Help with N40L; Ram upgrade kills W8pro

[Masta K]

Hi guys,

I'm in some serious need of help with my Proliant N40L.

I installed windows 8 using the original hardware (incl. 2gb ram) plus a Nvida GT610 and had a perfectly running server. When when I decided to upgrade the ram to 8 gb (2x Kingston KVR1333D3N9/4G) I got a dpc_watchdog_violation error. I've tried the following with no success:

• Flashing the bios
• Removing the graphics card
• using only one ram slot (interchanged between the two)
• reinstalling windows with new ram installed (this failed at 77% on initialising devices) - Had to then reinstall with my 2gb ram

I've checked the minidump file and it's listing APCI.sys as the drive that failed (I'm too much of a noob to know what to do with this info)

I've gone back to my 2gb ram and the system runs perfectly. I've checked that the Kingston ram is compatible with the system so that can't be the problem. I've also tried some cheap Apacer ram and that also failed.

I'm all out of ideas but I seriously need a ram upgrade; any help would be seriously appreciated.

 

[Speedster]

This sounds like you have a 32 bit Windows install. You need 64 bits for more than 4 GB of RAM.

 

[Masta K]

This sounds like you have a 32 bit Windows install. You need 64 bits for more than 4 GB of RAM.

Nope i'm running 64 bit (the server can't run on 32 bit OS)
Any chance it could be a faulty Mobo?

 

[Pada]

Run a memory test with memtest x86, which can be found on basically any Linux disc!

 

[Masta K]

Run a memory test with memtest x86, which can be found on basically any Linux disc!

So I'll have to install & boot to Linux using the new ram to do this right?

 

[ponder]

So I'll have to install & boot to Linux using the new ram to do this right?

No, you boot off a livecd.

 

[NomNom]

You can also just put memtest on a flash drive and boot off that.

Download Memtest 4.20 - Auto-installer for USB Key

 

[Masta K]

You can also just put memtest on a flash drive and boot off that.

Download Memtest 4.20 - Auto-installer for USB Key

Thanks! I've got the memtest running; seems like it could be a while so I'll just wait patiently

 

[Masta K]

So the Memtest is in and there are no errors with the ram:

So I'm seriously starting to think this must be a W8Pro issue as the server is designed to run with up to 8gb ram. Any other ideas

 

[NomNom]

Try this OP: http://www.sysnative.com/forums/bso...death]-windows-8-dpc_watchdog_violations.html


Otherwise try looking for more solutions on google with the search line: dpc_watchdog_violation ACPI.sys windows 8

 

[Masta K]

Try this OP: http://www.sysnative.com/forums/bso...death]-windows-8-dpc_watchdog_violations.html


Otherwise try looking for more solutions on google with the search line: dpc_watchdog_violation APCI.sys windows 8

Thanks, will give this a try when I get back home. Oh, and I just realised I misspelt ACPI as APCI :erm:

 

[Masta K]

[Solved] Help with N40L; Ram upgrade kills W8pro

So I know this is a super old thread but I just managed to sort out the problem so I thought I'd mention it in case someone else runs into the same issues.

For me it was all hardware compatibility issues. I replaced:

• the ram with 2x Kingston KHX1600C9D3B1/4G (in theory this shouldn't be compatible with the system but it works)
• GT610 with an MSI R5450.

And now all is well

Thanks to MR Computers in Alberton for spending a good 4 hours testing out various hardware combinations for me!