Blue Screen of Death madness!

[COCOCOOKIE]

Regarding testing RAM, download memtest86 from www.memtest.org and burn it on a CD or on a Floppy. Put it into its corresponding drive and start the PC...it will start automatically and just so you know, it will take hours but it's one of the most accurate test for RAM now. For the CPU, try to find some Benchmark or Utility tests online or on Intel's website, I'm pretty sure they have some of those utilities. Good Luck!

 

[Pepsiboy700]

To fix the driver issue I had, I went into safemode, uninstalled the current drivers, rebooted in safemode and let it find standard drivers, then booted normally and all was well. That was for the video card.

 

[Meithan]

Thanks for your input guys. I'm sorry I couldn't post before, but without my computer it's harder to get internet access.

I've done some more tests. As instructed by Corsair Support, I tested each one of my memory modules with memtest86 (from a bootable CD). The first time I started the test, memtest froze on me; the screen just turned green/blue:



I turned off my computer, turned it back on, and re-ran the test. It did three passes successfully without errors. I then swapped the memory module for the other one (in the same slot) and did the test again. The second module also went through three passes with no errors. I emailed my results back to Corsair, but I guess they'll reply monday.

Now, I've noticed a regular behaviour in the errors. The computer seems to be much more unstable (POSTing problems, BSODs in Windows) when I'm using BOTH memory modules. I've even had BIOS lockups and lockups immediately after POST:


(notice the weird dot patterns)

I've tried putting the memory modules in different slots, but it's all the same. This seems to be pointing out to a motherboard fault, either with the slots or the memory controller, wouldn't you agree?

With one stick (which module doesn't make a difference it seems) I can boot into Windows 9 times out of 10, but it's not 100% stable (I got a couple of BSODs yesterday when trying out Battlefield 2).

About a possible hard drive issue, thanks for the suggestion but I don't think that's it. I've run a full surface scan already, and it's clean. More importantly, I've had POSTing problems with no hard drive at all.

So I'm increasingly convinced it's the motherboard that's failing. However I don't want to RMA it until I'm sure all other components are good. The CPU could still be the cause, since I don't have any means to test it. I don't think so, but it's possible.

 

[Meithan]

Update: there's been a change in the behavior of my computer. Two days ago I flashed the newest BIOS for my Asus P5B Deluxe, version 1004. I hadn't done so before before Asus reports that this BIOS version cannot be rolled back, but considering the state of my system, I don't care anymore.

With the new BIOS, I started getting much more specific stability issues with the RAM modules. By this I mean that if I boot with one of the modules, it all works perfectly ok (no BSOD yet), but trying to boot with both of them (or even only the other module) produces the same errors as before. I can't even post correctly with the other RAM module.

I know this immediately suggests the module is bad, but what is weird is that I've tested it with memtes86, and it did three passes successfully.

I've also tried placing the modules in different slots and it's all the same: if the second module if present, I get problems POSTing; with the first module is has POSTed every time.

This problem is driving me crazy since it's behaving erratically, making it impossible for me to pinpoint the faulty component. What do you guys think?

 

[jollychn]

hi....

I hope this is Memory Module (RAM) problem.. Please check it out and change new module and install OS and then install OLD Memory Module.

 

[Meithan]

Actually Corsair has been following my case and just this morning they sent me an RMA form. I'll still run a couple more tests before I RMA the memory, since I wanna be completely sure it's that (and not the motherboard, for instance).

By the way, I'm still running with only one of the modules, and it's been 100% stable so far: no BSODs, no POST problems. Flashing to BIOS version 1004 sure made a difference, although my problem isn't fully solved yet.