NTOSKRNL.exe fails when playing demanding games.

[CougTek]

A former customer told me that he has BSOD when he's playing some recent games. He has Win2K and he receives the message that ntoskrnl.exe causes the problem. ntoskrnl.exe is the Microsoft Boot Up Kernel. I searched briefly on the Net for a possible explanation, but I haven't found anything related to the graphics. Apparently, a certain virus can attach that file, but then, it wouldn't happen only during games. His computer is otherwise stable, accordind to what he says.

His hardware isn't too recent. IIRC, he has an AthlonXP and a Radeon 8500LE. I don't remember the motherboard. I really don't think hardware is the problem.

Got a clue?

 

[Will Rickards]

Video Drivers going tits up in kernel mode.
Try different versions of the ATI drivers.

 

[CougTek]

I'll tell him to try that. Thanks for the help.

Why some games use kernel mode and others don't? Does it have to do anything with DirectX?

 

[LiamC]

Video drivers were pulled into the NT kernel when NT moved from 3.5/3.51 to 4.0. It was done to increase compatability and allow faster hardware access, but it does decrease stability.

You'll probably find that the BSOD is probably game/maybe level/card/video BIOS specific.

 

[CougTek]

You'll probably find that the BSOD is probably game/maybe level/card/video BIOS specific.

That's what I thought. It'll be great to try to explain that to him. He thinks his card has gone tits up and that he gets BSOD because his computer isn't powerful enough. I tried to tell him that speed and stability are two different things in the computer world, but I don't think he's convinced. So the concept of specific game/level/video BIOS specific...

 

[LiamC]

That's what I thought. It'll be great to try to explain that to him. He thinks his card has gone tits up and that he gets BSOD because his computer isn't powerful enough. I tried to tell him that speed and stability are two different things in the computer world, but I don't think he's convinced. So the concept of specific game/level/video BIOS specific...

O.K. If he knows better than you, then sell him a top end card from the competition (if he has ATi, sell him and NVIDIA) at a generous markup and consider it as education for him/her—and he just paid for it.

:mrgrn: