so i got this new BOSD that ive never seen before, and i dont know where to even start. i was just about to show my father a video on youtube when all of a sudden the pc just froze for about 3 seconds and bosd'ed. i can restart after this but now it keeps coming out after about 10 mins. if it keeps rebooting like this it will get to the point where it wont get to the boot screen. it made me believe that it was a temp problem but temps read normal. i reset my bios already. memtest86 gives me a unexpected error - halting message.

heres a picture of the BOSD im getting. prior to this one, it had a extra line saying
NMI: Parity Check / Memory Parity Error, which was before i took out my extra sticks of ram.

That "Blue Of Screen Death" doesn't enlarge so I can't read it. Maybe post a larger pic.

Hardware Malfunction
Call your hardware vendor for support
The system has halted


doesn't get more generic than that........might be a ram issue if memtest is throwing errors.
not getting to the boot screen makes it sound like your hdd might be going.

i tried switching out the ram, they all do that, and all at test #1, at 73%. and my HD...so my WD raptor that i havent even had for a year is dying already

if memtest is simply halting, and not producing errors (assuming you tested individually in different slots)........you might be looking at the cpu.

make sure the parity option (ecc) is turned off in the bios.

Before we assume what the problem could be.......Lets take two steps back and one step forward. We all well know what happens when we assume.

Questions
1. System Specs......What you got in there?
2. How old is this machine and how long did it run error free till it decided to bsod
3. Are you Overclocking?
4. Did you recently add any new hardware?

Before proceeding I cannot stress this enough, (BACKUP YOUR IMPORTANT DATA). Once you get started, so many things could go wrong that your standing there going *Shoot* I forgot to backup my stuff. Yank the drive now and put it in another pc and copy the data. This way there's no regrets. Now that your data's backed up we can now start troubleshooting the problem.

First thing i would do is take the system down to bare bones. Disconnect everything with exception to mb, cpu, memory, video, and floppy/cd/dvd drive. The reason im saying floppy/cd/dvd is we need a boot drive and i dont know if you have a floppy drive for diagnostics. You can goto memtest and download the floppy or bootable cd version. Using only 1 stick at a time, test it in all 4 slots and see if it errors out. This is unfortunately time consuming but in the end it will give you peace of mind knowing its not a ram issue. Then try using the rest of your memory one stick at a time. If memtest still locks or finds errors try using a stick of ram from a good working machine and see if it still errors out. If it passes you probably found your problem. Athough, i wouldnt stop there. I would still do a extended hard drive diagnostic several times to be sure the drive is functioning as it should.

Report back answering the questions and let us know how the testing went......

Quote: Originally Posted by CommanderZero ......so my WD raptor that i havent even had for a year is dying already

Yup, It's a possible culprit - I'm "SpinRite"-ing one of my Raptors at the moment - just up & croaked overnight - only 10 mos old....

But yes - def follow R'male's advice - backup on a functioning rig B4 doin anything - much less headaches L8r on

I just use an external USB to IDE/SATA cable to read files and I have even cloned w/ it....EZ Cheezy

Good Luck