Issues with ram

[niroshido]

So back in 2007 i bought a Dell XPS710. At the time it had a max of 2GB of ram operating at 800MHZ DDR2 (from samsung). The graphics card were 2 * geforce 8600GT's and a soundblaster x-fi sound card. The mobo is foxconn ITX factor making it unreplaceable and thusly forcing me to hate anything DELL would ever do after that .

So i think it was 2 years ago i made the upgrade from Windows XP to windows 7 64Bit and needless to say the 2GB of ram wouldn't cut it, luckily though i have 1GB (2 * 512) and the pc worked good but it was eating up around 60% of memory usage doing some regular work like loading firefox, so i decided to upgrade again, unable to afford a brand new pc and unable to shove a hammer through that precious metal case. I went to crucials website and downloaded an app that said corsairs DDR2 667MHZ ram was for me and i went off and bought it. So now i have 4GB of their ram in the machine, after 2 blue screens of death, a memory test, removing the old ram just and switching ram positions i find that the sound crackles and pops or simply does not work after ten minutes, but at least the blue screen doesn't appear. While the blue screens were up i wrote down the issue
"technical information
***STOP:0X0000007E(0XFFFFFFFFC0000005, 0XFFFFF88000F0142D, 0XFFFFF8800BD088,0XFFFFF880033BC8E0

***wdf01000.sys- address FFFFF88000F0142D base at FFFFF88000EC7000"

so as mentioned the is a total of 5GB of ram in my system as of now 4GB from crucial (just bought) at 667MHZ, 2 old 512MB ram PC2-5300. The pc still has the sound blaster X-FI and a single Asus 440GT geforce card in. Sound wont work but pc seems to load. any assistance would be nice, i would prefer to not have to get rid of the ram or buy new stuff as a result of it.
Also i would like to add, since this is a DELL the pc is designed to not be overclocked and i dont believe any changes can be made to the bios. thanks in advance

 

[neieus]

You will need to download a bluescreen dump viewer and paste the details from that. Unfortunately what you copied down isn't the entire error description.

 

[bmwmaniac]

If I were you I would try the below:

1- Update all the drivers.
2- Make sure all hardware components are well connected and in place.
3- Try the computer with different RAM configurations, meaning try out all the RAMs one by one or two by two, in order to check which one, if any, is causing the BSOD.

Let me know how that goes in order to be of further assistance.

So back in 2007 i bought a Dell XPS710. At the time it had a max of 2GB of ram operating at 800MHZ DDR2 (from samsung). The graphics card were 2 * geforce 8600GT's and a soundblaster x-fi sound card. The mobo is foxconn ITX factor making it unreplaceable and thusly forcing me to hate anything DELL would ever do after that .

So i think it was 2 years ago i made the upgrade from Windows XP to windows 7 64Bit and needless to say the 2GB of ram wouldn't cut it, luckily though i have 1GB (2 * 512) and the pc worked good but it was eating up around 60% of memory usage doing some regular work like loading firefox, so i decided to upgrade again, unable to afford a brand new pc and unable to shove a hammer through that precious metal case. I went to crucials website and downloaded an app that said corsairs DDR2 667MHZ ram was for me and i went off and bought it. So now i have 4GB of their ram in the machine, after 2 blue screens of death, a memory test, removing the old ram just and switching ram positions i find that the sound crackles and pops or simply does not work after ten minutes, but at least the blue screen doesn't appear. While the blue screens were up i wrote down the issue
"technical information
***STOP:0X0000007E(0XFFFFFFFFC0000005, 0XFFFFF88000F0142D, 0XFFFFF8800BD088,0XFFFFF880033BC8E0

***wdf01000.sys- address FFFFF88000F0142D base at FFFFF88000EC7000"

so as mentioned the is a total of 5GB of ram in my system as of now 4GB from crucial (just bought) at 667MHZ, 2 old 512MB ram PC2-5300. The pc still has the sound blaster X-FI and a single Asus 440GT geforce card in. Sound wont work but pc seems to load. any assistance would be nice, i would prefer to not have to get rid of the ram or buy new stuff as a result of it.
Also i would like to add, since this is a DELL the pc is designed to not be overclocked and i dont believe any changes can be made to the bios. thanks in advance

 

[niroshido]

unfortunatly the BSOD message no longer appears, i took out the 4gb of ram, the system works on the 3GB, including sound

the BSOD appeared twice, under the following set ups (the new ram 4GB(these were in dimm slots 3 and 4 + the DELL's provided ram (2GB 2*1GB, these were in dimm slot positions 1 and 2)) this caused first BSOD

i removed the ram provided with the DELL and kept it to the 4GB of new ram (dimm slots 3 and 4), this caused the second BSOD

i moved 4GB of the new ram to dimm slots 1 and 2, pc started up sound was scratchy then stopped working, no BSOD

i inserted the ram from an older pc 2 * 512MB into slots 3 and 4 to compliment the same speed 4GB new ram in slots 1 and 2, pc started up sound was scratchy then stopped working, no BSOD

and a lastly i removed the 4GB of new ram, reinserted all the old ram into the slots and everything works as it did before new ram was put in.

Now i did some research into this, aparently this is not uncommon. From some reports some people with older generations of XPS (dell xps 600 etc) have encountered identical issues with ram, many are saying the following:
Its the rams clock speed
Its the sound card
Its the graphics card geforce 4 chipset
Its the soundcard and the graphics card
Its out of date drivers
Its the BIOS
Its the out of date driver, sound card, graphics card and BIOS
You need to flash your BIOS
Its the voltage of the ram.
Admittidly this last part (the list) sounds and is bitter
further more i have a confession to make, this isn't the first time i bought ram for this pc that didn't work, i bought ram 2 years ago when i got the new OS, it was ram that clocked 800MHZ, once again it was Crucial memory, since the 2 sticks that came with dell were also 800MHZ it seemed logical to not downgrade speeds, and like now i had experienced the exact same problems this time with the 667MHZ. When i encountered the problem i ended up going to EBAY to sell them, it took 4 months, since dabs.ie wouldn't refund ram that worked but didn't work for my pc, here actually is the email i received from dabs.ie in reply to my issue, back in 2012
"Dear ,

Apologies for the late reply, can you confirm that you checked with the manufacturer of the other components that this ram would be compatible.

We will happily exchange the item if it is faulty, however if it is simply incompatible and you have opened the packaging we would not be able to do this.

Best regards
Simon"

so needless to say i am really bitter about this. I have spent quite a bit of money replacing broken equipment yet being unable to get the money for a brand new pc, since this pc keeps shafting me.

 

[bmwmaniac]

As far as i know RAMs should be making sounds so can you please check from where the sound is coming from ? It could be your hard drive!

unfortunatly the BSOD message no longer appears, i took out the 4gb of ram, the system works on the 3GB, including sound

the BSOD appeared twice, under the following set ups (the new ram 4GB(these were in dimm slots 3 and 4 + the DELL's provided ram (2GB 2*1GB, these were in dimm slot positions 1 and 2)) this caused first BSOD

i removed the ram provided with the DELL and kept it to the 4GB of new ram (dimm slots 3 and 4), this caused the second BSOD

i moved 4GB of the new ram to dimm slots 1 and 2, pc started up sound was scratchy then stopped working, no BSOD

i inserted the ram from an older pc 2 * 512MB into slots 3 and 4 to compliment the same speed 4GB new ram in slots 1 and 2, pc started up sound was scratchy then stopped working, no BSOD

and a lastly i removed the 4GB of new ram, reinserted all the old ram into the slots and everything works as it did before new ram was put in.

Now i did some research into this, aparently this is not uncommon. From some reports some people with older generations of XPS (dell xps 600 etc) have encountered identical issues with ram, many are saying the following:
Its the rams clock speed
Its the sound card
Its the graphics card geforce 4 chipset
Its the soundcard and the graphics card
Its out of date drivers
Its the BIOS
Its the out of date driver, sound card, graphics card and BIOS
You need to flash your BIOS
Its the voltage of the ram.
Admittidly this last part (the list) sounds and is bitter
further more i have a confession to make, this isn't the first time i bought ram for this pc that didn't work, i bought ram 2 years ago when i got the new OS, it was ram that clocked 800MHZ, once again it was Crucial memory, since the 2 sticks that came with dell were also 800MHZ it seemed logical to not downgrade speeds, and like now i had experienced the exact same problems this time with the 667MHZ. When i encountered the problem i ended up going to EBAY to sell them, it took 4 months, since dabs.ie wouldn't refund ram that worked but didn't work for my pc, here actually is the email i received from dabs.ie in reply to my issue, back in 2012
"Dear ,

Apologies for the late reply, can you confirm that you checked with the manufacturer of the other components that this ram would be compatible.

We will happily exchange the item if it is faulty, however if it is simply incompatible and you have opened the packaging we would not be able to do this.

Best regards
Simon"

so needless to say i am really bitter about this. I have spent quite a bit of money replacing broken equipment yet being unable to get the money for a brand new pc, since this pc keeps shafting me.

 

[neieus]

The BSOD doesn't appear but the file that was created as a result of it will be located most likely in the following directory.

C:\Windows\Minidump

 

[niroshido]

the ram isn't making sounds and wouldn't make sounds, there is either crackling, popping or no sound coming from my headphones

 

[bmwmaniac]

Then the issue is most probably from your sound card and not the RAM.

please remove your sound card and try out your new RAMs and see what happens

the ram isn't making sounds and wouldn't make sounds, there is either crackling, popping or no sound coming from my headphones

 

[niroshido]

The BSOD doesn't appear but the file that was created as a result of it will be located most likely in the following directory.

C:\Windows\Minidump

anyway to read the contents of it, i have found the files but they are DMP files

 

[niroshido]

Just an update, i decided to re-insert the new ram (4GB), i kept the 2* 512mb ram, since they operate at same frequency. On boot (ram has changed), the sound became choppy again

I read somewhere that soundblaster x-fi cards encounter problems either with the OS or the amount of ram the exceeds 3GB (given the fact that i've had win 7 home for 2 years i am ruling this one out), on the same thread some people recommended using msconfig -> adanced settings in boot and change the max amount of memory (a check box and the numeric value of how much ram should be max, they recommended anything below 4GB, so i settled for 3990. I restarted pc, the new ram still in the machine, i booted up fine, the sound through my headphones is actually normal, i take a look at task manager and notice ram is at 3GB (while i have 5GB in the machine). So a tl;dr the amount of ram is causing an issue with the sound card.

My next step is to track down any drivers for the sound card and make adjustments to the amount of ram.

 

[neieus]

Download the program called whocrashed and it will allow you to read the dump files and you will then be able to see what exactly is being reported as the cause of the crash.

 

[niroshido]

thanks for that, here is a dump file read out
crash dump file: C:\Windows\Minidump\012814-24055-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: wdf01000.sys (Wdf01000+0x3A42D)
Bugcheck code: 0x1000007E (0xFFFFFFFFC0000005, 0xFFFFF88000F0142D, 0xFFFFF880033BD088, 0xFFFFF880033BC8E0)
Error: SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED_M
file path: C:\Windows\system32\drivers\wdf01000.sys
product: Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
company: Microsoft Corporation
description: Kernel Mode Driver Framework Runtime
Bug check description: This indicates that a system thread generated an exception which the error handler did not catch.
This appears to be a typical software driver bug and is not likely to be caused by a hardware problem.
The crash took place in a standard Microsoft module. Your system configuration may be incorrect. Possibly this problem is caused by another driver on your system that cannot be identified at this time.

 

[neieus]

thanks for that, here is a dump file read out
crash dump file: C:\Windows\Minidump\012814-24055-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: wdf01000.sys (Wdf01000+0x3A42D)
Bugcheck code: 0x1000007E (0xFFFFFFFFC0000005, 0xFFFFF88000F0142D, 0xFFFFF880033BD088, 0xFFFFF880033BC8E0)
Error: SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED_M
file path: C:\Windows\system32\drivers\wdf01000.sys
product: Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
company: Microsoft Corporation
description: Kernel Mode Driver Framework Runtime
Bug check description: This indicates that a system thread generated an exception which the error handler did not catch.
This appears to be a typical software driver bug and is not likely to be caused by a hardware problem.
The crash took place in a standard Microsoft module. Your system configuration may be incorrect. Possibly this problem is caused by another driver on your system that cannot be identified at this time.

That's one dump file but do you have any others? You're trying to look for a pattern or any similarities between all the dumps.

 

[niroshido]

Crash dumps are enabled on your computer.

On Tue 28/01/2014 11:00:52 GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:\Windows\Minidump\012814-24055-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: wdf01000.sys (Wdf01000+0x3A42D)
Bugcheck code: 0x1000007E (0xFFFFFFFFC0000005, 0xFFFFF88000F0142D, 0xFFFFF880033BD088, 0xFFFFF880033BC8E0)
Error: SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED_M
file path: C:\Windows\system32\drivers\wdf01000.sys
product: Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
company: Microsoft Corporation
description: Kernel Mode Driver Framework Runtime
Bug check description: This indicates that a system thread generated an exception which the error handler did not catch.
This appears to be a typical software driver bug and is not likely to be caused by a hardware problem.
The crash took place in a standard Microsoft module. Your system configuration may be incorrect. Possibly this problem is caused by another driver on your system that cannot be identified at this time.



On Tue 28/01/2014 11:00:52 GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:\Windows\memory.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: rzudd.sys (rzudd+0x19BF0)
Bugcheck code: 0x7E (0xFFFFFFFFC0000005, 0xFFFFF88000F0142D, 0xFFFFF880033BD088, 0xFFFFF880033BC8E0)
Error: SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED
file path: C:\Windows\system32\drivers\rzudd.sys
product: Razer Rzudd Engine
company: Razer Inc
description: Razer Rzudd Engine
Bug check description: This bug check indicates that a system thread generated an exception that the error handler did not catch.
A third party driver was identified as the probable root cause of this system error. It is suggested you look for an update for the following driver: rzudd.sys (Razer Rzudd Engine, Razer Inc).
Google query: Razer Inc SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED



On Tue 28/01/2014 10:53:23 GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:\Windows\Minidump\012814-23166-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: wdf01000.sys (Wdf01000+0x3A42D)
Bugcheck code: 0x1000007E (0xFFFFFFFFC0000005, 0xFFFFF88000F3D42D, 0xFFFFF880033BD088, 0xFFFFF880033BC8E0)
Error: SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED_M
file path: C:\Windows\system32\drivers\wdf01000.sys
product: Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
company: Microsoft Corporation
description: Kernel Mode Driver Framework Runtime
Bug check description: This indicates that a system thread generated an exception which the error handler did not catch.
This appears to be a typical software driver bug and is not likely to be caused by a hardware problem.
The crash took place in a standard Microsoft module. Your system configuration may be incorrect. Possibly this problem is caused by another driver on your system that cannot be identified at this time.



On Tue 28/01/2014 10:49:26 GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:\Windows\Minidump\012814-26816-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: wdf01000.sys (Wdf01000+0x3A42D)
Bugcheck code: 0x1000007E (0xFFFFFFFFC0000005, 0xFFFFF88000EE942D, 0xFFFFF880035C4088, 0xFFFFF880035C38E0)
Error: SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED_M
file path: C:\Windows\system32\drivers\wdf01000.sys
product: Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
company: Microsoft Corporation
description: Kernel Mode Driver Framework Runtime
Bug check description: This indicates that a system thread generated an exception which the error handler did not catch.
This appears to be a typical software driver bug and is not likely to be caused by a hardware problem.
The crash took place in a standard Microsoft module. Your system configuration may be incorrect. Possibly this problem is caused by another driver on your system that cannot be identified at this time.

 

[neieus]

Looking at the errors and a search online I think you have a Razer keyboard and that might be the problem. My suggestion would be to unplug that keyboard and if you have a spare keyboard laying around insert that one so you can uninstall the Razer drivers. Reboot the machine but instead of continue trying to do your gaming or whatever using the spare keyboard. My search suggest that the Razer driver provided through Windows could be at fault.

 

[niroshido]

Looking at the errors and a search online I think you have a Razer keyboard and that might be the problem. My suggestion would be to unplug that keyboard and if you have a spare keyboard laying around insert that one so you can uninstall the Razer drivers. Reboot the machine but instead of continue trying to do your gaming or whatever using the spare keyboard. My search suggest that the Razer driver provided through Windows could be at fault.

I have a razer mouse - Razer Ouroboros. However i must ask, how could the mouse be causing an issue with sound when i have over 4gb of ram ?

 

[neieus]

The problem might not be the RAM itself but the driver besides there's no harm in trying my suggestion.

I'ts up to you...

 

[niroshido]

i could take your suggestion alright. or i could call my losses. After running my pc with the new ram, i watch my cpu usage go through the roof and my memory have 90% used up, this is worse than before. This suggests that the speed of the ram is slower and processing is slower (667MHZ vs 800MHZ). There is nothing wrong with the ram, the ram has passed its tests, its the pc or the other equipment. The sound goes to hell or i get blue screen of death or i tone the max ram to a point where it makes my purchase pointless. There can't be a problem with 2 different sets of ram i bought on 2 seperate occassions. I am just going to have to save up and buy a new pc and when i do im going to destroy any trace of DELL from my house.

I cannot understand how a razer program could be the cause of all my problems if and only if i installed new ram while it being on my pc for a year without causing even a minor hicup, nor can i believe the problems are related to the ram itself considering that 2 different RAM sets were bought on 2 seperate occassions over a course of 2 years all meeting the system specifications either provided through DELL's site, the specs of the pc when it arrived or companies that claim there components are compatible (while saying this, i am not completely niave and willing to believe any fairy tale story provided by a company in order to make a sale but i did trust crucial as a brand name for ram). The last few years have made me hate DELL and its very existence and i would spit at the faces of anyone who would suggest going down the road of buying another pre-built machine, that was clearly designed to insure people would have a brain aneurysm as a result of trying to upgrade only to be forced to completely replace the machine two years down the road (now i am becoming extremely bitter with a touch of anger), after stupidly purchasing stuff that doesn't work in the system nor can it be handed directly back to company you bought it from, because its more of an incompetence issue than a fault and the resellers frown upon incompetency or false assumptions.