OMG this is annoying

[ZipTriX]

I just received my pc parts, which include the following:

Soyo KT333 Dragon Platinum
OCZ PC2700 DDR (768 MB total)
Toshiba DVD
Asus 40x CD Burner
Athlon XP 1900+
Gainward GeForce 4 Ti4400

For the past 4 attempts, if not more, in the Windows XP Pro installation I have experienced the BSOD. I don't know what exactly is causing this, but to be simple it's pissing me off.

Some of the errors:

0x00000050
0x0000008E

Everytime I receive the BSOD, the error is different. What is causing this and how do I fix it. I would really like to enjoy my new system. Please someone help me find the right path to fixing this. Thankx.

 

[Iceman]

Those errors are "usually" associated with bad or faulty memory.

Make sure u got the memory stick in solid, take it out, reinstall it, but that's what it looks like to me.

do a search for a free memory testor.

good luck

microsoft website knowledge base article here

 

[joshuajme]

i seem to post this alot, but what temp is ur memoy running at? You would be surprised how much ram hates heat (tell me ur cpu max load temps). Otherwise you have dodgy ram or a dodgy socket in ur mobo, try putting it in a diff one.

 

[Vorpal]

Possibly it could be that you need to press the "F6" key during the first boot to load special drivers for you IDE/RAID controller.

 

[ZipTriX]

ICEMAN: How can I test the memory if I can't even install an OS on the system?

CATCH23: Make sure what isn't in the wrong slot? The Ram? I have 3 sticks of 256 MB and 3 DIMM slots.

Joshua: I can't tell you my cpu max temp loads. I can't get the system to run without getting the BSOD when installing the OS. I can tell you this much. My cpu idle temp is 30 C and my chassis temp is 33 C.

Vorpal: Already have done that. That's not the problem.


Update: It will copy all the files need for installation then reboots. After that it starts the process of installing XP, but never starts. Then I get the BSOD and it says something about locked pages in default area.

 

[TomServo]

Zip,

I agree that it is very likely a memory error. I got the same sort of errors trying to install on my athlon system. In my case, it was that I was overclocking the memory. Once I ran the speed back down , I was able to install and get XP running. Curiously, after the install, XP runs fine with the ram back up to a higher speed. Anyway, point is that it could very possibley be that you have a bad stick of RAM. Try installing with only one of your RAM chips in and see if it will work. You may need to try each one in there by itself til you get it to work. If you do in fact get one to work by itself, then you 'll know one of your modules are bad.

 

[Iceman]

You are right of course, u can't test the memory without the OS being on the system.

locked pages in default area is an even clearer case of "potential" memory problems.

Bottom Line is this one, (or up to all), of those ram sticks are "probably" bad in my opinion. It could be something else of course, but that is where I would look at first

Try putting only one in the first slot take out the other two, and then try to load XP, if that stick doesn't work or u get the same problem try the next one, and so on.

Once u do manage to get the OS on the system, then "test" the memory modules.

good luck

 

[ZipTriX]

UPDATE!!


Here is exactly what I did after leaving my last post. I removed all the ram from the system. Then I put one stick in DIMM 1 (slot closest to the cpu). I attempted to install XP. Behold, the BSOD appeared. Then I moved the stick of ram to DIMM 2 (slot in the middle). Booted up the computer and something odd happened. At the beginning of booting up, the system does a memory check (I think that is what is called). Well, it didn't check the memory. It did nothing at that point. It was like it froze there. Then I moved the stick to DIMM 3 (slot closest to the IDE controllers). Whoa, BSOD came back. My assumption is that stick is bad. I took another stick and did the same exact thing and experienced the same results. Lucky for me I had an old stick of PC2100 DDR, that was tested 3 months ago to be good. I took that stick, and instead of doing the same tests, I put it in DIMM 2 (since that was the slot not responding to my PC2700 DDR). SURPRISE! XP installed. NO BSOD. NO PROBLEMS AT ALL. Thanks for the help guys. I'll keep you up to date after I know the deal with the PC2700 DDR.

 

[ZipTriX]

Now that my system is running without problems, how do I test the DDR to see if it is bad?

 

[Zedric]

Since you don't want to screw up your WinXP installation I suggest memtest-x86. Since it's run off a boot floppy you don't even have to have XP installed (or even the hdd connected). So yes, you can test memory without Windows.

To use memtest-x86 you will need the floppy image and rawwrite. Just run rawwrite and choose to write the memtest-x86.bin to a floppy disc. The floppy will now not be readable by Windows, but no worries. Just keep the floppy in the drive and reboot. Metest-x86 will start scanning. File below:

Memtest:
http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux.../Mandrake-old/8.1/i586/images/memtest-x86.bin
Rawwrite:
http://uranus.it.swin.edu.au/~jn/linux/rawwritewin-0.6.zip

 

[ZipTriX]

Zedric - I assume that it will tell me, blatently, that the ram is good or bad? Thanks for the suggestion also. I have the floppy all ready for a reboot.

 

[Zedric]

Yes you'll get two progress meters. The top one is the total test progress. When it hits 100% it will start over with the tests so keep an eye on it. If you get an error I think it will start spitting out alot of error messages (larger part of the screen). I'm not sure how the errors are presented since my RAM was OK when I tested it. A standard test will take about 30min to 1h depending on amount of RAM and speed of the computer.