PC running "Perfect", prime stable, random BSODs??

[Heofz]

I've done memtests which are perfectly fine, Prime95 is fine,

but every so often (I'd say a few times a week) I get BSOD, and its nearly ALWAYS one of the following:

IRQL_NOT_LESS_THAN_OR_EQUAL

or:

PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA

would anyone know what this normally means? Is a memory error? I/O problems?
hard drive error?

I've googled them both dozens of times but pretty much all the results consist of forums of people saying they get this every time they do <x>, which does not help me in the slightest.

 

[Heofz]

screenshots, no (bit impossible lol), but the IRQL one is always Stop code 4E.

I'll let you know what the PAGE_FAULT one is

 

[Heofz]

I was having the same problem a few weeks with my office pc. It ran prime95 and memtest and it was stable aswell.
A format and new windows install fixed it.

well see this pretty much IS a fresh windows install

 

[Heofz]

how long prime stable are we talking? i've had it fall over after 17 hours.... some people only test for 8 or even less.

also try snm (3.5 hours or so to complete the hardest test) and occt. much better than waiting days for prime....

I always choose the smallest Torture test (Small FFTs), and I usually leave it on for like 4-5 hours until I say thats enough its stable

 

[Heofz]

Thanks for the replies guys

Indeed i have an nF4 motherboard, the DFI SLI-DR to be precise.

Haven't got nVidia Firewall installed. I detest any kind of software firewall as all they do is create unnecessary hassle (e.g. "Argh this software isnt working! oh yeah.." *creates custom firewall rule for software* .... x999)

Will try uninstalling these IDE drivers and will let you all know

 

[Heofz]

Removed IDE Drivers. Will run Prime95 and keep it running till tomorrow, hopefully all will be ok

 

[Heofz]

Been going for 3 hours now without problems

 

[Heofz]

test failed after 5hrs 55 mins. something about "Hardware failure" and it expecting rounding less than 0.4 but was 0.46430312039

bleh

 

[Heofz]

Sounds like RAM to me mate, Memtest certainly isn't the be all and end all of memory stability testing.

One stick at a time, and test with Prime

Testing now...

Its got a lot further so far than it has done before using the "Blend" mode torture test

I had no idea it was my RAM holding me back as memtest never showed any errors

guess its time to get new memory lol

Also, would anyone happen to know if there was some way I can slightly modify my BIOS to run my chipset fan at a lower speed and actually activate my CPU fan header (settings prevent it from even turning on unless my CPU is above 30°C)

I can control it all perfectly with ITE Smartguardian but it often fails to load at startup in windows, complaining "itevio.dll could not be found", but it works if i double click on its shortcut afterwards

 

[Heofz]

Also I've been running my TCCD ram at 2.75v as when previously reading about them before buying them I heard anything above 2.7v didnt really give any kind of performance boost.

I ripped off one of the heatspreaders and its TCCD 513, not the 440 or 431 everyone is talking about :/

 

[Heofz]

Is your ram overclocked? Im guessing it is, maybe the timings need to be a smidge higher - if it runs memtest for 5 hours its not completly unstable, just a little bit so add a little volts or timings will sort it.

Just been testing how high I can go with this memory

Currently at 285mhz @ 3.15v @ 2.5-4-3-6-1T (CPU is running at 3.14Ghz now)

Prime95 fails after a few minutes though, will fiddle with the timings

 

[Heofz]

Right, got my PC running 100% stable with each individual stick of RAM.

Is it true that memory in nF4 mobo's are supposed to be run at

x-x-x-7 to x-x-x-13 ?

cos until before I had been running my 2 sticks in dual mode @ 2.5-4-3-6 @ 2.75v

I've upped the voltage to 2.9v before I started with these individual sticks and all has been perfect so far, not a single blue screen @ 3Ghz

/edit: right, just had both ram in, and it refused to boot into windows unless I had the sticks in the slots in a certain order (wtf?? )

now its booted into windows, Prime95 fails Blend mode test after a minute or so

So we've established my PC will run perfect with 1 stick of ram, but in Dual mode it fails

How can this be?

 

[Heofz]

Right, I've just loosened my timings to 2.5 - 4 - 3 - 8

And now Prime95 failed at 5 hours 42 minutes in Blend Mode

Here is a shot of A64Tweaker & CPU-Z:

Which settings do you recommend I change to just push it out of the "unstable" zone?

What BIOS version are you using with your DFI mobo?

CPU-Z says: 6.00 PG (05/10/2005)

 

[Heofz]

anyone?

 

[Heofz]

i was having same sort of issues with an a8r-mvp (the driver irq equal or less BSOD randomly appearing all the time) after much playing around it strangely seemed to be something to do with Azureus. After uninstalling this program i havent had a single issue. Random i know...

Strange... Last time my PC blue screened it was while using Azureus also! (Though that time it was a PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA bsod)

But then what was REALLY weird, my mobo's onboard RAID controller (SiImage) failed to recognise 1 of my 2 hard drives from my RAID0 array thus stopping me from booting, tried resetting CMOS settings to backed up ones like i have done many times before, but this had no effect. However after switching the pc off and on again it was fine

Will look into the BIOS changing. What performance increase did you get when changing it?

 

[Heofz]

Before the BIOS change I had all kinds of problems getting any stability out of it, I had boot problems, lockups, BSOD's etc...

After changing the BIOS my memory clocks very well but I can't tell you the difference as I never really tested with the old BIOS due to the mentioned problems.

I do have some odd things with my system in that I can only get good stability with the memory at 1:1, if I use any divider I get boot problems that I also get when running a lower multiplier

so do I :/