BSOD's

Computer Forum General Hardware
1

Well… I got my new system and all, and I put it together last night. I have it a good test run before heading to bed. Ran perfectly.

So this morning, I get back on it, and decide to install Norton. The installation goes through fine and everything. I restart, as needed by Norton, and I notice that during POST, it says my RAM is “DDR333Mhz, Single Channel”. I realize that this is wrong, since the RAM I purchased is PC3200, (DDR400Mhz), and Dual Channel. I decide to go to the motherboard’s user manual to see if there was something I needed to do to make it run in dual channel mode…

Doh! I had placed both sticks of RAM on the same channel. I shut down Windows, switch off and unplug the PSU, open the case, and then I move the RAM to its second channel. I close everything up and boot up Windows. Everything’s running fine for a while until I start to install Age of Empires III.

Blue Screen.

I decided to restart, thinking it was just a one time error, but it wasn’t. It seemed like every time I tried to install something, and like… Surf the web or something, it would crash/restart/BSOD on me.

I try a reinstall.

I think I got about 8 minutes into the install, (after the initial format > copy files to HDD process), before it gave me a BSOD. I used my newer copy of WinXP Pro, (the ones now that come with SP2 already installed).

Ok, I thought. Maybe it’s the Windows disc, (it’s pretty scratched). I decide to use my older, non-SP2 installation disc.

“Success!” I thought. Windows boots and everything. Though, I notice that my 160GB HDD is only being detected as 127GB… A bit strange I thought, so I tried to I start to install SP2, (from the disc from Microsoft), to see if that would solve the HDD space problem. Crashed, (it restarts itself after every crash).

I tried installing some device drivers.

Some were successful, but the USB 2.0 drivers for some reason required at least SP1.

So I moved on to the next set of drivers…

Crash.

Once again, I tried the SP2 installation… It amazingly went through.

So now that I’m back on SP2, things seem a bit more stable. It now detects the HDD to about what it should be, (158GB). I could now install video drivers and sound drivers and whatnot, without a problem. Seemed perfectly fine, at last.

Until about 5 minutes ago, where it crashed for no reason, after 30 or so seconds from a boot.

At this point, I’m pretty pissed. I’m might try to see if it’ll work fine, back on a Single Channel, since it seemed to be working fine the first time.

Does anyone know what might be causing the problem, anyway?

Update: Went into BIOS and manually set the memory clock speed to 333Mhz, instead of 400Mhz. Everything runs perfectly. This is somewhat of a downer, since I would like to get the full potential I can from this memory. It puzzles me as to why I can’t run at it’s full speed… The board supports DDR400Mhz Dual Channel RAM, so I don’t see where the problem could be…

2

[QUOTE=Jackal]
Well… I got my new system and all, and I put it together last night. I have it a good test run before heading to bed. Ran perfectly.

So this morning, I get back on it, and decide to install Norton. The installation goes through fine and everything. I restart, as needed by Norton, and I notice that during POST, it says my RAM is “DDR333Mhz, Single Channel”. I realize that this is wrong, since the RAM I purchased is PC3200, (DDR400Mhz), and Dual Channel. I decide to go to the motherboard’s user manual to see if there was something I needed to do to make it run in dual channel mode…

Doh! I had placed both sticks of RAM on the same channel. I shut down Windows, switch off and unplug the PSU, open the case, and then I move the RAM to its second channel. I close everything up and boot up Windows. Everything’s running fine for a while until I start to install Age of Empires III.

Blue Screen.

I decided to restart, thinking it was just a one time error, but it wasn’t. It seemed like every time I tried to install something, and like… Surf the web or something, it would crash/restart/BSOD on me.

I try a reinstall.

I think I got about 8 minutes into the install, (after the initial format > copy files to HDD process), before it gave me a BSOD. I used my newer copy of WinXP Pro, (the ones now that come with SP2 already installed).

Ok, I thought. Maybe it’s the Windows disc, (it’s pretty scratched). I decide to use my older, non-SP2 installation disc.

“Success!” I thought. Windows boots and everything. Though, I notice that my 160GB HDD is only being detected as 127GB… A bit strange I thought, so I tried to I start to install SP2, (from the disc from Microsoft), to see if that would solve the HDD space problem. Crashed, (it restarts itself after every crash).

I tried installing some device drivers.

Some were successful, but the USB 2.0 drivers for some reason required at least SP1.

So I moved on to the next set of drivers…

Crash.

Once again, I tried the SP2 installation… It amazingly went through.

So now that I’m back on SP2, things seem a bit more stable. It now detects the HDD to about what it should be, (158GB). I could now install video drivers and sound drivers and whatnot, without a problem. Seemed perfectly fine, at last.

Until about 5 minutes ago, where it crashed for no reason, after 30 or so seconds from a boot.

At this point, I’m pretty pissed. I’m might try to see if it’ll work fine, back on a Single Channel, since it seemed to be working fine the first time.

Does anyone know what might be causing the problem, anyway?
[/QUOTE]

first port of call would have to be the PSU
what make & model is it ?

to check the power you need, check this

3

It’s an Antec 400W SmartPower 2.0. It has dual +12V rails, (one at 14A and the other at 15A). Though, I don’t think it’s the PSU…

4

If lowering your FSB helps then try getting some replacements, they should replace for free as its not performing as expected.

5

Use Default fail safe Bios settings and see how much they have setted it to by default.

6

[QUOTE=Karanislove]
Use Default fail safe Bios settings and see how much they have setted it to by default.
[/QUOTE]

I’ve done that multiple times. The default is at 400Mhz. But Windows crashes when I do so.

7

What does your even viewer says?
Right click my computer > manage > event

8

[I]Error code 0000000a, parameter1 ffbde8d0, parameter2 00000002, parameter3 00000000, parameter4 804ee2da.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at Microsoft Support .

Category: 102, Event: 1003[/I]

That’s what the event viewer has to say.

9

First remove your antivirus and then change your configuration to 400Mhz. If it works then it means that AV is the culprit here and you need an update of it…According to [link=Microsoft Support]Microsoft[/link]

10

Didn’t even have any AntiVirus software installed until 30 minutes ago. >_>

11

This has nothing to do with Antivirus as it was having problems during installation.

Seems likely that RAM is the culprit for random BSODs here.

12

[QUOTE=Addis]
This has nothing to do with Antivirus as it was having problems during installation.

Seems likely that RAM is the culprit for random BSODs here.
[/QUOTE]

Really? I couldn’t tell. >_>

Joke. Either way… Does anyone know anything about this? Even CPU-Z gives me weird readings on the RAM:

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13

I ran Memtest86 while the RAM was set to 400Mhz, Dual Channel. It passed. Though when I went into the configuration menu > Memory Sizing > BIOS Setting - All, and then started the test again, it came up with a bunch of errors, (though, the addressing says it’s above the 2048)… Is that normal? I think it’s because I don’t have all four slots filled in… On the “Probe” setting, it also passed.

Update: I just tried it again at 400Mhz. BSOD again. :frowning: Though, I checked the event view immediately this time, and used the error report thing that came up to gather some info:

I was linked to this by the Send Error screen, (after setting it back to 333Mhz and booting into Windows again): Microsoft Online Crash Analysis

From the event viewer:[I]
Error code 0000004e, parameter1 00000099, parameter2 0003518d, parameter3 00000007, parameter4 00000000.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at Microsoft Support .
[/I]

I clicked the link and that took me to, (In the Help and Support center):

Explanation
A blue screen (Stop error) was reported. The message contains details about the error. A matching event with Event ID 1001 might also appear in the event log. This matching event displays information about the specific error that occurred.

I checked Error ID 1001 and that gave me:

The computer has rebooted from a bugcheck. The bugcheck was: 0x100000d1 (0x0000000c, 0x00000002, 0x00000000, 0xb775c5a0). A dump was saved in: C:\WINDOWS\Minidump\Mini070706-03.dmp.

That’s all I have. :frowning:

14

No way…

I just went to Corsair’s site to see if there was any info on what I might be doing wrong. One of the “common problems” brought up this:

My system supports DDR400 memory, but when I install my Corsair DDR400 module the system will not post.
Many systems will indeed support DDR 400 memory. However, if for example your system came with a 533 FSB CPU you may be limited to DDR333 memory until you upgrade your CPU to an 800 Front Side Bus (FSB) CPU provided your system will support a faster CPU. The following guidelines may help with this: If the FSB of your CPU is 400 For Intel and 100 MHz for AMD, the memory speed supports only DDR 266. If the FSB of your CPU is 533 For Intel and 133/166 MHz for AMD, the memory speed supports DDR 266/333 If the FSB of your CPU is 800 MHz for Intel and 200 MHz for AMD, the memory speed supports DDR 333/400

So I checked out AMD’s site and downloaded their X2 spec sheet…

The Socket 939 X2 line doesn’t support RAM running at 400Mhz. >_< Man, what a bummer. I wish I knew this beforehand, would of saved a bit of money by getting PC2700 RAM instead…