New computer - Blue Screen Of Death! HELP PLEASE
 

So,

Recently my computer has started crashing via BSOD and I have no clue how to resolve it, nor do I know what is causing it.

Some detail I can provide:

The computer is about a month old
Only recently started crashing
Drivers look to be up to date, but I can't be sure
Windows 7
AMD RADEON 7870 GFX card
Doesn't crash unless on games like APB: Reloaded and Planetside 2
One BSOD said MEMORY_MANAGEMENT
Another said PFN_LIST_CORRUPT

I am not sure what's causing these errors and I'd rather not be directed to links upon links to fix it. Literal, straight-forward directions step-by-step to assess would be great. Any further detail I can provide I will.

Re: New computer - Blue Screen Of Death! HELP PLEASE
 

step1: download Clonezilla Linux Live CD ISO

step2: burn to CD

step3: boot the CD

step4: run Memtest86+ and let it do 2 complete passes.

step5: if the memory test passes, then check the disk with smartctl: smartctl -t long /dev/sda. when that completes, do smartctl -x /dev/sda and inspect the results

step6: if the disk is OK per step5, then check the CPU: download, burn, boot, and run and Puppy Linux Slacko5.5 Live CD ISO and run the CPU test suite.

step7a: if all tests pass, boot Windows and use System Restore. Pick a Restore Point whose date is earlier than when you first started having BSoD problems.

step7b: if step7a didn't fix it, then re-image your disk with an image backup you created when the system was not having BSoD problems. If you don't have an image backup, then re-format the hard disk and re-install your OS and apps.

Re: New computer - Blue Screen Of Death! HELP PLEASE
 

How do I conduct step 5? And do I run Memtest86+ while on say my desktop?

Re: New computer - Blue Screen Of Death! HELP PLEASE
 

Have you already completed steps 1 thru 4?

Memtest86+ is step4, so I guess the answer to my previous question is "No".

You use the CD you burned to boot the machine you want to test. It bypasses Windows and boots Linux. That allows you to test the machine's hardware without Windows getting in the way.

Once you've done steps 1 thru 3, ask for more detail if the menus are not obvious.

Re: New computer - Blue Screen Of Death! HELP PLEASE
 

Alright thank you. I'll post either in the morning or sooner if I get steps 1-4 done

Re: New computer - Blue Screen Of Death! HELP PLEASE
 

I am assuming you can follow directions carefully. In step4, make sure to select the "Memtest" menu item. Do *NOT* select the FreeDOS menu item... it wants to reformat your hard disk to DOS.

You do have backups of your important data, right?

Re: New computer - Blue Screen Of Death! HELP PLEASE
 

There's nothing too important on the computer yet seeing that it's fairly new. We do have all discs for the software and whatnot if need be to factory reset. When do I know when it has completed one pass and when do I know if it passed or failed? This is all gibberish to me

Re: New computer - Blue Screen Of Death! HELP PLEASE
 

Also, I've been reading up into this slightly, and I've read that it could be the memory mods. If that's the case, do they have to be replaced? I know we have a 500GB Hard drive and replacing that is not cheap...

Re: New computer - Blue Screen Of Death! HELP PLEASE
 

you can get one for 60 bucks.

Re: New computer - Blue Screen Of Death! HELP PLEASE
 

It will be obvious when you run the test. The screen will indicate testing progress and pass/fail. Failure message will be in red against a blue background. You can see it all the way across the room.

Re: New computer - Blue Screen Of Death! HELP PLEASE
 

I let it run overnight and it got to pass test8 with 9 errors, but there was only 1 on test 1 then no more errors until test 5

Re: New computer - Blue Screen Of Death! HELP PLEASE
 

You want zero errors. Even one error is unacceptable.

If I were you, I'd remove the offending memory cards.

Re: New computer - Blue Screen Of Death! HELP PLEASE
 

The program didn't get past test 8, but I'll rerun it.

Re: New computer - Blue Screen Of Death! HELP PLEASE
 

If I were you, I'd remove the offending memory card(s) before re-running it.

How much memory is in this machine?

Re: New computer - Blue Screen Of Death! HELP PLEASE
 

I believe we only have one memory card, but I don't know how to check

The hard drive is 500GB
And I know it has 16GB of useable RAM

Re: New computer - Blue Screen Of Death! HELP PLEASE
 

Use your digital camera to take a picture of the Memtest86 screen, and post the picture in this thread. Make sure to use the macro setting on the camera.

Re: New computer - Blue Screen Of Death! HELP PLEASE
 

Alright, I'll do so when I get home today after school. On Memtest I remember it had 16gb of useable ram and 15GB remaining unscanned.

Re: New computer - Blue Screen Of Death! HELP PLEASE
 

If you let it run overnight, I doubt it only scanned 1GB. It had probably already completed one or more passes.

Too bad you didn't record the info on the screen.

Re: New computer - Blue Screen Of Death! HELP PLEASE
 

Oh no, I was referring to the screenshot you posted. The Cached was 16GB and the RsvdMem was 15GB. I'm letting it run again, and I'll post pictures later in the day

Re: New computer - Blue Screen Of Death! HELP PLEASE
 

This thread makes me a bit nostalgic... I haven't seen a BSOD since I switch to Mac 6 years ago! In fact, aside from system updates that require it, my laptop hasn't been restarted or turned off in 6 years...

Anyways, ALL MY BSOD's were on XP or earlier, so take this with a grain of salt... Windows does (or used to, at least) keep an alert log that'll tell you why it crashed. You may need to do some googling to find it though... I've never looked for it in Win 7 or 8. After that, google the errors you see in the log and see what they're related to. That'll help identify what caused the issue. Of course, Ether's testing methodology is a great one for inspecting each part of the computer separately... Knowing where the error is might help you narrow it down.

Re: New computer - Blue Screen Of Death! HELP PLEASE
 

It never did this until Norton ran out and since the expiration I hadn't installed anything new. System restore only goes back to June 3rd, when the blue screen started. What would be a last resort to attempt to fix the blue screening.

Re: New computer - Blue Screen Of Death! HELP PLEASE
 

Severely bad news.

Pass two, test 7 about 85% and 81% test - 47,000 ERRORS.

On my motherboard there's a reset button "designed" to fix memory errors. Going to take apart the CPU and push that button now.

Re: New computer - Blue Screen Of Death! HELP PLEASE
 

Never heard of such a thing. What kind of computer is this?

You said this morning (post# 19) that you would take and post pictures of the Memtest86+ screen.

Re: New computer - Blue Screen Of Death! HELP PLEASE
 

EDIT:: fixed the problems with the graphics card not responding. I am going to take pictures and email myself then post them here!

Re: New computer - Blue Screen Of Death! HELP PLEASE
 

Just post the pics you took earlier today when you re-started the test.

Is this after you opened it up and pushed the "reset" button that's supposed to "fix" the memory?

Does the machine beep at you when you power it up? If so, the beeping is a code that's trying to tell you what's wrong.

Re: New computer - Blue Screen Of Death! HELP PLEASE
 

I fixed the startup problem and I'm now waiting for the pictures to email to myself from my phone to upload here.

Re: New computer - Blue Screen Of Death! HELP PLEASE
 

Most likely the "reset" button is for BIOS reset. This is common on enthusiast motherboards where the user may tweak settings for RAM and CPU.

Is this a custom build? Please outline your system specs in more detail.

You may have a bad memory chip. I'd suggest removing the RAM stick in slot 1 and re-running the test. If it completes without errors, then stick 1 is bad.

Re: New computer - Blue Screen Of Death! HELP PLEASE
 

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Re: New computer - Blue Screen Of Death! HELP PLEASE
 

Windows 7 x64
500GB HDD
AMD GIGABYTE RADEON 7870 GFX Card
ASUS Sabertooth 990 FX MB
32GB (4x8GB) Corsair Vengeance RAM sticks (x4 of them)

I called ASUS support and they said the RAM sticks weren't listed as a compatible RAM stick. I also posted above images of MemTest86+

Re: New computer - Blue Screen Of Death! HELP PLEASE
 

That may be your problem.


How did you fix the problem?

Re: New computer - Blue Screen Of Death! HELP PLEASE
 

There's a switch on my power supply for input 110V or 220V, it was switched to 220 while opening the CPU tower and we switched it back and it turned right back on.

Also, any luck/help with the shots of the MemTest?

Re: New computer - Blue Screen Of Death! HELP PLEASE
 

I just ran a quick google search with that MB and RAM combination, and it turned up a lot of forum threads all over the place from people with issues. I would guess it's a compatibility issue. Take this as a lesson learned... when building a system, a TON of research is involved in order to build one that is fully compatible and won't have any issues! Incompatible components are probably the biggest issue people see when putting together a new system.

I built one back in college that I researched like you wouldn't believe. Got all the parts, put it together, and the darn thing wouldn't even POST! After about a day and a half of scratching my head, I figured out that one of my IDE cards was shorting out a capacitor on the motherboard (bad placement of the Cap, if you ask me). Swapping that board into a different slot solved the problem, and I never had an issue with that system again (well, no hardware issues).

Re: New computer - Blue Screen Of Death! HELP PLEASE
 

I was going to use it to help you determine how many mem cards you have (you said in an earlier post that you didn't know), and then help you identify which one(s) were giving the errors. But it's a moot point now. Use compatible memory.

Re: New computer - Blue Screen Of Death! HELP PLEASE
 

I don't see any 4x8gb ram configurations on the QVL. There are a couple of 4x4gb. There's also a few 1x8gb. No multiple 8gb that I could find. You might try running with just a single stick of ram.

What did you need 32gb of ram for?

Re: New computer - Blue Screen Of Death! HELP PLEASE
 

The MemOK! button on ASUS motherboards appears to try to sequentially back off the memory settings until it can find a setting that boots. Based on the description in the manual, I'm not sure that it would help in the case of a computer that already boots.

Re: New computer - Blue Screen Of Death! HELP PLEASE
 

My dad when purchasing the components made sure to check the compatibility, but you could be right that it IS the RAM sticks. Is that what would trigger the BSOD error: MEMORY_MANAGEMENT? Can anyone try to dig up some info on what the BSOD error: PFN_LIST_CORRUPT means? Also, it just crashed again, but No error was listed on the BSOD. Just the usual "if this is your first time seeing this..." message. The BIOS on my ASUS MB is 0906, if that's any help.

Re: New computer - Blue Screen Of Death! HELP PLEASE
 

Looking in the ASUS manual, the CORSAIR 32 GB (4x8GB) IS listed, but as 1 or 2 mods. Not all four. Could this be the case? An electronic QVL does not list the CORSAIR 32 GB (4x8GB). The manual may have been updated, but the hardcopy does shot 32GB listed.

Re: New computer - Blue Screen Of Death! HELP PLEASE
 

Install one module, boot. See if it works.
If the first module does not work, set it aside and try another.

If one module works, install another module. Boot. See if it works.

If it does, stop. Be happy your setup works. 16gb of memory is more than enough for today's systems, and I wouldn't recommend using 3 of your 4 modules for symmetry reasons.

As you have it here, all 4 modules do not work.

Re: New computer - Blue Screen Of Death! HELP PLEASE
 

So we removed two of the four RAM sticks and for a little while it was working. After about an hour, it Blue Screened again, and this time the error was CACHE_MANAGER. Never saw this error before. Under the QVL the item no. of the RAM sticks we're using they're not listed. If anyone has any clue what this NEW error means, please provide it. It does look like the criminal is the RAM sticks, but I can't be sure. The comp crashed as I was running a MWB scan and re-downloading a game I deleted to prevent further crashes - with no avail.

Re: New computer - Blue Screen Of Death! HELP PLEASE
 

Would you please try one ram stick, and verify that it will run stable with just one

Re: New computer - Blue Screen Of Death! HELP PLEASE
 

Tomorrow my dad and I are going to do this. I looked at the QVL and our RAM sticks aren't listed. Other versions of the company, Corsair, are listed, but not our (4x8GB)- 32GB. It went from MEMORY_MANAGEMENT with four sticks in, to CACHE_MANAGER with 2 sticks in. I looked up CACHE_MANAGER and it says common causes are Insufficient physical memory (RAM -_-), Indexing, or Device drivers. My dad looked up the drivers earlier, and he couldn't click on "update drivers" because the option to do so was Ghosted out.

Re: New computer - Blue Screen Of Death! HELP PLEASE
 

Another thing to verify when installing RAM is the order you fill the slots. ASUS should have it listed in the manual for your mobo. Typically the slots closest to the CPU get filled first, but your results may vary.

Re: New computer - Blue Screen Of Death! HELP PLEASE
 

So, if we use one RAM stick at a time and none work, along with 2, 3, etc, we could try getting a QVL of RAM sticks and if the one we choose doesn't work, where would we turn next?

Re: New computer - Blue Screen Of Death! HELP PLEASE
 

You could return the memory you bought and purchase memory that is on the QVL. If you have a bad stick of RAM, most manufacturers have lifetime hassle-free warranties nowadays.

If it still does not function, you have a motherboard or CPU issue.

Memtest86+ and Prime95 are the first stability tests I perform on a build to ensure I have properly functioning components.

Re: New computer - Blue Screen Of Death! HELP PLEASE
 

I'm running memtest and right away it got around 200 errors by test 3

Re: New computer - Blue Screen Of Death! HELP PLEASE
 

Is your BIOS properly set up for 8GB in one slot?

Are you sure you put the stick in the correct slot?

If you answered "yes" to both questions above, then:

You can stop the test. Even 1 error is not acceptable.

Remove the mem stick, set it aside, and try the next one.

Repeat until you've run out of sticks or you find one that has zero errors.

Re: New computer - Blue Screen Of Death! HELP PLEASE
 

How would I check my BIOS compatibility? Its version 0901 if that's any help

Re: New computer - Blue Screen Of Death! HELP PLEASE
 

Try pressing the Del or Ins key when booting to get into the BIOS setup. See if you need to change the setting for memory to tell it you're using 1 8GB stick. Are you sure you put the stick in the correct slot?

Re: New computer - Blue Screen Of Death! HELP PLEASE
 

100%, we used the manual to double check. Next step is to press delete and see if I can find anything

Re: New computer - Blue Screen Of Death! HELP PLEASE
 

It could be an outofdate BIOS, the one we have on there now is not the most up to date one, but I read updating could cause more problems.

Re: New computer - Blue Screen Of Death! HELP PLEASE
 

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Re: New computer - Blue Screen Of Death! HELP PLEASE
 

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Above I've attached what the UEFI Start up menu looks like. All options are under Advanced options. I'm not sure where to look to find an option to see if my BIOS can handle 8GB RAM Sticks. If someone knows or can point me in the right direction that'd be great!

Re: New computer - Blue Screen Of Death! HELP PLEASE
 

According to that screenshot, the BIOS thinks you have 16GB of memory installed. Do you have 2 of your 8GB memory sticks installed??? You said you had only one installed...

Re: New computer - Blue Screen Of Death! HELP PLEASE
 

Honestly, I've never thoroughly tested any of the video cards I've bought.

I think the go-to stress test for graphics is FurMark.

Re: New computer - Blue Screen Of Death! HELP PLEASE
 

Indeed we do have two RAM sticks in the computer, and it reads under Computer > Properties 16GB of RAM. Before with four it was reading 32, so it IS reading the two RAM sticks. One stick Could be bad. Running memtest with the two sticks in, it found around 50 thousand errors. Is that even possible?! The next step would be to check one by one on all sticks.

Re: New computer - Blue Screen Of Death! HELP PLEASE
 

What model motherboard do you have? Did you buy this ram as an upgrade? Are your voltages correct (is it 1.5V? 1.65V?)?

Re: New computer - Blue Screen Of Death! HELP PLEASE
 

ASUS Sabertooth 990FX. Yes correct voltages. The RAM was on the QVL but the manual for the motherboard has been updated since and the RAM is now not listed.

Re: New computer - Blue Screen Of Death! HELP PLEASE
 

I am running the same motherboard. I currently have 16GB of G.Skill installed.

Re: New computer - Blue Screen Of Death! HELP PLEASE
 

This is 16 GB (2x8) Corsair Vengeance. But like I said this specific part no. isn't on the QVL

Re: New computer - Blue Screen Of Death! HELP PLEASE
 

Most likely you have incompatible RAM. I'd suggest buying some that is on the QVL and see if that fixes your issue. RAM is pretty cheap anyway. If that is the case, you can sell your old RAM on eBay or the likes.

Re: New computer - Blue Screen Of Death! HELP PLEASE
 

That's probably what we'll end up doing

Re: New computer - Blue Screen Of Death! HELP PLEASE
 

Could it be with DDR5 and DDR3 not working together?

Re: New computer - Blue Screen Of Death! HELP PLEASE
 

06-04-2013, 10:27 PM....efoote868
Install one module, boot. See if it works.

06-04-2013, 10:38 PM....Team3763 Adam
So we removed two of the four RAM sticks and for a little while it was working.

06-04-2013, 10:44 PM....efoote868
Would you please try one ram stick, and verify that it will run stable with just one

06-04-2013, 10:51 PM....Team3763 Adam
Tomorrow my dad and I are going to do this

Have you done this yet??

Re: New computer - Blue Screen Of Death! HELP PLEASE
 

My dad isn't home, but from reading what others have said, it's a fault in the RAM not being compatible with the MoBo. I could take one out now, and run MemTest, but I am more than confident that it's going to come back with errors.

Re: New computer - Blue Screen Of Death! HELP PLEASE
 

So I removed the card, Slot A1 and A2 wouldn't take the card. I didn't double check for a tight connection, so I'll go back and do that. However, I have ONE RAM stick in slot B1 and I'm running memtest. So far there are no errors *fingers crossed*

Re: New computer - Blue Screen Of Death! HELP PLEASE
 

UPDATE: Well it got to about 41% done with pass 0, test 6, and it found three errors. My dad thinks that because it's not working in slot A1 that it's a Board problem. But we're going to let the pass go to 2 then swap in another card, till we use them all. If none work in slot A1, we'll contact ASUS support and work out the problem.

Re: New computer - Blue Screen Of Death! HELP PLEASE
 

The memory only goes in one direction. You may need to seat it better - be sure to pull the white tabs all the way back, as sometimes they catch the DIMM improperly.

If you get two slots filled, do both A1 and B1 or A2 and B2, as these are the two channels (1 and 2). The colors match, so it's fairly easy to tell how it works.

Since you have run one DIMM with no errors, it could be that you, in fact, have one or more bad modules. What exactly is your RAM part number?


I know when I installed my g.skill, I had to manually set the RAM settings in the BIOS. It was not done properly with the default settings.

Re: New computer - Blue Screen Of Death! HELP PLEASE
 

The part no. Isn't listed on the QVL and the card is currently in B1. Of wouldn't read in A1/2 and before with two cards they were in A/B1

The card's part no. is CMZ32GX3M4A1866C9

ASUS BIOS version is 0906

Also it ran fine until test 6 and found 3 errors.

Re: New computer - Blue Screen Of Death! HELP PLEASE
 

This is where I think it's a BIOS problem, but I can't find where to change it. On a previous page I posted the BIOS screen pictures, if you could point me in the right direction that'd be great.

Re: New computer - Blue Screen Of Death! HELP PLEASE
 

I'll have to look at it more when I get home from work. I spend too much time on CD while I'm here :ahh:

Re: New computer - Blue Screen Of Death! HELP PLEASE
 

Haha nothing wrong with that. There's just going to be a bunch of testing going on over the weekend with my dad home. 4 cards...4 slots... so a lot of possible combinations. We shall see what happens starting with 1 card in A1, B1, A2, B2, and so on.

Re: New computer - Blue Screen Of Death! HELP PLEASE
 

EDIT: All of the errors MemTest is finding is on test 6. I'm not sure why.

Also on MemTest:

Tst 6
Pass 0
Failing Address: Error 1: 001508d78d0 Error 2: 001b6cf9b0c
Good: Error 1: 00020000 Error 2: 00800000
Bad: Error 1: 00000000 Error 2: 00000000
Err-Bits: Error 1: 00020000 Error 2: 00800000

Since these errors there haven't been any more. If anyone is good with understanding this, please feel free to interpret it and let me know what they mean lol.

Re: New computer - Blue Screen Of Death! HELP PLEASE
 

With another card it immediately gets errors on memtest so it's probably bad.

Re: New computer - Blue Screen Of Death! HELP PLEASE
 

Take a couple of nice sharply focused pictures of that installed card with a good camera and post it here.

Re: New computer - Blue Screen Of Death! HELP PLEASE
 

Attachment 14943

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Note that the card is in slot B1. So far, none of the cards have worked in slots A1 or A2. The card pictured here is seated properly, and the white clasp is down. On MemTest, as soon as the test started, errors appeared on screen

Re: New computer - Blue Screen Of Death! HELP PLEASE
 

Swapped in card 3 of 4. Again it's getting errors only on test 6. There's still one card remaining, and I believe one card IS dead. If 3 of 4 cards fail on test 6, I'm willing to believe that it's a BIOS problem.

Re: New computer - Blue Screen Of Death! HELP PLEASE
 

..Unless of course the cards are actually just incompatible with the motherboard, in which case, swapping out for new RAM will be the only way to fix it. Remember, ASUS said the sticks weren't on the Quality Verified list. Rather than trying to make two things that aren't compatible compatible, just abide by that list.

Re: New computer - Blue Screen Of Death! HELP PLEASE
 

It sucks that there are many Corsair listed, but this specific one isn't :( Card #3 again reads errors on 6, but also a few from 8. We'll see how card 4 reacts.

Re: New computer - Blue Screen Of Death! HELP PLEASE
 

Under the QVL - DDR3 1866 this is as close as it gets.

CORSAIR CMT32GX3M4X1866C9(Ver3.23)(XMP) 32GB ( 4x 8GB ) DS - - 9-10-9-27 1.5

The part no. for our RAM sticks is CMZ32GXM4A1866C9. Think there's a way to exchange it through ASUS?

Re: New computer - Blue Screen Of Death! HELP PLEASE
 

Also there are now 2 cards, one in A1 one in B1, and it's only reading one card in B1.

Re: New computer - Blue Screen Of Death! HELP PLEASE
 

Adam,

What's the status of this? Did you get it resolved? What was your final solution?

Re: New computer - Blue Screen Of Death! HELP PLEASE
 

So far my dad is looking into new RAM, G.Skill. We checked the QVL and double-checked online copies and it checks out. After asking around it could still be the BIOS, hopefully we'll be calling my uncle who knows what he's doing. After showing him pictures he saw that on the BIOS screen under memory it was reading 1333Hz not 1866Hz so we have to manually set that in the BIOS. We will be calling him soon and working it out from there. If it IS the memory 100% sure, then we have G.Skill on the QVL to use.

Re: New computer - Blue Screen Of Death! HELP PLEASE
 

FINAL SOLUTION:

I took out 2 of the 4 RAM sticks, changed the timings, and adjusted the Memory reading frequency.

After about a month, the computer blue screened ONCE.

My father ordered G.Skill RipJaws and I replaced the Corsair Vengeance with them, and there have been no errors since.

The resolution was that the RAM Sticks are not compatible. There are 32GB totals which ARE compatible, but I advise anyone building a computer to check, double check, and triple check all manuals, part numbers, and compatibilities before you build a computer!

Re: New computer - Blue Screen Of Death! HELP PLEASE
 

It is much appreciated when someone reports the final resolution of a problem they have asked about here.

So thanks.