sql2005: Blue screens are not nice

Question

A few people (myself included) have reported BSOD crash when opening tables in vs2008. Microsoft says this is not a repeatable bug...

I just got a BSOD crash in Sql Management Studio after opening a table and scrolling. This is just like the bug in vs2008.

Just reporting this, I have no expectation they will fix this... but if enough people can report this who knows?

Answer 1

How: just open a table view and scroll it.

I have turned off auto restart on failures so if it happens again I may have more info.

In application event viewer I see this many times, at the time of the crash.

The description for Event ID ( 1 ) in Source ( nview_info ) cannot be found. The local computer may not have the necessary registry information or message DLL files to display messages from a remote computer. You may be able to use the /AUXSOURCE= flag to retrieve this description; see Help and Support for details. The following information is part of the event: NVIEW :  SqlWb: Shared heap exhausted or damaged, process ID 180, total alloc:349d0...
.
and this only once:

SQL Server has encountered 3 occurrence(s) of cachestore flush for the 'Object Plans' cachestore (part of plan cache) due to some database maintenance or reconfigure operations.


Some months ago I immediately suspected my video drivers and tried to update but this didn't fix it. I just now updated to the december 2007 nvideo geforce 8-series whql drivers and this may fix it. I see that the sql table viewer is dead slow repaint now, but if it doesn't crash that's good enough. Sql server table view is the only thing that has interacted with the video to cause this. I have the geforce 8800gts 320mb card that has been discontinued by nvidea.

Answer 2

Are you running the SQL Server Service on the same machine that you are using SSMS and Visual Studio 2008 on?  And what version of SQL Server is it?

 

Answer 3

I use sql server express 2005 sp 2 (I think, I have completely forgotten how to read the sp number, but it's the most recent download). Surface area: local connections only.

ssms full version from sql server 2005, I have sql server 2005 standard installed but the service is not running. I use express since that's what my software product uses on customer installations. I run the full version of ssms since I need import/export. Why they left this off the express version is uncle fester's big secret I suppose.

It all runs on the one development machine. asus p5k deluxe motherboard, e6600 oc@3.2, 2GB memory, geforce 8800gts 320MB, xp sp2, visual studio 2008 pro. A completely stable system otherwise.

Answer 4

Existing setting:

USE master
EXEC sp_configure 'show advanced options', 1
RECONFIGURE WITH OVERRIDE

USE master
EXEC sp_configure 'max server memory (MB)'

max server memory (MB)    16    2147483647    2147483647    2147483647


If I increase system memory to 4GB, XP(32bit) will be limited to seeing 3GB? How would sql server see the full 4GB?

Answer 5

I fail to understand how memory can be the issue here.  SQL Express is limited to 1GB max memory, so adding additional memory isn't going to solve this problem.   Have you tried using SSMS on a different machine and see if that machine exhibits the same problem as this?  This is likely where Microsoft is saying it isn't a issue, since I would test this by connecting from a workstation to the SQL Exress Instance remotely.

 

Answer 6

I agree with Jonathan.

I think a video hardward/software issue.

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Kalman Toth SQL SERVER 2012 & BI TRAINING
New Book: Beginner Database Design & SQL Programming Using Microsoft SQL Server 2012

Answer 7

I have been having the same problem with Sql Server Management Studio 2005 for several months. I have aan NVidia Quadro FX 3450 SDI. The crashes are random - but always following some UI interaction, often scrolling the content in a data table or resizing a column (Open table menu entry)

Sql Server Management Studio would also take several minutes to open because it generated thousand of entries in the Event log. The entries were similar to what you describe.

 

Well the good news is that these issues went away for me a week ago. I updated to the latest NVidia drivers and I also turned off all the extra fluff provided by the drivers (Windows Explorer integration, extra menu on top right of dialog and so on). This solved it. At this point I could investigate some more and see what can be turned back on from the drivers as I liked and used some of the Windows Explorer integration but these features are not worth BSOD and extremely slow Sql Server Management Studio!

 

I hope this helps anybody.

 

Yves

Answer 8

I also update the GeForce drivers. Seems to have fixed it.

Answer 9

 

I did get another couple of blue screens so I don't think this can be marked as closed yet! However I think they are less frequent. It seems to mainly happen when resizing a column.

 

By the way, I have a Dell Precision 690. I also looked on the Dell forum about a year ago and there were a few other people with the same problem.

 

Yves

Answer 10

Paul, when you get the BSOD, can you check the error code?

I'm getting a BSOD on my Win Server 2003 system when I try using SSMS, and I wanted to find out if the error codes you're getting are the same as mine:

STOP 0x000000F4 (0x00000003, , , )

This stop means that a critical system process (not thread - if it were a thread, it'd be 0x000000F4 (0x00000006, , , )) is being terminated unexpectedly. I don't know what process it is specifically though.

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Logan Young, MCPD Web Developer hopeful