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Blue Screen Of Death.

Q

QUOTH

Senior member
Current set up

Dell E521 Details Here
WIndows XP Home
nVidia GeForce 8600gts evga
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dueal 5000+ 2.61GHz
1.50GB RAM [3 sticks of 512]
coolermaster realpower m620

Quick story.

Dell PC 2 years old, graphics card was faulty. I replaced it and the PSU, and I acccidentally short circuited the motherboard. So I buy another one and the faulty PSU kills the motherboard, and one of the sticks of RAM.

I Buy a new motherboard and new powersupply [current]. I find that one of the sticks of ram had died. Everything ran fine for a couple of weeks and now I'm getting BSOD. Ive noticed it sometimes happen after I press the button on the DVD drives to open [or close?] them.

So Is my PC complaing that I only have 2.5Gb of ram? Or is another stick abit faulty? Or is it something else all together?


All help appreciated.

Q
 
Let me make sure I've correctly parsed your message:
1) The following parts are NEW: Motherboard, power supply
2) The following parts are somewhat new: Graphics card, a stick of RAM
3) The following parts are ~2 years old: Everything else, notably, the rest of the RAM

You should look into a program called memtest86. Burn it onto a CD and boot off the CD. Here is how you use it, when neither the RAM nor the motherboard is known-good.

Take ALL the RAM out of your computer. Always let memtest finish all its tests. Be patient.

1) Take one stick of RAM, (e.g. the oldest, most tested stick) and put it into one slot on the MB. Memtest. Errors mean that either the RAM is bad or the the MB slot is damaged, or both. If no errors arise, it is likely, but not 100% certain, that both are OK.

2) IF you can find a stick of RAM that doesn't show any errors, then try that stick, one-at-a-time, in all slots on the MB. If a stick of RAM shows errors in one slot but not another, its a clue to a damaged MB slot (yes, brand new MBs often come in a faulty condition -- so does RAM, even tested RAM).

3) ONCE you've determined which sticks of RAM pass Memtest (and which MB slots), try combinations. Again, you should memtest the combinations as well.
 
Correct, but all 4 sticks of 512mb ram are 2 years and one is faulty.

I'll give it a go.

Assuming two of my 512mb sticks are OK, can I go out and buy two 1gb sticks[my motherboard does support them]? So I have 3gb in all? And does it matter which way round they are? I'm guessing the 1gb's in dimm 1 and 2, and the 512mb in dim 3 and 4.


Any other thoughts welcome guys.
 
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