BSOD Occurring Daily

[digitalgirl]

Could someone help me out?  In the last 6 months I would occassionally get a BSOD.  Mostly they would happen not long after I booted up and mostly random stop messages. Once rebooted there was no problems for a while.  I didn't know where to start with the problem and because they were infrequent I never got around to doing anything about it.
 
In the last 2 or 3 weeks they are a daily occurence and they are mostly stop: 0x08E referring to the file win32k.sys.  I did some reading at microsoft and see that this usually points to bad ram or a driver problem.  Now they usually happen in the afternoon but the one this morning was a completely different message.
 
I really don't know where to go from here.  I would really appreciate any help thanks.
Deb
 
A little backgroud to the problem:
My computer is about 4 years old, about 6 months ago my power supply died and took out my motherboard as well.  We decided to buy a new motherboard and power supply instead of upgrading to a new computer.  About 12 months before the new motherboard was installed I bought a new DVD burner (replacing the old cd burner), and the 2 new sticks of ram (replacing 256mb single stick), a web cam,  new 200gb harddrive and a usb hub. Also upgraded to broadband (so new modem) As far as I know there was no power surge, and the power supply seemed to die slowly.  It would occassionally click but I being inexperienced didn't realise that this was probably the fan not working properly. Despite all these additions my tech guys never mentioned that perhaps I should have a larger power supply, I don't know what it is without looking but they said it was exactly the same as the one I had before.  Before the motherboard/power supply went caput I had no BSODs, and nothing that idicated any problems to me.  The system worked well for the 6 - 8 months prior to the new motherboard/PSU being installed.

This is the Specs:
CPU: Intel P4 1600MHz
Motherboard: Asus P4S800-MX SE
RAM: 2 sticks 512mb PC3200 DDR SDRAM
HDs:  C: is Seagate ST340810A  (40 GB, 5400 RPM, Ultra-ATA/100) 30% free space (master)
         F: is Western Digital WDC WD2000JB-00GVC0  (186 GB, IDE) 16% free space (slave)
Network Adapter: SiS 900-Based PCI Fast Ethernet Adapter  (10.1.1.2)
BIOS version is:AMI v1006.002
CD ROM: SONY CD-ROM CDU5211
DVD Burner: SONY DVD RW DRU-800A
Scanner: CanoScan D660U
Printer: Canon S520
OS: winxp home sp1 & 2

I have tried:
reseating and swapping the ram over in the two slots
scanning with Memtest (3 or 4 passes with no errors found)
I have downloaded the latest audio and display drivers but when trying to update it, says it can't find any newer versions when pointing to the newly downloaded drivers.
I tried to uninstall/reinstall the drivers from the new motherboard cd but a message told me there was an error but no other details.
I have done a checkdisk/diskcleanup/defrag
I have up-to-date virus and spyware definitions and scan daily with avg and weekly with pestpatrol/adaware
I have scanned with housecall and pitstop.

Stop Message:
page fault in non paged area
stop 0x0000008E (0xC0000005 x 0x424DCD62 x 0xF2FACC64, 0x00000000)
win32k.sys
address: BF965202 base at BF800000 datestamp 43446958

The page fault bit is not always present, the stop message itself has been fairly consistently 0x0000008E of late but has been different occassionally.  The win32k.sys has also been fairly consistent but not always, the address is usually in the same or similar place.

[Dusty]

Have you tried booting with just one ram stick (256mb) installed and swapping them :-?

[GX1_Man]

www.memtest86.com has a free RAM tester. Run the test on each stick individually for about an hour, then all together. You'l know soon enough if this is the issue.  

[Raptor]

Diagnose HDD and RAM.

[digitalgirl]

Thank you I will try with memtest again on each single stick of ram.
Deb

[digitalgirl]

Okay so I have tested the ram sticks individually.  One comes up with 40 errors after 5 passes of the test (just over an hour scanning).  The other comes up with 4488 errors after 5 passes.

I have a few questions:

-Do you think this is likely to be the major thing causing the BSODs?

-Does "good" ram have no errors at all?

-Do you think that when my PSU and motherboard died that it is probably likely the ram was damaged too?  And they didn't think to test it at the time?

-If not can ram go bad without anyone mucking with it, in otherwords for no reason even if it hasn't been tampered with/moved etc.

I realise that these questions are somewhat like asking how long is a piece of string, but I am annoyed that I've only just bought the ram recently/that it's just out of warranty.  I know new ram can be bad.

Thanks again, at least I know what is going on.

Deb

[GX1_Man]

Okay so I have tested the ram sticks individually.  One comes up with 40 errors after 5 passes of the test (just over an hour scanning).  The other comes up with 4488 errors after 5 passes.

I have a few questions:

-Do you think this is likely to be the major thing causing the BSODs?

Yes, the most likely.

-Does "good" ram have no errors at all?

Correct.

-Do you think that when my PSU and motherboard died that it is probably likely the ram was damaged too?  And they didn't think to test it at the time?

It can happen.

-If not can ram go bad without anyone mucking with it, in otherwords for no reason even if it hasn't been tampered with/moved etc.

It can, but a traumatic event is much more likely.

I realise that these questions are somewhat like asking how long is a piece of string, but I am annoyed that I've only just bought the ram recently/that it's just out of warranty.  I know new ram can be bad.

That's how you learn. Some cheap RAM can be bad from the beginning too. I have never had any RAM go bad in my 20+ years just as a result of time. Where did you get it? www.crucial.com and some others offer a lifetime warranty, reasonable (not the cheapest) prices and guaranteed compatibility. Saving a few bucks initially is not always the best investment.  

[digitalgirl]

Thank you so much.  I have my old 256 ram in at the moment (4 years old previously no probs) I haven't memtested it yet but apparently when I went out we had another BSOD but husband didn't think to write it down and I can't see anything in the event log.  Do you think the BSODs could be generated by faulty ram slots or is that not possible.  Just trying to work out what I will do.

I think I will wait to see if it happens again or test this old ram to see if it also has errors before I actually go ahead and buy new ram.  I bought the 512 sticks from my local computer shop it's "Elixir" and made in Tawain.  I didn't think it was "cheap" when I bought it at $90 (Aussie dollars) each but perhaps I should try to buy a more well known brand.  I wish I had a friend to swap ram with lol!

Thanks so much once again I really appreciate the advice!!

[GX1_Man]

Thank you so much.  I have my old 256 ram in at the moment (4 years old previously no probs) I haven't memtested it yet but apparently when I went out we had another BSOD but husband didn't think to write it down and I can't see anything in the event log.  Do you think the BSODs could be generated by faulty ram slots or is that not possible.  Just trying to work out what I will do.

Slots don't usually just go bad, although it CAN happen. If there was no physical activity in the case I doubt it. Sometimes the RAM ends can get tarnished, but either appropriate cleaning OR just putting them in 3-4 times correctly and blowing out the slot with a little compressed air can remove the residue and solve the problem.

RAM should always be tested one stick at a time in the slot nearest the CPU, then all can be put in for further testing.