Solved Windows Memory Diagnostic Tool stops at 88% complete

[Snugglebugs]

I have bought a new PC for my wife without OS. It is an Acer N2120G supplied only with FreeDOS on the HD. I have installed Win 7 Pro via a USB flash drive, using the Windows DVD/USB tool from the install DVD without any great difficulty.
Everything works but once she started using it she gets crashes about once a day. I tried it myself and get the same problem. At present there isn't anything elaborate installed. Mainly it will be used for browsing and emails and a few of the built in card games.

She had to stop using it so I could check it all. I started with simple checks like PW and SFC and they looked fine. I went back to the AMD website and their auto detect told me that I had all the up to date drivers.
Just to be safe, I updated all the drivers from the supplied driver CD. I was especially cautious about the graphics card as I know that can be very sensitive! But the crashes still occurred - maybe after 6 hours - maybe after 6 minutes

I also wiped the 5GB partition used for FreeDOS and set it as an unallocated, empty, space as we will never need the full 500GB on the HD.
A couple of days ago I set the PC to run the Memory Diagnostic from Administrative Tools. Just the standard shutdown and run option. (I had already tried a WinDiag CD that I have had for years and that didn't show any problems, but I know it was designed before 4GB RAM was allowable. So I thought it best to try again with the up to date tool.)

The result of the test was just a reboot without any message. As I was expecting some sort of "report" I ran it again and it just froze at 21%. The PC still worked and didn't crash the rest of the day after manually restarting.

So today I tried to be a bit more investigative! I ran the test on the PC and at the same time on an old laptop that is very slow but capable of taking the Win 7 update. I started them both together in Extended mode.
The laptop struggled through and after 5 hours rebooted and showed a message that there were no problems.

But as I type this, at about 8 hours, the PC is still showing" pass 1 of 2: 88% complete. It has been at that point for 3 hours so I guess there must be a problem! But I assumed that the tool would finish and give me a report if it found a fault or faults?

Any ideas on what to do now to narrow it down? (Going from earlier uses of the PC, if I just switch off and restart it will reboot OK.)
Tony

 

[gregrocker]

Use the RAM - Test with Memtest86+.

I'd also scan with Malwarebytes, SFC, establish a Clean Boot, and the rest of the steps from Troubleshooting Steps for Windows 7

Compare the install you did with the perfect install compiled in Clean Reinstall Windows 7. It's always best to delete all partitions during reinstall or if there was a foreign boot agent on the drive as in FreeDOS then I'd wipe it first with Diskpart Clean Command lest that boot code remain on the disk.

 

[Snugglebugs]

I have got the memtest86 now - didn't know there was a new version - I had the old version many years ago and had tried that but I knew that old one could not cope with the newer type RAM provision.
Thanks for references. First result, I used MT86 today - it did two complete passes (much quicker) and declared there were no errors!

Re Clean reinstall - the install I did was clean as the HD was not even formatted on the large partition left available for an OS. It was not a reinstall, just to clarify.

I had already tried most of the Troubleshooting Steps from past experience, but some are new to me so I will try them now. I have loaded the NIR BlueScreenView so I can see events if it crashes again

As I used Partition Wizard to Wipe the small DOS partition and then Win7 Startup Repair the boot code should all be clean. But I will try the DiskPart suggestion. I had already used SFC and Malware Bytes.

Tony
(Of course, today it hasn't crashed even once! But my original question was why WDT stopped at 88% without any error message?)

 

[Snugglebugs]

I still don't know why the Win 7 memory test froze, but as the memtest86 does not show any problems, I guess that is OK.

I have worked my way through the Troubleshooting steps and something else I did made a great improvement. The PC has been running fine without BSOD for four days now, but crashed again once today.

I have looked at the Event Viewer and there is a specific entry for todays event and that is identical in wording to the one last week and those earlier. It says "The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly. Source: Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-Power. Event ID: 41 Task Category: (63)"

I attach the saved event file. I have searched for the main phrase and found some threads but I am not sure that any are specifically relevant. But I did find one that mentioned being solved by under clocking the computer. http://www.sevenforums.com/bsod-help-support/316451-computer-shuts-off-when-gaming-4.html

Reason I think that post might be relevant:-
The last four days I have had the PC sitting by me with IE showing a news site where there are lots of video clips as well as text. I also let it sit with the screensaver slide show running. All was well. I did try playing Solitaire as earlier my wife found the BSOD when she was doing that. But I only did it one game at a time.

Today I handed it over to her and she had the same setup on screen. But I asked her to try Solitaire over and over - in the middle of her fifth game was when it went BSOD

Does that sound like the problem?

Tony

 

[gregrocker]

Turn off the Screensaver in Control Panel>Personalize as this is a legacy feature to prevent burn-in on old CRT monitors.

Use the modern Windows Backgrounds slideshows which can be chosen there. Test the difference.

The error you posted only tells us that Windows Shut down improperly. It would be other errors in the Performance log referred to in Troubleshooting Steps for Windows 7 that might tell us why, but not that error.

Can you confirm that there is no BSOD dump file being generated? Even if not, post back the Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) Posting Instructions - Windows 7 Forums exactly as specified so a fresh set of eyes can look over the problem. Ask the analysts to please see if they can spot the problem in the reports submitted even if absent a dump file.

 

[Snugglebugs]

I will do the extra steps but not immediately. This morning there were no problems. This afternoon when Myrtle switched the PC back on after we got home, it came up immediately with BSOD.
Restarting gave a message that a Start up Repair was needed Did that and after opening email programme, BSOD again.

So I disconnected everything and gave her back her old PC.

Now I have to find time to reconnect it on my desk and see if I can get anywhere.

In the meantime I think I will order her another new PC of a more orthodox design

Tony

PS As the new, new one will come with Win 8.1 preinstalled with a Danish OS I can blame the supplier if anything goes wrong! (But the first thing will be to change the language to English. I would be tempted to downgrade to Win 7 but don't know if I have enough courage left to try

 

[Snugglebugs]

Greg

I have posted to the BSOD thread http://www.sevenforums.com/bsod-hel...ostic-tool-stops-88-complete.html#post3003682

Hopefully someone will find the problem from the file I attached.

Tony

 

[Snugglebugs]

After many hours of testing memory (using help from BSOD thread) I got Acer to admit I really did have a problem with the machine itself.
Well today after 4 weeks Acer have repaired my computer. The report states that they had to replace the mother board and reinstall the OS. Their final test states that the system recovered!
Unfortunately, that "recovery" meant that they reinstalled the original software which was just FreeDOS and totally useless! At least the commands worked this time. So my Win 7 installation had been wiped.
Sadly they managed to leave some old data so that when I went to install Win 7 all over again, the install from DVD thought that I needed to repair and not install. So the opening menu did not include an Install option!
I think that the quickest way out of that is just to use Partition Wizard to wipe the HDD and format as NTFS ready to start the Win7 DVD from scratch.
It has been a very long and painful process so far and installing from scratch means even more hours getting hundreds of updates once the OS is in place. Luckily I never installed anything much in the way of programmes.
Hopefully my next message will be my last and I can report "solved".
Tony

 

[gregrocker]

So my Win 7 installation had been wiped.
Sadly they managed to leave some old data so that when I went to install Win 7 all over again, the install from DVD thought that I needed to repair and not install. So the opening menu did not include an Install option!

Tony what do you mean by this exactly? The only reason a Win7 DVD would not have Install Now choice is if it is actually a Repair CD.

What installation DVD are you using exactly?

Work through the steps to Troubleshoot Windows 7 Installation Failures - Windows 7 Help Forums to wipe the drive of any possibly conflicting code, then create an Active partition to increase install optimiization.

 

[Snugglebugs]

To summarise:
Acer accepted the results of memtest that there was a problem. Either memory card or card slot. So I returned the PC for repair.

They found that the card was OK but the slot/interface was defective. So they replaced the mother board complete.

As most manufacturers seem to do, they restored the machine back to the condition it was in when they made it. In my case, there was no real OS, just the very basic version of MS-DOS called FreeDOS. Obviously they don't want to return a machine with an OS that they didn't supply. Hence my Win 7 installation was removed.

I can only assume that the Acer technician didn't take the trouble to totally clean the HD so (I guess) that the Win 7 boot file was not deleted. So when I tried to reinstall Win 7 the software "thought" that a repair was needed, so no Install option was available.

I will go through the "clean disc" procedure before I try again.

As far as this forum is concerned, I can only say how great it is and the advice I got gave me the necessary evidence to convince Acer to do the repair without any expense to me!

Tony
PS As a final twist, the OS that Acer reinstalled was the German language version. So I couldn't understand a word

 

[gregrocker]

Again, what disk do you have? No Windows 7 installation disk will withhold the Install Now choice for any reason once booted.

Wiping the drive should help as it resolves most installation problems. But if you have a UEFI BIOS then the commands after "Clean" are not used. Boot the disk as a EFI device and delete all partitions to clear formatting, use Clean Command from Command Prompt if that isn't sufficient.

If problems persist post back exact failure point and any specific error or behavior. Report back the exact settings in BIOS for UEFI, EFI, CSM, Legacy BIOS, Secure Boot and BIOS Boot Priority.

 

[Snugglebugs]

Greg

No, not UEFI - I had to look up the acronym to find out what it is! Just standard BIOS

The disc I have is actually not a DVD but a CD which was big enough to do the job.

I haven't sent you all the BIOS settings but I do attach my experience details.

Tony

 

[gregrocker]

A CD is never big enough to hold the Win7 installation media. If it starts up to Windows 7 branding then it is likely a System Repair Disk so you'll need to find installation media for your licensed version as discussed in Step 1 of Clean Reinstall Windows 7.

Had you been following that tutorial you would not have made this mistake. Ask back questions as needed to complete the steps in that tutorial, and you'll end up with a perfect install.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/219487-clean-reinstall-factory-oem-windows-7-a.html#post1839164

 

[Snugglebugs]

OK, my fault.

I installed Win 7 last year when the PC was new and "I thought" in good order. I must have made a SIF then but just labelled it as Win 7 for N2120G.

As it has taken such a long time to discover that it was faulty, and even longer to convince Acer to repair it, I had simply forgotten. It didn't help that the opening screen looks so much like the 'real' install disk.

So now I have a working PC and loaded Win 10 on to it now as it is available to play with.

Tony

 

[gregrocker]

If you already own a $100+ value Win7 license then there's no reason why you can't have the best OS on the Acer. Just follow the steps in Clean Reinstall Windows 7.

That tutorial has helped over 1.3 million consumers get and keep a perfect install without a single complaint or return with problems. If you want Win7 we will help you get it no matter what.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/219487-clean-reinstall-factory-oem-windows-7-a.html#post1839164

 

[Snugglebugs]

Yes, I reinstalled Win 7 as in your tutorial and it is all OK.
I did try Win 10 on it first, but didn't like it at all, so wiped the lot in favour of Win 7.

Thanks for all the help.
Tony

 

[Layback Bear]

Good job Snugglebugs and gregrocker!
Snugglebugs Enjoy Windows 7.

Try to remember Snugglebugsthat this forum has many tutorials that work great if one follows them exactly.
Everything in computing is (exactly) or things just don't work correctly.