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

I bought my Dell laptop in August 2006. I didnt had any problems with anything until my motherboard got damaged by some rain that made its way in my notebook while it was on (I know, stupid me).
I sent the computer back, and they changed my motherboard. Nothing else. A while after receiving my laptop back, I started seeing these Blue Screens, mostly when I'm logging on World of Warcraft.
My video Card is a GeForce Go 7900 GS, with 256 Mo of memory.
So this story makes me thing the problem is the motherboard. What do you guys think?

 

I still say it's the drivers, but of course one tends to speak from personal experience as it stands the most firm in their mind.

I bought mine in August 2007 as well...interesting.

 

We have about 5 D620s that we recently put atheros GN-WI01GT cards into. Within a day we had calls from all 5 people getting NMI Memory partiy error blue screens several times a day.

We tried the newest Gigabyte drivers for the Atheros card, no go. These have Intel video cards so the Nvidia driver update solution wouldn't work for us. The only other thing that I had to go off of were suggestions that it could be thermal. This seemed viable since if I gave it no break after a blue screen and just rebooted it would blue screen again within 10 minutes. Repeatable. I then let it cool down for an hour. Turned back on and it ran for an hour or two before a blue screen. Again with no breaks it would crash every 10 minutes after this.

I removed the plastic bezel that holds keyboard in place as well as the keyboard (flipped it forward and used external keyboard). I felt the atheros card and it did not feel out of bounds as far as temps goes. But I let it cool down for 30 minutes. I then left the keyboard flipped forward and the bezel off with a fan on it and turned it back on. It ran for 24 hours. To make sure it wasn't a fluke I put it all back together and turned off the external fan. Within a few hours it blue screened again. Again repeatable within 10 minutes thereafter.

I tried some software to manually control the Dell laptop fan and set it to force high speed. The temps on everything were fine but still blue screened. This affirmed that it had to be a problem with the pci express temps. I popped out the acrylic insert on the right side of the bezel that contains all of the indicators for the power light, hard drive light, etc and put the bezel back in place to see if that would be a large enough hole to provide proper ventilation. It ran all weekend with no blue screens. Hmm... sure seems thermal. I noticed too that there is a small hole in the bezel right below those indicators. Could this have been the solution dell came up with to keep the the broadcom wifi card they sell from over heating?

The test I am currently running is that I removed the rubber gasket that is around the plastic acrylic insert to see if that might allow for enough air to pass through that area for the atheros pci express card. So far it is still running, but it has only been a couple of hours. I will call Dell if this does not solve the problem and ask if they have a replacement bezel with more exhaust holes in it.

Also wondering if maybe for those that the Nvidia driver update fixes the problem is that the drivers maybe reduce the temps on the video chipset enough that the thermals are not a problem anymore? I don't believe anyone for whom the nvidia fix worked had also installed a third party pci expess card so this could indicate that it is thermal, but that the updated drivers made the card run more efficiently and reduced temps to acceptable levels for the cooling solution Dell has in place.

I'll try to remember to come back and post an update if the laptop continues to run with just the rubber gasket removed, or what Dell has to say if I have to go there. I'd really rather not though after hearing about everyone elses experience, and just the fact that they obviously don't seem interested in solving this one for people who buy third party pci express cards. Maybe we'll have our maintenance department drill a couple more precision holes in the bezel next to the one that is already there.

 

I have a dell inspiron 9400 and i have had the same prblem as well as the parity error.
Dell have come and replaced my motherboard and GFX card (7900GS) TWICE and my LCD ONCE.
It works fine for about a day and POOF same things keep appearing. They said they will be comming to replace ram motherboard and lcd and graphics card.

I have put my ram from my laptop into the Inspiron and the inspiron into mine...
My laptop (Asus G2S) has had no problems with its ram in it for almost 2 weeks while the Inspiron keeps with the same problem OVER and OVER again....
So i will keep you posted on the Dell replacement.
For all i know it could actually be the Wireless card...But tha seems to work fine. Forgot to mention..i have re-installed 3 times over this whole time...SAME over and over and the blocks appear in safe mode too....

 

Heat seems to be a viable explanation. It makes since for a driver update that performs better to fix this problem. Not to mention my old lappy (Dell Inspiron) had blue screen errors (yes plural, not just the nmi parity error) and turned out to be a thermal problem.

Good luck getting any help from Dell. After going through tech support 3-4 times, i would've smashed my Dell to pieces and enjoyed every minute of it (if someone hadn't already offered me money for it). It would've been a true office space experience =)

 

[Follow up to #609]


[See frustrating update below]
It seems to have worked for 24 more hours to just take out the rubber gasket and leave the status light insert in. I'm guessing it is there to block dust from getting around the status light insert? But I'll take dust over blue screens. I put the gasket back in after letting it continue to run all morning and it blue screened within 5 minutes. Sure seems like either doing this or drilling a few more precision holes in the bezel if you dare would solve this issue for the D620s. Be interesting to hear if leaving the bezels off on other models would also keep them running? Seems like this would be empirical evidence for Dell to see that it is a thermal issue.

[Update]
I put the gasket back in just to verify that it would blue screen. It did. However, the frustrating thing is I took it back out and it blue screened. (Even after a 30 minute break). I took out the insert it blue screened. I took the bezel off it blue screened. I don't know why it cooperated for several days of continuous operation, just to make me think it was thermal I guess. I can now see everyone's frustration.

 

Well.. I'm back to this thread again

Updating to the 5.x atheros driver fixed my problems for about a week, then suddenly I have no system crash.. but am unable to connect to any wireless network, secured or not. The whole driver has boinked itself or something. Tried reinstalling the driver and it made no difference. Something in the registry is getting messed up.. next windows reinstall hopefully I'll be able to find the problem this time.

 

I've been getting the blue screen for almost a year, until I read this thread. I kept trying all the different things, and then I tried keeping an eye on the temperature of my laptop using l8kfanGUI. Turns out that was it. I now keep my laptop on a well ventilated surface, and I've not gotten a NMI error since then. I'm also using the 7950 drivers, just in case you wanted to know.

 

hello people,

i'm currently using XPS M1210 with the nVidia GeForce Go 7400 256MB config.

problem came like this: was playing hellgate:london then my (stock) laptop crashed and couldn't start at all. they've changed the motherboard and then this dreaded parity check error came in until i've lost track of how many times it occurred. mostly when streaming videos thro youtube (was surfing hardwarezone forums)

tried the l8kfangui, reinstalled the driver from the dell website, they've even changed the LCD cable yesterday.

question:
1. any m1210 users out there to share my problem? it's annoying as hell.
2. anyone to provide drivers from nVidia themselves?
3. advices? i don't want to backup data or reinstall xp anew.

thanks in advance.

 

I actually got my first one in 9 months a few days ago. I think it is this dang Gigabyte adapter I have here. I'm taking it out and seeing what happens.

 

Ok, I'm back with another possible solution. My boss noticed that after he installed Vista SP1 Release Candidate his parity error had gone away. I am running XP on my laptop so I thought maybe the same correction that seems to be in Vista SP1 RC will be in Windows XP SP3 Release Candidate. You can find it pretty easily by searching on Google. I've installed and this sucker ran all weekend through to today Tuesday morning. No blue screens. Typing on it right now. This is with a Dell D620 and Atheros card. I've not stress tested it yet, but this thing would just blue screen at the login prompt if I let it sit. Can someone else try this if they have Atheros problem and let me know if it is just coincidence that mine have seemingly gone away?

JC

 

Hi all, i brought my xps m1710 in august 06 and as far as i can remember ive pretty much had the problem from the start, it only happens to me playing games. In particular during BF2. It used to only happen in xp and vista used to be fine but i have since gone to just using vista and it continues to happen even though its vista. It doesnt happen everytime i play, but once it starts when playing it continues. I have gone some noghts of playing without it happening at all. Every time i play i use my laptop cooler to help keep the heat down, and this works pretty well. It certainly stops the laptop fans coming on full speed even when playing. I dont remember it ever happening outside of a game. I havent read every single thread in the forum but am i right in thinking its only dell computers. If so has everyone got dell quickset installed, just a thought as it controls a few things. Also im still trying to work out if i have a headset connected each time it happens aswell. This uses usb and the audio jacks. Trying to cover every angle here. The fact that it only ever used to happen in xp and not vista interests me. Although its now happening in vista and i dont have xp installed anymore. Does it boil down to drivers? Lets hope someone can solve this once and for all

 

this happened to my boss twice, it is not a memory issue, we swapped memory with another dell (same model D630) and the error still occurred, also had issues with GARBLED video with or without the port replicator be it on external monitor or laptop display (dock station etc)

 

LOL.
I had the issue twice so far, ONLY in XP SP2, not in vista(which I had before) , and ONLY after trying to resume from S3(standby).
I`m hoping it will stay that way.
By the way, did no hardware upgrades or changes, and I never used my wireless card ,never had a chance to. System is from august 2007.

 

Well, after going through several stages in eliminating different things im hoping ive solved the problem. Ive tried removing the wireless card and the modem with no joy. I then decided to reseat my graphics card. That was 3 days ago and i havent had a blue screen since so far. I have an xps m1710 and to reseat the graphics card is quite easy. During this time i have played Battlefield on a few occassions and been fine. This was when it would really happen. The night i decided to reseat the card it happened 3 times, so hopefully problem solved and i will keep you updated.

 

:confused2: :confused2: :confused2: :cry: Well about 5 days later got the blues screen so, that didnt solve it

 

God damn it, second time I've spent over an hour writing a post only to be logged out from inactivity, ****ing lame.

Well alright, I've been following the forum for moooonths, and have tried to post before, but I'm totally sick of repeating my super post, So I'm going to keep this sweet and simple due to my well deserved irritability.

I've got an E1705, also purchased in August 06. Also getting the NMI parity error. This computer was tank, I was very proud of it, I used this computer non-stop, we're talking 4-16 hours a day for well over a year.

I saw my first NMI parity error bsod almost exactally a year after I had owned the computer, I figured it was software, so I just reinstalled and was fine, but it still poped up here and there irregularly. It became a dibilitating problem, at the time I did graphic design professionally, so losing work became a frequent problem. I'm also a fellow WoW player, nothing worse then getting having something happen in the middle of a instance or raid. So I just put it on the back burner for a while that way I wouldnt waste any more time playing catch up because of Dell's subpar manufacturing.

Every month I took a few days to play with it. Software, drivers, take it apart, multimeters, thermometers, put it back together, w/e. I always knew it got hot, but when I had it torn apart to actually test the heat buildup it wasnt a problem (of course). After months of trying, I gave up, came very close to scrapping it out, or making a ghetto-desktop out of it, but I've already got waay nicer desktops, I dont need another, I need my laptop to work.

Its been a good 6 months since my E1705 first went out of commission, I havent touched it in a month or two. Here is what I have found, and this is something that might help if we could collectively test to do a mass deduction.

First off: Drivers, short term fix, I havent had my E1705 run longer then 4-5 days after a driver swap/update, and I tired to keep it janked up and swap out drivers every 2-3 days, meh, dosent work.

Second: This IS a manufacturing fault.

Third: This IS a termal problem.

Will Dell ever recall our computers? No chance in hell. They WILL make half assed attepts at fixing a problem their senior techs and design staff KNOW is unsolveable? Guys, you have to understand, its cheaper for them to replace a couple hundred mobos to pacify you rather then spend MILLIONS replacing every laptop that are using these manufacturing designs. Is there any REAL solution for our problems? Hell no, just like Veterns, Agent Orange and the Gov't, they're just going to wait for our complants to die out. And in the mean time continue to brainwash consumers into beleiving that Dell products are "high quality."

The current state of my E1705 is compareable to that of a human in late stages of leperocy or AIDs. But I dont even need to get into my machine, because its no diffrent then any of yours, just waay further ahead as I've used this machine as a test bed to hopefully solve everyone elses problems.

Two things, if you get video artifacting right from bootup, please raise your hand. We're talking matrix-code-esque artifacting, fractured characters, gibberish, w/e. You know, even people that dont start to receive graphic artifacting until windows, raise your hands too, I have a test you all need to try to assert that this is a thermal problem.

Ice your lappy, boys and girls! You heard me right! Stick that ***** on that empty space in your fridge where you just removed those 2 week old chinese leftovers yesterday. The whole machine. Stick it in the freezer in a plastic bag. Just get your machine on ice, right now. Let it sit for a good 1-2 hours, about as long as it takes to properly freeze a tray of ice cubes. The colder the better. When you take it out, be ready to boot it as soon as its removed, dont worry about condensation, as long as you didnt put your machine in there while it was hot, you'll be fine. Turn it on.

Do you still have those artifacts at boot? In windows?

Yea. Thats what I thought.

Same thing here.

Dont get all clever with it and try to ice your laptop before every use, this will only make your probems worse.

Now, back to the loads of previous deductions. YES, this is a PCIe fault. This going to occur in two diffrent ways, both listed dozens of times by dozens of diffrent people. You're either going to **** up your wireless card/slot, video card/slot, or both depending on the ammount of heat damage thats been done. Even worse, a new motherboard/wireless card/video card isnt a gaurenteed fix because this problem has just as much to do with the laptop shell as it does the hardware installed inside it.

So after all this, what? Whats the solution? Did we all just get ****ed by Dell? Does this spell out iminent doom for our laptops no matter what we do?

I've got the solution right here guys.

Moderation.

If you're still under warrenty, then you're one lucky *******. If you're not, then you're one unlucky *******. Either way, you're going to have to deal with Dell, beg them for replacement parts, pay, w/e.

Once you DO get set up with new hardware, assuming they dont replace your hardware with something else that got RMA'ed ("refurbished") for the same problem you already have, you gotta watch your useage like a HAWK.

Keep an eye on your temps. ANYTHING over 140 degrees fahrenheit is bad. If that is sustained, you WILL cause PHYISICAL damage to your hardware. Tempatures inside these laptops WILL reach and sit at temps as high as 190F if you dont keep an eye on it. When your laptops reach core temps that high, dont be concerned about your PCIe bus/devices, at this point you're risking your RAM and CPU too.

Is it fair that we should have to babysit our laptop's temps, use 3rd party programs to FORCE our fans to spool at max speed so while we are using it, so it sounds similar to a 747 during flight prep? No, hell no, but this is a problem we all bought in to, and a problem that is likely to never get fixed.

We're all just a bunch of scrubs that bought into DELL hype. We should all get gold stars. Or at least a golf-clap from DELL.

That being said, anything else anyone has to add would of course be greatly apperiated. I may not be correct. I may be totally wrong. But at this point, we're beating around the common-sence bush. I bust my ass 8-10 hours a day as an underpaid computer technican at the biggest small computer place in a town of ~500k people. I may not be a Dell "certified" technican (/laugh) but I know way more then your average joe, computer guy, ugh, geek squad employee, ****, I got $100 on the fact that I would troubleshoot circles around a dell technician. This being said, dont take this post for fact, but as an incredibly well deducted answer for a seemingly unfixable problem.

Replys/Kudos/Constructive Critism/Flames are welcome as always, but I dont know if anyone will be able to offer a better answer then this.

Sorry to everyone else with a $1.5k-2.5k paperweight, I feel your pain.

~Machoo

 

I'm long-winded too, so do what I do.... write your replies in notepad and then click reply and cut-and-paste. That way you have time to proof-read!

So anyway, here goes....I'm sure somewhere down the line someone will search for "Memory parity e1705" in Google as I did, and I'm happy to be able to give some answers.

First of all, lemme say that just recently a friend let me have his e1705 laptop to use to help him do some web development work. He did warn that "It crashes to blue screen randomly" saying it was "some kind of overheating issue". Sure enough, after the laptop sat running for anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours, it would go right to the dreaded bluescreen of death that I know you all have already come to loathe.

Well that would never do. This was a really nice laptop - 2ghz dual core processor, 2 gigs of RAM - and I wasn't just going to accept that this was something it "just did". So what to do?

First, I considered it might be a drivers issue, which doesn't make a LOT of sense, since it was a memory issue, but what the hell. I went to Dell and updated all their software. Rebooted, held my breathe and waited... CRASH

Then I scanned for viruses, malware, spyware, and general disk errors. Reboot, wait... CRASH

I understood that laptops don't generally just start overheating so this was most likely a cooling issue. Unfortunately I will say it's a freaking 2 hour ordeal to get to the fans, but it is possible. Please note that doing this yourself WILL VOID YOUR DELL WARRANTY, but if you're brave enough and you have a small screwdriver, you can find everything you need here : http://repair4laptop.org/disassembly_dell.html. Note that you will have to remove the LCD screen to open the case (yes really) but it's not as bad as it sounds.

So I open the case and remove both cooling fans (on cools the processor and one cools the video card) and I was horrified to find a mutant caterpillar living in each one. Okay, not really, but the size of the dust bunny in each was amazing. This thing sucks up dust better than my vacuum cleaner! It was apparent that this was the problem. With this giant dust ball blocking the sensitive equipment the fan was supposed to be cooling, this was obviously the problem! The parts were overheating from not being cooled and BAM! I cleaned and dusted the internal parts thoroughly, flossed dust from the blades of the fans, reassembled the laptop, patted myself on the back, powered it up and all was well... for about 45 minutes. CRASH!

After much weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth, I decided to test the memory directly. I had already run burn-in tests and the memory passed with flying colors. This is because memory errors are somewhat random on the chips. Burn-in tests can assault the chips, but if it doesn't hit the problem area in just the right way, the memory will work. I mean, you can boot into Windows and use it for a while, right? No reason why the memory wouldn't pass a test. But just to be sure, I took out one of the chips and rebooted. The laptop actually seemed more responsive on the one chip. Maybe this is it, I thought. I used it for about 15 minutes and CRASH!

This is going nowhere, I thought. Such a shame too because it's a really nice laptop. So I swapped to the other chip, rebooted... and it's been running for 2 days straight. Hasn't even hiccuped. I can now say with at least 95% assuredness that the problem is solved.

So let me back up here. The MAIN problem is the fans aren't / didn't cool. This problem MUST BE ADDRESSED, otherwise if you swap bad ram out it's just going to get fried again. But chances are this is just bad, cheap RAM (who the heck is Hynix anyway?) and was destined to fail anyway. Nevertheless, there are plenty of good components, and although 1gig of replacement RAM is only $26, you should price the processor and video card! If your laptop is over a year old like this one, expect that yours has the same buildup.

I hope this serves you well. Your laptop isn't broke, Dell tech support is a joke for not knowing how to fight this problem, and if this fix saves your day, feel free to drop me a tech support donation at my Paypal account - [email protected]... but an email of thanks would be good too!

Your techie pal in the know,
Rush Montgomery III

 

I have a Dell Latitude D620. I got the memory parity error for a couple of weeks off and on until the laptop finally refused to boot up (it got into a rebooting/error loop). Today I put the hard drive from the fried laptop into a different (refurbished) D620 and it works fine. So this is definitely a hardware issue. By the way, you can get the temperature monitoring program at http://www.diefer.de/i8kfan/index.html. My CPU temperature is now at 44 degrees and everything is working fine.

 

I had the NMI error for over 6 months, with everything in the laptop replaced. Dell finally replaced the laptop. The only diffrence i can see in the replacement system is that they are using Kingston RAM, not the no name crap i had before. I've now been running for 2 months without seeing a problem.

Also just a note to everyone that thinks heat is causing the problem, no it's not, heat is a symtom of a problem, not the problem it's self. Ramping the fans up is only masking the problem, not fixing it.

If your under warrently, keep on at Dell, they will replace it. If not and your in the UK, check out the consumer rights act, it's likely you can get them to take action, so long as the laptop is under 3 years old.

 

A big thankyou to Zaron and Machoo for their highly informative posts.

I've been in the same boat as you guys for about a year now and it's been one false hope after another.

I've been running IK8 with fans maxed at temps over 44 degrees celsius.

I thought that the 7950gtx drivers solved it, but I guess the games I've been playing haven't been as intense as I thought they were.

I'll be appealing to dell to have my laptop replaced, but I have a feeling that it'll be a while.

Good luck to everyone else in this mess.

 

Well, I'm new here and, sad to say, the reason I'm here is because I got the NMI error for the first time ever today while using Google Earth...hopefully it will be the first and last time I see it, but somehow, looking at this thread, I'm doubtful. The laptop (e1705, Intel T7200, 2 gb RAM, 7900GS) is almost exactly a year old and my one year warranty actually expires in about a week. If it wasn't for the error and if I hadn't found this thread (and realized how serious the problem can end up becoming), I probably wouldn't extend the warranty. Now, after this, I have a serious decision to make.

I was always nervous about the heat with this laptop, it seemed to get excessively hot with the default fan settings, so after a month or two I started using I8kfan and have set the fans to turn early. Idle, the computer stays around 40 CPU and 55 GPU. I think these have come up since I got it a year ago, most likely because of dust buildup. Personally, I think the ventilation system is flawed. For one, the air gets sucked in from beneath the case so it works like a vacuum, sucking in all the dust and dirt off the surface it happens to be sitting on at the time.

Also, it seems to get hot at strange times. I can play an intense game and the GPU temperatures will get up to high 70s C, low 80s, CPU will be around 60 or so. Then while browsing, or watching streaming videos or while I was using Google Earth (a few minutes before it crashed), the CPU got up to about 70C. I didn't understand why it would get so hot (sometimes I wonder whether the I8kfan readings are accurate). I remember myself thinking that it was kind of strange...is Google Earth that intense on the processor?

In conclusion, I have two questions...

1. Should I renew my warranty? I initially bought it with one year and the year is almost up. I can extend the same warranty for a year ($109), 2 years ($149), 3 ($179), 4 ($209). The computer cost about $1700 when I bought it new. I'm thinking that I should extend it, it's only a question of for how long. Do the warranty prices come down as the laptop gets older...or will they go up?

2. How do I clean out the dust from inside the case without voiding the warranty (if I were to extend it)? Am I allowed to open up the case to a certain point (so that i can better reach the fans and ducts), or is that totally out of the question?
If it is, then f--k Dell, because if I can't clean this thing out adequately myself (because of the voiding warranty issue) and it starts breaking down then they better give me a ****ing new one when the times comes. From what I've heard it seems inevitable that the problem will get worse unless you can alleviate the heat early on.

Thanks for any suggestions or comments. I wish Dell would try to design their computers to last a decade instead of ones that seem to average only 2-4 years without serious problems.

 

The "Memory Parity" error has nothing to do with memory, simply because there is no parity memory in the laptop and the chipset does not support parity memory anyway. So even if there was a memory error it would not be detected.

This is most probably some kind of driver error, however it is very hard to isolate as it is likely interaction between several drivers. The wireless driver or graphic driver are usually the problem, so try experimenting with them to see if there is a combination that works.

 

unsure of whether it's relevant or not, but about a month ago i bought Unreal tournament 3 on my pc, tried playing it and had a wierd "snow " effect which made the game pretty unplayable, i tried a "fix" which involved downloading the latest desktop version of ATi Catalyst (the video drivers, 8.3) and then running it through a "modifier" so that it would install on my system and work with my X1800 Mobility card, where normally it'd just tell me to go download updates from my laptop makers website.

the game ran fine, but i started getting lots of Blue screens, maybe a couple every hour or so with this "memory parity" error, whether i was idling, playing a game, or just listening to music.

last week i decided to uninstall Unreal Tournament seeing as i'm not going to play it on my old com ( too crashey anyway), and i decided to roll back to the stock video drivers for my system, haven't had a single BSOD since, though it may just be coincidence.

if you've downloaded or used 3rd party drivers or anything like that, try rolling back to the Dell stock drivers and see whether the error continues to appear. it does seem to be a driver problem, in my case at least.

 

Some possibly interesting information.

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=69639514&postId=57489076117&sid=1#74

Scroll down to a post by "Parr" and try the method he gives.

This should be able to produce an error that will catch the tech support person's eye.

 

You are a star. theloafingone, you have found my problem. I too got an error on this test. Unfortunately my m1710 is out of warranty. So its either new laptop or desktop pc, or new graphics card which can be changed in these. Dont know what to do. Prob just go to a desktop.

 

i just got the exact same error message on my thinkpad, so it's a problem not unique to dell. but yea, dell sucks and i'll never buy from them again (i was a faithful dell user until i just had enough). i'll call lenovo customer support and see if they have any answers. i'll post here if i figure out what it is

 

This issue is related to bad RAM. I suggest testing your RAM with Microsoft Memory Diagnostics.

 

I am a VAIO user so I dont know if I should post in Dell thread but I have same problem. It occurs only when I play video files and sometimes but it is very annoying.
I play a few games from time to time but it never crashes during that. I have done the Memory diagnostic that comes with vista and it comes clean.

 

I had this with some bad RAM. Getting the RAM replaced solved the problem immediately.

 

Can you tell me what kind of applications caused the error for you? Did you run the memory diagnostics and did it detect any error.

 

I think I might have stumbled on the fix for my E1705. Since I installed the new Atheros drivers (Ver. 7.4.2.105 / Date: 4/1/2008) from Windows Update and Atheros Client Utility (Version 7.0.1.70 / Date: 4/7/2008) over a week ago I have not had one BSOD. I used to get one and sometimes two about every day, especially if I had the E1705 on all day.

The specs of my E1705 are:
* Intel T7200 2GHz Core2Duo Processor
* 2GB 667MHz DDR2 Memory
* Hitachi 80GB 7200RPM Hard Drive
* Pioneer DVR-K06 Slot-loading DVD Recorder
* nVidia GeForce Go 7800 Graphics
* Gigabyte GN-WI01GT Wireless (Atheros AR5006EGS)
* Windows XP Pro SP2

Here's my thread on the new driver and ACU.
New Atheros Wireless Driver On Windows Update

 

i also get this ****ing BSOD message BUT ONLY WHEN I PLAY BF2...... (it started some days ago)

what is Atheros drivers ???

 

hi
i do get this error quite frequently and i'm also able to produce it on purpose.
btw, i have a dell 9400 with 7900gs. it would be nice if someone could check out if he's able to get the BSOD on purpose. what i do is running ATITool (google for it) and then press the "show 3D View" button. Now let the gpu heat up to nearly 70 degrees(with the new 169.09 driver, with the older ones it was around 80 degrees) the hotter the better. Then press the "scan for artifacts" button. if the gpu was hot enough you will now see A LOT of yellow pixels wich should not be there and sometimes you will get the BSOD.
so for me its simply an overheating problem maybe because of a bad programmed fan control by dell(the gpu fan isn't even running on "high")
a thing i also remarked is that with the new driver(169.09 from laptopvideo2go.com) it's harder to get the BSOD, so maybe they did something... and with them you can overclock the card without bios mods.

greetings

 

I HAVE THE FIX! it's your network card!

Most likely everyone having problems is using the broadcom network device. If the device is disabled the memory parity error goes away! Disable the NIC in the BIOS, upgrade your BIOS, remove the broadcom software, enable the NIC and install the most up to date software from dell for the NIC!

 

The above method did not work for me. However I did find my fix.
My FIX
History: After owning my E1705 (bought in the summer of 2006 equipped with a 7900gs) for about 7 months, I got my first parity error. At first I didn't mind too much because they happened intermittently(once or twice a month). However, the NMI errors became more and more frequent with artifacts showing up everywhere, even during the OS loading screens for both Vista and XP. I thought it may have been the temperature, so I went out and bought a laptop cooler and a can of compressed air. Both these methods did not work at all and I was left with a PC that began to increasingly frustrate me. I bought new ram, tried cleaning out the vents and fans, forcing fans to high speed but nothing worked. The below method worked for me and my video card has stopped artifacting for over a week now.

The method:
I ran an industrial blower at 3x the normal atm. pressure (you can try using a less powerful wet/dry vac, that may work too) through my vents and fans that blew out every bit of dust. Before doing this, I had the parity error every time I started any program or game that is at all graphically intensive. IT WAS NOT SO MUCH THE TEMP because the before and after temperatures are not that different. The memory and chipset temps were around the same range while the GPU and CPU temps decreased 10-20 degrees celcius. Before the GPU was around 70-80+ and the CPU was around 40-50 during heavy use. But these ranges are still comfortably safe from the research I've done. So hopefully those nasty artifacts and random BSOD crashes have stopped for a while. I was actually on the verge of buying a whole new video card but i'm glad I tried dusting out my computer.

I will keep people posted if my solution continues to work.

 

I'm using a Dell XPS and twice in the last 5 days I've the computer has crashed because of this Memory Parity problem. I can't afford to be without my laptop when it is being serviced by Dell. Any suggestions? The computer is only 10 months old.
Thanks

 

Well i was just going thru some stuff and found this post here.

I have my XPS M1210 with a 7400 for about a Year and in the last few month i have that BSOD coming up sometimes more sometimes less.

I bought new ram 2GB did not help that Problem ( i used that Dell ram in my eeepc no problem at all...lol) I Upgraded to Atheros WIFI still the same. I installed Dell Garphic Driver and i used teh Official Nvidia Driver no fix on me.

But i did one thing that made it quit giving me BSOD...

I installed Ubuntu i never had any trouble with hanging up or anything else.

So after playing around with Ubuntu which i enjoyed i decid to go back to windows because of my WIFI crad was not Supported that well (range and Super G) anywho...i installed a fresh install from Windows XP and all the Updated Driver i can find i had no problems for about 2-3 Month but now i got it back...

Well i will keep my eye open for the nedded Support for my WIFI so long i will deal with the BSOD..

My 2cent

Little_Ho

 

For months now my laptop has been coming up with an NMI parity check / error in blue screen after about 5 minuates of playing games. I have looked through loads of posts about this specific problem and people seem to have different solutions, wich is probably because this error can be caused by different things.

Im almost 100% sure my problem is to do with heat in the laptop, more specificaly the graphics card, overheating. I recently contacted dell about this and i am now to recive a new graphics card (the 7950 gtx as apposed to the 7900 gtx). Anyway the reason i belive it to be heat related and not driver related is because i found a "temporery fix", in that my flate-mate has a large portable fan, the past few months i have been using this fan, pointing it at the back of the laptop and the nmi error blue screen rearly appears, however without this fan i can get this error within a minuate of playing.

Just wondering if anyone else has had this problem and had there graphics card modle changed, not just replaced, if so what was the outcome, thanks for reading

 

Hey noticed this old post with the memroy parity errors. Happenign to me very often especially when playing COD4 in multiplayer. Never happens in single player or other games so far. I figure it must be the RAM on the video cared its referring to as the main RAM i changed with soem corsair a while back. It seems to be getting worse and more often now. I';ve read in a few spots it could be also temperature related so maybe try giving your video card adn system a clean out and we'll see what happens. Not too impressed as this is my third issue with this laptop and i still have 2 more years of warranty. Oh well, ,guess its time to send it off for new parts.

 

yeah, ive got the same problem. forgive me for posting in the dell section.
ive got an xi 1546. core duo t2600 3gb (corsair) ram, x1800, second HDD at 250 gb (with the original being 80gb)

ive overclocked the gpu, undervolted the cpu. tinckered here and there. changed the thermal paste...yet nothing EVER went wrong with this machine. its a tank! yet a few months ago it started going nuts with the memory parity error. only happens during gaming though. HL2 EP2 most recent. now heres the funny thing. i dont think its the heat!

actually i dont really know! i decode ALOT of video premiere pro running heavy. and do REALLY heavy alias and photo editing. yet nothings ever gone wrong. ive played HD videos which tax the CPU and gpu yet its been no issue. yet within 5 minutes of going into a game. particularly a cut scene say..or a sudden gpu heavy moment and it all goes nuts!

now...im gonna replace, reset, and freshen up this machine. and ill see what the problem is. i honestlly dont know if its heat. because ive changed the compound and i use a cooler. and i report a cpu temp of around...46c idle. and around 58c high use! GPU gets around 80 or more i assume (no temperature nodes)

but i repeat what i said earlier. memory parity does no seem to happen unless during gaming. so i really do believe it differs on each machine. which makes it all the worse!!! i dont think its the heat on mine. though im not going to rule that out just yet. ill test each component as best as i could and report back dutifully in the the hope it might help someone!

good luck

 

I've had this same problem on and off for about the past 2 years, since I bought my M1210. It didn't really happen the first year I had it, but once it started happening I could pretty much count on it going out on me at least once or twice a month. I've tried various things...like upgrading the ram, buying a laptop cooler...nothing's helped.

It's part of the reason that I'm getting a new laptop...hopefully it won't happen with my new one.

 

with all due respect mate its not. it differs from computer to computer. and frankly this BSOD is ****ing pissing me off!

ive tried all....refreshed..changed parts...arctic silver..new OS...and yet the fukcer is still there!

and look up on google...almost EVERYONE has diffrent problems...and worst of all is the instant answer people give..OH ITS YOUR MEMORY STICKS!! IT ****ING AINT!! almost ever component in a computer uses memory.so could be anything!

all thats left to do its a new GPU or CPU (which is soon) or a motherboard..if it comes to that screw it...im buying another!

what IS this bloody memory parity error!

 

Just started happening to me today. Is it worth calling Dell and asking them to replace my laptop? I have the 4yr Complete Care deal...


...is it hard to open your laptop and clean it out? I have a Dell D630...

 

Excuse me guyz , i am totally newbie at this thinks , Can you please explain me on a more simple way how can i fix this f*cking error , cause already have lost 2 projects , and this cost me more than this f*cking lap :/ (i have a VAIO , VGN-FZ21E and it has Vista[crap])


thnx again

 

My GAWD this error is getting annoying. I have been getting it quite frequently lately. I have done a RAM test with memtest86 and everything there came back fine so I'm leaning more towards it is either the CPU or GPU overheating. My CPU is Centro 2GHz duo core and GPU is 7900GS. Thank goodness for my 4yr accidental care warranty.

 

I have recently had 2 Dell Latitude D630 laptops come up with similar symptoms, the first crashed hard and would not even stay running long enough to run the diagnostics. The second one has just recently started giving us issues, and just today we got this same error code. The only thing that we have found that will fix this issue is mother board replacement. On the D630, the video card is on board, and Dell authorized a warranty replacement, due to video failure. I work at a Midwestern University in the IT department, and we have Dell certified technicians, which helps to bypass a lot of the B.S. that the normal system owner has to deal with, but I thought you all might like to know what we have found.

 

I was wondering if someone could help me. I have an NEC i-select M5410 with an atheros AR5005G Wireless Network Adapter. Every time I try to connect to my wireless router (a TP-Link TL-WR641G), the nmi parity check/memory parity error screen appears. I have successfully managed to connect to other wireless routers without the screen appearing which makes me think that the problem is my router but I noticed that people have had problems with the atheros cards so I was wondering if it could be the source. I know very little about this so any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

Hi... just thought I'd throw my experience into the mix as it were.

I've had the same problem, but it's only been on odd occasions so hasn't really worried me.

I work from home mostly, and use wireless. It's never crashed on me when I'm in the office, where I switch the wireless off. It could just be a coincidence, who knows... but I thought it was worth pointing out.

My machine is completely standard too with (I think) the x1400 graphics card

 

Hey everyone. I came on this thread looking for an answer to this problem.

It seems Dell is wise to the problem now. The tech on Dell Chat directed me to update both my video drivers and the BIOS. I was given a Dell driver (going to try with nVidia driver later) and the A09 BIOS.