PC Not Booting - BSOD before Windows

dangermouse425 · 27 Jan 2012 at 12:20

Hi all,

In an attempt to fix my RAM not reading correctly (reading at half capacity, my 2 x 4GB Ballistix sticks are reading at 2GB each) I reset my BIOS settings back to default.

When I restarted, the computer whirred up, then died. It then switched itself back on again, POST'd and went to the "Loading Windows" screen, a coupe of seconds later it BSOD'd and the attached screen showed for half a second, then it rebooted and went into Windows Error Recovery mode.

http://s2.photobucket.com/albums/y47/Danger_Mouse/?action=view&current=photo-1.jpg

I have run the Windows Recovery tool and nothing has come up, I have attempted to restore to a restore point a couple of days ago, but without any success.

I am quickly running out of ideas and am unable to get it boot at all.

Any thoughts?

Thanks in advance.

Not sure if it's bad memory, or indicative of another problem; motherboard, etc?

EDIT: Specs are in sig, but motherboard is an Asus P8Z68-V and I also have two 1TB in RAID.

stulid · 27 Jan 2012 at 13:05

Is the OS running from the RAID? wondering if you have set the SATA controller to another setting (AHCi/RAID etc) by loading the default BIOS setting.

dangermouse425 · 27 Jan 2012 at 13:42

OS is running from the SSD, I'll load up the BIOS and RAID config to check the settings. Thanks for the suggestion.

dangermouse425 · 27 Jan 2012 at 14:05

stulid said:
Is the OS running from the RAID? wondering if you have set the SATA controller to another setting (AHCi/RAID etc) by loading the default BIOS setting.

Thanks Stulid, the OS was running from the SSD and clashing with the two HDDs because "RAID mode" wasn't activated.

Can't believe I went to the trouble of reseating my CPU and it was a BIOS option. D'oh!

Memory still reading at half capacity, any ideas?

honosuseri · 27 Jan 2012 at 17:11

Download ultimatebootcd. It's full of handy diagnostic software for testing the RAM,CPU, HDD etc.

Might be worth checking the mobos BIOS version. Is there an update? Might be a compatibility issue with your RAM and the mobo. Has it ever been recognised at full capacity?

dangermouse425 · 28 Jan 2012 at 01:31

honosuseri said:
Download ultimatebootcd. It's full of handy diagnostic software for testing the RAM,CPU, HDD etc.

Might be worth checking the mobos BIOS version. Is there an update? Might be a compatibility issue with your RAM and the mobo. Has it ever been recognised at full capacity?

Yes, it's worked before. I'm not sure when it stopped working though. Thanks for the suggestion, I'll update my BIOS version if it's out of date.

honosuseri · 28 Jan 2012 at 01:48

I'd make sure the rig is stable first. You don't want it to crash when you are updating the bios!

dangermouse425 · 28 Jan 2012 at 09:38

True, very true!

Silenced · 28 Jan 2012 at 09:46

Have you tried both sticks on their own, just to make sure they both work. A memtest wouldn't hurt too.

dangermouse425 · 28 Jan 2012 at 12:01

Yup, both sticks on their own, and they're both reading at 50%. Conducted a memtest and they're both saying they're "fine" for 2GB sticks.

Silenced · 28 Jan 2012 at 12:16

Very strange indeed, I think the only thing I can think of is the possibility your motherboard has some kind of issue with it. Do you have any other RAM you could try?

dangermouse425 · 28 Jan 2012 at 12:51

Not DDR3

My brother has DDR2.

I'm thinking of RMAing the RAM and hoping it's not the motherboard. Otherwise I'll have to RMA that too. I thought I'd check with the forum first though, to avoid pulling the rig out of action.

Silenced · 28 Jan 2012 at 13:37

The only things I could possibly think of is that they're unmatched and don't like being in dual channel slots, or they aren't in dual channel slots and they should be. OR the RAM doesn't like your motherboard, should check your mobo manufacturers website to see if it's compatible (Unlikely it isn't)