios updates.
Other than doing all that i can't think of. So if any of you guys have any ideas you may go ahead and speak. I'll be here watching.

[Soopafresh]

I too have a 1TB disk now! What bios update is that, hd bios or mb bios? So, you intalled bios for the disk or mb and it fixed your problem and you did the slipstream for backup purposes? Or you did both the bios and slipstream and you fixed it?



Jo The Veteran, you have to make sure your 1TB hard drive is a seagate, and then determine if it is one of the models that has the freezing problem. It's a flash of the bios on the drive. Seagate has an ISO file which you download and burn to CD, then boot up the machine with the CD and run the command to flash the firmware. Do a search on "Seagate 1 TB Freeze" and look at this page to determine what kind of drive you have installed. http://seagate.custkb.com/seagate/crm/selfservice/search.jsp?DocId=207931

I reinstalled Windows because I was sick and tired of the BSODs and I wanted to pull out all the stops to fix it. You can use Nlite to slipstream SP3 or you can just install XP and then upgrade to SP3.

I don't know if it was the drive firmware update or Windows reinstall that fixed it, but it works fine now.

[Jo The Veteran]

Sorry, my mistake, i was too enthuzed to have maybe found a solution to my problem that i didn't notice the difference in our hd brands. My hd is a WESTERN DIGITAL WD10EADS 1TB SATA2, so it's doesn't have the seagate freeze problem you had. Thanks anyway.

[Skith]

I noticed you have an nforce motherboard. does it have one or two onboard nics? If so, you might try using the other one. My board has an nvidia nic and a marvelle one, but I disable the marvelle since I don't use it. I know there have been various issues, although I don't remember the specifics, although you should make sure the nvidia hardware based firewall is disabled (probably a jumper or bios setting).

Another thing that comes to mind is to make sure you have the proper settings in bios for advanced configuration/power management. I can't ever keep all those blasted acronyms straight - AHCI or ACPI or ACPI or something like that.

You could also try running process monitor / filemon to see what is going on while veoh is running - not sure how much those will help since you are getting BSDs.

[Phlexor]

According to the Nvida website, 5.11 is the latest chipset driver version

http://download.nvidia.com/Windows/nForce/5.11/nForce_5.11_winxp2k_international_whql.exe

There is only one LAN port on the back, so that's out. Plus I agree that installing with a slipstreamed SP3 XP disc would be better. That and updating with Autopatcher after you install all the drivers.

[Jo The Veteran]

Skith, unfortunately i only have a marvel nic onboard, fortunately i also have and old (and immortal) 3com 10-100 nic, so i'll use that. About the ACPI, i don't normally touch that stuff, or at least i don't have to. In my previous winxp installation they worked fine so why would that change now? I didn't replace the bios too when i switched the hard drives. Also, nothing really happens when i run veoh. Just the normal 1 to periodically 5% cpu activity. That program doesn't use much cpu or memory when that blue screen hapens. That makes me pretty sure that there is something wrong with the nic, although it's working perfectly for all other internet apps.
Phlexor, i've downloaded the nvidia drivers and will try them too.
About the slipstream you mention, i don't know how to do it since i've always used norton ghost for backup. Still i don't think it's that hard and i'll probably do a backup using that technique. However my system's winxp are freshly installed, so wouldn't a slipstream installation and my windows be pretty much the same at that time?

[Jo The Veteran]

Well, it seem that the NIC was fried. After a whole month i decided to install a really old card i had for spare, A 3COM 10-100Mbit and it works like a charm! I get better download speeds and i don't ever get the BSODs by veoh.
This one was quite mind boggling and disturbing. I still don't know why it happened, or if SOMETHING happened at all, I mean the on-board Marvell NIC is still functional and i use it in local network for direct pc connections due to the 1Gbit it offers. It produces 0% errors and never a BSOD. Still when i download from internet, a bunch of ^$@# happens.
It's like, it works fine, then i format the pc and reinstall windows, then it's %^@##ed up.
Oh well, I guess stranger things have happened anyway...

[Phlexor]

Just as a question, did you install or use the network manager or firewall that the motherboard drivers try to install when you used the onboard NIC? I only ask as they are known to work poorly.

[Jo The Veteran]

These drivers don't install a network manager, or if they do and i don't remember I'm sure i edited it out in the install. I always use the windows net manager.
The same with firewall, if there was any i edited it out. I never use the winxp on-board firewall also.

[chh]

A shot in the dark:

Some time ago, one of my brothers had a similar problem. Off course I don't remember the specific BSOD code. But the symptoms were the same. BSOD and reboot.

We tried to disable the onboard network chip, and replaced it with a PCI 10/100 card.
Problem still existed. BSOD.

After hours of struggling, we found the culprit. The patch-cable! It turned out, that the weels on his deskchair had ran over the cable and caused a shortcut. The shortcut was the reason for the BSOD's. As soon as we replaced the patch cable, everything worked fine.

[Jo The Veteran]

You know, that thought crossed my mind too. I checked if i was right by replacing it with the RJ-45 cable i use for my second computer (i have two computers, this one for downloads, that is also 24-7 on-line and another for games with better hardware that i turn off after play). In any case it didn't solve anything and the blue screen still happened.
I guess when i formated it (i did some hardware changes at that time) the Marvell chip got affected by the static in my body or something and kinda died, not completely though, but it found a new reason in life rather than downloads and that was to make my life miserable.
Still i haven't disabled it in BIOS, so when i find the guts (BSODs terrify me ) I'll try messing with it again, and if a blue screen happens again I'll try yet another cable.
Thanks for your input.