[Granz00]

I've been getting the BSOD a few times now, but it restarts the computer too fast for me to get the details. I have two possible issues that could have caused it. It started happening a decent bit after these two incidents, but I added 2 more Gigs of RAM (1GB sticks) and the other is I tried to resize the partition to install Ubuntu. The resizing got stuck so I had to manually shut down my computer.

Along with the BSOD, I've been recently having problems opening up certain applications. This time when I started the computer, I couldn't open firefox, so I had to switch to using Internet Explorer.

I have tried running memtest86 and it passed 3 times before I stoped it.

[Advertisements]

Howszit?

Yeah, I hate it when a BSOD disappears so fast that you don't have a chance to read it. If your memtest86 passed three times then... I'd still remove the extra chips and see if the BSOD still occurs. If not, you've found your problem. If it's still there, then perhaps something damaged your existing partition. Did you run the run the partition resize before or after the mem chips upgrade?

[Mark D]

Howszit?

Yeah, I hate it when a BSOD disappears so fast that you don't have a chance to read it. If your memtest86 passed three times then... I'd still remove the extra chips and see if the BSOD still occurs. If not, you've found your problem. If it's still there, then perhaps something damaged your existing partition. Did you run the run the partition resize before or after the mem chips upgrade?

[lurky]

In the BIOS is a setting that restarts on system failure. Turn that off and the bsod will stay up so you can read it. Sounds software-ish?

[Granz00]

I didn't find that option in the BIOS. Right now I'm trying to start the computer up with each stick of RAM individually. Two down and two to go. Any ideas on how to test for software corruption?

Edit: Each stick of RAM started up fine on their own.

Edited by Granz00, 17 December 2008 - 09:05 PM.

[98springer]

It's not in the BIOS. It's in the OS. It's under "Startup and Recovery". I don't have a Windows machine handy but I think if you right click My Computer you can find it in there. At least in NT/2000/XP. You'll want to uncheck "Automatically Restart the Computer". Make that change and post back with the results. There should also be a setting to write an event to the Event Log. If you set that, you'll be able to see the info in your Event Log. What version of Windows?

Edited by 98springer, 17 December 2008 - 09:07 PM.

[Granz00]

Windows Vista Home Premium 64bit

Edit: Also, how do you view the dump? It says access is denied.

Edited by Granz00, 17 December 2008 - 09:14 PM.

[98springer]

Check this:

http://www.web-artic...tions-in-Vista/

[98springer]

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315263

[98springer]

If the system was working fine with the original RAM, I'd put that in by itself for now and don't add the other memory until you have fixed the computer and it is stable. You want to eliminate things that you're unsure of and it's alot faster and easier to remove 2 sticks than it is to wait for memtest. Memtest is great at finding flaky problems but no need to suffer through it if you can make it fail without it.

Edited by 98springer, 17 December 2008 - 09:31 PM.

[Granz00]

Ok, I'm back from my vacation. I don't remember which two sticks are the originals. I do have a code now.

*** STOP: 0x000000FC (0xFFFFFA6007122000, 0x80000000B3910963, 0xFFFFFA6007125E00, 0x0000000000000002)

I think I might back up all of my data to my external hard drive and reformat my HDD tomorrow.

Edit - One shows ntkrnlmp.exe as a possible problem and dxgkrnl.sys shows up in the other dump. So I guess this makes it seem like a possible RAM problem. What would be the best way to test the RAM? I was thinking that maybe I could run the computer with 2 sticks of RAM at a time for a week, or until it crashes. Memtest passes 3 times when I ran it so that doesn't seem reliable enough.

Edited by Granz00, 28 December 2008 - 01:38 AM.