BSOD on startup or restart

[eelias79]

Hello,

I am experiencing BSOD on nearly every boot or restart. Once the computer has been up and running for about 10 minutes, after perhaps two boot attempts, I seldom BSOD until I boot up or restart again. Sometimes the BSOD occurs before windows even fully loads, and sometimes it occurs a few minutes after the desktop appears.

I have attached everything requested in the posting instructions (I think). Additionally, I have included the last four dumps. Please let me know if I have done something incorrectly.

Any ideas? So frustrating!

Thank you.

-Windows 7 Home Premiumx64
-Bought system used, and had it wiped and a new copy of Windows reinstalled for me by a friend.
-This was about a month and a half ago.
-System perhaps 2-3 years old.

 

[eelias79]

Hello? Anyone?

 

[writhziden]

Sorry you were missed. I've been having some health problems due to some wildfire smoke and took two days off. Got back to it yesterday. If you had not posted the second time, I may have gotten to you yesterday.


Your memory info does not make sense in your system specs. DDR4 is still under development.

• Download and install CPU-Z and Upload screenshots of the CPU, Mainboard, Memory, and SPD tabs. In the SPD tab, upload an image of each slot.

 

[eelias79]

Thank you for your reply. Hope you're feeling better. Here are the screenshots. It is DDR3, whoops! Also, slot 3 and 4 are both empty. Hope this helps...

 

[writhziden]

That RAM may not be compatible with your motherboard, but we should see if we can tighten the timings up before worrying about that. It should work with your processor based on what I see.

In your BIOS, set the first four RAM timings: 7-7-7-20 and a Command Rate of 2/2N/2T (whichever of these your MB shows).

Manually set the frequency if you can to 533 MHz. Bump your NB voltage to 1.2 V. See if those settings provide more stability.

 

[eelias79]

Thanks. I'm looking up how to change these settings now. I'll report back. For clarification - my command rate currently reads 1T, so I change this to 2T? In my case, disregard the 'N'?

 

[writhziden]

Yeah, some BIOS settings show it as 2, some show it as 2N, some show it as 2T. If yours has the "T" in it, then just make sure it is preceded by a 2.

 

[eelias79]

Ok, I've made the changes, except for one - I wasn't sure which "frequency" you were referring to. I saw Dram and CPU N/B frequencies. However, neither of those allowed for a 533mhz option.

Everything else has been changed, and I'll report back in a day or two.

 

[writhziden]

I was referring to DRAM frequency, but if you cannot get 533, then don't worry about it. Just set it to auto.

 

[eelias79]

Well, I now have 2 boots and 1 restart with no BSOD. Thank you! I am curious as to:

1) Why many BSOD issues seem related to driver or hardware problems, and mine was resolved with modifications to the BIOS.

2) I'm also unsure what, exactly, we changed.

3) What did the zipped files I included in my first post reveal?

If you have time, I'd love a response to those two questions. If not, thank you again.

 

[writhziden]

Technically, your problem was hardware. It was just that the hardware may not be compatible with your motherboard as it was originally setup. We had to tighten things up to make it work together. The hardware itself still may not be compatible, but with the timings set more tightly and manually, they meet what the motherboard expects from the RAM, so things work better together. Also, the voltage bump we applied increased the support the board gives to the RAM, which yields more stability in some cases.

In a way, we are lucky the setting changes worked, but they are settings that have been found to work through a lot of experience and testing.

The crash reports you included in your first post revealed memory_corruption problems and a variety of BugCheck codes that pointed to possible hardware issues. The memory_corruption blamed .dmps were what led me to believe the hardware issues were memory related. Seeing your CPU-Z info showed that the RAM was designed for a different chipset than was designed for your motherboard, which led to the steps with the RAM timings and voltage support.