April 16th, 2003

Here's an update to a topic I should have tackled a long time ago: the dreaded "NMI: Parity Check / Memory Parity Error" I've written about in my Computer Hell article last year.

I've been getting a surprising number of feedback from fellow error sufferers, most of them wanting to know if I've ever found a solution to my problem.

The sad reality is that in my book it really is still a mystery. I haven't been getting the error for over a year now, but I don't have a conclusive idea as to what exactly fixed the problem either. I do however download all the updates for XP religiously, and I think that definitely helps in keeping the system healthy and up-to-date with all the bug-fixes.

One guy who emailed me told me that he was advised by Dell to replace the RAM, and that seemed to fix it for him. For me, the error pretty much stopped occuring (with one recent exception) after I've removed the SCSI card, sold the Nikon scanner and got a USB-compatible scanner, as did another guy I talked to.

But looking at the fact that every single person I communicated with just upgraded to Windows XP, my suspicion that the fault is caused by the OS is deepening (go figure...).

It's definitely not the OEM hardware - the error occurs across all different brands (I have a Compaq, others have HPs or Dells). Yet in all cases, there's been new hardware added to the system (almost always an adapter of some sort - either for a scanner or a wireless network) that seems to cause the error within XP.

As costly or impractical as my advise seems then, I would have to say that the best thing you can do for your system (and your sanity) is to get rid of whatever hardware you just installed and get yourself another variation of the hardware.

Or go complain to Microsoft.
Ha ha. Next.