Memory problem? BSOD in Win7 install (IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL)

Dear all,

 

Never had any problems with WinXP. Tried to upgrade to Win7 64bit and during install I already get BSODs. Removed all memory modules and install could finish, but still occasionally get BSODs.

 

I have Corsair CM2X1024-6400 XMS6405v5.1 memory modules with an Asus P5N-E SLI motherboard (came bundled as these modules were recommended for the P5N-E).

 

I have set all BIOS settings to whatever others have recommended in the past for this mainboard, but still the BSODs occur. Here's the result of the CPU-Z validator:

http://valid.canardpc.com/show_oc.php?id=2041611

 

Below the results of CPU-Z memory and SPD Slots (each slot same module and results).

 

What may be the cause of this issue?

 

I have also tried replacing memory with other modules, and I have tried using the default settings in the BIOS... no results :(

 

If there could be a way to get it back to stable like it is with XP (my XP drive still works, and is stable, but for several reasons I now really need to switch to Win7)...

 

Response much appreciated!

 

Regards,

 

Nika.

To quote Microsoft:

"This Stop message indicates that a kernel-mode process or driver attempted to access a memory address to which it did not have permission to access. The most common cause of this error is an incorrect or corrupted pointer that references an incorrect location in memory. A pointer is a variable used by a program to refer to a block of memory. If the variable has an incorrect value in it, the program tries to access memory that it should not. When this occurs in a user-mode application, it generates an access violation. When it occurs in kernel mode, it generates a STOP 0x0000000A message. If you encounter this error while upgrading to a newer version of Windows, it might be caused by a device driver, a system service, a virus scanner, or a backup tool that is incompatible with the new version."

 

 

It is almost certain these bsods are due to out of date/incompatible drivers that Win 7 doesn't like. Look at the C:\Windows\minidump files; it should tell you what part of the system files or device drivers is causing the problem. The blue screen should also tell you what is causing it. A very useful piece of freeware for analysing bsods is BlueScreenView - helped me enormously.

 

I had this problem when I built my current computer and it turned out to be an out-of-date tv card driver. My solution was to:

1) Ensure the video card drivers were up-to-date.

2) Remove all accessory cards and their drivers

3) Download current drivers for accessory cards

4) Install accessory cards one at a time and install new drivers

5) Check operation; if no blue screen, move onto next accessory card.

6) if you are using old cards (graphics or whatever) that new drivers are not available (i.e. predate Win 7), consider upgrading to a current card.

 

Hope that helps

Should also say make sure your mobo chipset drivers and BIOS are upto date too - check the manufacturer's website.

A very useful piece of freeware for analysing bsods is BlueScreenView - helped me enormously.

I have used that before as well and can attest to it's helpfulness. Great little piece of software!

First off all, thanks a lot for your replies, very useful! Here's my response:

 

To quote Microsoft:

"This Stop message indicates that a kernel-mode process or driver attempted to access a memory address to which it did not have permission to access. The most common cause of this error is an incorrect or corrupted pointer that references an incorrect location in memory. A pointer is a variable used by a program to refer to a block of memory. If the variable has an incorrect value in it, the program tries to access memory that it should not. When this occurs in a user-mode application, it generates an access violation. When it occurs in kernel mode, it generates a STOP 0x0000000A message. If you encounter this error while upgrading to a newer version of Windows, it might be caused by a device driver, a system service, a virus scanner, or a backup tool that is incompatible with the new version."

 

Correct... but it already crashes at install of Win7, so we can rule out virusscanner, backup, device drivers, etc., as they are default Win7. And after using only one DIMM I was able to install, upgrade drivers and run windowsupdate (only SP1 upgrade fails), so old drivers, etc., seem to be ruled out too. Last but not least I also disconnected all hardware (the exact steps you mentioned!) except the screen, keyboard and mouse, and still have the issue.

 

It is almost certain these bsods are due to out of date/incompatible drivers that Win 7 doesn't like. Look at the C:\Windows\minidump files; it should tell you what part of the system files or device drivers is causing the problem. The blue screen should also tell you what is causing it. A very useful piece of freeware for analysing bsods is BlueScreenView - helped me enormously.

 

Superb, thanks. Attached is the results... even though I much appreciate the tool, it doesn't give me something that actually tells me what is causing the problem (other than ntoskrnl.exe+705c0).

 

Should also say make sure your mobo chipset drivers and BIOS are upto date too - check the manufacturer's website.

 

Latest BIOS is installed and as it already crashes @ install we can kindoff rule out chipset. Nevertheless, see above answer about drivers too :)

 

So unless someone can tell me more about the crashdumps I am stuck again. I will however analyse all Google results the BlueScreenView tool returns based on the crashdumps...

 

By the way, I tried also changing the timings to 4/4/4/13 and trc=15 (other than the default 5/5/5/18 and trc=22 or the 5/5/5/12 and trc=18 mentioned in other threads) but that makes it crash @ SP1 install too... it does seem more stable since changing it to 4/4/4/13...

Crashdump+BlueScreenView-results.zip

Chipset drivers for that board aren't listed on the Asus site for Windows 7; but they are available at NVidia for the 650i sli boards:

 

http://www.nvidia.com/object/nforce-vista-win7-64bit-15.57-driver.html

 

According to your crashdump, Ntfs.sys is the driver that crashed. You should try to run error checking on that drive first with a single stick of ram at 5-5-5-18 and 1.92 volts (the closest available memory voltage setting according to that board's manual, pg.2-24). Then install the Nvidia chipset driver package

with a single stick. Hopefully, this will fix the issues you're having and allow you to add RAM in dual channel mode. Good luck.

Chipset drivers for that board aren't listed on the Asus site for Windows 7; but they are available at NVidia for the 650i sli boards:

 

http://www.nvidia.com/object/nforce-vista-win7-64bit-15.57-driver.html

 

According to your crashdump, Ntfs.sys is the driver that crashed. You should try to run error checking on that drive first with a single stick of ram at 5-5-5-18 and 1.92 volts (the closest available memory voltage setting according to that board's manual, pg.2-24). Then install the Nvidia chipset driver package

with a single stick. Hopefully, this will fix the issues you're having and allow you to add RAM in dual channel mode. Good luck.

 

Hi Garvin,

 

I'll try the new nforce driver asap. With regards to the ntfs.sys, that was just one of the crashdumps and coincidentally the only one. All others (see attached and the BlueScreenView results) were caused by ntoskrnl.exe+705c0. I have reformatted several different drives (at least 3 different ones!), both on IDE and SATA ports to rule out a drive problem.

 

Regards,

 

Nika.

crashdumps.zip

I doubt it's a drive problem either. I still suspect chipset drivers. Part of that chipset driver package is for the memory controller that runs the northbridge on that board. Corruption seems to be getting onto your hard drive causing Ntfs.sys and/or ntoskrnl.exe to crash the system. Synch problems in dual channel mode due to incorrect chipset drivers can cause this kind of corruption showing up on the hard drive. You might also want to run memtest on the Ram; though the fact that the system runs Xp fine would tend to make me think it's not the RAM. Sometimes a not fully seated or defective SATA drive cable can cause the corruption as well.

I doubt it's a drive problem either. I still suspect chipset drivers. Part of that chipset driver package is for the memory controller that runs the northbridge on that board. Corruption seems to be getting onto your hard drive causing Ntfs.sys and/or ntoskrnl.exe to crash the system. Synch problems in dual channel mode due to incorrect chipset drivers can cause this kind of corruption showing up on the hard drive. You might also want to run memtest on the Ram; though the fact that the system runs Xp fine would tend to make me think it's not the RAM. Sometimes a not fully seated or defective SATA drive cable can cause the corruption as well.

 

New chipset driver (with 1 stick): same problem

Memory voltage = 1.92: same problem

Check drives: same problem

 

I wish I knew what part of the hardware to replace as it seems to me there's somekind of hardware failure, but replacing all (MB, RAM, CPU, PSU) is a bit much...

Would you have another video card to try. Seems that the 5770's aren't playing nice with Windows 7 and alot of different motherboards (including yours).

 

http://forums.amd.com/game/messageview.cfm?catid=260&threadid=121063

 

Might be a wondrous Ati driver issue leading to the crashes.

I'm quite sure I tried that already, but will definitely try again. Thanks for pointing that out. Memtest 4.2 has been running for 12 1/2 hours now and all seems ok... Although I have started loving Win7 in many respects (running on other machines) for this issue I really hate it :D:

Nope... had my first BSOD again with the old Asus card... :(

What I really do not understand is that it mostly "randomly" reboots, but that it's fully reproducible when running the Win7 SP1 installer.

 

Graphics card = Nvidia Geforce 7600 GT

 

Will try to install the latest Nvidia Geforce 280.26 driver too, as it is now using the WDDM drivers from Microsoft...

 

Or should I try the 285.38 beta driver... tough decisions :)

I'd go with the 280.26 drivers. Adding in Beta drivers while trouble shooting could lead to more issues making it more difficult to sort out the root cause. Another thing you should try is running sfc/scannow as an administrator. As long as you have you're original Windows 7 install disk, it will check for damaged critical Windows file and replace them with clean copies. Instructions:

 

http://captaindbg.com/sfc-scannow-to-repair-windows-7-files/

Thanks Garvin, your answers are much appreciated. I have currently chosen another path, where I am slipstreaming SP1 into Win7 install so I will try to install Win7 with SP1 at once and will hopefully have a more stable system with SP1 installed (installing SP1 manually always makes it crash now, so I have no way of installing it other than slipstreaming it)... Will keep you posted with my next results.

Sounds good. On a side note though, I'd temporarily remove that sound card before trying to reinstall Windows 7. I've seen to many cases where the presence of a sound card during a Windows install has fubared something. Whereas installing one seperately after the operating system and service pack is installed goes smooth. Just a thought, good luck.

Thanks again... I'll remove all hardware before install, and just keep the bare minimum (1 GB, video, lcd, keyboard and mouse :))

Btw, for whomever reads this thread in the future, I am using RT Seven Lite 2.6.0 beta to slipstream SP1 into Win7 install...

Still nothing, BSOD while installing. I have really removed everything I could, even disconnected all USB connectors from the mainboard to make sure there's no short circuit in them or something like that...

 

Only thing I can still think off is to streamline the drivers for the Chipset, SATA and IDE controllers, but according to the Asus website there's only an Audio driver (which I disabled from the BIOS).

 

I guess I'll need the following drivers:

 

Chipset Northbridge: NVIDIA nForce 650i SLI (C55)

Chipset Southbridge: NVIDIA nForce 430i (MCP 51)

SATA/RAID: JMicron JMB36X

Audio: Realtek ALC883

LAN: Marvell 88E1116 PHY Gigabit

 

Let the search begin :)

 

Regards,

 

Nika.

Well... that didn't work either... must be some failure in either my Mainboard or the CPU... will start to replace the Mainboard - any suggestions on which to get keeping the old CPU & RAM (socket 775 / DDR2)?

This looks like good a good price/value:

http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?Model=P5B-DE

Don't know much about that Asrock (didn't find any pro reviews). However, in my opinion, An Asus P5Q Pro Turbo is the way to go. Built two Windows 7 64bit systems with Q6600's on the board (one for a hardcore gamer) and both have been rock stable and fast for the last two years. Corsair also lists the Ram you own now as compatible with the board. A Review:

 

http://hardwarelogic.com/articles.php?id=5575

Thanks Garvin, ordered the Asrock yesterday as I can't wait to get the system working (and is half the price of the Asus)... will post results when it's fixed :)

Yup, works fine now - 4 GB RAM, quad core 2.4 GHz CPU on an Asrock mainboard... Boot from USB has some issue but installing with 2nd drive is fine and runs without BSOD's... thanks again for your help!!!

That's good to hear.