MEMORY CANNOT BE READ new computer problem.

Greetings everyone.

After a long overdue upgrade of my PC (from 512 RAM eeew) and after re-installing things, I am having issues with Second Life that I never had before.

It works amazingly well, no lag, things are smooth, quick and beautiful, then suddenly out of nowhere I CRASH constantly and randomly, getting the following pop-up in Windows (mind you it's in french because I am, and this is the version I have):

"L'instruction à "0x69663e09" emploie l'adresse mémoire "0x00000004". La mémoire de peut pas être "read"."

Which would be something like: "The instruction at "0x69663e09" uses the memory address "0x00000004". Memory cannot be read." in english.

The person who updated my computer said it certainly had something to do with complementary stuff in Internet Explorer 7 and/or Active X or something around those lines, unfortunately, I am pretty clueless about that stuff.

Here are my computer stats:

Windows XP (Home)(SP2)(Version 2002)(french)
Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo
CPU E6550 @ 2.33 GHz
2,00 Go RAM
NIVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT
Internet Explorer 7.0.5730.13 (128 bits)
Videotron's cable internet connexion

(Ask if you need to know anything else)


If anyone knows about that issue and has solutions, I would appreciate. Thank you!

run memtest86 , be sure to update bios to, memory cant be read.can be quite a few things, but i always check memory when i get new , uncase its faulty.

Your memory may need diffrent timing in bios or set off auto detect cas/timing , if its paired with a older/diffrent kind you can get that one.

Software can do this to, along with Explorer ( IE ), wich i wouldnt touch anyway it can cause this , but been years since i used it so wouldnt know why.

Thanks Thili, but you could have said bla bla bla and it would have done same thing to my brain. I am sorry, I simply have no knowledge about any of this so I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about.

Anyone can simplify in newbie non-tech langage? IE.: What is memtest 86, what are bios, what to do *exactly*, etc.? Thank you!!

as thilli said ...download memtest86 and test your Dram ... it is available here and all instructions are also available here to tell you how to do so .


http://www.memtest86.com/


It also sounds to me like you have some dodgy memory, Just because a memory Dimm is new doesnt necessarily mean its good. If you get ANY RED sections during the test at all , its usually indicative of a bad chip , the spd chip on the chip will usually set the timings and speed for you so even if you have to De-Clock it to make it error free its still a bad module..
If you do get Errors on running memtest power down and remove all but one dimm try each dimm individually untill you can run a test without errors.. that test will determine "The good memory" return the rest to the place of purchase and exchange ..
There are other tests you can try once in windows if there are no errors with memtest but that really should be your first point of call ...

Hope this clears it up a little for you

I had a similar thing happen a couple months back due to an automatic update from microsoft of something called the "malicious software removal tool". It removed a lot of DLL files that it apparently decided were "malicious" but were actually necessary for the computer to access its own memory.

I couldn't run ANY programs, and ended up having to go into the boot menu (that text part when starting up the PC) and select "reset to factory defaults" to restore the operating system.

And I carefully monitor all updates to make sure that it doesn't give me this "malicious software removal tool" again.

I would recommend backing up all of your personal files immediately in any case.

I think this is just some newish bug in SL.. I see this too sometimes.

It could be hardware issue but it's more likely something in the code is just trying to use a null pointer..

O_o mmm yeh im not to good at explaining things [not_userfriendly]

But things i know what causes this,

- ram faulty
download and run memtest86 test your ram may be really slow but any fault is warranty anyway, that would be my bet

- ram isnt ..rrr.. fastened good enough
It might need a "nudge" inside case, i experienced this one was abit loose and caused this error, still rare.



- ram timing set auto in bios [advanced/rare]

Some motherboards do need/should get a bios update before you upgrade with more, but this can be a pain as some newer ones i tried seems to flip out if you dont reset bios to default before flashing new one.

If you upgrade ram and have it paired with older ram can cause timing to be set to high and older one wont like that at all, sdp,cas,latency timing should be set to your lowest ram type/timing.

Basicly, you need ram with same CL (CAS Latency) or set the new one to run lower, auto in bios should do this , but sometimes it does it wrong and setting it "manual" instead of "auto" set it to the lowest ram CL found.

exsample
PC2-6400 cl4 (4-4-4-12 ) CL - Trcd - Trp - Tras

If you upgrade ram, you should get same kind/speed as old, since new one would just be downstepped to match old speed anyway and avoid issues, but its pretty rare today to get this.

It has absolutely Nothing to do with your computer, all those technical words don't matter for this problem.

It's a BUG in SL, memory leak, A lot of people have the same problem.
Check some more threads here on the forum or at slexchange or even JIRA, I also have this problem since the new viewers came out.

All we can do is wait sadly

I had this since before xmas 2007 so its hardly new, so it definatly has everything to do with your pc, or everyone would be reporting this daily by now.

Havnt seen this happen last 3 months myself now, nor do i crash out anymore and i been on average 9 hours a day for last 3 months, this error is software issues yes, but what you have running can be the cause (go google\o)

Memory leak always been around, nor will it get fixed unless SL start to flush it cache in ram more often as thats where what you see goes into.

As for Jira reply, dont expect anything but the normal "this is SL memory leak fault and "might" look into it" then "resolved" updated and fails again.

Whenever i had a problem like this its always way to check memory first especially if you upgraded then got it, as ram can arrive faulty or loose read to memory space that isnt availible does this.

Just cause this doesnt happen in every software you use doesnt mean ram is ok, my ram was dying awhile ago and only in SL i got similar errors, and tested it, loads of errors faulty ram.

-test ram if you keep getting this frequent
-dont use ie seriously its plugins = bad (go google if you dont belive-.-)
-terminate whatever you have in background see if you still get it
-always update bios before new ram
-pray for SL ever to get "memory leak" fixed.

See this happen to the 4gig+ crowd less i guess, but if they ever where to fix the memory leak you would still have some maintance on your pc as theres millions of diffrent configurations out there and always should check your pc for things that make it flip out as its most of the case of troubleshooting usually ends up at user installed something or running something that mess with something else, reminds me of winme ~.~

So no i dont agree its just SL fault, why havnt i seen this come back in months?


Memory exceptions can also come from a bad video card and/or video driver, since memory errors would realize themselves mainly when trying to access games which use video memory extensively.

Everybody always assumes it's O/S or physical memory, but in here it seems always SL is to blame?, oh trust me im just as annoyed as everyone else when SL turns belly up ^.~ or waiting for a update to fix something just to see it fail

The 4 possiblities, in this order, are:
Video memory
Virtual memory settings
O/S
Physical memory (RAM)

Trust me i see this error in many programs not just SL and alot of diffrent os's.

Like Sindy says above, it's a null pointer fault. Any code written in c++, like the SL viewer is, is bound to have some of these, sometimes. It _might_ be hardware but it's just as likely to be a bug in SL.


Some instruction somewhere is trying to reference 4 bytes from null. Bad! Bad program!

If you get this a lot and can write up a reproducable test case for it, elka, that might help the open source junkies track it down.

I recentlly bought two new Dell XPS720 blacks, with 4 Gb of ram. Both machines get this same error frequently. It may be that they both have bad Memory sticks in them but not that likely. Is thear anything I can do to set my memory up difrently to avoid this issue?

Thanks