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Whenever I add more than 4GB RAM to my Windows 7x64 PC I get a STOP blue screen with the message 7E.

I have just replaced motherboard, ram and graphics card so it is definitely not that.

  • Core i5
  • Gigabyte P55, DS3R
  • GSkill Ripjaw 2x 4GB
  • ATI 6850 Sapphire

What could it possibly be?

RAM is the only variable causing the problem and its definitely not the ram itself.

PS. I would rather not do a reinstall of Windows either. Also, I'm posting here because I think its an interesting and mysterious problem that may help others if there is a good answer.

EDIT: Thanks guys for such a thorough response! This problem has been plaguing me for months. Many times I have though I had resolved the problem only to have it happen the next computer restart.

At the moment I haven't had a blue screen after I disconnected my Microsoft Windows Media Center Blaster. I also remembered that ages ago I changed the driver for this device so that I could use it for other purposes with EventGhost. I'm hoping this was the problem all along.

I am unsure how having more than 4GB of ram caused it to occur however I think it may be something to do with 32bit/64bit compatibility regarding where hardware devices memory are mapped in the VM space.

Cheers!

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  • 2
    Can you boot from a Linux boot CD/DVD and does it recognize your full amount of RAM?
    – Daniel Beck ♦
    Nov 18, 2010 at 11:22
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    I think you're going to have to give us the make/model of your motherboard, CPU, graphics card and RAM if you want help troubleshooting that problem.
    – Django Reinhardt
    Nov 18, 2010 at 11:35
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    Just becuase they are new, doesn't mean they are good parts. I have had many bad parts that were brand new come to the data center I work at.
    – David
    Nov 18, 2010 at 13:31
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    You need to provide info on all the parts in this machine. I have seen this sort of behavior where certain peripheral cards (especially ExpressCard adapters on laptops!) would cause blue screens if the RAM was increased past a certain threshold, but those were fairly hardware specific. We need more detail beyond 'I replaced these parts' - replaced them with what?
    – Shinrai
    Nov 18, 2010 at 15:18
  • Did you reinstall windows after changing the motherboard? If not it could be a system driver issue...
    – Mokubai ♦
    Nov 19, 2010 at 10:03

4 Answers 4

Reset to default
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While installing Windows 7 you can do memory check that would help you to diagnosis RAM Problem.

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    Already done a memtest with zero faults.
    – vaughan
    Nov 20, 2010 at 4:25
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First, ensure that all drivers are up to date, especially optional hardware updates in Windows Update.

Then use BlueScreenView to analyze the dumps and add the info to your post.
The drivers on the call-stack at the time of the abort are highlighted, so this could indicate the malfunctioning driver.

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  • This tool looks great. I was using another tool called WhoCrashed but this looks more thorough.
    – vaughan
    Nov 20, 2010 at 4:21
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Have you tested the power supply? Either it could be under powered or faulty altogether. I've had my fair share of pc problems and it could be something arb like a psu.

Judging from all the valid responses here so far I'd say you're probably going to have to test each component. If all parts test successful it's probably software related.

A shot in the dark but it could actually be a limit in a config file somewhere. Are you running any system tweaking apps, or overclocking software?

edit> If you havent done this already, check your BIOS settings for the RAM and make sure everything is set to 'Auto' if possible. It could be mixing of RAM or incorrect timings as well.

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  • I had an ASUS P5K-E MB before and I found something that the RAM voltages were too low by default and this seemed to fix the problem but it just re-emerged again. Second power supply has been tested also.
    – vaughan
    Nov 20, 2010 at 4:24
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Whenever you increase the ammount of RAM to over 4GB do you use a certain slot, have you considered this slot could be faulty and causing the PC to Blue Screen. I would try using just the 4 GB of RAM and cycling it through different configurations of slots on the Motherboard. Then you can rule out a faulty slot.

I would then cycle the DIMM's that you use to acheive the 4GB of RAM to rule out a faulty DIMM, just because they are new does not rule out manufacture faults. (Granted the chance of these are very low but they do occur)

If the Graphics card is ever present then it would be sensible to rule this out of the problem.

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  • Thanks for the advice - already tried every combination of ram slots and ended up buying new ram and a new m/b so its definitely not the ram, m/b or vga as mentioned in the question.
    – vaughan
    Nov 18, 2010 at 11:46

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