Can't tell if its hardware or software.

I have been having crashes that i don't think are BSOD's since there are no dump files anywhere. I thought it was my ram but i am failing to determine which sticks are bad or if any of them are bad at all. I have ran memtest with all 4 sticks in and no errors. I have ran memtest with 2 sticks at a time and no errors. If it crashes it is usually right as the desktop would show up after the windows 7 welcome screen. If it was the RAM wouldn't it not always crash at the EXACT same time. But then sometimes i can boot fine and won't crash for hours or days with all my ram in. I think im going to go to vista and see if i crash at all. This problem seems like software to me but i have just about given up on this problem. Its just way too inconsistent to know if it is ram related or any hardware related. Has anyone ever had this problem?

If when it crashes you see a blue screen with numbers on it, it is a BSOD. There are several places the DMP files can be and several reasons why they cant be created.



We do need the DMP file as it contains the only record of the sequence of events leading up to the crash, what drivers were loaded, and what was responsible.

If you are overclocking STOP

You may be able to get the DMP files without crashing by booting into safe mode (F8) with networking.

To enable us to assist you with your computer's BSOD symptoms, upload the contents of your "\Windows\Minidump" folder.

The procedure:

* Copy the contents of \Windows\Minidump to another (temporary) location somewhere on your machine.
* Zip up the copy.
* Attach the ZIP archive to your post using the "paperclip" (file attachments) button.
*If the files are too large please upload them to a file sharing service like "Rapidshare" and put a link to them in your reply.

To ensure minidumps are enabled:

* Go to Start, in the Search Box type: sysdm.cpl, press Enter.
* Under the Advanced tab, click on the Startup and Recovery Settings... button.
* Ensure that Automatically restart is unchecked.
* Under the Write Debugging Information header select Small memory dump (256 kB) in the dropdown box (the 256kb varies).
* Ensure that the Small Dump Directory is listed as %systemroot%\Minidump.
* OK your way out.
* Reboot if changes have been made.

I have never crashed booting into safe mode. I have checked that they are enabled and i don't have any minidumps anywhere not even a minidump folder. nothing is overclocked.

jeremyg1992 said:

I have never crashed booting into safe mode. I have checked that they are enabled and i don't have any minidumps anywhere not even a minidump folder. nothing is overclocked.

If you are fine in safe mode it is most likely a driver. You can run driver verifier to tell which. Maybe then It will generate a DMP. In any case it will be logged in event viewer.


Are you sure the control panel is properly configured? DO you have UAC turned off?

is the page file the same size as ram and on the same HD.

I turned that on and it made windows run reallly slow. i went and turned it off again but did not restart after. i was fine for a while and then my display driver said it crashed and the screen went black and it kept crashing and then after a couple of times i got BSOD from my display driver. Could this be what was causing issues but without driver verifier on i did not have the BSOD screen come up? page file is set right.

Im using the 290.53 64bit driver for a gtx 560. But i have tried 2 different drivers from nvidia and i still crash but i had not gotten that bsod before. I still have driver verifier on but no more bsods when i crash.

jeremyg1992 said:

Im using the 290.53 64bit driver for a gtx 560. But i have tried 2 different drivers from nvidia and i still crash but i had not gotten that bsod before. I still have driver verifier on but no more bsods when i crash.

So you are still crashing but not getting the DMP files?


If that is the case please send the event viewer log as described below.

nothing to post, all i got in event viewer is kernel-power id 43. which just means unexpected shutdown which is obvious lol.