Arragh ..... BSOD! Help required!

..Brian..

Ahem, take 2

Hey Guys,

Firstly, apologies if this is in the wrong forum.

As some of you may know I recently bought a built a new gaming rig.

Unfortunately I'm getting more and more frequent BSOD's whilst gaming or idle or browsing the web. Blue Screen View is pointing it's finger at ntoskrnl.exe

My system is custom built, only about 1 or 2 months old.

Win 7 Professional SP1 (upgrade)
i5-3570k - stock
ASRock Z77 Extreme 4
Sapphire HD 7850 - stock
8gb G.Skill Ripjaws
Crucial M4 64bg boot drive
1.5tb Freecom external HDD
XFX Pro 750w PSU

I had messed around with a bit of OCing at the start but have everything set to stock now.

Most common culprits;

MEMORY_MANAGEMENT 0x0000001a

PFN_LIST_CORRUPT 0x0000004e

SYSTEM_SERVICE_EXCEPTION 0x0000003b

Oh I reinstalled AVG the other day as there was 2 BSODs attributed to that so that does not seem to be causing trouble anymore

I've attached all the dump files I cold find but I'm out of my depth here really, dunno what I'm looking at or where to start with trying to resolve it!

Any help would be great!

N64

Before we get into troubleshooting the various components of your system, you may as well uninstall AVG (its a crappy anti virus now anyway) and install Microsoft security essentials. See if it stops the BSOD's you have been getting.

..Brian..

Thanks for the reply. I have removed AVG, installed MSSE, done a quick scan. Loaded Skyrim and crashed straight away.

Memory_Management Stop 0x01a

dyer

have you tested your memory?

try with one stick (or whatever combination of ram you have).. if problem persists.. try with the other. if problem disappears.. you get the gist

windows7 has its own memory diagnostic (type mem diag in start menu and run it after reboot) however, for a more thorough diagnostic you should run memtest : http://www.memtest.org/

..Brian..

Just ran the windows memory diagnostic. It ran and completed but then windows just loaded as normal with no warnings or pop ups or anything so i assume it didn't find anything?

It's too late to start taking out RAM and messing around now so I will leave that until the morning. Will get a blank CD and run memtest as well and report back.

thanks for the help guys!

N64

The windows memory diagnostic is very primitive, and might not pick up ram errors. Your best bet is to run memtest86 for 4-5 passes.

Apart from reinstalling AVG, did you install/uninstall anything major?

Do you have the latest drivers/updates instilled on your system?

Tea_Bag

You can run memtest from a USB too. will save you a CD anyway.

I was getting that same driver fail and I did a full windows update (including Bing desktop :mad:) and its disappeared.

..Brian..

First pass of memtest is 33% complete and there's over 188,000 errors ...... That doesn't sound good!

..Brian..

How long will this run for or will it keep running forever until I stop it? If I do stop it do I just press esc to reboot? And will there be a log of something when I boot into windows? Just bout 2 passes done now in 1 hr 45 min with about 1.36 million errors

dyer

doesn't sound too healthy!

id also have a look at your SSD .. read this post here

its fine to stop whenever you want, no point continuing if you already have so many errors. you can probably reboot by pressing ctrl+alt+del or pressing reset button. at this stage you can start to remove some sticks of ram and continue testing.. if you stop getting errors then youll know which ones the culprit.

ps have you configured your ram/timings properly in the bios?

..Brian..

Ok, so ran 1 stick for 1 pass, 20 min, zero errors. Tried the second stick, 1 min into the first pass and over 23 thousand errors ...... I have a bogey stick of ram? Will that bethe culprit for all me woes?

uncle_sam_ie

Yup, sounds like it. Were did you get the memory from? It most likely is still under warranty.

..Brian..

I got it from HWVS On 25/05/12 it's only 1 month old. I'll have to return both stick I assume as to RMA it? Will the PC even run on one stick of ram? Windows is loading a,right but is it ok/safe to do so?

Tea_Bag

you'll have to return both sticks if they came from a kit.

yea its perfectly usable to run on one stick if you plan to nick one from another PC. make sure its ddr3 though.

..Brian..

Anyone any experience RMAing with HWVS? I tired going though the online template but I get stuck on the address section. I've tried calling them on 0049 1805 711 117 but I just get a weird tone and then call drops

dyer

the number's 01805 711 117 so you should dial 0049 01805 711 117 or you can try their call back service http://www1.hardwareversand.de/callback.jsp

For questions regarding returns, claims, missing articles or lost consignments please contact us by indicating your order number as follows:

reklamation@hardwareversand.de

if the memory came as a kit you'll probably need to return the lot i'd say.. you'll find out soon enough i guess

is the pc stable now with one stick btw?

..Brian..

Yea it's looking good, been playing skyrim for about 3 hours no probs

GS540

First thing I think you need to do is Reset your BIOS. your CPU frequency might to to high. second thing I think you need to do is check about your SSD. Do you get random freezes when searching for large files and music, etc? if so you might need to update the SSD's firmware.

..Brian..

Thanks for the reply dude but it looks like we've found out culprit. A faulty stick of RAM. I've been using the good stick only now since yesterday and no crashes.

Have to ring UPS tomorrow and arrange pick up to return it.

Tea_Bag

if you ordered off HWVS, ring them instead. they'll arrange all the UPS stuff and rma procedure.

GS540

..Brian.. wrote: »

Thanks for the reply dude but it looks like we've found out culprit. A faulty stick of RAM. I've been using the good stick only now since yesterday and no crashes.

Have to ring UPS tomorrow and arrange pick up to return it.

well that's good news good luck.

Xeyn

Had the same problem with my custom laptop build, turns out i was given the 1600 ram sticks when my MB was only capable of 1333, as soon as i swapped them for the correct RAM everything was fine from then.