Vista 64 Windows Memory Diagnostic Tool - False Negative

[Howard Swope]

Vista 64, Asus P5E v502 bios, Core 2 Quad, 4 gb crucial RAM, No over
clocking, standard ram speed,

I have been getting intermitent blue screen of death. Afterward my machine
warm boots, and often I receive Bad Bios CheckSum error. I power all the way
down and then power on and boot no problem.

I tried running the Windows Memory Diagnostic Tool. It came up with a
problem, but didn't identify which stick. I pulled one and reran, everything
was OK. That was a bit of a cooincidence. I tried putting one of the other
chips in the slot the one I removed came from, still OK. I put all sticks
back and the diagnostic ran clean. I thougth I dodged a bullet. Sometime
reseating will fix these things.

I came home after work and sure enough Bad Bios Check Sum. I powered off
rebooted and ran the mem test and it diagnosed a problem.

Is this bad RAM, bad MB, or bad bios?

TIA

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

If you are running pc6400 ram with 4x1GB dimms, try dropping the dram speed
to 667 and see if you continue to have the issue.

 

[Howard Swope]

Correct - 4 x 1 GB DDR2 800 Crucial Ballistix (PC2 66400)

Thanks. I will give it a try.