# RAM Causing PC to Crash



## bel_ami_boy (Apr 1, 2005)

I am experiencing a problem with my PC where it will suddenly crash and reboot itself. It only does this during memory intensive activities such as playing an RTS game or compressing/ripping DVDs. 

I’ve changed the settings in XP to enable it to give me a ‘blue screen of death’ instead of simply rebooting itself without telling me what’s wrong. The error code is 

*** STOP: 0x00000007F (0x00000008, 0x80042000, 0x00000000, 0x00000000)

When I’ve rebooted the PC and XP asks me if I want to send the error log to Microsoft I’ve said “yes”. Microsoft’s analysis of the error log said “Your system crashed because the random access memory containing Windows program code was corrupted. Microsoft is unable to determine if this corruption was caused by a hardware or software issue. The nature of the corruption suggests that a hardware issue is more likely.”

I downloaded and ran the Microsoft memory diagnostic program. My RAM passed all the diagnostic tests. I’ve searched the Microsoft Knowledgebase for this error code but everything I’ve found hasn’t been of any help in narrowing down what the problem might be.

I also tried Memtest86 memory diagnostic program and this identified that there WAS a problem during test 5. When I tested the 512mb and 256mb independently they passed all the tests but together they keep failing.

I’ve looked in Device Manager to check for any conflicts and there are none.

A colleague at work suggested I ran RegClean 4.1. (This is a Microsoft registry cleaner utility that 'cleans' your registry). I did this and it hasn't made any difference.

Does anybody have any idea why my PC is doing this and how I can fix it? I’d be really grateful for any help.

I'm really tempted to just buy a 1gb DIMM and forget the other two, but this would be expensive if it too doesn't work properly.

My PC spec is: 
Windows XP with SP1
Pentium 4, 2.4Ghz processor
P4S8X ATX Motherboard
768mb DDR333 PC2700 RAM (consisting of 512mb RAM and 256mb RAM)
80Gb Maxtor HDD (7200RPM) 
1.44Mb 3.5” Floppy Disk
Teac CD-W548E IDE CD Re-Writer
Samsung TS-H552B IDE DVD Re-Writer
128Mb Nvidia Geforce4 Ti4200 Graphics Card
Creative Sound Blaster Audigy Sound Card


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## dai (Jul 2, 2004)

whenever you list your specs always include the power supply,it is one of the most important specs
http://support.microsoft.com/Default.aspx?kbid=137539&sd=RMVP


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## bel_ami_boy (Apr 1, 2005)

Forgive my ignorance but what exactly do you need to know about the power supply? The label on the side says 'ATX 12v'. Is that any help?


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## myquitehead (Jun 24, 2005)

Usually you want to know the Wattage


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## dai (Jul 2, 2004)

the brand and the wattage
try running the comp with only one stick of ram


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## bel_ami_boy (Apr 1, 2005)

Brand - Mesh Computers plc (these are a PC assembler in the UK)
Model - HPC-360-202
Voltage - 340w Maximum
Current - 21.1w Maximum
Frequency - 360w Total

Running the PC on one DIMM doesn't cause any ill effects at all which is what I've had to do at the moment. While this is a workaround it does prevent me from upgrading the memory. :sad: 

Any advice would be appreciated.


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## dai (Jul 2, 2004)

i would recommend a larger power supply,but check they do not use a propriatary supply in their builds
try a matched pair in the ram


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