N
Nick Le Lievre
Firstly I hate memory problems - Secondly I have expierienced different
problems ultimately pointing to the memory. In my expierience so far I have
seen 3/4 types of system problems & a twisted **** error that turned out to
be hardware memory problem;
The first is quite obvious system suddenly displays a PAGE FAULT IN NON PAGE
AREA blue screen after reset you get no display and POST error beeps
indicating memory error (so long as you have your speaker wire connected to
the right pins and find/trust the BIOS manufucterers error codes your home
dry).
I`ve personally expierienced this one on my own systems however when I
expierienced it I didn`t get any POST beeps and the speaker wire was
connected correctly - which sent me off on a path to destruction and self
loathing. I eventually found the true problem when the memory stick did
cause error code beeps in another motherboard although 1/2 the time it
booted up and "seemingly" operated correctly.
The second is kinda related to the last part of the first and I`ve
personally expierienced this one on my own systems too - you got a memory
stick that probably started out life in your system ok - but for whatever
reason and in my case I suspect overclocked to too high an fsb your memory
stick becomes corrupted - however your motherboards POST error codes don`t
tell you this and your PC continues to boot up and runs "seemingly"
normally - however you get the infinite loop problem where your display goes
off and after reboot a message appears on the screen saying the device
driver (yourgraphicsadapter.dll) got stuck in an infinite loop - it puts you
onto the path of true destruction as you think its the graphics card and
more depression and self loathing loom large untill you try that stick in
another board and its POST code error beeps sound the alarm!
The third "type" I expierienced today on a system I upgraded as a favour for
someone else on the cheap (ie the memory was from questionable source eg
your mate, ebay etc) well this one again needed constant attention becuase
like example number 2 its intermittement nature means you need to be around
when it happens. Basically the system was suffering from application errors
right after desktop loading eg startup apps followed by a blue screen error
but sometimes just a straight blue screen error of the following;
PAGE FAULT IN NON PAGE AREA *STOP*
PFN_LIST_CORRUPT *STOP*
MEMORY MANAGEMENT *STOP*
IRQL NOT LESS OR EQUAL * STOP *
Now like all memory errors there intermittent which means your system can
appear to be stable for long periods then suddenly you get two of these
errors then no more for a while - with the above scenario trying to
reinstall Windows XP results in files appearing missing during the file copy
process and then more of the blue screens as the graphic portion of the
install process tries to start.
I think the best way to "kill" or find out a failing memory module is to run
Prime 95 torture test & also if possible try the stick in other boards. In
example number 3 Prime 95 for an extended 15 hour period actually made the
errors happen more consistently to the point of instead of failure 1 or 2
times a session every session immediatly crashed to a blue screen.
problems ultimately pointing to the memory. In my expierience so far I have
seen 3/4 types of system problems & a twisted **** error that turned out to
be hardware memory problem;
The first is quite obvious system suddenly displays a PAGE FAULT IN NON PAGE
AREA blue screen after reset you get no display and POST error beeps
indicating memory error (so long as you have your speaker wire connected to
the right pins and find/trust the BIOS manufucterers error codes your home
dry).
I`ve personally expierienced this one on my own systems however when I
expierienced it I didn`t get any POST beeps and the speaker wire was
connected correctly - which sent me off on a path to destruction and self
loathing. I eventually found the true problem when the memory stick did
cause error code beeps in another motherboard although 1/2 the time it
booted up and "seemingly" operated correctly.
The second is kinda related to the last part of the first and I`ve
personally expierienced this one on my own systems too - you got a memory
stick that probably started out life in your system ok - but for whatever
reason and in my case I suspect overclocked to too high an fsb your memory
stick becomes corrupted - however your motherboards POST error codes don`t
tell you this and your PC continues to boot up and runs "seemingly"
normally - however you get the infinite loop problem where your display goes
off and after reboot a message appears on the screen saying the device
driver (yourgraphicsadapter.dll) got stuck in an infinite loop - it puts you
onto the path of true destruction as you think its the graphics card and
more depression and self loathing loom large untill you try that stick in
another board and its POST code error beeps sound the alarm!
The third "type" I expierienced today on a system I upgraded as a favour for
someone else on the cheap (ie the memory was from questionable source eg
your mate, ebay etc) well this one again needed constant attention becuase
like example number 2 its intermittement nature means you need to be around
when it happens. Basically the system was suffering from application errors
right after desktop loading eg startup apps followed by a blue screen error
but sometimes just a straight blue screen error of the following;
PAGE FAULT IN NON PAGE AREA *STOP*
PFN_LIST_CORRUPT *STOP*
MEMORY MANAGEMENT *STOP*
IRQL NOT LESS OR EQUAL * STOP *
Now like all memory errors there intermittent which means your system can
appear to be stable for long periods then suddenly you get two of these
errors then no more for a while - with the above scenario trying to
reinstall Windows XP results in files appearing missing during the file copy
process and then more of the blue screens as the graphic portion of the
install process tries to start.
I think the best way to "kill" or find out a failing memory module is to run
Prime 95 torture test & also if possible try the stick in other boards. In
example number 3 Prime 95 for an extended 15 hour period actually made the
errors happen more consistently to the point of instead of failure 1 or 2
times a session every session immediatly crashed to a blue screen.