Finally fixed my BSOD problem.

[Rich46yo]

After weeks of trying everything I finally found what was causing constant crashes on , what was, a perfectly running system. I had upped my memory to 16 gigs about 2 years ago and had no problem with the new sticks. EVERY memory test program I could find said the memory was fine. EVERY other crash fix program I ran told me it was driver related so I went thru weeks of testing and reinstalling drivers of every kind for everything. Even trying older drivers again. I did everything except a re-image which was last on my list due to the nature of the BSODs.

For some odd reason I'd crash on start up and when I restarted the computer would run perfectly. A gamer "knows" his computer perfectly, better then anyone cause were the only ones on it. Anyway I figured if this thing restarts and runs well then how in heck could it be a driver issue? It had to be hard ware. So I took out the RAM sticks since they were the last hardware change I made to the system and Bam! That was the problem. Bad memory. All if fine now and I think I will just live with 12 gigs of memory.

BSOD, the ones that appear out of no where, and for no apparent reason after you changed nothing on the system, are pure Hell.

[VonMessa]

At 0630, before coffee and without glasses, I swore it said BDSM.

Glad you fixed it.  I had the same problem, once.  Always makes you happy when it is an easy fix.

[MrRiplEy[H]]

After weeks of trying everything I finally found what was causing constant crashes on , what was, a perfectly running system. I had upped my memory to 16 gigs about 2 years ago and had no problem with the new sticks. EVERY memory test program I could find said the memory was fine. EVERY other crash fix program I ran told me it was driver related so I went thru weeks of testing and reinstalling drivers of every kind for everything. Even trying older drivers again. I did everything except a re-image which was last on my list due to the nature of the BSODs.

For some odd reason I'd crash on start up and when I restarted the computer would run perfectly. A gamer "knows" his computer perfectly, better then anyone cause were the only ones on it. Anyway I figured if this thing restarts and runs well then how in heck could it be a driver issue? It had to be hard ware. So I took out the RAM sticks since they were the last hardware change I made to the system and Bam! That was the problem. Bad memory. All if fine now and I think I will just live with 12 gigs of memory.

BSOD, the ones that appear out of no where, and for no apparent reason after you changed nothing on the system, are pure Hell.

So you had 4x4gb sticks? If you removed only one you're no longer running dual channel which hurts performance. Also unless only one of the sticks wasn't singled out as bad it may still be some other problem in reality - or did you test stick by stick to figure out you had a bad one?

[Bizman]

So you had 4x4gb sticks? If you removed only one you're no longer running dual channel which hurts performance. Also unless only one of the sticks wasn't singled out as bad it may still be some other problem in reality - or did you test stick by stick to figure out you had a bad one?

That's what I was thinking, too.

Losing dual channel will hurt performance, but probably not as much as dropping the odd 4 GB stick especially if you do memory hungry things like Photoshopping.

[MrRiplEy[H]]

In some cases if you buy memory that's not listed on the motherboard specs as compatible, you may get away with two or three sticks but when attempting to run all four slots at full speed, things start to break. 4 sticks will be a bit faster but 2 sticks will usually be more trouble free.

[Rich46yo]

In some cases if you buy memory that's not listed on the motherboard specs as compatible, you may get away with two or three sticks but when attempting to run all four slots at full speed, things start to break. 4 sticks will be a bit faster but 2 sticks will usually be more trouble free.

How about 6 sticks? 4 4 giggers and 2 2 giggers? Utilizing all 6 slots on my X58 sli-3 MB?

[Bizman]

Should work, if the total amount is within the motherboard specs. Also it will help if they are of same speed.

[MrRiplEy[H]]

How about 6 sticks? 4 4 giggers and 2 2 giggers? Utilizing all 6 slots on my X58 sli-3 MB?

Mixing ram sticks is a bad idea. Almost certain way to get you compatability trouble or slowed down performance. Remember that if you mix ram, your mobo will boot using the settings of the slowest stick.

[Rich46yo]

I thought so. Well I just wasted $50 on another 4 gig stick. I suppose I could return it and buy a 3 pack of the same make 2 gig sticks which will give me 2 gigs OVER what Win 7 can even use.

Now I feel silly for not automatically figuring it was the RAM. I listened to to much bad advice, in other forums, and problem software programs that were all wrong. I did ram checks and they came back perfect, with ram that had been operating fine for a long time. The fact that the box rebooted and ran normally really thru me for a loop too. I thought only a bad driver would do that.

On the other hand more often then not, in my years of computing, Ive found that systemic, reoccurring BSODs are almost always hardware related. Thanks for the help.