• Welcome to Overclockers Forums! Join us to reply in threads, receive reduced ads, and to customize your site experience!

Could a bad installation of Windows give memory dumps?

Overclockers is supported by our readers. When you click a link to make a purchase, we may earn a commission. Learn More.

Xpred

Registered
Joined
Sep 1, 2005
*sigh* I just finished building my FIRST PC after some confusing and tiring 3hrs or so. I was lost in the beginning and end, but I did it! I finished it. Specs are as follows: Athlon 64 2800+, Abit NF8 mobo, Leadtek GeForce 6800LE 128MB AGP, 2x512 Corsair PC3200 DDR RAM, HDD/DVD-RW & Antec SP2.0 450W PSU. Well, after I thought I completed my task, I encountered some weird problems. Randomly, when I'm opening or messing around (usually using) Internet Explorer, my new computer will just crash, popping out a BSOD what appears to be a dump of some kind. I couldn't read the specific details as it just showed the BSOD for about 1-2 seconds, and the whole computer resetted itself.

Now, I remember when I installed Windows XP Pro w/ SP2, there was an error in the installation saying something like "file cannot be found? skip/continue?" I remember I pressed continued a few times and I think it either skipped it or did something weird, but installation resumed. I was wondering if a bad installation such as the one I described above could cause such a memory dump-type associated with a BSOD?

I have everything up to date including the most recent BIOS, drivers (audio/video/cpu). Giving that it usually happens if I'm doing something with IE, I tried updating all Windows updates through the MS windowsupdate site--however, no luck.

BUT, here's the STRANGE and PECULIAR thing... the first crash/dump/BSOD happened when I FIRST tried updating the updates through IE. The updates were installing, and bam, it crashes. The SECOND time I opened lots of IEs, and one IE window happened to freeze up. Then I tried CTRL+ALT+DEL and manually shutting down it, & the whole computer crashes again. Weird, huh? I'm beginning to think maybe it has something to do with IE, maybe not. My other computers use IE fine and certainly don't have this problem. I don't think its my RAM as it's new, but could be defective or damaged.

I think what I'll do is a fresh reinstall of Windows, and then run memtest to determine if it's my RAM or not. Man, it just sucks. After all this HARD work to finish a PC, I get slammed with a buttload of problems. I hope it's not too late to solve them. Heh. Anyways, any suggestions on what else I should try? Thanks. ;-/
 
i think it has to do with Time To Live on the internet, and not getting your updates transfered on manually before connecting through a nice firewall, antivirus, antispyware,antiadware - all that.

the average is 10 to 15 minuets. thats AVERAGE -soo, you could by hit at 2 hours or 2 minuets. in other words, if you installed XP with the internet allready connected, or got online at the very first second you could to do the updates, chances are someone else owns that computer now.

this: http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=379516
might help,
but since its a fresh install, why not wipe it out and start over without any network hardware connected? remove the antenna from the wireless, unplug the network cord,
then start with security software. youll have to burn it (the installers for the programs, not the programs themselves) onto a disc or the like from another rig...then use the disc to install the stuff.
(i use AVG free, Sygate personal firewall, SpybotSD, Adaware, Spywareblaster...)
once those are installed, Connect update them all, then give a shot at the XP updates.
then get about installing all your other million little things.
 
Allso to stop the rebooting madness with errors : Winkey+Break > advanced>startup and recovery>settings>system failure - Uncheck "automatically restart"
Edit: congrats on your first rig! :clap:
 
Well, the thing was I installed the Windows OS without internet though.
 
probably best to take a break, grab a snack then reinstall/reformat. :burn:

in other words, the hardware is probably fine.
the next thing to look at is the bluescreen. what does it say?
IRQL_not_less_than_equal and the like are most likely a nasty O/C.
im gonna assume its still stock configuration, and not yet overclocked.
a memory address is mem problems.

tried Prime 95 for stability testing?
might allso try running memtest at boot (overclockix.octeams.com, get the torrent and burn the 3.79 ISO, and at the boot prompt type "memtest" (no quotes) ...)
those two are the basic hardware testers.

a really good, long term-hardcore test is something called folding.
i bet your rig should do wonderfully. i would be suprised if it diddnt.
it allso might help cure some big, bad diseases like cancer and parkinsons someday.
have a look here to learn more about it:
http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=386159
 
If you plugged that network cable in with no protection/updates you average time for infection is about 30 seconds. Something to think about... If your getting random BSOD's I'd take a look at the ram/vid card/hard drives. Make sure there all connected properly, check your temps etc. Opening a lot of internet explorer's and causing a BSOD makes me think it's the ram.
 
I tried reinstalling Windows XP. Again came with the errors during installation (I think it's my old Windows XP CD)... but anyways, I press "retry" and it seemed to copy the files okay. I tried to manipulate the crash by opening a lot of IEs and randomly clicking links/downloading stuff. And wala, the crash comes. This time I disabled the restart and jotted down the technical information as stated:

STOP: 0x0000008E (0xC0000005, 0x805A3F1A, 0xBA479BBC, 0x00000000)

The BSOD with the damned physical memory dump appeared once again. Now I don't know what to do except to run Memtest. Maybe it's the RAM, maybe not... I just bought these NEW parts, man! Damnit, oh well... so many hassles through a new comp. :/
 
hehe, Well new RAM can be bad. I managed to get a matched pair of OCZ PC-4200 DDRII that was bad
 
Xpred said:
I tried reinstalling Windows XP. Again came with the errors during installation (I think it's my old Windows XP CD)... but anyways, I press "retry" and it seemed to copy the files okay. I tried to manipulate the crash by opening a lot of IEs and randomly clicking links/downloading stuff. And wala, the crash comes. This time I disabled the restart and jotted down the technical information as stated:

STOP: 0x0000008E (0xC0000005, 0x805A3F1A, 0xBA479BBC, 0x00000000)

The BSOD with the damned physical memory dump appeared once again. Now I don't know what to do except to run Memtest. Maybe it's the RAM, maybe not... I just bought these NEW parts, man! Damnit, oh well... so many hassles through a new comp. :/

the stop code is a memory address. that can be indicitave of many things, but the easy answer is RAM.

how did it go with memtest? have you tried that yet?
you might be able to find the bad stick with that, if thats what is going on.
then, since its new, just RMA the thing.


allso, your installation disk might be messed up.

allso, if the instalation disk is... anything less than the real deal... forget about updates, thats been locked out now.

allso, you could have the oddbal driver problem. try getting drivers from a different source. if you are using the windows drivers, try the OEM drivers, or visa-versa.

Edit: dont get frustrated, the only thing that makes it easier is experience, and knowledge that you get after youve been doing it for a while. stick with it and youll be rewarded.

after hanging around here long enough, youll be answering questions and learning how to get your rig the best it can be. best of luck. :burn:
 
Last edited:
Ok, here's an update. Bad news, very bad news. Well, before I decided to run MemTest to determine if it was bad RAM or not, I tried to take both sticks out and try testing it again by opening lots of IEs/doing a lot of weird activity to imitate the crash. I remove slot dimm #2 and only have one 512MB RAM stick in there. This time, it didn't seem to crash (or at least maybe I didn't trigger it). So then I thought maybe it was the 2nd RAM stick I took out. Then I swapped the second with the first... now my 2nd stick which I originally thought was the main culprit and the defective RAM is now in 1st slot DIMM, and there's nothing in the 2nd slot. It didn't crash too again... which left me thinking maybe it's only slot dimm #2 problem.

Anyways, I was pretty confused after that. Thus I tried sticking both sticks back in. However, when I tried sticking the 2nd stick back in, I pushed it down on the dimm and I heard a small clicking noise. At first maybe I damaged the RAM/dimm slot #2, then I thought nothing of it and proceeded. Now here comes the bad news.

Right before Windows XP loads, comes a BSOD! This time it's different. It states something about:

DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL

0x000000D1 (0xB763CE91, 0x00000002, 0x00000008, 0xB763CE91)

I just realized that I might have completely destroyed my mobo/RAM/whatever. At this point, I don't know what happened. I don't know what to do next. I'm ****ed, tired, and depressed because I can't build a new system that actually works. I'm about to give up right now as I don't know whats going on with my computer. IF anything's broken, I don't feel like RMAing/returning anything because I have done so, and it's just too much work. Oh well, I guess my journey to building computers ends here...
 
i see *_IRQL_NOT_LESS_THAN_EQUAL all the time, usually when my O/C is too high.
its not the end of the world, and does not mean you cant build a good machine.

i think you have a bad ram socket. that second socket it the only thing youve laid out that is the common denominator. the ram sticks should click into place and latch themselves in. it seems youve done it all right, and you just had some bad luck.

if that were the case, its not your fault at all, as a matter of fact, the motherboard manufacturer might give you a new one free, if you send them back the dead one.
just start the RMA process and pretty soon youll get a new board and have a realy slick rig.

i would still try memtest though, it would suck to replace the wrong compontnts.
 
Sounds like your board is having trouble implementimg dual channel operation.
You could try installing with only one stick in place...see if that eliminates the errors during the OS load.
Perhaps the issue has been addressed in a BIOS update.
Have you checked Abit's site for new BIOS releases?
 
I have the latest BIOS (stated in first post) and my motherboard doesn't support dual channel. I just bought two regular sticks of RAM, also.

UPDATE:

I think I found out the problem. I ran Memtest86 and I found out it was one bad stick of RAM.
 
Last edited:
Back