BSOD Issue

azibux1

azibux1

azibux1

Soldato
Joined
11 Oct 2011
Posts
3,335
Location
UK
Hi all,

I am having a blue screen of death problem with a computer I recently built.

I am saying it is BSOD by looking at the message windows shows after the reboot, althout I never actually see the blue screen itself

It happens fairly often (happened twice in less than half an hour), all I was doing was installing programs / browsing the web

Here are some pics showing the error:







This next photo shows what I see if I go to C:\Windows\Minidump:



I am assuming the others in this list are the other times it has happened.

Extra Info
- If I am not using the computer (currently writing this post on my laptop), it seems fine and does not BSOD, only seems to happen whilst I am using it
- I reinstalled Windows yesterday (that is probably why there is only 4 .dmp's in that list, I am sure it has happened more often than that but the reinstall must have wiped those ones)
- I updated the SSD's firmware yesterday, AFTER the reinstall of Windows
- Yesterday it was around midnight, I had shut down my PC and it was installing updates, so I left it. It got to update 10 of 83 then froze there, the small circle kept going round, and the two dots kept going left and right, so it wasn't totally frozen, but it would not get past update 10. I woke up at about five in the morning and it was still on update 10, so I held down the power button and turned it off as it did not seem to be getting anywhere. After this I booted up the PC and it seems to be fine (other than BSOD obviously), I mean the forced shutdown didn't seem to do any damage. On the previous Windows installation the BSOD issue was happening too, so it is not the forced shutdown that caused it

The reason I reinstalled Windows was as I was having an issue with MS Office, because it BSOD'd during the install and wouldn't let me install it. So I reinstalled Win 7. I still cannot install Office on the SSD (keeps bringing up errors), but have it installed on the HDD instead.

THEN as the BSOD issue was still happening, I thought it must be the SSD firmware causing it, so updated that AFTER the Windows reinstall, but it still does BSOD

Any ideas ????? :confused::confused::confused:


Full system specs are:
i5 2500K
Asus P8 Z68 V LX
8GB Vengeance LP
Gelid Tranquillo Cooler
1GB GTX 460
1TB Samsung Spinpoint F3
120GB Agility 3 SSD (with latest firmware, 2.15)
Samsung Blu-Ray Drive
Akasa Bluetooth Card Reader
Antec TruePower New Modular 550W



Thanks for your help in advance, :)
 
Thanks for the quick reply

Sorry forgot to mention it is not overclocked

I will run memtest now and let you know what it says :)
 
I'm on my laptop again, running memtest on the affected PC but ... I don't actually know what I am looking out for :confused:

I've never used it before.

What should I be checking for? Or will it tell me at the end of the test?

It is currently on Test #5 and at the top it says Pass 20%
 
RJC said:
If you have faulty memory then at lower part of the screen will show highlited in red the affected areas.
Click to expand...

:O :O :O :O

This is what it shows:




What could the error be though? The RAM was brand new when I bought it, and it is less than 2 months old
 
Will test one stick at a time later tonight

How can I RMA it if I have had it for so long?

I thought with RMA you only had a week?


Also, from that pic you can see it says RAM: 668Mz

Should that not be 1600MHz???


Sorry for the stupid questions, I'm new to all of this as it is my first ever PC build :)
 
RJC said:
Your looking at DSR - Distance selling regs, RMA is used for returning products under warranty and under DSR Regs.

You should have a lifetime warranty, the first years I would go through the retailer.

The memory should read 800mhz (double data rate) to give 1600mhz, check the BIOS and adjust the memory settings.

Don't worry regards the questions, we're here to help :)
Click to expand...

Thanks :D

I'll check the settings in the BIOS and let you know how I get on :)
 








I have checked and the memory frequency in my BIOS is set to 'Auto'. And as you can see from the picture DDR3-1600MHz is one of my options instead of 'Auto'.

The memory should read 800mhz (double data rate) to give 1600mhz, check the BIOS and adjust the memory settings.
Click to expand...

So as memtest said RAM 668Mz (DDR3-1337), should I set that setting to 800Mz to double and make 1600MHz or is that the total, so I just set it to 1600MHz??

I thought I better ask here as I do not want to damage anything

Thanks for your help,
 
Sorry for the late reply, been very busy with college work

I just had a look at the PC and I think I have found the issue

I changed the speed in the BIOS to 1600MHz, but the lower part of the screen in memtest was still solid red

So I then left it at 1600MHz and removed one stick of RAM, this red was still there

So I tested it with just the other stick and there was NO red whatsoever

I am testing the RAM in the same slot to make sure the test is fair

I have now put the speed back to 'Auto' and that one single stick is still causing memtest to show errors

So what should I do next:
-Return both sticks of RAM for replacement (I am fairly sure this is what I need to do as then I will receive a matching pair back?)
-Return just the faulty stick

Is this error quite common? What causes it?

I will ring the company who I brought the parts from (it was not OcUK, but another big website), and they are closed at the moment, so just thought I'd ask here first for your advice.

Should I contact the company I bought the RAM from or should I contact the manufacturer (Corsair)?


Hope you can help,
 
RJC said:
You will need to return both pairs and you wil get a new set in return, ring the company you purchased the ram from and show them if possible a photograph of the mem test screen, I did this with my OCZ Gold ram a few years back (Ocuk).

Like all electronics they can fail and memory is one these.
Click to expand...

OK Thanks for your help and reply

I have a photo of the error so will send it to them if necessary

I will ring them tomorrow and see what they say :)\

I have left the faulty stick out at the moment, and the PC seems to be running OK :)
 
Contacted them and they said that I need to send it back for testing then they will replace it

Do you know if they will replace it or will they try to repair it? Is it repairable, because even if it is, I would rather have a replacement :)
 
Hi,

They tested the RAM and said that it failed memtest so came to the same conclusion as me, that it is faulty

I received my replacement yesterday

Installed it today and when I first installed it, I put in both sticks, and booted up the PC and nothing happened, no image on monitor and the DRAM LED next to the RAM stayed on constantly, after a few seconds the PC shutdown, started up again (by itself) and then done nothing

I then swapped the sticks around, tried with one stick on it's own etc and I thought that I had one more faulty sticks as it seemed to boot up fine with just one of the sticks.

But then I thought I would try the faulty stick on its own just once more and then it booted up fine, put both sticks in and it still boots up fine. Now when I boot the DRAM LED comes on for a second or two then goes off (fairly sure this is normal), and PC boots up fine

Any ideas why it wouldn't boot initially the first few times? Could it have been that it was maybe just seated incorrectly??

Thanks for your help, :)
 
RJC said:
It might been the motherboard throwing a wobbler, I tend to do a CMOS reset when changing components like the cpu and RAM.

But your up & running so all is good :)
Click to expand...

WOW, quick reply, lol :p

I will leave it for now because like you say it is working so no need to do anything else

Should I run memtest on the new sticks? or is that just wasting time?
 
PROBLEM

Hi RJC (or anyone who can help),

I have just found a problem with this new RAM too :@

While I had sent away the original RAM that was causing BSOD, I was using some RAM that I borrowed from a friend

Today as I said the new RAM 'was' working fine, other than the issue with the PC not booting

Now it boots, gets to the screen with the windows logo, gets to the welcome screen moves on from there to load the desktop and then it freezes

All I see is a black screen, with the taskbar at the bottom (all the taskbar has is the clock on the bottom right corner, nothing else), and a mouse cursor (which I cannot move)

I have tried this quite a few times and it never actually fully boots, it always freezes

I ran memtest for 20mins and it found no problems, whereas with the faulty RAM I originally had it found errors instantly

I then tried it with one stick, still nothing

I may be wrong, but I am fairly sure that there is something definitely wrong with this RAM as when I then put my borrowed RAM back in, it booted up perfectly and quickly like it used to when I first built it.

With this new RAM before it freezes I see the welcome screen for ages whereas with the original RAM I used to see the welcome screen for 1 or 2 seconds maximum


Few questions

What can I do?

Any ideas of things I can try?

How am I going to convince the retailer that there is a problem with the RAM if memtest is not showing any problems?

Should I be having to pay postage to return all these faulty items? (because at the moment I am)



Hope you can help :)
 
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