What are the odds?

[Celegorm]

Ok, so my good RAM (the ones in my sig) are in middle of the RMA process, so while i have no gamming ram, i have a stick of my brothers DDR2 RAM installed.

For the last few weeks my bro has been getting blue screens pointing to his dlink wireless driver. now that his RAM is in my system, i'm getting the same blue screen. The ram tests fine in memtest (it was run for 24 hours).


Based on this, i'm thinking the driver info is being loaded into ram and faulting seeing as how that is the only thing we now have "similar" in our systems. That, and all d-link drivers are named "a3ab.sys"..... What would you say odds are that it is bad RAM? I think they are pretty good, but i want some more oppinions first.

 

[Ð88]

as i am sure you understand almost always what the BSOD is showing as the cause of the error really isn't the problem. My first guess is that the RAM is probably bad seeing as it causes BSODs on both computers. I even say that with the fact that you ran memtest in mind because i had a similar problem where i would run memtest for hours upon hours and no errors would come up yet my RAM was still causing BSODs (as I confirmed when i removed one of the memory modules and haven't had a BSOD since).

 

[Celegorm]

lol yeah, i figured it wasn't my brothers wireless a long time ago after i tried all the drivers dlink ever made for the card, as well as tried 5 different cards.

but you did confirm my suspisions. Once i get my RAM back from Corsair i'll bring my bro's in the the store where he bought his comptuer from and get some new ones.

thanks for the help.

 

[Mattyl110792]

Well i'm definately no RAM expert...But i do know and can tell you that I have had a bad run with Dlink modems and routers etc....the first one i had, would cut out every day or so...second one, would cause a blue screen at random times. At the time we had just purchased a new computer and thought it was the computer causing the blue screens, not the modem...So 6 months later after everything in the PC had finally been RMA'd etc...still blue screened. I decided to put the modem on my pc, same blue screen...turned out it was the Dlink all the same....Third time, i purchased a Netgear ...There is even a page about it on Dlink's site....

http://www.dlink.com.au/tech/

Not sure what other models it shows on, but on that tech page if you select the DSL-200 modem, then go to troubleshooting it will say this....

Windows crashes with blue screen If the error message you are getting on the blue screen: DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL message - it is a known problem in WinXP and it is not directly related to DSL-200 modem: it happens on certain motherboards with many USB devices.

Try disabling Windows XP Network Media Sensing feature. Follow the steps in this article: http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articles_tutorials/Disable-Media-Sense-TCPIP-Windows-XP.html

In many cases updating BIOS on the motherboard or USB controller driver fixes the problem. There are also patches available from Microsoft which target this problem. Service Pack 1a for Windows XP also includes these patches. After you upgrade BIOS and USB controller drivers please reinstall the modem driver.

How to reinstall driver

Step 1. Download the latest driver for your modem from http://www.dlink.com.au/tech/. Save and extract the driver files into a folder on your computer.
Download the driver removal tool: http://files.dlink.com.au/Products/DSL-200/REV_B/Drivers/Uninstaller_for_Windows/DSL-200_Remove.zip

Step 2. Remove previous driver installation attempts. To do that leave the modem connected via USB to your computer.
Go to Control Panel > System > [Hardware] > Device Manager.
You will see a list of categories and devices installed and connected to your computer.
If the modem was installed correctly it should come up under Network Adapters category.
If your modem was not installed with correct driver, Windows will display it as 'Unknown Device' or 'Other Device'. You can identify incorrectly installed devices by Question Mark or Exclamation Point next to the device.
Right-click on such device and select Remove [Uninstall]. Close Device Manager.
Go to Add/Remove Programs and uninstall the program related to the modem.
Now unplug the modem from your computer.
Run the DSL-200 Driver Removal Tool.

Step 3. Restart computer. Do not connect the modem to your computer yet.
Run the driver installation program first (the one downloaded in Step 1). You may be asked to reboot PC again. After the software installation finished you can plug the modem in and Windows should detect it automatically.

So, it's hard to say whats causing the error...

Matt

EDIT: Ahh crap, too slow lol

 

[lhuser]

It could be the RAM. The way Memtest tests it is actually by inplementing basic operations. Yours could be one code that Memtest isn't having and may fail, or it could me the CAS latencies being too low at default...hence unstable RAM.

 

[Celegorm]

It could be the RAM. The way Memtest tests it is actually by inplementing basic operations. Yours could be one code that Memtest isn't having and may fail, or it could me the CAS latencies being too low at default...hence unstable RAM.

very true...

its just wierd, i never would have guessed this. I've never had bad luck with dlink routers, and untill this RAM, never any problems with their wireless cards either...

either way, i'll be getting new RAM to try with it, seeing as how i can guarranty the cards are working from the steps i used in my first post, its really the only thing i ahve left to try before a windows reformat...

 

[Raffaz]

I use dlink with no problems. Whats the exact error your getting? Also, have you got the latest firmware for the router?

 

[lhuser]

Raffaz, if you flash the firmware wireless, the connection will cut and the firmware will be corrupted. I know that because when I flashed mine, it actually told me to use hard wires...aka RJ-45

 

[Raffaz]

Raffaz, if you flash the firmware wireless, the connection will cut and the firmware will be corrupted. I know that because when I flashed mine, it actually told me to use hard wires...aka RJ-45

Yeah, i know this, but you normally get RJ-45 cables with the router, and im sure he will have a built in NIC to do this with

 

[lhuser]

I hope so, because if he doesn't, he's screwed.
It could be a possibility that that RAM has issues with the old firmware, and the new firmware will fix it.