A friend brought me a home-built computer that was constantly giving him BSOD errors.

 

Specifications:

 

Motherboard: Biostar A880G+

 

Processor: AMD Phenom II X6 1605T.

 

RAM: G.SKILL F3-10600CL9D - 8GBNTPC3-10600  DDR3 - 4GB x 2 CL9-9-9-24 1.5v.

 

Hard drive: Western Digital WD7500AARS 750GB.

 

CD/DVD drive: SuperWritemaster Speed Plus.

 

Video card: Radeon Sapphire HD6570

 

Operating System: Windows 7 64-bit.

 

A short time after startup, sure enough, I got a BSOD. I checked out the error code and believed the problem to be the video card drivers.. then the bottom dropped out and I was getting a different error code with every BSOD. I tried a Windows repair. More BOSD's with even more error codes. Finally, after several failed repairs, I tried reinstalling Windows. No luck! Almost every error code I looked at indicated a device driver.

 

I decided to install another version of Windows. This time I installed a 32-bit version of Windows 7.

No BSOD's. No error codes. I started thinking what are the differences between the 32-bit and the 64-bit versions?  One of the main differences is the way the OS handles memory.  When I installed the 32-bit version and right clicked <My Computer> in the start menu, I got a message saying there was 8GB of memory installed but only 4GB was usable.

 

The evidence was starting to point to the RAM even though it was relatively new.. I removed 1 4GB stick and reinstalled the 64-bit OS. RATS! another BSOD! So I removed the other 4GB stick and reinstalled the one I had just removed. BINGO! Windows7 64-bit installed smoothly and runs any application thrown at it. I ran Memtest 32+ and got a cleam bill of health.

 

Conclusion: One stick of RAM was defective and causing the 64-bit Operating System to crash every time it tried to access that memory.

 

Solution: I installed a new Crucial 4GB module along side the G.Skill module and it worked fine. It is now running Windows 7 64-bit with 8GB of RAM.