Hardware & Devices

14-May-08 7:38

Is there some way I could measure the total load on the PSU now featuring as chief suspect in my shut-down problem described below? Maybe if it's an overload, and the unit is delivering close to rated current with low load, I could assume it would be subjected to an above rate current draw when the load increases?

Semicolons. the number one seller of ostomy bags world wide. - dan neely

Johpoke14-May-08 8:41

Johpoke

14-May-08 8:41

Well you could use a plug in power meter which sits between the wall outlet and the PSU. Like the Kill A Watt[^]

Smile | :)

//Johannes

Jörgen Andersson15-May-08 1:18

Jörgen Andersson

15-May-08 1:18

If you have access to a variable transformer or a UPS where you can set the output voltage, you can lower the voltage to the PSU until the computer fails and shuts down.
If the shutdown voltage is above the standard -15% of nominal voltage, you want a new PSU.

Keep in mind that this might be a destructive test of the PSU.

Dan Neely15-May-08 2:19

15-May-08 2:19

Make sure you read the specsheet on the PSU before making a judgement. Better quality PSUs are designed tolerate larger deviations than cheap ones. Better quality new models can take Japanese 100v, us 110v, European 220V, or anything in between without having to flip a hardware switch.

You know, every time I tried to win a bar-bet about being able to count to 1000 using my fingers I always got punched out when I reached 4....
-- El Corazon

Brady Kelly16-May-08 3:46

16-May-08 3:46

Wow, how long has it been since I even heard mention of a variac, let alone have seen one.

Semicolons. the number one seller of ostomy bags world wide. - dan neely

Jörgen Andersson16-May-08 4:10

Jörgen Andersson

16-May-08 4:10

I actually have one. So I only use it once a year or so. But you can test things you wouldn't be able to otherwise.

I learned about the importance of voltage quality already as a kid. Whenever our farming neighbour used his welding equipment (Sized like a small nuclear plant) we had brownouts and the tv would break. My dad kept on complaining about bad quality tv-brands until the power company finally installed a new area transformer. Problems gone!

Dan Neely16-May-08 4:51

16-May-08 4:51

Brady Kelly wrote:
Semicolons. the number one seller of ostomy bags world wide. - dan neely
Quote Selected Text

Could I have a capital T and perhaps a colon added to this?

You know, every time I tried to win a bar-bet about being able to count to 1000 using my fingers I always got punched out when I reached 4....
-- El Corazon

Brady Kelly16-May-08 5:01

16-May-08 5:01

Sure. $Shucks | :-\$

Semicolons: The number one seller of ostomy bags world wide. - dan neely

Dan Neely16-May-08 5:17

Machine Randomly Shuts Down

16-May-08 5:17

You know, every time I tried to win a bar-bet about being able to count to 1000 using my fingers I always got punched out when I reached 4....
-- El Corazon

Brady Kelly14-May-08 4:17

Re: Machine Randomly Shuts Down

14-May-08 4:17

I am trying to diagnose a random shut-down problem on a friend's PC. This morning I blew out the CPU heatsink, and added an 80mm case fan, extracting, next to the CPU. I have just received work that it has again shut down, and I would like to establish more on whether temperature is still playing a role or not.

I want to log CPU temperature constantly, and observer whether shut-downs occur during upward trends in temperature. If not, I can forget more cooling and pay attention to other areas. How could I go about polling the CPU temperature?

fat_boy14-May-08 5:36

Re: Machine Randomly Shuts Down

14-May-08 5:36

Look for a BSOD in the windows dir, or a minidump in the minidump dir. If its overheating the dump will tell.

Morality is indistinguishable from social proscription

Dan Neely14-May-08 7:10

BSOD-PAGE_FAULT_IN_NON_PAGED_AREA

14-May-08 7:10

Would a negative result be definitive there? Overclocking driven overheating can cause random bitrot in the core and I'd assume the same could happen even at standard specs, while I assume windows could only properly log a temperature warning (on die or on mobo sensor) related failure correctly.

You know, every time I tried to win a bar-bet about being able to count to 1000 using my fingers I always got punched out when I reached 4....
-- El Corazon

FotisSs13-May-08 11:29

FotisSs

13-May-08 11:29

Hi there people,

I have problem running the following driver code. It worked for sometime
but without no obvious reason whenever I try to stop the driver service
a BSOD appears with the PAGE_FAULT_IN_NON_PAGED_AREA error.
I found out that when I remove the set DriverName code the problem disappears
but the question is why.

I'm desperate I cant find a way to fix this thing. I load the driver
with the instdrv.In the Debug Viewer only the HI message apperars Any ideas?

Here is the code

VOID UnLoadMe(IN PDRIVER_OBJECT obj);<br />
UNICODE_STRING us;<br />
	<br />
NTSTATUS DriverEntry ( IN PDRIVER_OBJECT theDriverObject, IN PUNICODE_STRING theRegistryPath )<br />
{<br />
	<br />
	DbgPrint("HELLO");<br />
	RtlInitUnicodeString( &us, L"TEST\0" );<br />
	theDriverObject->DriverName=us;<br />
	theDriverObject->DriverUnload=UnLoadMe;<br />
	return STATUS_SUCCESS;<br />
}<br />
<br />
<br />
VOID UnLoadMe(IN PDRIVER_OBJECT obj)<br />
{<br />
	DbgPrint("BYE");<br />
}

fat_boy14-May-08 5:35

14-May-08 5:35

You shouldnt set the driver name, its given to you, its the name in the services key of your drivers entry. (Like 'serial', 'tcp', etc).

Morality is indistinguishable from social proscription

JudyL_MD14-May-08 7:13

JudyL_MD

14-May-08 7:13

First, listen to fat-boy - he's correct!!

However, to help understand what is causing your problem ...

Given that error (which is very precise in telling you what the problem is), my guess is that your us variable is stored in a paged data area. You have to be careful with global variables in drivers that they are stored how you think they are stored. There may be a pragma in effect putting all code and data into paged-pool - this is quite common for initialization code.

Judy

fat_boy15-May-08 0:07

15-May-08 0:07

Unless he didnt paste all his code in (ie he is using the PAGED pragma) then all driver code is memory resident, and global vars.

But, since DriverEntry runs at passive level you can access paged out code without any problem. This is probably one of those odd errors where the error used doesnt really reflect what went on. Probably, its read only memory, or the unicode string actually points to part of the registry file or some such.

Morality is indistinguishable from social proscription

JudyL_MD15-May-08 2:12

JudyL_MD

15-May-08 2:12

fat_boy wrote:
Unless he didnt paste all his code in (ie he is using the PAGED pragma)

That is what I was suspecting and was referring to when I talked about a pragma asociated with the initialization code. My guess on the crash is that after the OP changes the driver name to use that paged variable and DriverEntry returns, the page fault occurs as soon as the driver object is used somewhere not at Passive level since it references paged memory.

Judy

fat_boy15-May-08 2:17

15-May-08 2:17

Yeah, a stack trace would show whether the bug is due to setting the name in the devo, or something else referencing the name, now in this drivers image.

I suspect its the former though.

Morality is indistinguishable from social proscription

fat_boy15-May-08 2:21