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

Dear all,

I'm the happy owner of a Dell E1705 laptop which worked like a charm for over 4 years 24x7 almost. I've seen many posts about this error and many people blaming Dell manufacturer others reporting this issue on IBM as well and other vendors and after did a lot of research after managed to trigger this error on my laptop, I thought is worth to spend the time and share my findings to all the community as some comments I've read here are totally unrelated to the issue itself - things like cooling - adding more fans etc.

The bottom line of the following error obtained is a hardware fault in one of your components - nothing more, nothing less - no drivers related, no over heat etc.
*** Hardware Malfunction
Call your hardware vendor for support
NMI: Parity Check/Memory Parity Error
*** The system has halted ***l

The above error I managed to get it after I replaced my 3495 Intel WLan chipset with a 5100 from a laptop which I knew the Lan port was broken - hence motherboard faulty. Everything would work just fine for about 5 - 10 minutes after which you would get the error - tried many things, multiple driver versions, nothing would help. Got another identical Wlan N 5100 Wlan card which I knew was working fine for a complete functional laptop and everything was stable and working like a charm. At this point, I discarded the hardware faulty 5100 Wireless card. For me was simpler as I knew that the only part I've changed in my configuration was the Wireless card and I knew that I had the laptop working fine for over 4 years with no issues at all.

Conclusion: This error is the symptom of a faulty hardware (it could be a memory zone of one of the components - memory is part of Graphic Int. WLan card - pretty much all the components which have their own Cache memory, all besides the RAM of the system which everything thinks of first when they get the error). Please, try changing components starting with the ones you last changed in a chronological order, as mostly the one you are trying to use as an addition or to boost your system is going to prove to be faulty.

There's no laptop Vendor to blame, but a hardware component failure. (running vendor hardware diagnostics tools might help in localizing the faulty component that needs changed/replacing).

I hope this helped people who might run into this again.
Thank you for your time to read the post.
God bless,

Regards, Pianist4Him.

 

HELP! i EMAILED YOU ALL LAST NIGHT BUT THE MESSAGE GOT LOST IN LA-LA LAND.

THE DAY BEFORE YESTERDAY (DON'T KNOW IF THERE IS A CONNECTION, BUT DELL STAFF SAID IT WAS THE VIRUS THAT CAUSED THE PROBLEM - WANTED TO REPAIR AND REINSTALL XP FOR $129...). I WAS CLICKING ON A VERY WELL KNOWN WEBSITE FROM MY FAVORITE'S LIST, WHEN MY AVAST ANTI-VIRUS NOTIFICATION CAME UP THAT IT HAD FOUND A TROJAN HORSE VIRUS, BUT THAT IT HAD BEEN STOPPED. WHILE I COULD NOT PRINT EVERYTHING, I GOT THE FOLLOWING: WIN32: MALWARE-GEN AND THERE WERE OTHER LOCATIONS ALL PRECEEDED BY WIN32:MALWARE... ALSO DID A BOOT SCAN.

RAN A SCAN, TRIED TO RESTORE MY COMPUER BACK TO THE FORMER DAY, THEN THE WIERD STUFF STARTED. ALSO, I DID AN F12 AND WENT THROUGH A SERIES OF EXTENSIVE TESTS, OF WHICH MOST PASSED, EXCEPT FOR "MEMORY PARITY ERROR/HARDWARE ERROR/SYSTEM HAS HALTED," ETC.

I GOT THE ERROR CODE 5300:0119 - FAILURE TO WRITE AND READ OF TEXT AND VIDEO MEMORY. ADDRESS A0008H READ 2020 2020H INSTEAD. THIS WAS IN THE VESA SVGA VIDEO MEMORY TEST/VIDEO TEXT MODE PAGES TEST OF THE INDEPTH DIAGNOSICS. EVERYTHING ELSE PASSED.

FINALLY CALLED DELL - WANTED TO SELL ME THE WARRANTY FOR $229 AND TO FIX $129 - THEY SAID THE PROBLEM WAS A DEFINITE RESULT OF THE VIRUS. BUT, I THOUGHT MY ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE CAUGHT IT IN TIME.

I READ SOMEWHERE LATE LAST NIGHT THAT INSTEAD OF REPLACING THE CARD, I SHOULD JUST REPLACE THE MOTHERBOARD BECAUSE OF THE DIFFICULTY AND COST OF THE CARD -- CHEAPER TO REPLACE MOTHERBOARD.

I HAVE HAD THIS DELL LATITUDE D820 SINCE NOVEMBER 2006 WITH NO MAJOR PROBLEMS, BUT MORE CRASHES HAVE BEEN OCCURRING, I BELIEVE RELATING TO THE STAND-ALONE OUTLOOK 2007 SOFTWARE I INSTALLED.

I HAVE BEEN OUT OF WORK FOR FOR 3+ YEARS DUE TO AN ACCIDENT AND HAVE LITERALLY HUNDREDS OF ESSENTIAL/CONFIDENTIAL DOCUMENTS. I ALSO HAVE A WD EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE WITH GREAT CAPACITY. DELL WANTED TO TROUBLESHOOT, GET RID OF VIRUS AND REINSTALL XP O/S. I AM NOT COMFORTABLE WITH STRANGERS HAVING REMOTE ACCESS TO MY COMPUTER. THANK GOD I'VE GOT A 2ND ONE -- DELL NOTEBOOK...

THIS MORNING, I THOUGHT I'D GIVE IT A SHOT AGAIN AND TURNED ON THE 820. TO MY SURPRISE, I GOT THE MESSAGE THAT THE SYSTEM HAD, IN FACT, BEEN RESTORED BACK TO THE DESIGNATED POINT. I THEN STARTING RUNNING AN AVAST SCAN, JUST TO MAKE SURE, AND THEN THE SCREEN WENT BLUE AND I GOT THE SAME MEMORY PARITY MESSAGE.

IT IS CRITICAL I HAVE ACCESS TO THIS COMPUTER LIKE ASAP! WHILE MUCH IS BACKED UP, I NEED TO DO ANOTHER BACKUP OF THE ENTIRE SYSTEM, ETC.

DO I NEED TO GET A NEW MOTHERBOARD?
IS A MOTHERBOARD NOW CONSIDERED THE SAME THING AS A PROCESSOR? I ASK BECAUSE I WAS ON THE DELL SITE VERY LATE LOOKING FOR MOTHERBOARDS AND SAW PROCESSORS.
ALSO, IF I NEED TO REPLACE ANY COMPONENTS (NEED TO KNOW WHICH ONE(S) FOR SURE, WOULD I NEED TO REINSTALL THE XP O/S?

COULD THIS ISSUE BE A COINCIDENCE TO THE VIRUS ISSUE THAT AVAST SUPPOSEDLY CAUGHT AND REPAIRED/REMOVED?

IN ANY EVENT, KNOWLEDGEABLE, CONSTRUCTIVE SUGGESTIONS ARE GREATLY APPRECIATED. I'M ON A VERY FIXED INCOME AND CAN'T JUST THROW MONEY AWAY -- GOT TO GET THE ROOT PROBLEM FIXED NOW.

THANKS SO MUCH AND I LOOK FORWARD TO YOUR INPUT!

 

PS - Since the laptop came on and looked normal a few times this morning, I tried to run the Dell Diagnostics/Utilities CD -- no go. System keeps halting and I get that dreaded blue screen and memory parity issues...

 

What I noticed: my inspiron 9400 starts in safe mode. So I deinstalled the video driver and the system starts without problem. It looks, the driver of the graphic card is dud.

 

I had the same issue and mine happened to be the battery. When it was in I would get the error, without it it would boot.