Frequent BSODs again - Blue screen view info included.

**SonOfCrusader76** · August 24, 2011, 10:25 AM

Recently, I have had numerous BSOD, all of which appear to be caused by the ATI drivers

I have tried rolling back to an older driver, but it happened again - only it was a PAGE FAULT IN NON PAGED AREA error, as opposed to the SYSTEM SERVICE EXCEPTION of the previous incidents.

**Squid** · August 24, 2011, 12:16 PM

Possibly a problem with the GPU and not the drivers.

**SonOfCrusader76** · August 24, 2011, 12:23 PM

Ah crap, that's the last thing I wanted to hear!! Getting a new GPU right now isn't really on my agenda.

I've also installed some new RAM recently - I couldn't find RAM that matched my current specs, so I went ahead and bought some new Corsair RAM - 4gb DDR2. The only RAM in my system now is the Corsair: I've stored the other RAM.

Corsair TWIN2X4096-6400C5C 4GB 800MHz C5 DDR2 Memory Kit

I went to Corsair's site first, to make sure it was tested as compatible with my motherboard and I've run MemTest for four hours or so with no errors. The BSODs didn't start immediately with the new RAM, they started four or five days later. Just so I know, is there anything I need to do in the BIOS when installing new RAM?

Just for something to try, what's the best way to go about completely eliminating a driver from the system? Is ATI's own install/remove package sufficient, or could they be leaving old bits and pieces behind that may be causing conflicts?

Is there a way to test the GPU itself to see if it is indeed failing? I'm not getting any artefacting or anything like that.

Edit: There's one other annoyance - the keyboard isn't working properly outside of Windows - you know, when you want to choose a boot option or something like that. It's fine when Windows starts.

Edit: I just noticed something. My new RAM is supposed to run at 800Mhz, yes? Well I got this from my system information:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

There's no mention of 800Mhz in there - could that be causing this issue? As I said though, all the BSODs mentioned the ATI drivers.

**SonOfCrusader76** · August 24, 2011, 01:59 PM

I sorted out the keyboard issue anyway - for some reason, USB keyboard/mouse support was disabled in the BIOS.

**PoleCat** · August 24, 2011, 09:21 PM

Originally Posted by SonOfCrusader76

Ah crap, that's the last thing I wanted to hear!! Getting a new GPU right now isn't really on my agenda.

I've also installed some new RAM recently - I couldn't find RAM that matched my current specs, so I went ahead and bought some new Corsair RAM - 4gb DDR2. The only RAM in my system now is the Corsair: I've stored the other RAM.

Corsair TWIN2X4096-6400C5C 4GB 800MHz C5 DDR2 Memory Kit

I went to Corsair's site first, to make sure it was tested as compatible with my motherboard and I've run MemTest for four hours or so with no errors. The BSODs didn't start immediately with the new RAM, they started four or five days later. Just so I know, is there anything I need to do in the BIOS when installing new RAM?

Just for something to try, what's the best way to go about completely eliminating a driver from the system? Is ATI's own install/remove package sufficient, or could they be leaving old bits and pieces behind that may be causing conflicts?

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

There's no mention of 800Mhz in there - could that be causing this issue? As I said though, all the BSODs mentioned the ATI drivers.

Nothing you need to know in bios when upgrading ram.

As for drivers - try Driver Sweeper. Should clean out old drivers that are causing problem. Good luck.

**SonOfCrusader76** · August 25, 2011, 03:53 PM

Thanks. I noticed that I'd set the RAM to run in single channel by accident, so I popped them out and reinstalled them for Dual Channel configuration; I don't know if that could've caused the crashes or not, but I wouldn't have thought so. Ran Memtest overnight - 13 or so passes without any errors, so I don't think there's anything wrong with the RAM itself. My money is on some old remnants of drivers causing issues, so I'll try Driver Sweeper.

Edit: Updated first post with spoiler tags - sorry about that, I completely forgot about them.

**SonOfCrusader76** · August 27, 2011, 03:50 PM

As far as gaming goes, what benefits are there with Dual Channel? What are the main benefits of Dual Channel overall?

**Bolkonsky** · August 27, 2011, 11:04 PM

It uses two data channels. Basically it doubles the output of the data to the memory controller. In theory, it should vastly increase performance, and lower bottlenecking, but unfortunately, that seems to still be theoretical. Anyways, I'd advise it none-the-less.

If you are running dual channel, make sure that the RAM is running in twos. If you have colored DIMM slots, check the numbers. Usually dual channel RAM gets a RAM-stick in every other DIMM slot. If all your RAM slots are filled, don't worry. Don't run a dual channel setup with an amount of RAM sticks that is not power of two, however.

**karamazovmm** · August 28, 2011, 12:01 AM

well the memory is called Double Data Rate for some reason. In the past memory was a bottleneck, now not so much, there are other things that will hinder the performance first like the HDD.