Computer crash resulting in memory dump - any idea what these screens mean?

Question

I have the following error screens. The first screen is when I try unsuccessfully to boot Windows. The second is when I am able to boot Windows, it displays that error (then shortly thereafter crashes resulting in the previous blue screen.

I was able to get into Safe Mode. What can I check at this point?

Solution 1

I would run a memory tester http://www.memtest.org/

Download the prebuilt ISO, burn it to CD as an Image (not data), boot from that CD and run the memory test for a couple of hours or overnight to stress test the memory. If you get errors with this test you have a bad memory module, if you have more than one memory module installed remove all but one and re-run the test, test each module individually until you find the bad one.

Solution 2

The STOP 0x8E error means that your RAM is bad/misconfigured. (here is an article on that error)
And also, since you're getting an error saying that memory cannot be written, that makes me think that it is the former.
Since you can get into safe mode, I would do a RAM test (such as http://www.memtest.org/) see if your RAM is faulty, and if it is, well, RAM is cheap ;)
(Newegg)

Comments

[muttley91]

Since Safe Mode would use less RAM, is this why I'm able to get into Safe Mode still? Or would that mean the RAM is fine.

[Nate Koppenhaver]

@rar Safe mode would use a lot less RAM than the full Windows because safe mode only loads the bare essential to start the computer. When you start Windows normally all drivers and startup applications are loaded, but with safe mode only Windows loads. Also, since the 'memory cannot be written' error has a very high address (0xFFD57CB1) most likely safe mode would not get memory usage up into that range unless you were running, say, a game or some other resource-intensive program