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[tigers_gonads]

As above 

I've been out for about 6 hours and left the laptop plugged in with the lid down in standby mode.

Just opened the lid to be greeted with the following blue screen on a black background.

Text as follows .............

*** Hardware malfunction

Call your hardware vendor for support

NMI: Parity check / memory parity error

*** The system was halted ***

Everything was non responsive other then the power button.


The laptop is a Toshiba Satellite about 7 years old running Windows 7 Ultimate

I did a hard reset (finger on the power button for a few seconds) and it booted up with no problem after going threw the safe start up screen.
I'm using it now and all seems well 

Any ideas ?

[cem_devecioglu]

when rams(memory module) getting old they give those kind of errors .. you need new 

[tigers_gonads]

I'll look into it cem

Thanks 

[Lizzie_Zoom]

when rams(memory module) getting old they give those kind of errors .. you need new 

Indeed.  A 7 year old anything in IT is ancient, and with Windows 7 I would certainly invest in a new model.

[zirk]

Could be it got Hot and CPU grinded to a snails pace, might be worth ripping the covers off and treating it to a De Dust / Fluff, paying particular attention around the Fan, can use a Paint Brush and Hoover but be careful of static etc. Do mine every 6 months, be surprised the amount of crap that builds up. 

Never use Stand By, always use Hibernate, with a few good Re Boots every week. 

[Kevin Wood]

Yep, worth blasting out the dust with an airline in case it overheated. I've seen machines crash at 100% CPU usage when hibernating and they get very hot then.

Might also be worth checking the RAM modules are securely seated.

[tigers_gonads]

Gotcha 

I've just done the full fat windows memory check with no problems apparent.
I'll remove the cover when I get a minute and give it a good clean 

Come to think about it, the fan has been rattling a little over the last few months so i'll check that too.

I did update the ram from 2 gig up to 4 gig a few years ago.
The ram was cheap crap off eBay so I might dig out the old ram board and pop it in for a while if I can find it to see how it goes 
If ram is needed, any recommendations were to get something cheapish but reasonable quality ?
Off the top of my head its a DDR2 board 

[zirk]

4gb should be enough for Win7 for day to day stuff, unless your running some memory hog apps, you could try a few more gig if you can squeeze it in there, but I dont think your notice much difference unless as said your pushing the memory to its limits.

Rule No. 1 for me, dont buy memory off the Bay, most of it is crap or re badged fake. I always buy Kingston myself, surprisingly, Tesco's Direct knock it out cheap. 

[aaronjb]

Yep, Kingston or Crucial for me from one of their (reputable) resellers

[TheBoy]

Did you use ESP straps when you changed the RAM? I know it was years ago, but classic sign of ESD.


Basically, on IBM compatibles, NMI is raised if there is a bit error during a read, and no error correction to fix the bit error. Windows purposely halts, as it cannot guarantee what its just about to execute/execute on is valid.


With 32bit Windows, no point going beyond 3Gb (extra is unusable). With 64bit, no point going below 5Gb (increased data structure size makes it better to use 32bit and less RAM). For 32bit general use, even with integrated video, 2Gb is enough for 32bit Win7.

(Generally speaking)

[cem_devecioglu]

kingston:  least common denominator..   


nothing less in quality..

[TheBoy]

I'm a Micron/Crucial man myself.

[tigers_gonads]

Removed the back off the laptop today, it looked like some bugger had emptied the hoover in there 

I don't think our lass wanted that blusher brush