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blue screens


Guest ecion

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Guest ecion

hey,

i keep getting blue screens (normal windows usage, not even tried gaming) and cant seem to fix it.

it all started the other month, the computer kept restarting, and memtest86 told me the ram was faulty. so i ordered new ram, and formatted while i was at it.

since my new installation of window i had upgraded to the 93.33 drivers. things were fine for a week or so. then i started getting blue screens again. This time relating to win32k.sys sometimes. othertimes it would be ntfs.sys. and some times no file was mentioned.

I uninstalled the graphics drivers and things were fine again.. so i looked for older drivers which i knew had worked for me in the past.. but they still gave blue screens.

so im troubleshooting, and it appears as though the nvidia drivers are working ok in 16-bit, but not in 32-bit. that doesnt really make sense. unless the 32-bit means using my graphical ram, and my card is secretly knackered.

any ideas? im stumped.

Thanks.

Posts merged by Fabrice

Edit1:

i meant using *more* graphical ram.

Edit2:

memtest is complaining again.. so its my ram, AGAIN? memtest doesnt have access to the graphics cards ram does it/

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When memtest shows errors it means that you have issues with your memory subsystem (RAM + motherboard + CPU). It's often a dead memory stick or an improper memory setting.

Since you didn't gave any details about your system brand/model/GPU... you might want to run the test with only one stick of memory. Then use CPU-Z to check if your memory is properly used by your motherboard. (I mean the timings CAS and his friends) If your motherboard sets the timings too fast (low latency) you are likely to face crashes and random errors.

The last thing you might want to check is the system temperature... if your motherboard overheat badly it might lead to data corruption.

*Scanning your posts*

Depending on your graphic card it might be wise to stay away from the 91.xx drivers. Check the optimal driver FAQ.

You are right MEMTEST only checks the system memory.

Yes a system memory issue can give weird behaviour around the graphic card... once upon a time I encountered crashes with DirectX games but my OpenGL games were OK. Since I played exclusively OpenGL based games I said... I don't care. Then I bought some nice RAM for my main rig. I shoved the old sticks in the secundary computer which started having issues with DirectX games. I ran a circular testing and one stick ended up in the trash can.

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Guest Guest

Sorry. my system, is not a laptop, but thought this would be a good place to ask anyway. :)

its an AMD Athlon XP 2000+, altered from 133 x 12.5 (1667mhz) to 200 x 8.5 (1700mhz) to make the most of my ram. it has been set like this for well over 2 years. Its stable.

The memory is some Corsair Value Select 512MB DDR400. 2.5-3-3-8. - and before that was some infiniton brand, which also reported these errors. - though after a week or two of perfect working order, i assumed that the new ram had cured the problem.

The graphics card is a XFX Nvidia Geforce 5700LE 128MB. 250mhz core, 200mhz memory.

The motherboard, is a rare one, a Sparkle Nforce2. Though it is actually a re-badged Chaintech 7NJL3-L.

I am currently testing the memory module in another computer. just to double check things, and its 10minutes into the tests with no erros so far. - In the other machine erros had occured by this time. - although i am running this test with two sticks of ram, i really should have just had the one stick in. oh wells.

I should probably also note that the machine in question is used as a webserver (dispite being on XPSP2) and is run 24/7, and had been doing so for over a year before problems started. - However with the recent hot weather, could this be linked? Although the CPU hasnt been over 40'C since its previous life in a different system.

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There are 2 obvious things you can try... lower the stress on your RAM by using a higher CAS try 3-3-3-11... if it doesn't work try to lower the FSB to 166.

There can be multiple causes heat, dying or dead capacitor... The nForce 2 is known to be unfriendly with the Corsair value RAM.

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Guest Guest

thanks for the replies :)

the memtest of the module in the other machine prooved it was fine.

it turns out its the ram overheating. :S - as when i have a desktop fan blowing inside the case, memtest is all happy, and we get no crashes. but when the fan is not there, crashes and memtest errors appear.

Guess this problem has only recently reared its head due to the hot weather we're having.

So guess I need to invest in some heatspreaders.

- one plus note from all this, turns out my first peice of infiniton ram is in working order too. so now the machine is blessed with 1GB ram. :)

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Your RAM stick are at the limit... I'd rather lower the timing and/or the FSB to reach system stability without a fan. But I'm a noisekiller kind of person. :)

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Where are you living? 37C in the western part of Germany or 36C in the Eastern part :)

That's the hottest summer here since :) ... since i can remember back.

I would ahve thought a dead capacitor. And when your right into it doublecheck the MB components and clean out dust from the capacitors and elsewhere.

Glad this is solved !

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