If Vista is a pig, Windows 7 is a pig with lipstick on.

The 64bit edition seems to be a little more buggy from what I have read.

Do the parts work correctly under other operating systems ?

If its actually loading up windows and then blue screening it could be a driver issue, will it boot in safe mode ?

Are all the sticks of memory the same size?

Have you tested the sticks individualy or in pairs of the same size in the correct slots? I have a board that tests fine like this but when I put mismatched sizes in of the same memory it fails. Try to boot with with one or two sticks.

Is your boot drive in the raid configuration? Have you tried it without raid?

What hardware are you using and is it win7 compatible?

Where you running Vista and then just changed operating system to Win 7?

That's very unlikely. Reset your CMOS, or just load defaults, and run the test again. That way there is no uncertainty about wether the Ram is running at the proper settings or not.

@ Oldskool, software level does not matter, the problem is on a hardware level.

I talked my boss into letting me bring home one of our Dell Optiplex 745's which is running DDR II mem in it so I've got some options for testing here. The memory is slower, DDR2 5300 compared to DDR2 8500 but it works.

So far, I took out the two mem chips that were in the 745 and popped them in my box one at a time and ran Memtest on them, same thing, I got errors right from the start with both chips. I took two of the Kingston's and put them in the Dell box and it's what I'm using now as I type this. They haven't caused a blue screen yet and I'm running virus scan on my laptop's hard drive (I've got a SATA "toaster" USB drive adapter) and I'm playing music with no issues.

I'm leaning on a motherboard issue. I looked at Kingston's site and most of the memory modules have a lifetime warranty on them which is good as these things are running very hot to the touch but I can't find any warranty information on the Gigabyte site and don't know if that's covered or not. I bought the board in April of 08 so I'm guessing it's probably out of warranty but....

If it's a board replacement, then it's a question of what to do. Suck it up and get a new CPU and memory and go with AM3 board or try to stick with what I have that's the cheapest route but older stuff...

Here's a question.... lets say it is a motherboard issue. With using a ATI chipset with built in RAID controller, the chances of data recovery or even lack of a forced reinstall with a new board is what you think? 

I've changed different motherboard brands using the same chipset before with out having to reinstall Windows. I know I've been forced to reinstall Windows when installing a HD on a different motherboard using a different chipset though.

I've ran into issues at work with servers going down and trying to use different RAID controllers that didn't quite work the way I was hoping so this is just a question I thought I'd ask.

Yeah, that didn't seem to do anything. Still getting a blue screen with an 4f error.

sigtau wrote on 04.04.10 at 16:34:42:


No, I haven't updated the bios in a while. The motherboard is two years old and the last update they pushed out was before Win 7 was out which is what I've been using since with no issues up until recently.

I was hoping it was just the memory as Kingston's got it listed on their website that they have a lifetime warranty on the Hyper X stuff but all four sticks have been working in the Dell just fine.

Which memory model are you using ?
Look up exactly what timings you should be using on the manufacturers website and at what voltage it requires. Auto settings may not have adjusted the voltage or timings correctly. CPU-Z should be able to give you the JEDEC and EPP timings and also the current settings you are using.

If you could provide you multiplier, FSB, memory divider memory volts timings ect it may help. Are you overvlocking at all as well.