Memory Management BSOD

Hi guys!

I'm hoping I could get some help here, I've recently build a new PC and everything was going well and I installed Windows 8.1. I was installing some drivers and suddenly got a BSOD. It read MEMORY MANAGEMENT and also a couple of others: SYSTEM THREAD EXCEPTION NOT HANDLED and IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL. After the blue screen appeared the computer wouldn't start. It would blink the 'on' light and then turn off and immediately try to turn on again.

So I figured it was something to do with the RAM sticks. To get the computer running again, I took out on of the stocks and the computer booted. With all the fiddling I found that if I put either one of the RAM sticks in either dim, as long it was only one stick it would boot.

I thought it was a problem with Windows 8.1 so I installed Windows 7 and then suddenly when I was extracting files I got the MEMORY MANAGEMENT BSOD again. So then I decided to download Memtest86+ and try to see whats wrong with the RAM. During testing it started showing errors. By the time it was finished with the first stick that Memtest tested had over 600,000 errors but the other stick seems to be fine.



I'll attach the mini dumps very soon.

Thanks for your help!

YoYo155 said:

Welcome :) .
No need for the dumps really, now that you know you have an issue with the RAM you need to figure out whether
it's the sticks or the slots.

This should help.

Arc said:

First run it with all the existing/installed RAM modules. If it comes with no error, all is good.

But if it starts showing errors, Stop testing. Errors/red lines means one or more RAM is faulty. But the fault may occur due to a faulty DIMM slot, too, which is a motherboard component. Using memtest86+, you can discriminate between a faulty RAM and a faulty motherboard.

How? Say you have two RAM sticks and two DIMM slots. You obtained errors at the test with all RAM sticks installed. Now, remove all the sticks but one. Test it in all the available slots, one by one. Continue the same procedure for all the available sticks.
How to make the inference that is it a RAM issue or it is a motherboard issue? Suppose you have got the result like that:
No code has to be inserted here. It is a RAM, a bad RAM.

But if you have got a result like that:
No code has to be inserted here. It is a motherboard issue. The particular slot is bad.

Keep us posted :) .

Hello! Thanks for replying. :)

So the tests haven't completed yet but I'm pretty creation that one of the dims or sticks has an issue.
Also a side question, are these sort of things covered by warranty? They were quite recently built (just on wednesday).

I'll conduct the other tests that you have mentioned.

Thanks for the info! :)

Ok so here are the results:

test|RAM 1 | RAM 2
DIMM1|PASS | PASS
DIMM2|FAILED | FAILED

It seems to be DIMM2 that has the issue, so I'll be getting a replacement of the motherboard. Hopefully that will fix the issue.

Thank you for all your help! :)

YoYo155 said:

So you're getting result #2 (just changing the order of things a bit), correct?
If that is the case then yes the slot is the issue here.

just a side note to avoid future confusion, the word DIMM or dual in-line memory module
refers to the stick itself and not to the motherboard slot :) .

Oh right! Haha. Sorry! Yep, both sticks tested in slot 1 they both passed. But when placed into the second slot they both got errors.

YoYo155 said:

It does sound like a faulty motherboard but just to be extra sure I would run each stick in the good slot
for at least seven passes each :) .

Ehhe, OK. So when you say 7 passes. Do I redo the test 7 times?

YoYo155 said:

No, what I meant was letting each test run for 7 passes (see picture below).

Ah OK. Thanks! :)