Blue Screening due to failing RAM?

[tom888]

Hi, my computer has been blue screening for a a good few months now, and i'm at the point where it's happening daily.
I ran a 'mdsched.exe' test which suggests i have a problem with my hardware. I actually thought it was down to my SSD so i bought and have fitted a new one and removed the old entirely but it hasn't done anything.

Typical bsod errors include Memory_Management & Faulty_Hardware_Corrupted_Page though i'm sure i've had more.

I'm lead to believe it could be RAM related but i'm unable to test it with Memtest86 because i've faffed on with my USB stick and can't open it because i think i've changed it to a boot drive or something, i could just be making that up (though i could open it yesterday and actually put Memtest on).

Long story short, do these symptoms sound like it could be RAM related? I think i have like 3 sticks of it on my motherboard, could i simply take one out methodically and see if that fixes anything?

Cheers.

 

[PC Tailor]

Yes you can take all of them out and re-input one at a time. Then retest with one module in and see if the problem reoccurs, then swap out with each stick of RAM after you've confirmed the error has not returned. You may find one module of RAM is the culprit, if each stick of RAM has been tested and the problem is still occurring, repeat the process but in a different RAM slot (your Mobo manual should tell you which RAM slot to use first). So in short, only keep 1 module of RAM in at any one time, and gradually swap until the problem reoccurs.

Memory Management is typically a RAM error and can cause lots of BSOD.

Also you don't NECESSARILY need to run MemTest specifically, it is more advanced, but if you can't run it for whatever reason, run Windows memory diagnostic from your start menu (assuming you're on windows of course)

 

[tom888]

Yeh i have ran the windows memory diagnostic which did say there were hardware errors, for some reason i assumed those errors were due to my SSD. I'll try using one module of RAM and swap accordingly as suggested and see where we're at, thanks.

 

[PC Tailor]

Yeh i have ran the windows memory diagnostic which did say there were hardware errors, for some reason i assumed those errors were due to my SSD. I'll try using one module of RAM and swap accordingly as suggested and see where we're at, thanks.

Yes if memory diagnostic has pulled out errors, at least one of your RAM modules or slots will be the culprit. Swap each one out and either use for a period of time or rerun the memory diagnostic. Also how your RAM modules are configured may also cause a problem.

I.e. if you have configured different speeds / types of RAM in the same channel, it can sometimes causes memory management errors.

Edit: Windows Memory Diagnostic is used to test your RAM, not your HDD. There are other tools suited to check HDD/SSD health

 

[tom888]

I took out 1 of 3 modules, performed the mdsched.exe and "no memory errors were detected". A big thanks for the quick response.