[smashguy37]

Hi guys, I just recently installed a new operating system hard drive because my old one was failing. I find that every now and then I'll just be on the Internet and everything will freeze and then after a while I get a BSoD. It doesn't mention anything specific like IQRL or anything, just a stop code, which I can't remember. Now, this is a bit confusing, but I had problems a few months ago when I changed my RAM settings from 533 to 667 in my BIOS. My mobo and RAM could handle it, technically, but I got a lot of problems. Ran memtest, got errors, but I took the sticks to a store and they ran it for like 2 days straight and they got no errors. The guy said it's probably my mobo (Asrock Dual Vsta775) because it doesn't tend to like being changed from the stock setting.

I don't know if that is the problem or not, I'm probably due to buy a new mobo soon...but I was wondering if someone could give me step by step directions on how to read my memory dumps...or if someone could tell me where to locate them and interpret them for me, that'd be great. I know memtest will give me an error, so I just want to see what the dumps say. Thanks.

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Surely it would be simpler and more sensible not to overclock if that cures the problem (yet to be established but probably true).

[phillip22]

Surely it would be simpler and more sensible not to overclock if that cures the problem (yet to be established but probably true).

[smashguy37]

I'm not overclocking. Months ago when I changed the RAM settings, my mobo was perfectly capable of running 667 without overclocking, however that aside, I've still been running everything stock, so I'm still at 533.

[smashguy37]

Anybody?

[The Admiral]

Blue screens are usually caused by one of two things - a bad driver making a bad reference to memory, or the memory being bad. You have ran memtest and received errors, yet you are confident that the RAM is good. That leaves your motherboard, and since you're planning on replacing it anyways, why bother with crash dumps that aren't going to tell you anything - since it's the memory and not a driver.

Here is the article I pass to my colleagues who are not familiar with the Windows Debugger - I suggest you take a look at that article for instructions on debugging, analyzing, and interpreting a crash dump. Dump files are stored in C:\WINDOWS\Minidump\

[smashguy37]

Everything has been running smoothly, but I just got a reboot after a rendering a video (I edit videos for a living) and got stuck in the fun "disk read error" loop. I got it once before, but it went away. I've done so much reading online, but it never seems to go anywhere. I'm starting to think maybe it's the CMOS battery or of course, just the motherboard.