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How Do I Go About Debugging A Hard-To-Pin-Down Memory Error?

Y

YawningAngel

Junior Member
First, I'll elucidate. A few months ago, I built a computer for my father. It seemed to operate satisfactorily, so I let it be and moved away. He mentioned it crashing occasionally, but otherwise seemed fairly happy, but assumed all was well. Recently, he complained of crashes, so I gave him mine to use in the interim and have set to debugging. What I've found is, frankly, rather strange.

The computer will occasionally crash altogether, producing a BSOD. This can give a variety of errors, including (but not limited to) STOPs: 0x00000009, 0x00000019, and 0x0000001A (these appear to be the most common. Aside from crashing, it will fail to correctly decompress large archives, and Chrome tabs will occasionally crash and then continually crash when reopened. This is generally fixed by a reboot. Some drivers (nVidia graphics and Intel chipset being the culprits here) also refuse to install or update.

Since this seems like something is corrupting memory, I've taken a few basic steps to debug this, but haven't got far. I have
  • Reinstalled Windows, both 7 and 8
  • Removed individual components as much as is possible
  • Run a memtest (came back fine)
  • Looked at WhoCrashed to see if I can determine any drivers obviously at fault

and I'm approximately at my wit's end. I consider myself fairly computer literate, but it seems to me that I'm out of my depth. From here, where do I go in terms of either narrowing down this error further or asking someone who can make more sense of windows crash dumps than I? Or am I barking up entirely the wrong tree altogether?
 
What do the WhoCrashed reports point to? Sounds like a back stick of RAM. MemTest isn't perfect. What is the RAM configuration in the machine?

Question for you: when you run into problems, such as Chrome, crashing, do other programs run correctly, or do they crash as well?
 
What are the system specs?

Are you running the most recent BIOS available for the machine? Also, when you set up the machine, did you erase the CMOS then reload defaults? I'm assuming you've checked the system temps?
 
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Whocrashed reports on this install point to ntoskrnl.exe, but if memory serves they're pointed to filesystem drivers before as well. The RAM configuration is 2x4GB DDR 3 1600 9-9-9-24 (Corsair) across two channels, the CPU is an i5-4440, and the motherboard is an Asus H87M-E.

When Chrome is playing up, IE will load the same pages without issue. System temperatures are fine, currently sitting at 30c idle and still having issues. I have never reset the CMOS and reloaded the defaults, and in fact use the computer outside the defaults (SATA controller in RAID rather than AHCI mode) . BIOS was updated when I bought it but may not be so now.
 
Built in mem test and third party mem tests always fail to find problem or so has been just in my case.

Re-sitting memory is a good start. Also inspect if you can inside the slots to make sure no connector is bent.

Best way to test memory is with some program like a game. Anything that will push the ram chips to its limit that make them heat up. Sometimes it is heat damage.

Did you by any chance you dance the mem stick around in different slots? Or running on just 1? If running on just 1 and no error then that stick of ram is ok.

Also there is static damage. Did you make sure you were grounded when you inserted the memory when new?

I never touch computers when wearing polyester clothing or things that can create static buildup. Using software at this point is pointless since it seem you have pinpointed it to be the fault of hardware. You can not pray the errors to go away.

Best thing to make sure you are grounded at time of removing ram from its retail packaging and nobody else is nearby touching the items as you install the memory.

Hopefully your pc has a grounded outlet.
 
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Its crashing in chrome so it could be CPU/motherboard, Memory or the GPU. Since you have successfully run memtest I think its fair to assume that the RAM is probably OK.

Next step is run Linx with verification on, that will tell us if we have any CPU issues.

Then if that works try running Heaven continuously and see if that crashes it.
 
Yes, I always use an anti-static band. That said, RAM isn't really static-sensitive. I've tried the memory in different slots, but not exhaustively. I've updated and reset the BIOS, and I'll try Linux under verified mode to see if anything comes up.
 
YawningAngel said:
Yes, I always use an anti-static band. That said, RAM isn't really static-sensitive. I've tried the memory in different slots, but not exhaustively. I've updated and reset the BIOS, and I'll try Linux under verified mode to see if anything comes up.
Click to expand...

Try one stick at a time and see if the crashes occur with both independently.
 
The last time I ran a memory check on a DELL pc it would show those 8 gig ram sticks were different than what I bought. So if if you know what size you bought but it says diffrently then that is another good sign to know the memory is bad.
 
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