4th install. Progressive increase of BSOD over time

[Elderly Iron]

Well, I wish I could remember everything I had just written in this box, but it's gone now.

I had a stand alone video editor built. (See specs ) The first operation BSOD'd in about 4 hours, but didn't do it for quite some time after that. Then it started dropping the video, then it started crashing IE on opening, then it started crashing the editing programs. I searched this and other forums and eventually replaced the EVGA GT 650. That corrected the video drop and even the crashes for a while. Then the crashes began in earnest, escalating until the BSOD's joined in the fray. Since windows does not have the program needed to read their own dump files, :banghead: and all other attempts at correcting failed, I did a "repair install" from the disk. That worked for a while, but the issue progressed in much the same manner as before. I finally did a reformat, which performed nearly identical to the initial operation, with a 4 hour onset of a BSOD, and then nothing. That is until the programs started crashing and the BSOD's appeared again. I then had the guru wipe the drive completely and reformat. The only difference in performance has been that it didn't blue screen after 4 hours. It did however crash IE on start-up, as well as the editing program.

At no time has this machine ever run fast. I have an XP Home machine next to it that would run circles around it in terms of video editing, both machines running Corel Video Studio ProX4. I have since upgraded to ProX6, which is a 64 bit program, but it runs even slower than the Prox4 did. It doesn't crash as often but a 1.5 second latency is outright annoying.

I have searched the threads here for hours trying to find a similar problem. I found recommendations for removing Pinnacle, "alcohol", ASUS Gamer, using scannow and some others, all of which I have tried to no avail. As to scannow, yes it was in the root, but it can't get past 80% of the initial scan. In safe mode, however, it goes 100% and finds no issues.

Many thanks to the Cap'n for the SF Diag program. I still don't know what I'm doing, but at least I have something that gathers info that a real person can look at!

Speaking of not knowing anything, I found it odd to find this string:
Built by: 7601.18409.amd64fre.win7sp1_gdr.140303-2144
That "amd64" in there may not be what I think, but this machine runs an Intel i5.

With best regards and hopeful anticipation,

Jeff

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Hello and welcome Jeff mate that build thing looks suspect to me but I am no expert. I did see in the msinfo that you have two problem devices one is that the printer is disabled and the other is a missing driver.

I think this might be worth asking in the Windows installation and activation section as there are a few who are real quick with seeing anything wrong with the activation and that build like I said looks wrong at least I have never seen anything like that before.

 

[Elderly Iron]

Thanks, I see!

I was waiting for some more replies before I went to the install forum, but it's been 3 days now. I guess I'll try posting there.

Thank you again!

Jeff

 

[derekimo]

Hi there,

Sorry for the delay,

These are memory management BSOD's,

BugCheck 1A, {41790, fffffa8003be2030, ffff, 0}

Probably caused by : ntkrnlmp.exe ( nt! ?? ::FNODOBFM::`string'+35084 )

Followup: MachineOwner
---------

1: kd> !analyze -v
*******************************************************************************
*                                                                             *
*                        Bugcheck Analysis                                    *
*                                                                             *
*******************************************************************************

MEMORY_MANAGEMENT (1a)
    # Any other values for parameter 1 must be individually examined.

All I can suggest is testing your RAM until someone else comes along that can dig deeper than I can.

   Information

MemTest86+

Run a minimum of 8 passes, preferably overnight, or until errors occur using MemTest86+.

Use this tutorial to help you use MemTest86+:
RAM - Test with MemTest86+

 

[Elderly Iron]

Running memtest shows that it's rife with errors. Preparing for the next step, I got my Asus manual to check that they were installed in the proper slots to begin with. This is when I noted the "qualified vendors list" and compatibility listing. The Patriot PC3 is not on the list for 1600 MHz cards. I'll run the tests as prescribed, but I have to ask if it's possible that the card is good, but not compatible. Further, which frequency would be optimal?

(10 minutes after the above paragraph) Memtest immediately went in the red, piling up a list too fast to possibly read. I stopped the test and pulled one card. Started the test and it began running without any errors, so I stopped it and changed slots. Started, no errors. Changed card. Started, no errors, changed that card to the first slot. Started, no errors. Put both cards back in their original slots and started memtest again. No immediate red flags. I'll let it run all day, but it's looking as though a card wasn't fully seated or a bad connection somewhere. I'll know more at the end of the 7 recommended passes.

 

[derekimo]

Sounds like some progress has been made, I'll get someone over here to have a look and answer your questions on the RAM.

 

[Thedoctor44]

Just a little add if you don't mind, make sure you're running Memtest86+ because I've seen false positives generated by the first memtest86 program where it generates errors when the RAM isn't actually faulty.

 

[essenbe]

Yes, it's possible there is an incompatibility problem, although not very likely. If you run 1 stick of ram in every slot and it fails in one slot and passes in the 3 others, and all sticks do the same, you have a Bad motherboard dim slot.
But, you need to run each stick in each slot for 8 full passes to find out for sure. The possibility of incompatibility does exist, but is much more rare these days than it used to be.

The ram cannot be incompatible in only 1 slot.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Running memtest shows that it's rife with errors. Preparing for the next step, I got my Asus manual to check that they were installed in the proper slots to begin with. This is when I noted the "qualified vendors list" and compatibility listing. The Patriot PC3 is not on the list for 1600 MHz cards. I'll run the tests as prescribed, but I have to ask if it's possible that the card is good, but not compatible. Further, which frequency would be optimal?

(10 minutes after the above paragraph) Memtest immediately went in the red, piling up a list too fast to possibly read. I stopped the test and pulled one card. Started the test and it began running without any errors, so I stopped it and changed slots. Started, no errors. Changed card. Started, no errors, changed that card to the first slot. Started, no errors. Put both cards back in their original slots and started memtest again. No immediate red flags. I'll let it run all day, but it's looking as though a card wasn't fully seated or a bad connection somewhere. I'll know more at the end of the 7 recommended passes.

Elderly Irons if you are looking at new RAM I know there are heaps of members here who are very cluey on RAM if you are looking for particularly G Skill to fit the board then here is a really good site I use whenever I build Welcome to the G.SKILL TECH FORUM Tradesman is spot on recommending RAM for specific boards.

 

[Elderly Iron]

Quick update before hitting the hay. 28% into pass #7 with no errors

Doc, I am indeed running memtest86+. I just tend to abbrev.

S&B, I am quite limited on computer savvy. Quite limited indeed. My curiosity was to the particular ram not being on the list, therefore perhaps creating a potential. "Not likely" seems to be the call of the day! I'm running 2 identical sticks from the same package, so no cross contamination there. When the first attempt was immediately nothing but red, then I removed the B2 card and had no red, I suspected either that card or that slot. I figured it it was that BAD, then surely it will show immediately if I put that card in the A2 slot, but it didn't. I then pulled the B card and put the card from A2 in the B2 slot, and again no immediate errors. This made me think that it could very well have been a faulty connection due to my inept installation skills, so I placed each card back to the original configuration. It is currently on pass #7 with no errors. I'm letting it run all night as well. We'll see what comes to pass in the morning.

ICit2, I'm not in the market for RAM, unless, of course, I HAVE to!

Jeff

"Performance" is the pursuit of a toy that won't break.

 

[Elderly Iron]

Back to it again this morning. Results show errors on

test 8, pass 9. 0013ff99eb8-5119.5 MB, Good 00008000, Bad 00008800. Error bits 800, count of 1, CPU 0.
0013fe45eb8-5118.3 MB, Good 00008000, Bad 00008800, Error bits 800, count of 2, CPU 0.
Looks like I'll start my "one at a time" process now. Yes, I know... I should have done it from the start, but going from immediate red to no immediate errors on the initial round of musical cards, I thought I could pull it off.

Jeff

 

[Elderly Iron]

Test complete

10 passes each in slot A with cards A and B revealed no errors. 10 passes with card A in slot B revealed no errors. One error cropped up in slot B with card B on the fifth pass. Currently on the 12th pass.

Test 8, Pass 5, Address 0014a520b68 - 5285.0MB, Good 00002000, Bad 00002400, Err bits, 400, count 1, CPU 0

Is this an acceptable level, or is zero error the only thing acceptable? I can take a photo of the screen and post it if needed.

Jeff

 

[essenbe]

No screen shot is really necessary, but 1 error is a fail. When you run these tests, if you get an error, you ban stop the test, its a fail so no since running it any more.

 

[Elderly Iron]

Placed card A into socket B again. Popped up 2 errors before completing the 5th pass. So then, am I looking at a socket perhaps? I'll be heading over to the Asus website next for warranty info.

 

[essenbe]

Maybe I'm not understanding it correctly, but as I'm seeing it, you may have a bad ram stick and not a dim slot bad. Again, maybe I'm not quite understanding you. Typically, if you have a bad slot, all the ram cards will pass in other slots but fail in that 1 slot.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

As essenbe says mate if I am seeing it right then card A in slot 1 or 2 or 3 or 4 is ok but with card B it has errors in any of the slots?

In any case you still have 8GB of RAM (I am presuming you have only two cards?) then it should run the machine quite well unless you are doing something mega heavy with RAM?

 

[Elderly Iron]

Errors occurred in slot B with both cards A and B.

 

[essenbe]

Did they pass in the other slots?

 

[Elderly Iron]

Both cards passes in slot A. As an aside, Asus has slots A1, A2, B1, and B2, and recommends using A2 and B2 when using 2 cards, and slot A1 when using one card. It does not say why, but only shows the images of installing in those slots. I intend on asking them about this come "regular business hours". I will, however, try putting a single card in slot A1 and running the machine.

Would it behoove me to attempt another scannow with the single card?

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Yes mate my board has the same config of slots and personally I would just use one stick in a slot that throws no errors for the time being as I am not sure if there would be any conflict by using the slots "out of sync" as it were ie using one card in slot A1 and one in B2.
Otherwise it looks like that slot B (1 or 2?) is bad.