BSOD Errors.

[xguntherc]

Hey Guys, So here's the Deal. The computer is getting about 3 BSOD's a day or so for the last few days. Not my computer, i am fine, but my mothers computer that I bought RAM for a week or so back.

I'm sure John, and Fumz will remember. I bought some RAM for moms computer. got PC2-4200, showing up as 5300 and crashing computer. So now both sticks are in, with the old ram as well. (old wasn't in at first), and now it's all runnin at the slowest and original ram's speed. I ran Memtest86+ for over 6 hours with no errors. so I'm not sure what to think. It may be the ram, it may not. I'm probably going to take it out anyways.

Tere was a lot a BSOD's, but here's the last ones Error just in case.

STOP
0x0000008E(0xC0000005, 0x805A4E45,0xB41F1C40,0x00000000)

I have no clue what that means. and as john said. I shoulda returned the RAM on principle when I bought 4200, and it was 5300. yes it's faster, but may be faulty. So I'm not sure, but at the speed it's currently at it passed prime, but thats the only thing I can think of that could be causing this.

Also the old RAM was 4200, running at 533, so when i added the new into the old so it would run at the slowest module's speed. it did, but now it's all running a 572MHz instead of 533. so didn't exactly go down to the slowest modules speed.

If anyone has some idea's for me let me know, as she needs her computer for Bills and what not.

Thanks!

 

[rajinisback]

Hi xguntherc,
If you go to support.microsoft.com and in the search type in 0x0000008E there are different Vista articles mentioned.
Raj

 

[xguntherc]

Thanks~ I'll give it a check

 

[roy69]

I would put money on latency errors on the ram. Take the ram out and see if the BSOD keep happening. If they dont theres your answer.

 

[rajinisback]

It would also help if you can tell us if there is something specific she is telling the computer to do and it crashes with that error?

But yea I agree with roy69 if you add memory and things start acting up, chances are it's bad memory. That has been my experiences with adding memory at least.

One time we bought a batch of memory from Kingston and 10 out of 30 memory sticks were bad.

Raj

 

[xguntherc]

Well I was pretty sure it was the ram, I've now taken it out, and it's not BSOD'ed once today. so i think thats it. But why would it past 6 hours of memtest. I guess those tests are just a General test... nothing concrete.

We'll, now is it the RAM, or the computer not liking the ram or the speed of the ram, cuz I wanna sell it on Craigslist and get more. lol
What ya guys think?

 

[roy69]

A memory test does just that. It writes data to the ram then read from it. The memory may be working fine. If it was one speed or the other. The problem is that mixing memory will cause the errors.

A cause of a memory error that has "fit memory i.e. memory that has no error" is quite common. It is called a page fault. Look here for more information Page fault - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Fumz]

Well I was pretty sure it was the ram, I've now taken it out, and it's not BSOD'ed once today. so i think thats it. But why would it past 6 hours of memtest. I guess those tests are just a General test... nothing concrete.

We'll, now is it the RAM, or the computer not liking the ram or the speed of the ram, cuz I wanna sell it on Craigslist and get more. lol
What ya guys think?

The RAM is in all likelihood just fine. The "speed" of the RAM was never an issue because you're running it at the same speed as the RAM that came with the machine.

The difficulty was in running mismatched sticks... the IC's on one kit might be made by Samsung, the other kit might have IC's made by Micron or Infineon, but you already knew that before you started... it's always a risky unknown mixing RAM.

You tried and it didn't work... meh, such is life.

What you're going to do next is the real tricky question? If you have another machine I'd test the new kit out and see what it defaults do, then read it's SPD with cpuid. If that RAM isn't faster than it says, then it's the board is playing foul and it's possible that no kit you put in will run right, short of going back to the maker of the machine and upgrading through them... which can cost an arm and a leg.

 

[ripbox]

Im not up on MOBO's and stuff like that but it sounds like a similar error to what i got when i changed my ram
the board in question is eVGA 750i right? and over clocking board if im correct... it looks like the Abit IN9 MAX that i have

The way i solved my issue when i changed the ram was to go into bios check all the ram and voltage settings... make a mental or written note... now go back to the main bios screen and load fail safe settings (dont get it mixed up woth optimal settings) now go take a look at the ram and voltage settings again and you should see that they have changed and if so you can then save and exit.... with a bit of luck you should have no problems now leaveing you to go tweak the bios to how you want it set i.e boot priorities ect

I only say this is the way to go because with my boardit seemed to keep all the settings from the old ram in some kind of internal BIOS memory even though i never overclocked my system

IF that still fails to cure it then try the Cmos jumper
below is my main bios screen, the menu hilighted is where i checked the ram and votage settings

It seem from what i can see your bios is almost identical

 

[xguntherc]

No ripbox my machine is fine, but thanks for trying to help. It's my mom's machine I was trying to add RAM to.

and Roy69, I think I got that error a few times. your right there.

And Fumz, your forgetting that not only did I get BSOD with mixing ram, but I also got the BSOD when i had ONLY the new ram kit in the machine. and was not mixing anything. and I have tested the ram in CPU-ID and it's PC2-5300. NOT the 4200 i purchased. and it wasn't running at the speed of the original ram, when I mixed the new and the old, hoping the new would get clocked down to the slowest chips speed of 533.. it didn't. They all showed up in BIOS running at 572 MHz, not sure why. thats like in the middle of the old 4200, and the new 5300. haha. so thats why I'm confused.

So recap. with new ram in, BSOD, with new and old. BSOD, with only the old ram. it's running with no errors.

So I know the ram is faster than what i purchased. I know that. So either the board just cant handle that speed. or it didn't like that ram, and or me mixing.
Also the New PNY ram i bought, when I checked it under CPU-Z the Serial numbers were not even close. They were Completely Different. no where near the same. so makes me wonder what PNY is doing over there.
The RAM that came with the machine were matching sticks with serials only one number apart. one after another. so they were matched. The Ram that the machine came with was indeed Samsung Chips.

So now what do I do. I'm selling the RAM i just bought online, and the original 4200 Samsung chips are in the machine. Do I look for another 512x2 kit of 4200 so I just have 2GB. or should I try again with 2x1GB kit of the CORRECT speed?

 

[roy69]

Send the chips you bought back to the reseller on the premis that you will buy the correct ram x 4gb of the same type and speed that will work with your motherboard.
If your board accepts duel channel memory then buy two lots of 2x1 gb sticks.This will inprove performance becasue the computer will be able to access all 4 sticks at the same time. Look at it as increasing the speed. Instead of the chips running in series they will be running in parrelel.

 

[Fumz]

... And Fumz, your forgetting that not only did I get BSOD with mixing ram, but I also got the BSOD when i had ONLY the new ram kit in the machine. and was not mixing anything. and I have tested the ram in CPU-ID and it's PC2-5300. NOT the 4200 i purchased. and it wasn't running at the speed of the original ram, when I mixed the new and the old, hoping the new would get clocked down to the slowest chips speed of 533.. it didn't. They all showed up in BIOS running at 572 MHz, not sure why. thats like in the middle of the old 4200, and the new 5300. haha. so thats why I'm confused.

So recap. with new ram in, BSOD, with new and old. BSOD, with only the old ram. it's running with no errors.

So I know the ram is faster than what i purchased. I know that. So either the board just cant handle that speed. or it didn't like that ram, and or me mixing.
Also the New PNY ram i bought, when I checked it under CPU-Z the Serial numbers were not even close. They were Completely Different. no where near the same. so makes me wonder what PNY is doing over there.
The RAM that came with the machine were matching sticks with serials only one number apart. one after another. so they were matched. The Ram that the machine came with was indeed Samsung Chips.

So now what do I do. I'm selling the RAM i just bought online, and the original 4200 Samsung chips are in the machine. Do I look for another 512x2 kit of 4200 so I just have 2GB. or should I try again with 2x1GB kit of the CORRECT speed?

I remember, it's that I don't trust the results you're seeing. First, a new version of cpuid on an old chipset can give you whacky results, that's why I suggested another machine, hopefully a newer machine? Not because I'm trying to get this kit to work, but more because this is a very curious situation.

The second reason I don't quite trust the results is because, again, RAM is rated and not set at any specific speed. Your board should have set the memory to run at the board's defaults, not the RAM's defaults no matter what kit you bought. You could have a kit of DDR2 2gajillion and the board, with it's awfully limited bios, should have set the RAM to 533MHz.

How many times have you seen this thread? "hey, i bought pc 1066 but my rams are only ddr 800??!! wtf?" <--- That same thing should have happened here. That it did not suggests, at least to me, that there's something fishy about that OEM bios. If you're buying more RAM, I would do it locally so you can take it right back when/if it fails and not have to deal with any shipping charges. I suspect that unless you go through the people who made your machine, any kit you throw in may give you problems.

Hope I'm wrong and you don't have to deal with a big-ole-hassle, but, it's what I'm thinking so far?

 

[ripbox]

well all the same have you tried loading default or fail safe setting the the pc that you having trouble with?

 

[xguntherc]

Ya Fumz, I see what your saying with CPU-Z, and also I bought 1066 ram and said the same thing when I saw 800.. lol.

So your right there. but it has in it, and is operating at 533 with the 4200, so throwing anything in it should do the same. but it didn't.. I think I wanna at least try one more 4200 (533 MHz) first, and see what happens.. I just wanna get a 2x1GB kit of PC2-4200 and see how that fairs.