Pfn list corrupt

[fred54321]

just re-booted my pc got error pfn list corrupt am i right in thinking this is ram or hard drive related i did run memtest for 16 hours then stopped it thought it was playing up thats why it was running so long or does it run that long i have 2 gig of ram vista intel quad core 6600 2.40 ghz. 64 bit operating system memtest did show some error but how reliable is it.

 

[H2SO4]

That error does not necessarily mean you've got a hardware problem. However, if memtest says you do have a memory issue, I wouldn't argue with it.

Did you build the machine yourself? Has it worked for a while or is this happening from brand new? Is the box adequately cooled? Was it a one-off error or have you seen this multiple times?

 

[fred54321]

i bought it already built well over a year PFN error is frist time but i am getting minidumps blue screens often and i get also nvlddmkm stopped responding and has been recovered successfully.

 

[H2SO4]

There's a natural human tendency to look for the single underlying root cause in all problem sets - but there may not be one.

However, if memtest is consistently suggesting memory (hardware) issues, there is very little point in troubleshooting at a software layer until that is resolved, mostly because you can never tell whether crashes that look like software were in fact caused by the borked hardware.

 

[fred54321]

how long does memtest run for mines was still running 16 hours later does it just test ram or does it do cpu aswell???.

 

[H2SO4]

You can't really test the RAM without putting the processor through its paces because the instructions for testing are issued through the processor. Ergo, you might say it tests everything. Those tests are generally fairly simplistic - write some known pattern to a region of memory and then read it back. If what you got out isn't equal to what you put in, obviously there's a problem.

I believe that memtest actually allows you to specify how long it should run, though it's been a while since I've used that utility and I'm a bit hazy on the options. If it looks like it's running way longer than you've specified, it's probably hung. It would be safe to interpret that as a "fail" outcome

 

[fred54321]

memtest tested both rams in and took in turns with one in one out no errors.

 

[H2SO4]

Alright. Then in absence of evidence to say that the hardware is defective, your "PFN" bluescreen(s) may be caused by software. A buggy driver can corrupt those structures, so if you recall updating any drivers just before the problem started, they'd be the most obvious place to start.

Analysis of BSoD minidumps is unlikely to help with that specific BSoD type because the culprit is long gone by the time the damage is encountered.