Parity Issue?

[harmont]

I received an error on my machine that came up all of a sudden. I had not done anything to prompt any problems and have not had any problems since going to XP. The error says:

Hardware Malfunction

Call your hardware vendor for support.

NMI: Parity check/memory parity error

The system has halted.


Can someone offer a course of action other than the obvious?


It has happened 4 times in the course of several hours.




😕 😡 🙁

 

[Lonman]

This is an error at boot-up correct? If so, go in to your bios settings and see if you have ECC enabled. If you do disable it.

Did you recently install more memory?

 

[paul12]

parity error

are you / or have you got 2 different types of memory installed?
into bios change parity check from enabled to disabled

 

[harmont]

😕 Thanks for the quick reply. I added a 256 PC100 about 3 months ago. I went to the Bios setting, and I have to say, I am a novice. I did not see anything referring to ECC settings. If you could guide me to it, I think I can manage.

The error has come up more often this evening.

Thank you for your help.


😎

 

[Lonman]

I'm not sure what bios you have. I'll guide you as if you have one like mine.

I have an Award Bios chip. My setting for "Memory Parity/ECC Check" is under Advanced chipset features.

If your Bios chip is different, try to identify it and list it here so someone who has it might be able to help you.

In the meantime, pull the offending chip. That should fix your problems in the interim.

 

[harmont]

Thanks. It says Phoneix. I think that may it. I did not see advance chipset feature in mine. Then of course, I may not be looking in the right place.

I have two chips in. One is the orginal and then the 256 I installed. I have not had them out to get them checked. So I am not sure which it is. It is so intermittent ( the errors).

Thanks again for your response.

 

[Lonman]

If I were in your postion, i'd pull that stick of memory out before something got cooked. Then you can do all your troubleshooting to get it back in.

 

[harmont]

Thanks. I will do it. I think also it might be a good idea to get another chip, maybe two matching and reinstall them.

Again thanks for your help.

 

[Lonman]

Research that parity issue. Go to your motherboard manufacturer's site and look for a manual. The manual will help you find your settings - the chip is probably good but non-ECC. You may find that ECC is already off and then yes, go with the new chips.

 

[RapidEye]

Been having the same problem with my new XP box, but I narrowed it down to my Video card! I updated my GeForce 3 Ti200 driver set to the newest, and that is when the BSOD/NMI error screen poped up. Rolling back the drivers to the previous version undid the problem --- BAD NVIDIA, BAD!!! Gonna have to try some of the archived versions of the NVIDIA drivers until I fall onto the right set (performance vs stability).

Regards,

<RE>

 

[XeoNoX]

could be cheap memory or a bad bios configuration. I had it happen to me once because of cheap memory, thats why i just buy kingson now. My cheap memory worked fine under win9x but failed on win2k.

 

[harmont]

parity issue

Thanks for the help Lonman. I replaced both chips of ram and I have not seen the error code since. Now if I can solve the other issues, I will be able to do the "Snoopy Dance"

Thanks again.

 

[a_scoundral]

Dude, I had the same problem. I narrowed it down to the OpenGL subsystem in the new nVidia Drivers. The system bus between my GF3 and main memory were having collisions b/c of the drivers. I went to Tyan's website and they had WHQL approved driver build numbers for my nVidia card. I ended up finding them on the CDROM that came with my GF3. Make sure whatever drivers you use are WHQL approved.