Sukhdeep Singh Gidda from Manchester, England, writes:

The way to solve the majority of these problems relating to installation of new PCI cards (any hardware type) is to go into the BIOS and:

Disable the PCI Bus Mastering Option AND

Disable the PCI Serial Generation Option

I had this problem with a DLink Wireless Adaptor and was not willing to be undone by a piece of silicon! Trial/Error and Logic solved it & it isn't RAM as the error indicates. It has to do with the power circuitry remaining connected to that item and causing the machine to report a Parity Check Error.

Hope this helps!

Boy, does it ever! This is the first real-live solution I've heard of that makes total sense. Thanks so much to Sukh for contributing!

John Worthmann from IBM Global AMS Delivery writes:

I found your web site through Google that talks about this error.

I installed a DLink wireless router. At shut down I now get this error. The letter from Sukhdeep seems to provide a logical solution. Do you have any updated input on this approach to solving the problem? Are there any down falls with disabling these options?

I did a bit more research and found this on DLink: http://support.dlink.com/faq/view.asp?prod_id=1237&question=DWL-520+

"If you have Bus Mastering>PCI Serial Number Generation enabled in the BIOS you may have to disable this. Please contact your PC manufacturer before making any chages to your BIOS."

I wrote back to him, telling him that I didn't know of any adverse problems popping up, but that I had received letters from people, saying that Sukh's approach had solved their error. In any case, pretty much anything would be better than the Parity Error shutting down your system every few hours... So John bit the bullet and wrote back with a comprehensive report:

Error: NMI: Parity Check / Memory Parity Error (same as described on your web site). This problem started after I installed a DLink DWL-520+ wireless PCI adapter (which is working fine). My machine: IBM Netvista 229221u running XP Home edition

Hit F1 to enter setup utility

I did not have an option matching the posts on your web site. First try that didn't work: under "power tab" I changed the setting for the "APM BIOS Mode" to disable. This did not solve the problem. So I reset this to being enabled.

I then tried this: under the "Advanced" tab I changed the setting for "PCI Parity" from enabled to disabled. THIS WORKED! I have not noticed any problems with having done this (I'll send you an e-mail if I do).

Woohoo! It seems another path has shown itself in the quest to resolve the error. Good work, John. And thanks for sharing.

Bernie Nicholas writes:
I recently purchased a DLink wireless network for my two computers at home. I installed the wireless router on my main computer and then installed the DWL 520+ in my other computer. The install went fine on both ends but when I shut down my computer with the DWL520+ adapter I receive the following error.

[You all know how this one goes]

The computer is a HP Pavilion 6735 and the operating system in Windows XP Professional Version 2002. I recently upgraded from ME to XP.

Any suggestions that you can make would be appreciated.

I did write back to Bernie, unloading all the information I had at the time. I never heard back from him. I'm not sure if that indicates that he solved his problem, or if he's currently living in a padded cell. In either case, I should really try and reach him ...

Shawn writes:

Hi. I googled and you were the first hit I got about *my* NMI :Parity Check error. I installed a DLink DWL-520+ adapter to my eMachine, and get the same message at shut-down (reboots work fine, tho). In checking the dLink site, they had the following comment:

"D-Link has found that changing a BIOS setting may resolve this issue. (Then blah, blah about 'it's not our fault if you screw up your computer doing this.')"

Then: "If you have Bus Mastering>PCI Serial Number Generation enabled in the BIOS you should disable this."

I think I'll do a little more research before actually following through with that recommendation :-). I'll let you know how it goes (if I don't lose my computer with the change, yikes!)

Shawn

So Shawn did keep me updated ...

I don't have the setting in my BIOS that they recommended changing (but maybe it will work for any Compaq users that find their way to your site - D-Link's recommendation was on a FAQ in response to problems with a Compaq computer). I've tried putting it in a different PCI slot (didn't make a difference), and my next step (tomorrow) will be to remove my modem to see if that is the culprit (another couple of recommendations I had found.) It really works well, otherwise (the D-link wireless card). I wonder if I'd have the same problem with a different brand name wireless card. Has anyone who has contacted you mentioned success with switching brands?

That's a no, sir, I'm afraid.
But lucky for Shawn, he emailed me a day later with these good news:

So, my additional steps didn't help. HOWEVER, I noticed in today's paper that Compusa was having a sale on what I believe is a new product for D-Link, the DWL-120+ (either that, or I've just never seen it advertised before, so didn't know it existed). It is a USB wireless adapter, and it was on sale ($29.99 after rebates). It works PERFECTLY, and I'm able to shut down without any problems. :-). I'll be sending the 520+ PCI adapter back to Amazon for a refund.

Thanks for your encouragement :-)

You're welcome, Shawn. Glad it all worked out for ya.

Brandan Borgias writes:

Like Shawn, your site was one of the 1st that came up in my Google search for my problem. Unlike Shawn, I get the fatal NMI Parity Error shortly after successfully logging in. The system is unusable.

I'm running:
WinXPhome (sp1 with all updates)
Micron Millenia PIII 500mhz w/ 320MB ram (I know.... I should just get a new PC!)
I tried multiple PCI slots, and different driver versions. Nothing helped.

I've submitted an email to DLink, but am not holding my breath.

Note, the exact DWL-520+ card works just fine on a very similar Micron Millenia PII 400mhz Win98 system. Another DWL-520+ card is working fine on an E-Machine Monster 500a running Win98.

I've sent Brandan Shawn's success story, so I'm hoping to hear back if this might be a usable solution for more than just one individual setup...

Emil Rimling from Stockhold, Sweden, writes:

Hi,

found your page when trying to look for a solution for my NMI error. I have a brand new Fuijutsi Siemens 800X PC and as soon as I installed my Dlink 520+ WiFi card I allways get an NMI error when doing a system shutdown. I will try to read through your pages and hopefully find a solution. The biggest problem with an error like this is that it seems impossible to get any decent support from the manufacturers of the hardware. They allways blame eachother, which causes the customer in an akward situation.

I wrote back to Emil, pointing him to Shawn's sucess story with the DWL 120+ adapter. Emil wrote back with this:

I'm on XP Home edition (OEM installed) with all the latest upgrades. I have had the DWL-520+ installed in my previous Dell machine on XP Home without any problems at all. But the problems started when I switched to my new Fuijutsu Siemens PC recently. I have upgraded the BIOS etc., plus the DWL drivers but with no luck so far. Still not really want to go the USB hardware way to solve it, rather switch back to cable (hopefully I can make use of the DWL in another PC later on).

I guess MS should take some more action on this and work closely together with hardware suppliers in order to solve problems like this.

Thanks for a good site, it is always fun with the Internet that no matter what kind of interest, trouble, or thought you have, you can always find someone to share and exchange information with.

Will get back to you if I have any success in this matter.

Kind regards,

Emil

Niklas writes:
I've had this problem with my computer. It is a new Fijitsu-Siemens and the problems started when I installed my D-Link networkcard (DWL-G520+).

I have tried everything on your site but nothing helped me.

But then I saw this thread in a forum: http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,10224912~mode=flat

I downloaded the USRobotics drivers and did like kitt3n did: http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,10224912~mode=flat~days=9999~start=20

It worked!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The utility lokks almost the same as D-Links but the most imortant thing is tha I now can shut down my computer!!! Yippie!!!!

Regards,
Niklas