Memory in Vista

[pkellmey]

I have a question about Vista memory that I am sure other people have already investigated. There is a Resource Monitor in the Vista Task Manager that says I am getting occasional Fault Stops in continually running apps like BOINC. It's not causing a problem that I can actually point to, but I know that those types of errors will slow a PC down. The RAM passes memory tests without issues so I'm not concerned. I'm using cheap generic non-ECC/non-OC RAM and I was wondering if anyone knows whether Vista causes more Fault Stops than XP does because of the way it handles memory. I've never had a Fault Stop checker in XP so I don't know the answer. Gates has said that starting with Vista, all future Windows versions should use ECC RAM and I was curious if there was a connection with Windows handling memory differently or not.

 

[Dahak]

Generally it is best to use memory that's on the official support list.This will insure minimal issues if any,with memory modules.Goodluck.

Dahak

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[kcrush]

I can't say on an OS vs. OS basis whether or not vista seems to cause more.

But I have also seen that tool and one thing I have noticed, the program/process that seems to have lots of memory faults tends to change.

I can fire up a game, norton and firefox. If I check the resource monitor either there will be no faults or say norton, starts racking them up like nobodies business. Next reboot, I fire up the same three programs and it could be firefox turns out to be the problem child.

And this is with 4gb of Dominator XMS2.

Overclocked or not it really seemd to make no difference. I could reboot several times over the course of hours and between each reboot fire up the exact same programs and get no zero fault stop or very small numbers from random background process, then suddenly the game is throwing up thousands of faults.

But the important part is that none of the programs seem to care too much. Yes they almost all run slower but at least they don't crash.

 

[lafontma]

Are you guys referring to Page Faults/sec?

If so this is not related to hardware. This only reports the number times the data that was needed wasnt found in memory or in cache and the the OS needed to access the hard disk.

 

[pkellmey]

But the important part is that none of the programs seem to care too much. Yes they almost all run slower but at least they don't crash.

I'm running 2Gig and I've had no memory issues, but I am experiencing Fault Stops exactly as you are stating - not related to a single app, but when it begins occurring it follows that app until you stop it.

 

[Alsone]

Its unlikely to be Vista per se although it could be a compatiability issue.

I've had Vista 64 on for 4 months now and I use my pc approx 16 hours a day 7 days a week. I can say categorically that its more stbale than XP, never having had a single crash.

I'd look to your memory and if it passes all the Memtest 86 tests (run it overnight) then you need to look towards compatability issues with either your memory or your programs and Vista.