NMI: Parity Check/ Memory Parity Error -- System crash

Ah, thanks 'Syousef' , have found the exact same download searching the same Dell code you gave me on the Dell Thailand site Not sure why, but the last time I tried to download something off of the Malaysia site it didn't want to install properly, but when the thai technician came around he told me to try the thai site....and guess what, it worked fine, anyway, hasn't finished downloading yet.....

I've gotta try every option at the moment so that's really handy, I'm gonna try that Nasty File Remover, as mentioned by 'theloafingone' to clean install those drivers too, that sounds like a really useful piece of software, thanks

I forgot about the mention of the same error happening with an ATi card on the first page of this thread so I'm convinced it can't be a specific graphics card problem, but I definately think that there is a heat problem with the design layout or the way the fans are controlled by the Bios or other software....I've just left it on, watched a couple of dvds and left the GPU Temperature Monitor on minimised. At the start, I just left the Temperature Monitor on and watched it climb up gradually to 72 degrees c in the space of about 15-20 minutes....I had nothing going on except for the normal desktop image.

When I came out of each dvd it was showing that it was about 66, but each time and continually through them both the keyboard seemed to be quite hot to touch, and it being directly above the graphics card....hmmm. Does this happen with most laptops ? I've used my mother's Latitude D600 before and it didn't feel as hot as this....my father's laptop ( can't remember the name and model, the one that went bankrupt not so long ago....) his didn't feel as hot either, and my mate has an Mac Pro ( one of the new ones ) and he doesn't seem to complain about the heat coming from the keyboard

When the Dell Thailand technician was here, even he was abit worried about the heat too, and that's why it's got to this stage now, he compared it to his Latitude D520 or something and he said it's never had an issue like this with his....though, I don't think his had a dedicated gpu though.

Anyway, I dunno, I'll try these drivers and see eh ? I have no games here to try and push the card, anyone of you know anything I can try just to test the graphics card so I know if it's playing up or not ?

Like I say, I've got to test it before I go over to Malaysia next Monday with it, just to be sure that I'm not giving back a perfectly good laptop with a graphics card I'll never be able to get again, well, atleast from the Dell site anyway.....

Thanks everyone for your help by the way,
Ade

 

More thoughts...

Why might this error have different causes? Because even though it specifically refers to memory, lots of things write direct to memory and can trigger it.

NMI - Non-Maskable Interrupt "is a computer processor interrupt that can not be ignored by standard interrupt masking techniques in the system. It is typically used to signal attention for non-recoverable hardware errors."
See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-Maskable_interrupt

It's about as informative an error as seeing "Your hardware has had a furfie and died. Reboot now."

Memory parity refers to a bit used as a checksum of the other bits in a byte or word of memory.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAM_parity
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parity_bit

The immediate first thought someone who knows this might have is it must be the RAM chips or motherboard interface to the RAM chips that are at fault. Unfortunately a little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing. Reading on...

"In the original IBM PC, a NMI was triggered if a parity error was detected in system memory, or reported by an external device. In either case, the PC would display an error message and halt."

Though I'm not sure I take it this means any device could trigger it (presumably through DMA - direct memory access which devices like DVD/CD,. hard disk, graphics card, sound card, wireless card use). I'm a little fuzzy about this part and there's bound to be someone reading this who knows PC hardware architecture better than I do.

In any case the fact that many devices can trigger a parity error means that once again this message is about as general as "something went berserk on your machine. Killing the system to prevent further corruption since the memory isn't looking right".

It's hard to tell if it's a heat issue for sure for all of us. Perhaps there's hardware (or drivers controlling hardware) that get flakier as the devices, motherboard, or memory get hotter therefore increasing your chances of seeing the error but not definitely triggering it. Or worse it's the motherboard's own ability to handle input from one more more devices that gets flakier. That might explain a lot of the variability we're seeing, but this is just a theory I'm putting forward not something I know is happening for certain.

I'm actually kind of surprised we're seeing drivers help the issue at all though. I think there are definite differences in heat management among the drivers so that could definitely be one factor even though some of us don't seem to see the error when the sysetm gets hot.

It's also possible that specific drivers are causing hardware to generate false NMIs since swapping system memory hasn't helped many of us. Who knows under what circumstances that happens. That'd explain why replacing specific drivers and/or specific hardware seems to fix or improve the situation for some.

What I really want to see is someone say they've had the error, solved it with drivers and been error free for say 6 months. Bit difficult at the moment given the age of some of these drivers.

 

Glad to hear you got the driver installed properly, Fix_My_Laptop. I have yet to run any extensive gaming tests but I'm fairly certain that there isn't going to be a BSOD any time soon. /me crosses fingers

As for the heat problem, you can always just customize the fan settings with I8KfanGUI which works wonders for high heats during cpu/gpu intensive applications/games.

 

Funnily enough I managed to get ahold of a 3D type game to test, a mini-golf game, not very graphically demanding I know but.... the keyboard seemed to be alot cooler during the game, but then the temperature shot up as soon as I came out of about 45 minutes of playing....that would suggest a lack of communication between the motherboard > the graphics card > the cooling fan, don't you think ?

The thermal sensor's buggered, or it's threshold is set too high on the motherboard or in the Bios ? Trouble is, I'm on my second motherboard as it is, and the replacement was, what looked like a new part so that's abit strange if they did get a bad batch of motherboard and I got two of them....the temperature of the threshold, well that's something they should be changing in the Bios file I guess, of which they haven't yet.....maybe when I go and see them in Malaysia they could possible change the programming slightly....

The bottom of the screen was pretty hot to touch too for some reason, and practically everything directly above where the graphics card parts were, ie; heatpipe, gpu casing and pcb, the heatsink and the fan for the graphics card, most of the keyboard was hot and obviously all around where the connections to the screen are... is that right, are they there ? At the back....before the hinges of the screen ? The highest temperature was on the right which got slightly cooler on the left....

It would be so much easier if this was a desktop fault, there'd be plenty of space to work in and if the graphics card was getting too hot we could just put some Arctic Silver on the connection to the motherboard, some extra heatsinks on the pcb, etc.., but it's not easy working these problems out in such a small space.....and no way of testing these without putting the whole case back together....especially under warranty ! I've never liked warranties before, because I've been able to work any problems out in a desktop quite easily, but I'm reasonably thankful I do one with this laptop !

Yeah, sorry, had to edit this post....I haven't yet installed those drivers yet, because of what Tobi1982 said....I was all getting ready to install them after downloading them and then read his (?) post and thought maybe not....yeah, there is that fan adjusting software, but as it states on the site ' it is not Dell supported '....but these sort of adjustments should be set up in a revised version of the A09 Bios really, not in some separate piece of software. It's not getting worryingly high yet so I'll put it off for the time being. I'd like to be able to test the wireless card abit more too, but there's no wireless point nearby unfortunately, but I did turn it on and left it on to see if it did anything when idle....but in the few hours that I'd left it on nothing happened.

 

Hi!

Because I got that bluescreen? I think that something with removing the old driver went wrong or I should have restarted the computer one more time before installing the new driver. On 2nd try, installation worked just fine, so I don't guess it means that there's an issue with the new driver.

Tobi (yes, I'm male... )

 

I have not had the error in 8 months now since switching to 92.77 but these drivers had a down side no "screen off" on lid close!
So i have today installed these drivers which does work the screen off on lid close i will see if the NMI error comes back!

 

Hi, yes Tobi, I didn't install them mate.....was abit worried, but.....now I have after you've all reassured me....seems to be ok, so far, no tests as yet, the keyboard seems to be....cooler ? Not sure, maybe it's like a placibo.....but, we'll see eh ?

One thing I have noticed though, I can't seem to find the Temperature Monitor, it used to be in the 3D section of the Nvidia Control Panel but, zip....and yet it does mention it in the Help too....will try and play a 3D game again and see how it fairs. I don't know if I mentioned this before or not, but it's strangely increases heat when not using the game and yet during it it does seem to run alot cooler, this is with the old drivers...84.69 or something, weird....it's almost as though it gets an attitude when it's not being used...eheheh

 

I almost cooked one of my first laptops years ago because it didn't shut down properly and I put it in the bag (rushing to pack up and get out of a train at my stop)

Since them I've set closing the lid to hibernate. It's a bit of a pain accidentally hibernating but at least I haven't repeated my mistake of almost frying a laptop. So screen off on lid close doesn't even worry me.

What does worry me is that with Dell's audio drivers I can't enable stereo mix or monitor the mic (ie play mic through speakers). From what I've read it's just crippled to prevent less knowledgeable users from having problems. That's insane.

Anyhow audio capabilities mean nothing if the machine's not stable. It's very encouraging to read HoriZon-UK's comment about running error free for 8 months. Here's hoping!

 

Hi again,

as I don't want to insettle someone and wanted to do one more test for myself, I removed the 94.22 driver today, went back to 84.69, removed it and installed 94.22 again. All went fine without any errors.
I did it the way iI removed the driver -> automatic reboot, and then, after the system had booted properly, I rebooted it again before installing another driver (which I didn't the one time it bsod'd).

I also tested the F.E.A.R. benchmark with both drivers as I had installed the older driver, but I get virtually the same results with both drivers. I'll see if it changes anything in-game. Looked to me as if the benchmarking sequence ran a little smoother with the new driver, but might be "placebo effect"...

With the temperatures, it was the same on mine. After a while of office use, when the fans didn't come on for 15 or 20 minutes, my GPU was often around 70°C, but in gaming, it only reached 65 or even less, as the fans were running all time.

That was with driver 84.69 and Bios A04. Now with Bios A09, it seems to me as if th fans came on more often even in office use. Maybe that was the intention not to let the GPU get that hot. I remember, in one Bios version "enhanced thermal management" was stated as a change, think it's still the same in A09 (skipped all others since 04).

 

Tobi,

Please keep us posted regarding any bios A09 experiences. I'm on A08 which was the latest when I bought the laptop and marked as either critical or urgent. Having changed video and wireless drivers, I'm not keen on changing anything else for the time being without good reason.

 

@syousef

I'll sure do, but I can't give you any comparison to A08 because I never used it. As far as I remember, there was just a minor change stated from A08->A09, i think it was about express card or something...

As long as you experience no problems, I'd suggest to keep A08. I Just updated, because there have been quite a few new versions between mine and the recent one, including the enhanced thermal management and the 'critical' A08.

 

Hi Tobi (or anyone who's online at this minute), umm, you've not replied to whether you've got the Temperature Monitor missing in that driver or not, no matter what I do I can't seem to find it anywhere and I've even tried a safe registry tweak too, maybe it's Dell trying to stop us from monitoring how hot it gets....wouldn't put it past them.

I've tried disabling the wireless while going online, am using a bluetooth module and my mobile to connect so I can't test it unfortunately, it doesn't make any difference to the heat either.....not sure how to reproduce that blue screen error without playing a graphics intensive game ( which I haven't got) or spending time on the internet using the wireless, any other ways ?

By the way, I'm running Bios A09, did it straight after the reinstall, I'm not sure if it's makes much difference either....there are probably loads of small tweaks that make a difference but it still hasn't resolved the graphics card heat above the keyboard....anyway, am going to take it with me to Malaysia tomorrow and I'm arranging a meeting with Dell Malaysia so we'll see what they can come up with eh ?

I'll check in after I come back.....

Ade

 

Hi,

I don't have a temperature monitor in the driver, but also didn't have it in 84.69. I remember I once had it, but I#m nit sure which version it was. Maybe 84.63, but don't know for sure...

 

Hi,

what I noticed today: While working, suddenly the taskbar symbol for the battery showed it was charged. The computer has been on AC for the last days permanently.
I already thought that it was recharged in certain intervals as the battery loses some charge by itself. But until now I never noticed the taskbar symbol indicating this. How is it on your notebooks?

 

Hi, mine has shown the battery symbol ever since I've had the laptop, in the taskbar, in fact I've been trying to find some way of turning it off because I've speedfan and notebook hardware control loaded, and nhc shows the battery symbol twice in the taskbar....

I'm thinking about uninstalling both of them and installing I8kfanGUI instead because it apparently does the same as both of them and controls the fans too, just downloaded it but will install later. Both the screen and the keyboard are still quite hot....

 

Hi,

mine also had the symbol in the taskbar since I got it, but I never observed the "recharging" of the battery after a few days on AC. But maybe it only happened when I wasn't on the computer or was too busy to notice it...

 

I've not noticed anything unusual about battery or charging symbols. I had to go to power options to always show it since that's the way I like it set up.

I have however had my graphics display go berserk (lots of flickering horizontal lines on a black screen). A reboot fixed it though. I think it was because I'd hibernated the laptop about a dozen times without a clean start. Still I hadn't seen it before changing drivers so I'll keep an eye out for it happening again.

The other thing that's a worry is that the fans don't seem to kick in until things get rather hot. I'm regularly seeing peak temps in the mid 70s (especially for the GPU). The machine doesn't have to be under load either. That can't be good for the laptop at all. I know I could set up i8kfan to kick in sooner but I'm reluctant to use 3rd party software to control cooling for both warranty and performance reasons.

 

Computer hasn't crashed since the disk format / XP re-install, nearly 4 weeks ago.

 

I uninstalled Dells drivers for my 7900GTX and have been using Nvidia drivers from the Nvidia site for 6 months now and have been BSOD free since the change. I have also updated the Bios as they have been revised.

 

Hmmm, well, back from Malaysia about a week....

They changed the motherboard (again), the graphics card and fan (again) and they put a new screen in, it still didn't change the problem with the heat....between 66-76 degrees c idle.

After about 2 and half hours of testing and phoning his manager, I told the technician about the I8kfanGUI software, but stressed that I didn't particularly want to rely on this software or any software and that it should be cool enough to run smoothly on it's own, it resolved the heat straight away! But even though it did resolve this issue I'm not happy, why should we have to put up with this ? I don't know of any computers I've had in the past or worked on before in the past that need this extra software to just run normally, do you ? It's ridiculous.

I spoke to his manager after doing some testing with the technician, who was adjusting the temperature thresholds of the fans to be started at, and asked him if he could get in touch with the main office, in California (?), to see if they could write a new bios file and update the drivers for the graphics card on the sites. By the way, I told him that I was using the 7950 GTX drivers and he uninstalled them and tried with the drivers from the site, I've been using those drivers ever since.

I've downloaded and tried the laptop with F.E.A.R, the single player demo, and it seems to play ok, since I came back.....temperatures still seem to fluctuate during play but it seems to be ok, but I still can't seem to get my mind off of the fact that I8kfanGUI is controlling all this and is probably running the fans more often than they should be....I haven't clocked the card either, before anybody says anything. The drivers are the 84.29(?), not too sure about the correct number, anyway, they're the ones that are 'up to date' on the website....

Now, the thing that's worrying me.....the manager agreed with me that this is a problem and through the problems I've been having (and everybody else), that I've only had a month's use out of this laptop, I've had the blue screen for about 4/5 months without any new parts getting here, from Dell UK, having replaced almost every part in the machine since I'd spoken to Dell Malaysia and still the issue persists that he would not be able to do a straight replacement or a replacement to the equivalent.

I asked about what the hell they were doing about the warranty transfer, considering it had taken a month to go through and still no news, he spoke to the Customer Care department whilst I was on the other end of the phone and after about 10 minutes he came back on....he asked if it would be ok if I accepted another year warranty as compensation....I obviously told him that I would think about it as I didn't really want to be their testing tech for another year, seeing as I'm not staff, I'm the customer. But, what do you think I should do ?

Oh, by the way, they've now told me that my warranty hasn't been transferred because it's 'country specific' ! What the hell is up with that ? First, I can't get support because Dell Thailand doesn't support Inspiron laptops and now they tell me this....what stupidity next eh ?! Anyway, the manager is looking into it and he's going to let me know the situation, I can't believe for a minute this can be right but looking back at the events I wouldn't put it past them.

Adrian

 

I didn't take the time to read all the messages in this thread, but i have gotten the titular message on my Latitude D630 with an NVIDIA NVS 135m. Dell is sending a replacement computer because they think the graphics card is broken. Hopefully this problem won't occur on the new computer.

 

My laptop has been running for 1 week straight. Over two weeks IIRC after installing the 7950GTX drivers. During this time, it's gone through a 48 hour lan party session. I am going to be running tests with World of Warcraft at maxed settings in a bit.

 

Well, this thread is really long. I've been having the parity error problem for about 4 or 5 months now, and this thread is still the number one result on Google. There's a LOT of data in this thread with varying problems and degrees of success.

I'm on a Dell Inspiron E1705/9400.

My problem is that whenever I play a graphically intense (Not ALL graphically intense games. It seems ones that are less optimized, betas, new games, etc, cause this more often) I'll get a memory parity error. The timing is random. The games so far this has happened with are WoW (very very rare. Usually after playing for QUITE a while), GRAW2, LotR:O, and just recently Tabula Rasa beta.

It's most definitely not a RAM problem, as I have not only run a memory test, but also installed new RAM (upgraded from 1 gig to 2 gigs.). I've tried many different video drivers, but I'm about to try the 92.77 drivers someone recommended previously.

This whole ordeal is making me want to just buy a new laptop (I'm missing some keys on my keyboard, it's scratched up, about a year and a half old) but I don't think one's in the budget.

 

If you have an 7900 GS and are receiving the blue screen, definitely give the 7950 GTX drivers a shot. So far, there haven't been any reports of negative side-effects from using these drivers for the 7900.

 

Your temps are normal for the 7900GS as in mine.. and many others, did I miss something? 20 watt cards DO get hot.

 

This issue is directly rated to heat, the compatibility isnt the driver, its the fact that the temperature for the control of the fan cooling the motherboard is well wrong. at least in the 7900GS version of this problem. In my machine the GFX would regularly be allowed to go over 70C without the fan turning on. I downloaded i8kfanGUI and forced the GFX heatsink fan to run at least on slow all of the time, ramping up to fast over 50C. under load my card now maxes 60C. I have not had a single parity error since forcing the fan to run. I even have squeaked out some overclocking on it since its out of warranty now. The noise also isn't too bad at all.

hydra, 66-76 degrees idle isn't normal at all. that's a load temperature. Idle it should be 45 - 50C. much over 80C and chips start having problems. unless they are specially designed chips, which are prohibitively expensive for consumer electronics

Edit: the reason it runs so hot is poor firmware implementation by dell, not the card or the heat sink. the heat sink and fan are perfectly capable of cooling the card significantly . but the fan control is flat out terribly implemented.

 

70c-80C is normal for GPU even 100C is OK

 

hello,

just wanted to give my input on this issue.

i have a dell inspiron 9400 with 2gb ram and the 7900 gs card. i purchased the computer around nov 2006 and a few months later began getting the nmi error while playing graphic intensive games such as world of warcraft. at first it only happened intermittently, maybe after 3 hours of play and i didnt think much of it, id just reboot my comp and move on, the error wouldnt reoccur immediately.

the problem began getting worse when i started playing lord of the rings online which is a more graphic intensive game than wow. the nmi error would come up after only being on the game for about 30 mins, and a reboot didnt help, id log back on the game and the comp would freeze with the error.

i tried every new driver for the card at the time, messed with the graphic settings in the game, updated the bios, made sure i had all the latest windows xp updates, even formatted my hd and reinstalled xp professional. i also downloaded the i8kfangui, nothing worked, the error would still occur.

I began getting the error no matter what game i played. Even if i played an older 3d game the comp will freeze with the error. basically it got worse over time.

however fast forward to about 3 weeks ago. i had always suspected it was a heat issue, especially after reformatting and reinstalling windows and messing with the fangui, none of which worked. I had noticed throughout this time that the keyboard would get very hot to the touch when i played games.

so what i did was bought a small desk fan, turned it on high and pointed it down at the keyboard. this worked. i have not had the error since i did this and i can now play any game for any length of time with no nmi error.

so after all this bull**** turns out placing a fan pointed at the keyboard fixed the problem. obviously, as people in this thread have stated, this particular dell model has cooling issues.

hope this helps anyone else with the same problems.

edit: just to clarify, i dont use the laptop keyboard or monitor. i use a dell 22 inch widescreen and a usb keyboard. so the laptop is sitting on my desk off to the side, open, with a fan blowing on the keyboard. i imagine this solution wouldnt help people who dont use their laptop as their home desktop. i never move my laptop, its basically a desktop computer for me.

 

Hi guys,

I somehow can't believe that it's a general heat issue. Sometimes I play games like F.E.A.R. or CoD2 on high settings for hours and never had the Parity Check BSOD. The only 2 times I got it, I did office work or browsing.
Other notebooks with 7900GS like the Toshiba P100-series get even much higher temps.
During gaming, my card doesn't come over 65°C or so, as the fans are running all time. In idle or light work, it sometimes gets a bit warmer when the fans don't come on for a longer time. But they do that definitly more often since I've Bios A09.

 

Hi, hmm, back again peeps....well, I'm not happy at all at these temperatures whatsoever and from an electrical point of view it's not safe and it's not good for any pcb. 76 degrees C doing nothing normal ? Come on ! From what I've learnt from messing around with amplifiers in the past is that no solder point will last when put through vigourous heat all the time, it buckles eventually, and most of the time if you don't control it it'll happen far too quickly.

Yes, I haven't received a blue screen since the reinstall, fitting all the new replacement parts, etc.., but I'm hardly putting it through it's paces, I ran the F.E.A.R demo about 5 or 6 times and it didn't seem to spark anything off, but I have installed that I8kfanGUI software so I'm not too sure if it's really a test....I'm scared to do much else with it graphically. Ok, this software seems to be controlling the heat but if you look at it from a no-nonsense point of view it seems obsurd, and as inertiadriftsc said, this is down to a really poorly designed firmware/bios configuration, which Dell should sort out. a

All in all I'm just not happy with all of what's gone on, and don't think anybody should be happy with the state of the build, installing extra unsupported software and going through all the replacement part hassle should not be an option and something we, as paying customers, should go through. They should've tested the system rigourously before they made a hell of alot of money out of people and put it onto the market, there should be a business practice standard for this kind of behaviour, if not already there exist one...which Dell has broken the law.

I've just been told, by the Customer Care Department at Dell Malaysia, that even after the list of replacement parts replaced, even after the fact that I've only had one month use out of the laptop in 6/7 months that I don't have the right to a full refund, is that right ? Or are they trying to pull a fast one on me ? Should I take further action, and if so what, or should I accept their offer of a free 2 Gb pen drive or an extended warranty of a year, to test their balls up of machine further some more....and most likely have to replace the graphics card fan a couple of times because of it being on all the time ?

Sadukar,

for a piece of hardware that's not doing anything apart from showing a still image ? Come on, who are you fooling....more precisely, who the hell are you working for ? Dell by any chance....? Don't be so ridiculous.

Adrian

 

I kinda want to step in here.

Keep in mind here we are talking about a laptop. Not a desktop. There is alot less breathing room in there and therefore things will run hotter than a desktop where there is more room for air circulation. GPU cards are designed to take really high heat levels and for laptops 70c - 80c is the generally accepted idle temperature. Please be aware that if you do have an issue that has not yet been resolved Dell does have an Unresolved Issues department that you can email. They may be able to assist you in a manner that other departments could not. In my case they replaced my laptop and I have not had any major issues since. My first laptop would produce a blue screen about once every 2 weeks (no consistency). My second one has been blue screen free since I got it.

 

Same here. All of mine were while downloading off the internet. I actually had 2 within about 1 hour with my first laptop which kinda broke the once every 2 week pattern that was going with it. My replacement has had no such issue which leads me to believe it was a hardware issue. No clue what as all the hardware tests passed in Dell Diagnostics even after the long test but something was wrong.

 

Guys, the 7900 "Slow Protects" at 100C. Fix my laptop, who told you that your high powered 7900GS is burning up at 70C-80C? If you want run the heck out of yours fans, go for it. My fans will auto kick on "high" when needed for games, or when GPU gets to the high BIOS preset. If you want a cool runing laptop, you should have chossen the whimpy Intel GPU..now that runs cold.

Search NF for other OC and non OC temps..70C to 86C is the price you pay for a high powered GPU.

 

No, I quoted you my idle temps. My under load OC temps go to 84C, fans on high. So, my question is how do YOU determine that 66-76 isn't normal? As suggested on previous post, search these and post on NotebookForums site. You will find a one or two suspect low readings, lol. Dell choose the BIOS fan points for noise control, so I just use I8kfan for the last 15 months to set fans on low for day to day use.

Not one blue screen here, I8kfan or not running 20 or so games during the last 15 months. Check my SIG.

 

No need to get defensive. Regardless of what normal operating temperatures are, GPU temperatures of 70c are enough to cause the BSOD for me with perfect consistency. As long as I force the fans to run (because they don't kick in until it's far too late) and use a desk fan, there's no error.

I have a Geforce Go 7900 GS, Inspiron E1705.

I'm going to try the new Nvidia drivers, but if that doesn't work I'm just gonna focus on cooling, or maybe send it in to Dell when I'm on vacation.

Like I said before, there are many different things that can cause the NMI Memory Parity error. Overheating is definitely the cause (direct or indirect) for some of us.

 

Yes. The cause seems to vary with no real consistency as to where it is being caused.

@dardreamr -- try the 94.22 drivers that was released by Dell. You can get them at laptopvideo2go.com. That is what I am using right now.

 

Hi,

I was just running the 94.22 on my notebook just to see if it has any performance improvements to 84.69. I couldn't notice any, but had 2 BSODs related to the nv4disp.dll in the last 2 weeks.

=> I went back to 84.69

But I have to say I do not have the parity check error.

Greets

 

I've tried pretty much every driver. I don't think the problem I have can be fixed by software. I'm gonna take apart my laptop and clean the inside thoroughly, see if that helps. If not I'm gonna ask for a motherboard, cpu, and gpu replacement. As it stands now I can keep the error from occurring just by using a desk fan though.

 

I just had this same error happen to me 3 days ago. When I rebooted the computer I got a bunch of artifacts on the screen as soon as the BIOS info screen showed up. When it was loading XP as soon as the video drivers loaded the screen turned black and stayed that way. I have previously flashed the video card from the 7900GS to the GTX bios. I tried reflashing back to the original bios and reflashing the computer's bios also. Nothing has helped. My GPU temps used to max out at 84 degrees under load. The only way I can get the video working is to go into safe mode and use VGA drivers. As soon as I load in any Nvidia drivers the screen gets some artifacts for a few seconds then goes black. Is my video card fried?

 

Hi,
I'm new there but I have the same problem... And I would like to what have I discovered about the case.
First, the whole thing doesn't happen if I have the "optimal battery live" option on in CCC. Doesn't matter, if I work on A/C or on the battery.
Second, I think that this could be something with Windows Update... When my WinXP was out of date, the BSOD wasn't showing. But after installing all critical patches from WU site, BSOD appeared after few minutes...
So, I think, that it is surely something with software.
Oh, and one more thing: when I haven't any drivers installed (I mean the one from dell's site and omega drivers), the BSOD isn't showing...
So, to reasume: try turning on the optimal battery option in POWERPLAY options in CCC.
I will try to reinstall WinXP in few days when I have some time and I won't install any updates from WU (except service pack 2).
Good luck with this f***ing BSOD

 

For me it was heat related. I was having this error constantly. Cleaned out the fan and air passages and haven't had the problem for about 5 months now.

 

I think i've generally managed to figure out what is causing/how to fix the NMI: Memory parity check errors and/or Nv4_disp errors that are associated with this issue/ and or crash. Quick little backround: I spoke with a DELL official over the phone to find out the exact information about the fans and when they kick in. Basically the computer is made to take a load of up to 70 degrees celsius before the fans really kick in, that's what he said. That of course is 158 degrees farenheit for those of you who don't know. At those temperatures the CPU may work (i'm not sure if that's true, or not) however, the graphics card does not. By using a third party program I monitered the temperature levels and got these results for you to keep in mind.

1. I'm not saying every single person who has this, has gotten this because of a heat related issue, some of you may indeed have bad memory or a bad graphics card.

that being said.

2. Those of you who think that this is random, are wrong, I used a program stated on these forums known as I8kfanGUI (google it, this will fix your problems), I noticed that the temperature of the CPU is not directly only related to games, but also anything.. anything your computer does raises the temperature significantly, so by the time you start your game, or software, or video (even if it only takes a few seconds) your computer is likely already too hot. This gives the impression that it is random, because temperature can and does vary so much, not only on the computer but also the enviroment, however; it is NOT random.
3. DELL does not have any programs / drivers / anything that will fix this for you, it is an issue with the computer itself, the BIOS or one of the computer's many core programs is set to run the fans on at a certain temperature, and that I don't know how to change.
4. My suggestions to all of you is this; run I8kfanGUI, carefully note the temperature when idle. Then, turn your fans onto "force fans onto high" in the program, this will bring your temperature down significantly. Now run your game/software/ browse the internet etc. whatever it is you do, moniter at what temperature your computer crashes / has issues / tears in graphics / etc. Now you have your benchmarks, and you can modify the program so that it runs when the temperatures get too hot.
5. On a final note; at least for me, the graphics card is not monitered as far as temperature goes, only the CPU, that being said.. you need to use the CPU's temperature as a sort of twin.. and assume that when it is hot, so is the graphics card. In fact, when I opened my computer up to check the internal temperature I noticed, and now know that the graphics card temperature will be MUCH hotter than the CPU. The CPU is all you have to go on though, so use it.

To sum this up in a few lines;
1.) no graphics driver will fix this, hardware is not the entire issue either.
2.) download I8kfanGUI
3.) moniter what the temperature is when your computer crashes
4.) override normal (insanely ridiculous and harmful) temperature control settings by simply running the fans when needed.
5.) Done, good luck.

for those of you who need a little bit of extra help with 18KfanGUI or other fan control software:
1.) my games stop functioning around when my CPU hits 50 celsius (trust me the graphics card is MUCH hotter). Thus, I have my settings set up like this: 45 celcius activates low fan, low fan ends at 40 celsius. 52 celsius activates high fan, when dropped to 45 it reverts to low fan. that's it.

 

Back again....I installed a 7900gs from dell to replace the 1400x in my e1705 this past winter. A couple of weeks later I started to get the errors. Reinstalled windows, drivers, and all of the usual to no avail. Replaced with the 1400x and no probs.

Dell sent me a replacement computer after replacing everything but would not send one with the 7900 already installed. So I have waited to see if I was going to get the problem again. No probs,however, now I want my 100gb hard drive back in (I wanted to slowly piece all of this back together and install the 7900 on a clean HD). I have brand new $300 7900gs just sitting there but I am afraid to put that 7900gs into the new computer.

My question is: if I am going to put the 100gb HD in, should I do it with the 7900gs or should I put the new drive in with the Radeon 1400x (Then clean the radeon drivers and install the nvidia card and drivers)?

Like I said I am afraid to put that 7900gs back in because I am problem free with the Radeon. I am pretty sure it is a heat thing with the 7900 and my first e1705. Or I guess I could sell the 7900 and wait to get a desktop.

 

Valhalla, it IS a heat issue. Most likely, the radeon will not encounter any problems, the Nvidia 7900 eventually WILL.
Also, being this is a heat issue, it can and DOES eventually damage your computer (over a long period of time), so, Simply put, it's a matter of how much work you're willing to do; read my above post. Also, if you choose the Nvidia, you will need to do some manual heat control:

To sum this up in a few lines;
1.) no graphics driver will fix this, hardware is not the entire issue either.
2.) download I8kfanGUI
3.) moniter what the temperature is when your computer crashes
4.) override normal (insanely ridiculous and harmful) temperature control settings by simply running the fans when needed.
5.) Done, good luck.

***Note on my earlier post: After much research I have found some games, that are VERY graphics intensive, require you to run fans on "force fans to high" constantly, otherwise, the card/ computer heats up, crashes, keep this in mind. ***

 

Hello everyone, I am new to forums of any kind but I was on my secondary computer a dell 4700 and I have had it for a long time now, never had a problem with it until two days ago. My son was playing on the computer, Star wars Battlefront or something, and all of a sudden my system shut down and when we tried to reboot it, it would beep really weird. so I opened the cover and it was very hot inside, I left it by a fan over night, just to see if it over heated. Turned it on in the morning and it booted up just fine, about 10 minutes later it crashed.(Btw the fans inside work perfectly, if not just a little bit dusty -coughs-) so I been letting it sit for about 15 minutes at a time and booting it up, it turns on and such and I ran scan disk, virus scans, just to see if I could pick up anything I could detect on my own. I did a system restore and looked at what was done on the past few days, implimented the system restore one day back to see what would happen and instead of it crashing totally, I got the Blue screen with this error message.

***Hardware Malfucntion
Call your Hardware Vendor for Support
NMI: Parity Check / Memory Parity Error
***The System has Halted

Okay, I am not a computer genius and it seems you all seem to know quite a bit more than I do which is why I chose you all for some user to user help, I am not a fan at all of dell support, so if I can try and figure out the problem before callin thje tech support I could just get what I need and install it. To me, and this is just my own input, I think it has something to do with the Processer, Hard drive possibly, Or a Update gone totally wrong and wreaked havoc on drivers and such. Right now I miss my old gateway with win 98 and wulfenstine but the kids need the " Non-fossilsed " Computers. So if any of you all have something that may help me with my problems or couyld give me some insight as to some solutions I would be eternally greatful. Thank you all for your time and patience with my long post, Again I thank you.

 

Mojorider, it IS a heat issue. The fact your son was playing a game that requires large amount of graphics card power points to this as well. Simply put, your computer is heating up, when playing games especially, and this leads to the error you are then seeing. The fact that it works a few minutes after you let it cool down also proves this. To fix it:

To sum this up in a few lines;
1.) It's not a bad software install, or virus, and it won't be fixed by "rolling back" your computer to when it worked.
2.) download I8kfanGUI (use google to find it)
3.) monitor what the temperature is when your computer crashes
4.) override normal (insanely ridiculous and harmful) temperature control settings by simply running the fans when needed. -> You may also "force fans to high" whenever playing games (such as star wars battlefront) and it should be just fine.
5.) Done, good luck.

***Note on my earlier post: After much research I have found some games, that are VERY graphics intensive, require you to run fans on "force fans to high" constantly, otherwise, the card/ computer heats up, crashes, keep this in mind. ***

 

I posted about what, 23 pages back (march)? I've not had the problem again on my Inspiron, and I suspect it was heat the time it did crash (I'd left the laptop on an uneven surface that may have blocked the vents).

 

This is most definitely a heat related issue. Like others, I first started to get this error while playing graphically intense games (LotR, for example). I get the error when my GPU hits about 70C (whether or not this is a "normal" or "acceptable" temperature). At first, I thought I could resolve the issued by cleaning out the fans, but I soon realized (like others) that my fans weren't actually running when they should have. That being said, maybe 70C is the most the card can handle after having been overheated one too many times... Who knows?

 

FYI - Just got done chatting with Dell. They're going to replace both my Video Card (GeForce GO 7900GS) and memory (2GB 667 MHz) within the next couple of days.

 

Ok, I finally got my system working again. The NMI error's have gone away after replacing my Geforce 7900GS card with a Quadro FX 2500M. This card is running at least 20 degrees celcius cooler than the GS card. Problem solved.