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Old March 25th 20, 10:21 AM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-10
Arlen Holder
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Posts: 20
Default Windows 10 BSOD indicates a hardware problem - but what hardware is the problem?

On Tue, 24 Mar 2020 21:05:34 -0400, Paul wrote:

There might be a firmware version string there.
I don't think that's the drive serial number.


Hi Paul,

Thanks for your always purposefully helpful adult intent on this newsgroup.

Moving forward, I received a bunch of BSODs today, one of which was new:
o KMODE EXCEPTION NOT HANDLED
https://i.postimg.cc/LsjxVzL2/bsod19.jpg

Where I even tried installing Ubuntu 18.04 as a dual boot, but it crashed
during the installation process, so that's more of an indcator that it's a
hardware problem, that has nothing, per se, to do with Windows 10 Pro.
https://i.postimg.cc/2S0WN3Yh/bsod20.jpg

So I went back to the new installation of Windows 10 Pro 1909:
https://i.postimg.cc/KYyt5Cms/bsod21.jpg

After trying to boot with no cards in the four memory slots:
https://i.postimg.cc/L4ZfrHh0/bsod22.jpg

Which, predictably, failed to boot (simply beeping).

So I reseated all four 4GB memory cards back in the slots they came from
(where I arbitrarily numbered the cards from left to right 1,2,3,4)
https://i.postimg.cc/y6bKSHPB/bsod23.jpg

And then I booted to the standard memory test as defined he
o How to Perform a RAM Check in Windows 10?
https://theitbros.com/ram-memory-check-windows-10/
o Start Run mdsched Check for problems the next time I start my computer

Which took quite a while to run on the 16GB of installed RAM:
https://i.postimg.cc/d3xZzxrd/bsod24.jpg

But which doesn't seem to have found any errors in the standard RAM tests:
https://i.postimg.cc/VvmczfBP/bsod25.jpg

And which was confirmed by a subsequent peek at
o Start Run eventvwr.msc
o Event Viewer (Local) Windows Logs System
(MemoryDiagnostics-Results)

Which reported, as expected, the memory passed (yet again) all tests:
https://i.postimg.cc/kMc0xdvD/bsod26.jpg
"The Windows Memory Diagnostic tested the computer's memory and found no errors"

Although that test somehow left a desktop watermark to deal with later:
https://i.postimg.cc/447LB7tK/bsod27.jpg
Test Mode
Windows 10 Pro
Build 18362.19h1_release.190318-1202

So I removed the two rightmost of the four cards arbitrarily labeled
1,2,3,4:
https://i.postimg.cc/J0G9Qp8t/bsod28.jpg

And I disconnected the built-in DVD/CD optical drive (to reduce the number
of variables since I wasn't booting to Ubuntu 18.04 any time soon).

And that's where I'm currently at in the testing procedure, where
apparently I had labeled the cards backwards, as they seem to be
4,3,2,1 left to right based on this boot message:
https://i.postimg.cc/bY4t9dHw/bsod29.jpg

I haven't touched a memory card in something like a decade or more, where I
forget if I must have a pair in the two adjacent slots, or if I can have
just one card at a time though.

Given most people think its the memory, I'll do further testing, where I
very much appreciate your kind, purposefully helpful, adult advice.
--
Usenet works best when adults post with purposefully helpful intentions.
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