Trying to restore files from backup, interrupted by blue screens each time. I am at a loss. Computer worked ok in 32-bit. What kind of hardware could cause this? I don't know whether I should replace the mainboard. See the SF material and the minidump for the crash shortly after.
I note your suggestion. Will attend to it. I return to the fact that I had problems when I switched to 64-bit, but I also increased RAM from 4GB (for the 32-bit install). The significance being that the Hard drive was perfectly serviceable until the upgrade. I find multi-factorial failure analysis really bloody difficult, especially because I am not trained in engineering. It's very frustrating :) Ah well, I'm grateful for your assistance fellas.
Perhaps I should strip out all DIMMs over 4GB first.
I'm back fellas.
I did check your latest minidumps and I agree, something is funny with the memory. Both cases involved zero pages being corrupted. Zeroed pages are blocks of memory that have been scrubbed by Windows memory manager with zeroes to prepare for use. I'm pretty sure that any attempt to tamper with a zeroed page without permission would've triggered its own bugcheck, so what I feel is going on here is that some hardware tarnished that particular page at the time. Googling the zeroed page problem also frequently comes up with it being a hardware issue.
Be aware that Memtest, as great as it is, still can miss certain RAM issues. Why not too long ago a case got resolved by replacing RAM despite the client running Memtest several times for several passes each. Though usually when this happens, it isn't so much the RAM as it is the RAM configuration on the motherboard. If the RAM isn't supported, or the setup you have for RAM isn't supported on that mobo, it can slip by Memtest but still cause problems in normal operation.
Unfortunately beyond swapping parts there isn't much that can be done here. There are no software diagnostic tests for PSU or Mobo, and Memtest is coming up clean. I don't remember if you did Prime95 for CPU testing any, but I doubt CPU is involved here. All you can do now really - unless you wanna pay for a good multimeter and/or PSU tester - is to start swapping parts and crossing fingers. I personally would start with the mobo itself.
I swapped out the hard disc and it's not responsible. It's possible that Kingston RAM could be defective, but I prefer the theory that DIMMs are simple and reliable compared to mobos, which are constantly being mucked around with. I think I might pull the mainboard and use it for my younger son's upgrade, perhaps keeping the RAM to one DIMM. Thank heavens hardware has been dropping in price rather than the opposite. And lucky my tax rebate just came in :) I will let you know what happens, and, as ever, thanks for your advice chaps.
wow toranaboy, you have bad luck, hehe
I see that you pass memtest with no errors
I would recommend you to pass GoldMemory, I think that is more exhaustive when is testing memory
GoldMemory * Memory Testing - Diagnostics software for PC memory subsystem /CPU,cache,SDRAM,DDR,DDR2,DDR3,RDRAM/ (c) 2013
Goldmemory (Quick): first run froze after two passes. Second go I stopped it after 39. It took well over a day-and-a-half. No errors. That seems to establish that it's not the RAM. It's not the HDD. I've swapped the USB wireless dongle. I've even swapped out the USB hub. I will bring forward my upgrade :) A whole new opportunity for crashes and disaster. I'm a masochist. In any event, I will use the m/board for another box. Dear oh dear :)
While waiting for my new hardware I installed Ubuntu (it was a couple of days ago). No crashes so far. Makes me suspicious. It's on 24/7 for the duration. Keep you posted.
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