Vista - Vista multiple BSOD's

Hello All, i am quite new here and I need some serious help. I have been getting multiple BSOD's and i need to figure out why.

my system is as follows
foxconn Blackops motherboard
Wolfdale e8500 processor
HD 4850 gfx card
ram = Patriot Viper 4GB 240-Pin DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Dual Channel PVS34G1333LLK

running Vista ultimate sp1.

It used to be that I got these bsod's while gaming only. and usually only in intense graphics games. like far cry 2. I recently changed my ram from OCZ reaper ram since i was getting too many errors and thought that was the problem since my ram was apparently incompatible with my board.

my new ram was being volted at 1.69 which i thought was ok since the manufacture says to volt at 1.7. i started playing a game of gears of war and i got a blue screen. i then checked ram voltages and set it to 1.725 since i saw it was actually at 1.64.

then i got a bsod with system serivce exteption error code while doing absolutely nothing. other than running skype.

i set my voltage back down to 1.686 and no crash as of yet.

can someone assist me in figuring out what my problem could be. I am going to run memtest and update my graphics drivers, but as of now i have not done so. I wanted to post this asap, as I am in dire need of help.

I have the crash dumps from both blue screens saved, in case you can tell me what the problem is from those.

any help i get will be appreciated beyond belief, I am really tired of going through these issues and not being able to solve it. Thanks a huge amount in advance.

Update, my machine did in fact crash after i reset voltage back down to 1.686. I am going to change the timings in bios, and set it back to defaults if it doesn't work. When i first installed these sticks i didn't get any crashes except when i was in a game. Now i get these crashes at seemingly 30 to 60 min intervals, but i do have OC settings on my mobo on. That could be it as well.

As of now I have run memtest and I am completely confused. the first pass i got no errors. but when i changed my settings to bios-all i got over 1500 errors almost immediately. I cannot find any literature on what the bios-all option actually does, or if I should even use it to test. BradyTech doesn't seem to care about giving us instructions on how to use memtest configuration. So i am stuck.

can someone please help me?????

Hello stirfriedsushi,
The first thing to do is re-set the bios to the default settings, and run memtest again.
I would also update all your drivers, and it would be a good idea to install SP2.
Also what are your temps like ?, SpeedFan is a good temp monitor.

SpeedFan - Free software downloads and reviews - CNET Download.com

Run memtest and post your results. Good luck. When you re-post include your crash dump files.

The only bios setting i have changed is the voltage and that is when the crashes started. Currently i am at 1.686 and i have no errors on memtest after the third pass.

I do get errors when i set memory sizing to bios-all and i really would like to know why that is.

I am going to try changing my timings to reccommended settings and running memtest, then running it with all default settings.

I cannot give you the crash dumps as they are on the machine right now. As soon as i run these tests I will post them.

I have, since my last post, run memtest a total of 3 times all with the same result. first, i tried these settings.

CAS latency 7
Ras to Cas 7
Ras precharge 7
tras 20
trc 32
command rate 2t
and voltage 1.686 in OC settings

i got a few overclock recovery errors due to my board, but the thing finally started and i got into memtest. i ran for 3 passes with 0 errors.

then i ran with no timing settings changed, all on auto by the board. Only voltage changed to 1.686.

ran for 3 passes, 0 errors.

next i tried all default settings. no voltage changes.

ran for 3 passes, 0 errors.

I am now on the machine testing to see if the voltage changes were what caused the 2 random BSOD's. The machine crashed within 60 min of turning on both times. so if it crashes again, i will be at a loss.

I cannot attach the dump files as the forum will not let me. If you want the dump files please tell me how i can get them to you and I will asap.

Navigate to C:\Windows\Minidump

Click on and highlight all the files in that folder
Right click on the highlight and select "Sent to"
Then select "Compressed (zipped) folder"
It will tell you where it saved the .zip file.
NOTE: If it doesn't let you do it there, copy the files to your Desktop and do it there.

Upload the .zip file with your next post.