BSOD with video playback

[Chris-W-]

My Dell workstation seems to be haivng a bit of trouble lately with video playback. Its a Precision T1500 (specs: here) with an i7 860, 4GB DDR3 Ram, Nvidia Quadro FX580.

 

When attempting to play video, be it embedded flash, DVD, mkv file, whatever; it always blue screens when I either have two or more videos being processed, or occasionally just one open with other general apps (office, chrome, etc).

 

Having used WhoCrashed the dump files show 'Video Scheduler Internal Error' often with watchdog.sys or mctkmd64.sys being listed as the culprit.

 

I've tried updating the Gfx drivers (even tried a different card with no luck) thinking they could be the cause but to no avail

 

Anyone got any ideas?

 

Btw: Re-install Windows would be my last option...

 

Cheers!

[jamesfed]

Maybe check for a BIOS update or a dodgy stick of RAM?

[Chris-W-]

I've already put the latest BIOS on it, and I've run memtest for an hour with no problems reported

[Chris-W-]

When I get into work in the morning I'll run a full dell diagnosis for a few hours and report back.

[jamesfed]

One other thing to try is if you have multiple RAM sticks try taking one out and running the system - if it still dies then try the other stick.

Although RAM tests are good sometimes the good old process of trial and elim works better

[Chris-W-]

Ive done a quick test this morning, removing various components to try and determine if its a hardware issue, and have noticed that although the RAM is good, when I remove the graphics card, the system does not boot (even though its got onboard graphics), I just get 6 short beeps . I reckon the graphics/memory controller is nackerd?

 

EDIT: Dell diagnostics has finished, no errors found.

Edited July 27, 2011 by Chris-W-

[Chris-W-]

Quick update. I've been on the phone with Dell and, apparently, the Precision T1500 is designed not to work without a dedicated graphics card installed! Surely that can't be right? Why would anyone design a computer that although has onboard graphics, cant actually use it!?

[3s-gtech]

The i7-860 does not have an integrated graphics core - so although you have outputs on the board, there's nothing to run them. There's no graphics capability on the board anymore - in fact, the Northbridge on Intel boards doesn't have a memory controller either now.

[Chris-W-]

The i7-860 does not have an integrated graphics core - so although you have outputs on the board, there's nothing to run them. There's no graphics capability on the board anymore - in fact, the Northbridge on Intel boards doesn't have a memory controller either now.

 

 

Ah right, thanks!

Does the chipset also make a difference? The system has got a H57 chipset which does have integrated graphics.

[3s-gtech]

The integrated graphics on H57 stem from the CPU - that's i3 but not i7. It's not actually in the chipset.

[Chris-W-]

Right. Got it

[Arthur]

All of the second generation (LGA 1155) Core i7 processors have integrated graphics though.