Help with "Memory Parity Error"

Bryan,

I am a Dell warranty repair tech and believe or not, I had such an error popup on a Dell computer today. I started removing all the PCI cards, one at a time and rebooted each time, to see if the error would go away. I also removed the memory sticks one at a time to see if the error would go away.

 

It turned out that the VIDEO CARD PCI SLOT was probably at fault. I was sent another video card to test for a possible defective video card. It didn't make any difference. If you have another video card to swap out do so immediately to test for a faulty video card. Then remove the VIDEO CARD from its slot and attached the VGA cable to the onboard VGA connector. The error should go away. Then put all the other PCI cards in , Sound, Modem, etc, one at a time to see if the error returns.

 

Another possibility is that one or more of the memory sticks may be defected. Systematically remove one chip at a time and if neccessary swapped around the memory sticks into different memory slots to clear this error. If you have additional memory chips to swap with the original memory sticks, do so to check for faulty memory sticks.

 

If the error does not go away and the swapped video card makes no difference, along with the memory swap,  then the motherboard and its PCI SLOT(S) are at fault or one or more of the memory chips are at fault.

 

Dell is sending me another motherboard and four memory sticks for this customer.

 

Hojo123