Suddenly getting BSOD

[Hi Ho]

I did a BIOS update yesterday that was supposed to fix the problem with my motherboard taking 20+ seconds to finish POST. Well, it certainly boots a lot faster now but I have gotten three BSOD's today! I don't know what they said because they didn't stay on long enough for me to read. I have never seen a BSOD on this machine. I do recall having issues with random hard freezes when I first built it but I solved that by manually setting the RAM timings anf frequencies in the BIOS. The BIOS update cleared all of the settings but I have reset all of the ram timings. I know I set the timings before (7-7-7-20) but I don't remember what I did with the frequency/voltage settings. When I change the frequency from the default 1333mhz to 1600mhz (spec) I get a pop up asking if I would like the motherboard to automatically adjust voltage. I said yes. Could this be the problem? The voltage says it's at 1.7 and the Mushkin website says the operating range is 1.85-1.95v. Should I force the voltage to 1.85?

The event manager shows one error:

The computer has rebooted from a bugcheck. The bugcheck was: 0x0000003b (0x00000000c0000005, 0xfffff960001b8340, 0xfffff8800a245fd0, 0x0000000000000000). A dump was saved in: C:\Windows\MEMORY.DMP. Report Id: 122710-9500-01.

The first two times this happened I was not at the computer. I was in another room and my music stopped and I came back just in time to see a blue screen disapear.

This last time I wasn't playing music, just browsing the web, and the screen went black and then the blue screen message popped up for a couple seconds and it rebooted.

I have now disabled the automatic reboot on error in the control panel so maybe I can get a picture of the error message when it does it again.

Any ideas?

UPDATE: I was able to dig up my old thread:

The upgrade bug...

Judging by what I wrote, it appears that I have been running my RAM at 1333mhz all this time. I just set it back to auto in the BIOS (1333) and I'm pretty sure that will solve the problem but how much of a performance impact does this have? The RAM is supposed to run at 1600mhz. Why does it default to 1333mhz and why does it not work when the voltage is set to the operating range as per the Mushkin site?

[glc]

From that thread:

A tip - with the P55, unless you are going to be overclocking, all you need is DDR3-1333, that's as fast as it can run at stock speeds.

If you brought this machine to me for repair, I'd be selling you different ram. I'd be putting DDR3-1333 1.5 volt ram in it.

Newegg.com - Crucial 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Desktop Memory Model CT2KIT51264BA1339

I think you are getting too hung up on ram speed and timings. You bought high performance high voltage ram, and you just aren't going to get absolute stability with it. Manually set it to 1333 speed and 7-7-7-20 timings, and leave the voltage at auto. You will never notice a performance difference.

The 0x0000003B error is a hardware issue - probably your ram flaking out.

[Hi Ho]

All I want is a stable system. It has worked just fine over the past year. If there is not a noticable performance advantage then I don't care if it runs at 1333mhz. I'm almost positive that my mistake yesterday after doing the BIOS update was changing the frequency to 1600mhz. I have changed it back to auto and I don't expect to have anymore problems. It's been over an hour since I did that and I have not experienced a BSOD.

When I built this system I chose the RAM based on the ASUS QVL. At the time, the Mushkin was the best value. No one told me not to get the RAM. I don't plan on overclocking. If it runs fine at 1333 and 7-7-7-20 like it has for the past year then why should I replace it? I just read the complete thread and I see where you mentioned the 1333mhz max. I had just skipped to the part where I had the problem when I read the thread earlier.

[SokaRakos]

Yeah, you have some RAM compatibility issues

[Hi Ho]

So, GLC, do you think my RAM has issues? I didn't have a problem after changing the settings what you recommended (and the way they were for the past year) until today when I was doing some video encoding with Handbrake. I came back to see my screen blank but the monitor backlight on and the PC would not respond to anything. I did a hard reset and the same bugcheck error showed up in the event viewer. I did some Googling and found someone that had a similar problem and solved it by reinstalling the ATI driver. I uninstalled the driver and used Driver Sweeper and reinstalled but the problem just occurred again. I had Handbrake encoding a video and I was streaming video from this PC to my laptop in another room when the video stream froze. I came in here to find the PC in the same state as before with a blank screen.

I ran MemTest86 last week overnight and found no errors. This RAM has a lifetime warranty so if it is really flaking out I will get it exchanged.

Any other ideas? This seems to be too conveniently coincidental with the BIOS update to be failing RAM. This machine was completely rock solid for a full year before I did the BIOS update.

[glc]

Try slowing the ram down even more - try 1333 and 9-9-9-24.

[Hi Ho]

OK so this BIOS update seems to have changed something in regards to RAM compatibility? As I said above, the settings (7-7-7-20, 1333mhz) is what I used for a full year without a single issue and now suddenly they don't work?

I thought the problem went away. I didn't change any RAM settings. I encoded some video the other night and had no problems. My machine was up for 12 days straight. This morning I was listening to music using the Zune software and it froze with the sound stuck in a repeating loop. No blue screen, just black.

I booted into the BIOS and changed the timings to 9-9-9-24 and started the music again. Less than 10 minutes later it did the same thing! I now have the timings back to 7-7-7-20 and it has been on for 20 minutes.

This is very frustrating, and to top it off, the BIOS still takes forever to POST. It was much faster for a few days but now it sits on the Asus screen for almost 20 seconds before loading Windows. If I press TAB to see what it's doing it says it's detecting AHCI Port 4 which I belive is my DVD drive.

[glc]

You may have a bad drive.

[Hi Ho]

That wouldn't cause the BSOD would it? That makes no sense to me. It happened again. It's becoming more and more frequent. Do you think I have dying RAM? I can't have my PC freezing on me when I'm doing recordings.

[Hufigyed]

I have the same ram and the same board. In order to get the ram stable I have it at 1600Mhz 7-7-7-20 and my DRAM Voltage @ 1.9 and my IMC Voltage at 1.4 (you must keep your IMC within .5volts of your DRAM).

These settings were per Mushkin's recommendation.

[Hi Ho]

When you changed your DRAM voltage did it turn red? What does that mean? That's what it does when I put it above 1.5v.

EDIT: I just changed it to those settings. So far so good, though it has only been a couple minutes. Before, when I changed the DRAM voltage I did not change the IMC voltage and it would fail instantly.

I will try playing Zune and encoding video for a while and see what happens. I find it very odd that I can play a video game for hours with no issue but playing music causes issues.

[Hufigyed]

Mine tuns red as well, I think it's just to warn you that you're out of Intel's spec.

Yeah weird things caused mine to BSOD as well, running prime95 or f@h continuously never caused a crash but watching Hulu would.

[Hi Ho]

It has been encoding video and playing music for 2.5 hours now. I never got that far before. Hopefully this is the answer. Thanks!

[Hi Ho]

I encoded video for four hours and let music play all night and everything is fine. I guess the BIOS update changed the ideal RAM settings. I'll have to make note of those settings. Thanks again.

[Hi Ho]

Hey... I'm back in this old thread. I thought this problem was dead and gone but it is still happening! Today I was rendering a video in Vegas and my screen just went black then the PC rebooted (reboot on error is unchecked). On a side note, Firefox lost all cookies so every website is now as if I have never visited. I am about ready to break down and buy new RAM. Should I just go ahead and do that? Exactly what RAM would you recommend?

[glc]

I would buy DDR3-1333 ram that runs at 1.5 volts from Corsair, Crucial, Kingston, or A-Data.

[Hi Ho]

I just discovered that there is another BIOS update for my motherboard and applied it tonight. It didn't erase all of my settings this time. It says "Improves RAM Compatibility" and "Improves System Stability". I'll see what happens. If I still have issues I will give in and buy new RAM.

It is frustrating. I tried to follow all of the guidelines. I bought RAM that is on the QVL. What gives?

[jdeb]

Change the ram as GLC recommended