Random BSOD with 8 gigs of ram - VPCF1390X

This is a tricky one. I have a VPCF1390X with 6 gigs of PC3-10600 1333mhz ram and Windows 7 64 bit Premium. Since a stick of good ram is only $30 I thought it would be nice to upgrade to 8 gigs.

I'm going to detail out the long list of crap I've tried and hopefully someone will have some pointers. I've been debugging this ram since last Tuesday.

Corsair:
1. Removed the 2 gb stick of ram and put in a Corsair 4gb PC3-10600 1333mhz stick, for a total of 8 gigs.
2. Reset Bios, just for fun.
3. Between 2 and 6 hours I will get a random BSOD.

- It has happened when I am using the laptop, browsing the web, CPU and Memory usage < 10%
- It also happens when the laptop is not in use and the cpu/ram is even lower
- It has also happened during heavy load. It is always random.
- CPU is anywhere from 50-60C.

Patriot:
1. First assumption, bad stick of ram. So I purchased a Patriot 4gb stick with the same specs.
2. Remove Corsair, replace with Patriot. Same random BSOD.

Debug Time:
1. Run memtest86 on each of the three 4gb sticks of ram: Original, Corsair and Patriot. I run the test for around 2 hours on each stick, no errors.

2. I look at a few minidump files. It is not a consistent "driver" that fails, so not some driver/application that I need to uninstall.

- At this point I put the original and the Corsair back in for 8 gigs.

3. Full restore from the restore disks, still BSOD.

4. Update all drivers from the Sony site and then from the individual component manufacturers website. I also do the windows updates. I install no other programs. Still BSOD randomly.

5. Finally I try putting both new sticks in at the same time, still BSOD.

Final Debugging:
1. I run with Corsair + 2GB, no problems.
2. I run with Patriot + 2GB, no problems.

The only time it seems to BSOD is when I have 8 gigs of ram in the Vaio. Do I just send all of the ram back and give up on 8 gigs?

I read on a ton of forums that upping the voltage on the ram can fix this exact problem but the bios in hte F1390X does not have any adjustments. It's a pretty lame bios.

Does anyone have any other ideas to try?

 

This is also a great question for the:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/son...-vaio-f-series-owners-thread-part-6-a-82.html

 

Cool, I will link to my post from in there. I figured a new thread would target more Vaio owners in case someone had this issue with another laptop.

 

got the link for the RAM you bought? make sure it's non-EEC?

 

Windows Memory Diagnostic has on a couple of occasions found memory problems for me that memtest86 did not. Be sure to run the extended test.

Diagnosing memory problems on your computer

 

That reminds me. VAIO Care has a memory diagnostic tool as well.

 

I will definitely check out those diagnostics, although it would mean that both new sticks of ram have to be bad since all combinations totaling 8 gigs randomly BSOD: Old (Samsung) + Cosair, Old + Patriot, and Corsair + Patriot. The only common demoniator is 8 gigs total.

These are the two sticks:
Corsair: Amazon.com: Corsair 4 GB DDR3 Laptop Memory CMSO4GX3M1A1333C9: Electronics
Patriot: Amazon.com: Patriot Signature 4 GB PC3-10600 (1333 MHz) DDR3 SODIMM Notebook Memory PSD34G13332S: Electronics

The Corsair doesn't state it but the Patriot says non-ECC.

 

I don't have any other ideas about what to do with your current memory, but how about trying matching memory sticks and see if 8 gigs works for you then? It sounds like, from what you wrote, that you are able to send back the memory you have and get a refund. If that's the case, why not order another 4G of the same type as one you already have? I guess since the Samsung is the original, that would be the best bet, but the other I would assume are cheaper.

Or if you don't mind spending the extra $30 or so, even better would be to buy 2 new sticks of the same memory in the same order. If you buy them as an 8Gb package, they are likely to come from the same production batch as well and this will eliminate any chance that they are just not playing well with each other. I bought 8G G.Skill memory that I installed without a problem in my F13 that originally came with 4G. I didn't have to do anything at all for it to operate properly - just installed, booted up, and not one problem since.

You may have a finicky motherboard that does not like certain memory. If all else fails, I guess you could try contacting Sony since upgrading your memory is one of the few things you are allowed to do without violating your warranty. Since your laptop would still be under warranty if you have an F13, they should be willing to make sure it works for you. Of course, they may require that you buy more expensive memory through Sony to verify there is a problem with the laptop, but maybe not. I would try matching memory sticks first after running all the diagnostics.

 

I ran the Windows Memory Diagnostic, which is the same thing that the Vaio Care runs. I put in 4gb Old + 4gb New. The test ran for NINE hours last night, 2 passes and said it found hardware errors. In the Windows event viewer logs it did not give me any results, bummer.

6:45 am:
I'm running the test again with the original 6 gigs in. This time I'm picking the regular test and not the extended. No Errors.

7:00 am:
I'm now running the test again with 8 gigs in. I picked regular test again. No errors.

It's also peculiar that I can run the laptop for these memory tests, on the new ram, for nine hours without a crash. Fan sounds like a cyclone and the laptop is pretty warm so you know it's working it hard. But in windows when I'm doing nothing it crashes randomly.

Should I install a plain vanilla copy of Windows Premium 64bit and see what happens?

My next step is to run the memory diagnostic, extended mode, with only 1 pass. Hopefully the event viewer will give me results this time around....in a few hours.

 

I buy Crucial ram for slightly more money so I don't have to deal with this sort of crap

 

I can order a Crucial stick for the same $30 as the Corsair ($30) and the Patriot ($35) from Amazon:
Specs - DDR3 PC3-10600 / CL=9 / Unbuffered / NON-ECC / DDR3-1333 / 1.5V / 512Meg x 64

Why would the Crucial brand work in an 8 gig configuration where nothing else will?

 

Has anyone used this program called Intel Burn Test? Supposedly it tests ram and cpu a billion times better than memtest86 or prime95.

I ran it with 8 gigs of ram in and it only made it 3 passes before crashing:
Time (s) Speed (GFlops) Result
[20:13:14] 673.523 24.1982 3.644204e-002
[20:26:19] 689.498 23.6376 3.644204e-002
[20:38:18] 619.934 26.2900 3.644204e-002

Next I ran it with 6 gigs of ram and it made it 9 passes:
Time (s) Speed (GFlops) Result
[22:51:25] 467.549 21.1933 2.920059e-002
[23:00:17] 462.469 21.4261 2.920059e-002
[23:09:16] 471.040 21.0362 2.920059e-002
[23:18:17] 472.209 20.9842 2.920059e-002
[23:27:14] 467.932 21.1759 2.920059e-002
[23:36:13] 470.402 21.0647 2.920059e-002
[23:45:08] 466.692 21.2322 2.920059e-002
[23:54:03] 465.933 21.2668 2.920059e-002
[00:03:03] 472.007 20.9931 2.920059e-002

I believe the crash after 9 passes was temperature and not ram related. The temp was up over 80C per core.

 

Well, forget the whole thing fellas. I am now getting the BSOD with the stock 6 gigs of ram. Sony is sending me a box to ship it to them for repair.

Is it ok to just wipe the hard drive clean before sending it in?

 

It is absolutely ok to wipe the hard drive. If, by that, you mean to restore it to its original factory state when you received it.

 

No that takes 4 hours to run on the laptop, assuming it will even run all the way through. I'm planning to format the drive and ship it away, which will take me about 15 minutes. I think that could also motivate the Sony techs not to spend eons trying to debug an unfixable problem

 

I think that they'll want the recovery partition in tact, but don't quote me on that.

 

I hope not cause I already formatted the drive before I recovered it during testing. The good news is the Sony box came today, so in a rush to get it over to fedex I didn't wipe it clean. I just removed all my personal junk, which wasnt much since I recovered a few days ago. It still has the OS on there if they need to do anything with it.

Overnight shipping of the box with an overnight label to ship it back. That's some pretty impressive warranty service for free. Let's hope they repair it or replace it and ship it back next week.

The only problem was the packing in the box was clearly made to hold a 15" laptop in place and not a 16. I had to tweak the packing a bit to get it in there.

 

I mean ordering from Crucial, they guarantee compatibility, and I've never had a problem.

 

Sony has given me a tracking number where they have repaired and are shipping the laptop back. I asked them what the problem was and they said it was a bad hard drive. Now I have had a LOT of hard drives go back over the years, especially Western Digital ones. What I have never had is a hard drive to cause random bsod's. Has anyone else heard of this?

I did try formatting the drive which gave no errors and I also tried a defrag which gave no complaints before I sent it in.

 

I've had bad hard drives cause random BSODs. Formatting and defragging did not cause errors but detailed error-checking found problems. I assumed your BSODs were memory related errors. Did you look up the BSOD errors? Well, sounds like you will have it back soon to see if it's fixed anyway.

 

I had looked up all the BSOD errors and it would be different memory related issues every time, but never the same app, driver, etc.

I got the laptop back on Monday and it still BSOD just like before. The worthless sony repair guys swapped out the drive, clearly didn't test it, probably just following some step by step process like a zombie. I called and complained real good but all they will do for me is let me send it in again. Will the replace the motherboard this time? They say they will but I sure don't have any confidence now.

 

Typical, unfortunately.

You know, some people have been able to have techs come to their homes to perform the repairs. I don't know what the requirements are for that or if you would qualify, but you could ask Sony about it. Then you would not be without your computer again. If they know they are going to replace the motherboard, which they should, then they can send someone with a motherboard. If they plan on doing diagnostic testing that takes hours, then they may require you to send it in. Of course, it doesn't sound like they bothered the first time.

 

Before I sent it in they actually asked me if I wanted the in home repair. I said yes and they set it up. A little bit later they called and said that the motherboard repair was not something they would do in the house.