Windows 7 Source of BSOD hunting time...

[Mr. Orange]

right, you guys know.. earlier today i achieved 3.6Ghz on my E8200 rock solid stable... (apparently)
Now, I get BSODs about (and have been for a while, well ages now)

SYSTEM_SERVICE_EXCEPTION

MEMORY_MANAGEMENT
and to be honest, I did get the Windows Stop Hardware Fault Error, but that was because of my Graphics card overclock :D (But now i've reverted back to default settings).
Ok, so I put my Computer back to stock settings (cleared CMOS) and booted into Windows 7, load up TF2, and I still get Either one of 2 BSODs mentioned above.. It's really frustrating... Fresh installed Windows 7 RC1 x64 recently...

My Rig:
- Intel Core 2 Duo E8200
- 2x2Gb Corsair Dominator Twin2x4096 PC2-8500C5D 1066Mhz RAM
- DFI DK-X48 T2RS x48 Motherboard
- Palit nVidia GeForce 9600GT with Arctic Cooling Accelero v2
- Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Gamer Sound Card
- Antec 900 Ultimate Gamer Case v1
- Thermaltake V1 All Copper CPU Cooler
- Sony DRU-860S DVD+/-RW Drive
- Jeantech Storm 700W Power Supply
RAID 0
- Hitatchi Deskstar 250Gb
- Western Digital Caviar Blue 250Gb

Hmm.. I'm thinking it could be my RAID... using 2 different types of HDD?
I'll take the Hitachi Deskstar out, and just use the Western Digital Caviar Blue, I'll do that now :D

any other ideas of what could be causing it?

[cjmUK]

STOP errors in Windows 7 and Vista are incredibly rare. The two most obvious causes are dodgy drivers and intermittent hardware faults.

Have you upgraded any hardware or the drivers for existing hardware? Has Windows Update updated anything relevant? Does you kit pass the W7 compatibility tests?

There is a possibility that your O/Cing has strained in atem of hardware, but not quite to the point of outright failure. You might have a leaky capacitor or something else that only manifests itself under load or at a certain temp...

A fresh install of W7 might indicate one way or another.... I know, it's frustrating having to rebuild so soon after having already done so...

[system7]

Indeed, memory management is specifically mentioned in the BSOD.

You are pushing memory too hard.

[cjmUK]

I wouldn't necessarily take the content of the STOP error as being an indicator of the real problem - I remember in Win 3.x a 'Out Of Memory Error' indicated *anything* but a lack of available memory!

However, help is on hand! It's hard to diagnose many subtle hardware problems, but Memtest86+ (http://www.memtest.org/) will have a capable stab at checking your memory. If you can afford the time (can you afford no to?), remove all but one stick and run the test for several passes (read several hours, preferably overnight), then rinse and repeat for the remaining stick. If it finds nothing, then test in pairs - if that finds nothing, the problem likely lies elsewhere.

[Mr. Orange]

hmmm.. ok, as some of you may have seen, I'm planning on selling my Rig..
so my plan of action is to take it apart, clean it completely, put it back together with everything i'd sell it as, get my RAM running at DDR2 1066 5-5-5-15 2.1v (The settings my RAM is rated to run at) and do a 12+ Hour Memtest.

[system7]

Two dissimilar hard drives in RAID sounds awkward. It's an old chestnut that running memory at DDR2-1066 with a CPU at 266MHZ is asking for instability, regardless what you think the memory is capable of. This is a North Bridge issue and Intel default is usually DDR2-667 speed with that CPU. I don't suppose the memory needs more than 1.8V at default speeds. For all that, if it's crashed, some file may have got corrupted.

[cjmUK]

It's an old chestnut that running memory at DDR2-1066 with a CPU at 266MHZ is asking for instability, regardless what you think the memory is capable of. This is a North Bridge issue and Intel default is usually DDR2-667 speed with that CPU. .

I have a Q6600 (266Mhz) running with 8 x 1066Mhz RAM @2.1V (which is normal for this type of memory), and it runs fine at the standard 2:1 divider. However if I want to overclock by anything more than a modest amount, I will suffer from instability (STOP errors specifically), so I'd have to lower to a 1:1 divider (533MHz) to o/c further.

In the OPs case, the E8200 has a multiplier of 8 and a core speed of 333Mhz (=2664Mhz). So there is every likelihood, that he will have to have to change the memory divider to 1:1 (667MHz) also.

However, at stock (which is what the OP reverted to) there is absolutely no problem running his RAM at the full 1066MHz (assuming his mobo can handle such speeds - which I expect is the case).

[system7]

Quite right, cjmuk. I'd forgotten it's a 333MHz CPU. Probably defaults to DDR2-800. :thumbs:

[Mr. Orange]

Quite right, cjmuk. I'd forgotten it's a 333MHz CPU. Probably defaults to DDR2-800. :thumbs:

It does :)

I'll just leave it at stock.. i won't touch 'Genie BIOS'