Large variety of BSODs on XP

[GJF588]

Hello,

For a few months now I have been getting a lot of BSODs. I have attached an image that lists them all since I last reformatted (I was getting them before I did that as well). The errors are seemingly random. Some times it crashes when I am AFK and it is just idling. I have my PC on for several hours every day, some days it doesn't crash at all, but most days it crashes at least once.

My specs:
Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe
AMD Athlon XP 3200+
nVidia FX5500 AGP
1.5 GB RAM
Windows XP Professional SP3

I have already run 7 passes of memtest86+, no errors were found. Due to the large variety of causes described in the BSODs, I have no idea where to go from here. Hopefully someone can help as it's driving me insane

Thank you in advance.

 

[Mark56]

Unfortunately the .gif image is too small to read and what is needed to do an analysis is about 6 of your last minidump files. Follow this guide to post them as an attachment.

First locate your minidump files, they are usually found by clicking on your C: drive, in windows explorer, then click on Windows to view the contents. If your operating system is installed under a different drive letter then look there. They should be stored under a file called minidump.The files will have a .dmp extension.

Zip up at least 6 of the most recent files into one zip folder and save on your desktop (if there are less than five just zip up what you have).

Below the reply box click on Go Advanced. Then scroll down until you see a button, Manage Attachments. Click on that and a popup-window opens.

Click on the Browse button, find the zip folder you made earlier and doubleclick on it.

Now click on the Upload button in the popup. When done, click on the Close this window button.

Enter your message-text, then click on Submit Message.

 

[GJF588]

Unfortunately the .gif image is too small to read

It's 1727px by 1807px...

 

[Mark56]

You misunderstood, it's a big image but when I open it on screen I see all of it on one page so the writing is too small to read. I have attached what I see this end. On full zoom I can just read it, a mixed bag of errors normally indicates a RAM fault.

Nevertheless, I need to have the minidumps to properly analyse the problem not just a list of errors from Blue Screen View, it does not give enough information.

I appreciate you have run Memtest but that does miss minor errors. The best test is to run the PC on one stick at a time to see if the problem continues, if it does then try another memory stick, and so on, to test them all individually. I suspect you will find you only get errors on one of the sticks.

 

[GJF588]

I've attached an assortment of dumps that all have different bug check strings. If you want more, let me know.

 

[Mark56]

Just from those 9 minidumps I can conclude it is a hardware fault and most likely to be your RAM. Forget about using Memtest, as I said earlier it does miss minor faults and as your system up time in most of the minidumps is 3 hours plus I would suspect it is just a small glitch in one of the sticks. Follow this routine to give them a thorough test. I suspect you will only get further BSOD's with one of the sticks. There are other possible causes but this is by far the most likely.

Take the RAM sticks out and clean the contacts with a soft pencil eraser and then blow out the RAM slots with a can of compressed air. Push the sticks back in and out a few times. Test the system for any improvements and then if it still freezes/crashes run the PC on one stick at a time while running videos or anything that uses a lot of memory. If the freeze/crash still occurs then swap the sticks so you test each one individually.

 

[GJF588]

Thanks for your help, I'll do that and see how it goes over the next couple of days. I really hope it's just a dust problem as I don't want to have to be buying replacement RAM for such an old system. If not, I hope it's one of the 8 year old 256MB sticks and not the 4 year old 1GB stick. I think I could get by on 1.25GB, but not 512MB We'll see.

 

[Mark56]

Let us know how it goes and if you do need to replace any sticks I would go for one of the big names like Kingston who guarantee their sticks for life.

 

[GJF588]

All the RAM is Corsair - 2x256MB TWINX matched pair and 1GB Value Select. Do you happen to know what Corsair's warranty was on these products back in 2004 and 2007 respectively? Was it a lifetime one back then?

 

[Mark56]

I honestly don't know you would have to look it up on the manufacturers site. I think lifetime guarantees on RAM is a fairly recent thing.

 

[GJF588]

I think lifetime guarantees on RAM is a fairly recent thing.

Yeah, that's what I would guess also. Anyway, I will follow your advice, see what results I get and then proceed from there