Very nasty blue screens...

[toias123]

Just built a new comp. When i try to install windows i get nasty blue screens telling me the computer must be shut down etc (i'm sure you know the ones). ANyway the messages have been things like 'page_fault_in_nonpaged_area' and 'irql_not_less_or_equal'

Anyway if anyone knows how to resolve this i would be most grateful as i have a new conroe system waiting and can't get windows to install!!!
spec if needed:

conroe 6300
asrock conroexfire sata2
1gb ddr2
160gb HDD sata being recognised as IDE in boot menu
x800XT gfx

Please help!!!

 

[Kage]

I have a feeling this will be fault with your RAM
If you get that replaced, I bet you it'd install fine.

 

[toias123]

how sure are you?

 

[toias123]

btw it's reading the ram fine in the bios etc

 

[Kage]

Thats tends to be the case anyway, that it'll read the correct amount, because its a seperate part of the RAM that stores the information of how much it has in it.

The main chips on the RAM though is what the data is cached to, etc, and if one of these chips is faulty, then you get the errors you describe, blue screens, etc.

I'm pretty sure. One way to check would be, if you had 2x 512mb to make 1GB, you'd take one out and test it, and if that works, swap and try the other to find the culprit.

But yeah, a replacement is needed

Nice processor you have there by the way

 

[toias123]

i have one 1gb stick. Is there anyway to tell otherwise?
I suppose i could take out some memory from one of my old pcs and try that?

 

[Kage]

If your older RAM is DDR though or something, it won't even fit in the new slot, but if its still DDR2 you could.

Plus, trying memory that is slower than the stated memory needed also on your new motherboard is going to cause alot more instabilities.

 

[lhuser]

That is bad RAM. Return and replace.

 

[toias123]

ok sounds like you know what you are talking about!
If i tried to install windows from clean install, would this memory problem prevent it from completeing even if the blue screens didn't appear? For example i have got quite far into the installation but windows still said there was something wrong with the install ie could not find certain files.
Does windows need memory to install certain comonents? I know areas of memory are allocated to certain programs so this would make sense in the install as well as running windows.
God i know how to waffle...

 

[lhuser]

Well, if it never happened that you were missing files in memory, the bad RAM will corrupt whatever goes into the bad section.


And if you try to install windows with bad RAM, one time you might be lucky and finish it.