BSOD when 16GB RAM installed (but not 8GB), what can I do?

[Aaargh Zombies]

re:

Your minidump shows the crash started from here:

DEFAULT_BUCKET_ID: WIN8_DRIVER_FAULT


PROCESS_NAME: SanDiskSSDDash


If you've loaded some Sandisk drivers, I would uninstall them.

I initially had this installed on a WD disk (Upgrade from Windows 7) and had the same problem, I later installed the SanDisk (Clean install) unit and the problem continued.

 

[ttsoldier]

re:

I would recommend downloading DriverPackSolution and making sure all your drivers are up to date.

 

[Devhux]

Re: BSOD when 16GB RAM installed (but not 8GB)

Has it continued to happen after updating the BIOS & tweaking the pagefile?

 

[Aaargh Zombies]

Re: BSOD when 16GB RAM installed (but not 8GB)

The only hing that I haven't tried from the suggestions is switching off the paging file, but it BSOD on me this morning.

 

[TechFreak1]

Re: BSOD when 16GB RAM installed (but not 8GB)

The only hing that I haven't tried from the suggestions is switching off the paging file, but it BSOD on me this morning.

Hmm, have you tried other sticks of RAM?

Also try disabling the page file, if it doesn't BSOD then you're windows install may have been corrupted some how.

 

[Krystianpants]

Re: BSOD when 16GB RAM installed (but not 8GB)

The only hing that I haven't tried from the suggestions is switching off the paging file, but it BSOD on me this morning.

Did you try what I mentioned?

Anyways, are you on the stable TH2 build or Redstone? If on TH2 try installing Redstone from the insiders build. It's not that bad at this point since it's close to release. There are still bugs that pop up here and there but better than getting BSOD.

 

[Aaargh Zombies]

Re: BSOD when 16GB RAM installed (but not 8GB)

Hmm, have you tried other sticks of RAM?

Also try disabling the page file, if it doesn't BSOD then you're windows install may have been corrupted some how.

It doesn't BSOD every time I do a clean shutdown, so it may be some time before I can tell if the other changes that I did today fixed it, and I'd rather not do too much at once, so I'm not disabling paging until I've confirmed the the other things didn't resolve the problem. If it BSOD's tomorrow then I'll disable paging.

I don't think that it's a corrupt Windows install as I've had the same problem on an upgrade and on a clean install on the same PC. The clean install was on a brand new SSD straight out of the box.

 

[feherneoh]

Re: BSOD when 16GB RAM installed (but not 8GB)

Actually what you say, that it crashes after shutdown but not after reboot tells me that fast startup is actually enabled, and so it crashes when it tries to get back from that partially hibernated state. The fact that it does only crash with 16GB of RAM would mean that you have problems with slot 2. Try cleaning it, as that is the most probably error source if it does crash with any possible combinations, and you only have 2 RAM slots.
The strange thing is if memtest does not find anything, as it should detect these kinds of problems. Another suggestion would be to shut down the PC by start -> power -> shift + restart, then selecting shutdown PC on the blue screen BEFORE inserting the additional RAM, so it won't try to load back a state with different amount of RAM specified

 

[a5cent]

Re: BSOD when 16GB RAM installed (but not 8GB)

The only hing that I haven't tried from the suggestions is switching off the paging file, but it BSOD on me this morning.

You really should have tried this. Deactivate the page file already (on all drives), reboot, and report back! It might not be the preferred solution, but it could give us clues.

If there is no change, open an elevated command prompt and type this:

powercfg /H OFF

and then report back on that too.

 

[TechFreak1]

Re: BSOD when 16GB RAM installed (but not 8GB)

It doesn't BSOD every time I do a clean shutdown, so it may be some time before I can tell if the other changes that I did today fixed it, and I'd rather not do too much at once, so I'm not disabling paging until I've confirmed the the other things didn't resolve the problem. If it BSOD's tomorrow then I'll disable paging.

I don't think that it's a corrupt Windows install as I've had the same problem on an upgrade and on a clean install on the same PC. The clean install was on a brand new SSD straight out of the box.

I see, as you have had the same issue with an upgrade and clean install.

I don't suppose you have tried changing the data cables?

Or the sata ports on the motherboard?

Somewhere along the lines data is being corrupted some how.

Also check the event logs, that should provide some indication what is going haywire. It might be a system service failing to stop at shut down intermittently / then auto restart again at login.

 

[a5cent]

Re: BSOD when 16GB RAM installed (but not 8GB)

^ If it was cabling the issues would likely be more random (not confined to login).

 

[WesleySmalls]

re:

Have you tried both memory modules individually? To me it just sounds like a bad memory module


I also don't get why people keep suggesting to disable the page file. Unless there is some new form of magic involved here it is exactly the thing you should not do.

 

[Aaargh Zombies]

Re: BSOD when 16GB RAM installed (but not 8GB)

I see, as you have had the same issue with an upgrade and clean install.

I don't suppose you have tried changing the data cables?

Or the sata ports on the motherboard?

Somewhere along the lines data is being corrupted some how.

Also check the event logs, that should provide some indication what is going haywire. It might be a system service failing to stop at shut down intermittently / then auto restart again at login.

When I did the fresh install I left the original disc in the computer (With the intention of using it as a data volume) I plugged the new disc into a different port on the motherboard using a brand new cable. I just disconnected the power from the old disc. So both the port and the cable are different.

I've checked the log files, but they never record anything. I have an event which says "The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly." from the next time I booted the PC up, but nothing from the BSDO itself.

 

[pkcable]

re:

Have you tried both memory modules individually? To me it just sounds like a bad memory module


I also don't get why people keep suggesting to disable the page file. Unless there is some new form of magic involved here it is exactly the thing you should not do.

I'm with this guy, It could also be that you have somehow violated the special rules for adding memory to your motherboard that SOME motherboards require. For example some require you add memory in pairs, or that you use certain slots. It's PROBABLY a bad module though since it sounds like you have a matched pair, BUT double check the documentation for your motherboard which you should be able to find online. Also as this guy suggests try each module separately to see if you can find the bad one, or determine that it IS something else.

 

[Aaargh Zombies]

re:

I'm with this guy, It could also be that you have somehow violated the special rules for adding memory to your motherboard that SOME motherboards require. For example some require you add memory in pairs, or that you use certain slots. It's PROBABLY a bad module though since it sounds like you have a matched pair, BUT double check the documentation for your motherboard which you should be able to find online. Also as this guy suggests try each module separately to see if you can find the bad one, or determine that it IS something else.

This is actually the memory that came pre-installed in the PC. I ran the machine for over a year with Windows 7 and there were no memory issues, I then upgraded to Windows 10 (Basic in place upgrade), and started getting the BSOD about 1 clean boot out of 3. I then did a clean install on an SSD.

A totally clean install, on a totally new disc, with a new port and a new cable. The same RAM in the same slots with the same BIOS and BIOS settings. This did not resolve the problem.

I've tried each stick individually. I put one stick in each spare slot in turn, and then repeated with the other stick. So each stick has been in the machine on its own in each slot. Everything was OK. No problems at all.

I then tried putting both of the sticks in together, in different slots (Matching and non-matching.

Regardless of where I put the sticks the machine would BSOD 1 in about every 3 clean boots if I had them both in.

So, to round up, 2 factory installed sticks. BSOD if both are in the machine, regardless of where they are. No BSOD if only 1 stick is in, regardless of where it is. Poblem only exists with Windows 10.

I've upgraded the BIOS, and checked the disc for errors. I've manually set the Paging file to a large number, and to a small number, and to automatic (But I haven't turned it off).

I received a BSOD when Windows chose the graphics card software, and when I installed the manufacturer's software.

 

[a5cent]

re:

Have you tried both memory modules individually? To me it just sounds like a bad memory module

It's PROBABLY a bad module though since it sounds like you have a matched pair

The various executable binaries that make up the OS are loaded to different memory addresses at each boot. If it was a certain range of memory addresses that was corrupt, something different would be loaded into that range each time (or nothing at all), so the OP would witness either no problem at all, or crashes occurring at seemingly random points in time. If it was a general memory problem that wasn't confined to a certain address range he'd also be seeing random crashes. In both cases the very extensive memory check would also have noticed something.

There is no way it's a faulty memory module. At the very least it's not only that.

I also don't get why people keep suggesting to disable the page file. Unless there is some new form of magic involved here it is exactly the thing you should not do.

Because the OS writes stuff to the paging file during shutdown and reads from it during startup (except if you had a crash... hint hint). Turning it off would at least allow us to rule out one of the possible causes. With the exception of the memory test and BIOS update, I don't think any of the other tests were helpful, because they didn't allow us to exclude anything. Changing the size of the paging file achieves pretty much nothing in this regard.

I'd disable the hibernation file for a similar reason, as it's also something that is written to during shutdown and read from during startup. Deactivating that would also allow us to remove one thing from the list of possible causes.

Both of those are super easy to test, and if neither changes anything I'd start looking more closely at drivers.

 

[ttsoldier]

re:

I really don't see what the big deal is and why you do not want to disable the paging file for the simple sake of troubleshooting.

 

[pkcable]

re:

I really don't see what the big deal is and why you do not want to disable the paging file for the simple sake of troubleshooting.

Yea I got no issue with that!

 

[Dan Cardwell]

Re: BSOD when 16GB RAM installed (but not 8GB)

When I did the fresh install I left the original disc in the computer (With the intention of using it as a data volume) I plugged the new disc into a different port on the motherboard using a brand new cable. I just disconnected the power from the old disc. So both the port and the cable are different.

I've checked the log files, but they never record anything. I have an event which says "The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly." from the next time I booted the PC up, but nothing from the BSDO itself.

Try without the original disk connected, using just the new disk, if the old disk is dodgy and the system is using it (possibly for a page file??) then that could possibly give you problems when booting? Also if you are using both disks make sure the computer is booting from the disk that you think it is... If it's still booting from the old disk (or trying to when it fails) then all the stuff with the new disk won't help

 

[Aaargh Zombies]

Re: BSOD when 16GB RAM installed (but not 8GB)

Try without the original disk connected, using just the new disk, if the old disk is dodgy and the system is using it (possibly for a page file??) then that could possibly give you problems when booting? Also if you are using both disks make sure the computer is booting from the disk that you think it is... If it's still booting from the old disk (or trying to when it fails) then all the stuff with the new disk won't help

When I installed the new disc I disconnected the original so that I wouldn't accidentally install windows on the wrong one, I left it unplugged for a while, and it still BSOD.