Urgent Help Needed Please - Z11 essentially died on me!

EDIT: It's ok now, but one key question remaining:

I will try to get this title changed by a Mod asap, as I changed out the RAM and all seems fine now. (Thanks to Pyro's old post for someone's earlier problem.) The question is: if bad RAM (that I put in this computer 2 mos ago) was the problem, is it certain that the RAM was defective, or could it have been the wrong RAM to use in the Z11? It was OCZ 2X 4G DIMM, 1333mhz. I've only recently read that all RAM is not created equal (this was on sale at Newegg for, like $75), but what I don't know is whether the wrong exact type can cause the kind of problem I describe below, or if that had to be just Ram gone bad. The Ram I replaced it with was what was in the Z originally, btw.

Thanks so much - JDB


Original problem - solved myself w/help from old post by Pyro (thanks
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I so hope someone has the patience to read what has just happened to my Z11 - totally out of the blue, never ever had a problem with it - and perhaps can suggest how I could try restoring it to operating condition. Thank you in advance.

I've been using my Z112GX (purchased refurbed) for 2 months, totally trouble free. All of the sudden, just now, I was on this forum (like always) and I got a BSOD for the first time ever on this computer. It shut down and went right into CHKDSK on restarting. In the middle of CHKDSK, it got another BSOD and restarted, ran CHKDSK again all through, no errors found. It booted up and suddenly my Microsoft Security Essentials popped up and said "Real Time Checking is disabled" so I clicked on the "Enable" button as I have from time to time when this has happened on other computers. It wouldn't activate (unending blue circle) so I shut it down using Windows Task Manager. Then I did a "Shut Down" in Windows, which took way too long, like 30 seconds, then it shut down. I unplugged it, took out the battery and held the power button to get rid of any residual electricity, and then put the plug back in and attempted to restart with the power button. Every time I press the power button, it lights up green as normal for 1 second, then blinks off and keeps doing that until is just goes dark after 6 or so tries.

Then, still plugged in, and with the battery in (switched to the standard battery from the extended), it went on and I chose "Safe Mode with Networking. It started to boot, then another BSOD, back to where I was: if I press power button, it just blinks on and off.

Sorry for such a long post but I thought the more details the more likely someone would have an idea to help. Needless to say, I am devastated!!!

 

can you share the BSOD message ?

 

Thanks for response. Couldn't share it originally when posted this, because computer was essentially "bricked." Now that it's up and running again (see edit of my initial post) I would still like to do that and get your opinion - eg, was it just bad RAM or something else too?

Can you remind me how to get the BSOD log? Thanks.

 

just write down the error description, disregard all the memory dump messages.
anyway, from what I understand from your update, the issue solved after placing the original ram back ?
if you want to make sure it's a ram issue, i'd recommend MEMTEST86 :
Memtest86+ - Advanced Memory Diagnostic Tool
you'll need to burn the image to a CD and boot from it.
or better yet use the installer for the USB Key if you can boot from USB.

 

Thank you so much. Can I burn it to a USB flash drive as well? Also, do the Windows and Sony memtests not do the job well?

 

sure thing on both counts