Help with Parity Check/Memory Parity Error

adarryladarryl No Man Stands So Tall As When He Stoops To Help a Child. Icrontian
edited April 2009 in Hardware
I am trying to help a lady friend of mine whose Dell Dimension 9150 won't boot to windows. After the XP logo screen, the system blue screens with the following message: "Hardware Malfunction, Call your hardware vendor for support. NMI: Parity Check/Memory Parity Error. The system has halted."

I have found nothing useful by Googling and I am currently running Memtest86+. So far, after one pass, no errors detected. Any ideas on how I can get her past this error so it will boot to windows? I can get to the BIOS but I cannot access windows so any diagnostic software has to be bootable and not require the windows environment.

Comments

  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited April 2009
    I assume her machine has more than one RAM module. Insert one module in one of the slots and attempt to boot the machine. Try it in the other slot. Repeat this with the other module. It's my guess one of the modules has gone bad.
  • adarryladarryl No Man Stands So Tall As When He Stoops To Help a Child. Icrontian
    edited April 2009
    Sorry, I tried that to no avail. I tested both modules with Memtest together and individually. No errors and still no boot. I just pulled the SATA drive and jumped it into one of my other PC's. I can access, run and even install on it when its connected to my mobo but it won't do a thing when reconnected to her motherboard. I also replaced the CMOS battery just now and that made no difference either. There's a hardware problem here but its not looking like the HD or the RAM. Bad motherboard? Bad peripheral? Golly, I don't know.
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited April 2009
    Or just a bum install of Windows, and as usual Windows has no earthly idea what is actually going on, so it throws a random blue screen.

    http://icrontic.com/articles/office-hours-9-meaningless-stop-errors
  • adarryladarryl No Man Stands So Tall As When He Stoops To Help a Child. Icrontian
    edited April 2009
    Maybe the best thing right now is to format and reinstall but I know she won't be keen on that. She uses this PC for an on-line decorative candle making business out of her home somewhat like Yankee Candle. A reinstall will hose her business for awhile, but at least I can salvage files from her hard drive through my PC if it has to go that way.

    *I hate to work on Dell machines* :/
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited April 2009
    Bad motherboard? Bad peripheral? Golly, I don't know.
    Power supply gone bad or as Thrax wrote, Windows installation corruption. Most likely the latter, as a PSU problem most likely wouldn't allow any boot process at all.
    uses this PC for an on-line decorative candle making business
    ...and no data backup, I imagine.
  • adarryladarryl No Man Stands So Tall As When He Stoops To Help a Child. Icrontian
    edited April 2009
    I don't know about any backups she might have. I have been putting off calling her hoping I could have better news than this.
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited April 2009
    It would be best to perform a clean installation of Windows, if she has a backup of her data. If she hasn't backed up her important things, then you could go for a "repair" installation. Do you know how to do that?
  • adarryladarryl No Man Stands So Tall As When He Stoops To Help a Child. Icrontian
    edited April 2009
    Yes, I know the procedure for a repair install; I was wondering about that as a possibility anyway. However, since I can hook up her hard drive to one of my other pc's and access her files, I think I would rather try to save her important stuff then do a clean install. I will have to check with her on her preference.
  • adarryladarryl No Man Stands So Tall As When He Stoops To Help a Child. Icrontian
    edited April 2009
    I just booted to my Windows CD to see about a repair install. After setup inspected files, the system blue screened back to the parity error in my original post. So it would seem I can't even run repair or recovery let alone format with windows. I am thinking there is a hardware failure at this point. Anyone confirm?
  • adarryladarryl No Man Stands So Tall As When He Stoops To Help a Child. Icrontian
    edited April 2009
    Here's the latest on this situation. One at a time, I have disconnected all non-essential hardware: sound card, modem, USB card reader, DVD/DVDRW, Floppy and still no boot; same stop screen error. I can't pull the video card (PCIe16) and replace it with one of mine since the Dell card is PCIe slot powered and all of my video cards are high draw power cards (8800's and higher). I believe its now down to the motherboard or the HD though the HD worked fine when sistered into one of my PC's. I am going to throw my cards in on this and say "sorry." (I was doing this for free anyway.) As Tutor Turtle says, "Time for this one to [go] home." *I hate working on Dell*
  • adarryladarryl No Man Stands So Tall As When He Stoops To Help a Child. Icrontian
    edited April 2009
    Forgot! It won't boot into safe mode without blue-screening either. :/
  • adarryladarryl No Man Stands So Tall As When He Stoops To Help a Child. Icrontian
    edited April 2009
    FWIW and to close out this topic. I pulled her files off her hard drive after jumping it into one of my pc's. I then pulled my hard drive from the pc, left hers connected, formatted her drive and reinstalled windows. It boots and runs properly so I am going to assume her motherboard had an issue, perhaps the memory controller. New parts are on order for the fix.
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited April 2009
    Not necessarily. You ruled out the motherboard AND the OS at the same time. There's no telling which one was actually bad.
  • adarryladarryl No Man Stands So Tall As When He Stoops To Help a Child. Icrontian
    edited April 2009
    Very good point, Thrax! To test, I put the hard drive with the new windows install back in the chassis but it won't boot. Right after the windows loading screen, it comes up with a black screen stating windows failed to start and offers Safe Mode, Safe Mode with Networking etc. However, it makes no difference which option I choose, it is stuck in an endless cycle. Since I am doing this for free, I am calling it quits on this hardware at this point.
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited April 2009
    You can't install Windows on one computer and then use that hard drive on another.

    Windows MUST be installed on the computer it will be running on.
  • adarryladarryl No Man Stands So Tall As When He Stoops To Help a Child. Icrontian
    edited April 2009
    Sinking ship. Now the motherboard won't POST. Power supply tests good. It's moot at this point since she went out and bought a new HP system. I may tinker with this some more unless she wants it back as is.
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