Windows will list a series of error messages and stop codes when your computer (mainly the hard drive) goes wrong. The memory management error is one of the many common errors; it often appears on a blue screen. If you are careful enough, you’ll find there’s a stop code after the error message.

Is it possible to fix laptop memory slot failure with a guitar pick? Yes, it is. You will not fix the memory slot itself, but you can work around the problem. 🙂
Today I received a Toshiba Satellite Pro 4600 laptop with the following complaint:

The blue is the primary one - for a single video card. If you have two video cards, the second one goes into the PCIe slot two away from the primary. The other two PCIe X16 slots are X4 capped. Going thru yr memory slot thing. Opened the memory. The side of the slot (white plastic with tiny metal tab, “flange”. On one side of the top slot (there are 2 folded slots), has cracked and now spread doesnt clamp the module. Sure i could have done that when i spread the sides. But i think i used so little pressure that it was already cracked.

The laptop starts and works properly, but recognizes only one of the two memory modules installed. The laptop has two 256MB RAM modules installed, but registers only 256MB.

First of all, I removed the memory cover to find out if both memory modules are installed correctly. The laptop had two 256MB Kingston modules installed and they were seated properly.

When I started the laptop and entered the BIOS setup menu, I found that only one of the two memory modules is detected and the laptop registers only 256MB (262144KB) of RAM instead of 512MB (524288KB).
Just a side note. In the computer world 1MB=1024KB. That’s why 256MB=262144KB and 512MB=524288KB.

I tried reseating both memory modules but it didn’t help.
After that I tried installing both memory modules in both memory slots one by one and here’s what I found. The laptop worked absolutely fine when both memory modules were installed into the slot A, but failed to boot with both memory modules installed into the slot B.
Apparently, there is nothing wrong with the memory modules and the laptop has a faulty memory slot B. The memory slot is permanently soldered on the motherboard. If one of the slots fails you’ll have to replace the whole motherboard or use the laptop with only one working slot.
Buying a new motherboard for this older laptop wouldn’t make any sense because it’s too expensive, but the laptop is still in a good working condition except the faulty memory slot B, so I continued playing with that trying to find the solution.

I noticed that the laptop start normally with the memory module installed into the faulty slot if I slightly press on the module with my thumb. And this gave me an idea.

This guitar pick is going to fix my laptop. 🙂

I installed both RAM modules back into the slots and then placed the guitar pick over the module in the slot B as it shown on the picture.

I thought if I close the RAM door it will press on the guitar pick/memory module and it will have the same effect as pressing on the module with my thumb. And it worked!

Both memory modules were detected properly and the laptop registered all 512MB. After “the fix” I tested memory with Memtest86+ and the laptop passed the test.
I wouldn’t call it the best solution for fixing a faulty memory slot but in some cases it will work.

By the way, I didn’t charge the customer for this “repair”, he knows what is going on and how I “fixed” his problem.


Summary :

Blue Or White Ram Sloth

Windows will list a series of error messages and stop codes when your computer (mainly the hard drive) goes wrong. The memory management error is one of the many common errors; it often appears on a blue screen. If you are careful enough, you’ll find there’s a stop code after the error message. You can then make use of the stopcode to pinpoint and fix the issue.

Quick Navigation :

Computer memory is not a new concept for users; it refers to any physical devices that are used to store information by making use of the integrated circuits. The information can be stored temporarily like RAM (random access memory) or permanently, like ROM (read-only memory).

Well, memory management error refers to the error related to memory management. The Windows memory management error often occurs on a blue screen by displaying a “MEMORY_MANAGEMENT” error message. You must be worried, disappointed, or angry when encountering a BSOD (Blue Screen of Death) error while running Windows 10 or other Windows systems, right? Please just relax since it’s not fatal. You’re not alone; plenty of Windows users are bothering by the same problem.

As a matter of fact, when the memory management went wrong, BSODs will appear in your system at regular intervals. Considering this, I will introduce the causes of memory management error and then demonstrate several practical ways to fix the error in the following content.

Memory Management Error Windows 10

What Is Memory Management in An Operating System?

As its name suggests, memory management is a feature that is responsible for managing the primary memory of the computer in an operating system. Main functions of Windows memory management are:

  1. Keep control of the status of each memory location (both allocated and free).
  2. Decide how to allocate the memory during competing process.
  3. Decide which one to get the memory, when to receive it and how much it could get.
  4. Assign a certain memory location when the memory allocation process is finished.

Real Cases

Case 1: Getting memory management error blue screen many times a day immediately after latest win10 update.

I never got blue screen. I install the updates and the same day I'm getting that blue screen over and over again. I get it almost every time I try to turn my pc off, so I get to never leave my apartment or go to sleep because I can’t just turn my pc off without having to wait for it to reboot (which happens after blue screen) so I can turn it off again. It is 11 AM and I have gotten the blue screen today maybe 2 or 3 times already. Anyone else having this issue? Didn’t some windows 10 updates destroy CPUs in some PCs, wasn’t that in the news? Could this be related to Win 10 update induced hardware damage?- asked by KalleSatan in Microsoft Community
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Case 2: Memory Management Error Windows 10.

All indications were that my system was OK for upgrade. However, Acer did not support the upgrade of my laptop: Acer Aspire V5-571 P. Processor i7-3537U, Ram 8G, 64bitOS, Touch screen. I upgraded from windows 8.1 to 10 without any problems or issues. Approximately 20 minutes after use and repeatedly after that the system would fail, Blue screen: (gather information. Pointing to a memory management problem. Ran the Microsoft memory troubleshooter. No problem identified. Because the laptop would not stay up for longer than 20 minutes. Even when left with no additional program running. I reverted back to Windows 8.1 Everything is fine again. Where to start?- posted by Hal70400 also in Microsoft Community

In both cases, the user said the Windows 10 memory management error occurs after the update has been completed. What does this mean? It indicates that updates are one of the common causes of this error. To know more reasons that could lead to memory management BSOD Windows 10, please read the next part.

What Causes Memory Management Error

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Frankly speaking, the Memory Management blue screen of death will emerge when there’s a serious memory management error, which could be brought by a lot of reasons.

There are the most common causes of the horrifying memory management error blue screen:

  • Windows update: after you upgraded your Windows from an older version, this error may appear.
  • Disk errors: errors have been found on the disk mounted to that computer.
  • Virus infection: the computer virus invades your system and then damages it (how to recover virus deleted files).
  • Faulty memory: the memory is incorrect.
  • Faulty RAM: the RAM (Random-access memory) goes wrong.
  • Faulty drivers: the drivers of devices (like video driver) are missing or incorrect.
  • Hardware issues: hardware problems were detected on one or more of the hardware (such as graphics card).
  • Software issue: problems are found in one or more of the software (corrupt files and missing operating system are included).
  • Software or hardware conflict: a software/hardware is in conflict with other software/hardware.

3 Popular Situations of the Memory Management Error in Windows

The MEMORY_MANAGEMENT can show up on any versions of Windows. It tends to occur especially when you plan to run highly demanding processes like VR games and 4K livestreams. I summarized the most popular three situations in which the error occurs.

Situation 1: MEMORY_MANAGEMENT crashes.

The stopcode memory management Windows 10 will definitely prevent you from entering the system as usual. You’ll find the error message remains on your screen most of the time. Under such circumstances, you have no choice but to reboot the device to have a try. However, the problem may not be fixed by rebooting. What’s worse, PC crashes and even crash loops may be resulted from this.

Situation 2: Windows 10 memory management loop.

Once the Windows 10 BSOD stop code memory management shows up on your computer, it may cause an error loop. Even though the system doesn’t crash sometimes, the MEMORY_MANAGEMENT error will still be there every time users shut down and restart their computers.

Situation 3: MEMORY_MANAGEMENT on Asus, Acer, HP, Lenovo, Surface Pro and Surface Pro 3.

If Windows stop code memory management error appears in this case, all the devices will be influenced. As for the Surface line of Microsoft, this issue is especially popular on Surface Pro and Surface Pro 3 devices.

Blue Or White Ram Slot

The causes and situations of memory management error Windows 7 are basically the same.

How to Fix Memory Management Error

The MEMORY_MANAGEMENT error is actually one of the BSOD error messages. So you could try to fix it by restarting your PC.

  • If the error doesn’t appear anymore after the restart, please forget about it.
  • If the MEMORY_MANAGEMENT error message still shows up when you’re running your PC, you should follow the advanced troubleshooting solutions given below.

Recover Data First

Data security should come first no matter what happens. To ensure the data security when you see the Windows stop code MEMORY_MANAGEMENT, you may as well follow the steps below.

Step 1: restart your PC when running into the memory management error. Then, get MiniTool ShadowMaker and launch it after installation.

Step 2: run this software to back up files (at least important files) on your computer.

Step 3: get MiniTool Power Data Recovery if any files get lost from your PC.

Step 4: run the data recovery software.

  • If you'd like to recover missing files from an existing partition, please keep This PC selected on the left side panel of its main interface.
  • If the files you need are contained in a partition that has been lost already, please select Hard Disk Drive.

Step 5: double click on the target partition/hard disk to start a full scan on it. Then, wait for the scan to progress.

Step 6: more and more files will be found and displayed in the scan result as the scan goes on. Please browse them and pick out the ones you really need.

Step 7:

  1. Click on the Save button at the bottom right.
  2. Select another drive (a removable drive would be better) as the destination to store recovered files.
  3. Click on the OK button to confirm.
  4. Wait for the recovery to complete.

When the recovery is done, you should hurry to repair the Windows memory management error by using the ways mentioned in the next section.

Fix Windows Stop Code Windows 10

How do I fix a memory error? There are actually some commonly used methods that have worked in most cases.

Method one: run SFC Scanner.

The SFC Scanner is a tool built in Windows to cope with system related problems. Many users said that the SFC/SCANNOW command has helped them get out of the BSOD trouble.

  1. Click on the Cortana icon on the taskbar and input cmd.
  2. Right click on Command Prompt under best match.
  3. Choose Run as administrator from the context menu.
  4. Select Yes in the pop-up User Account Control window.
  5. Type sfc/scannow and hit Enter.
  6. Wait for the scan process to finish (this may take a while) and see if any errors are fixed.

Method 2: check disk for errors.

The Error checking is another useful tool of Windows used to verify file systems, certain settings, and fix issues.

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  1. Repeat step 1 ~ step 4 mentioned in method 1.
  2. Type chkdsk C: /f (you can replace C with another drive letter) and hit Enter.
  3. Wait for the process to complete itself. (However, if the target drive can’t be locked, you’ll receive an error message suggesting you schedule the disk scan the next time the system restarts.)

Please be advised that the parameter /f only checks for logical issues; to check physical errors, please use /r.

Difference between SFC scanner and error checking: the former checks for Windows system files, while the latter scans the entire drive for errors.

Method 3: use the Windows Memory Diagnostic Tool.

A corrupted/damaged RAM memory is a common cause for the memory management error in Windows 10. You can replace it with a new one to solve the problem easily. But before that, you need to run the Windows 10 Memory Diagnostic Tool to make sure it’s really broken.

  1. Hold down the Start and R buttons at the same time to open the Run dialog box.
  2. Type mdsched.exe and click OK.
  3. Choose between Restart now and check for problems (recommended) and Check for problems the next time I start my computer. The former will check your memory straight away, while the latter allows you to keep working and do the memory check later.
  4. When the Windows Memory Diagnostic Tool actually runs, Windows will start to check for memory problems. You should wait for it to end.

If no problem is found, it’s possible that your memory on the computer is fine, so you should try other methods to fix the management error.

Method 4: run a full system scan to detect the virus.

  1. Click on the Start button in the lower left corner of the screen.
  2. Scroll down to select Windows Defender Security Center.
  3. Select Virus and threat protection.
  4. Click the Advanced scan option.
  5. Check the full scan and wait.

You have a lot of choices to finish the scan: Windows’ built-in antivirus, Windows Defender (how to solve Windows Defender deleted my files), or third-party antivirus programs.

Method 5: update your drivers.

An outdated or broken graphics card driver could also lead to the memory management error in Windows. Additionally, the new drivers come with the new hardware may also cause a problem. Therefore, updating drivers becomes a quick and easy fix.

  1. Right click on the Start button in the lower left corner of the computer screen.
  2. Choose Device Manager from the right-click menu.
  3. Browse the list to check if there is an error symbol. If the symbol appears, please update the corresponding driver by right-clicking on it and choosing Update driver; if there is nothing wrong, the driver may not be the reason causing the error. You can still try to update the driver.

Method 6: clear temporary files and folders.

If there are too many temporary files and folders, it will cause serious problems: causing apps to respond slowly, affecting processing speed, and triggering error codes. The quickest and easiest way to clean them is to use Disk Cleanup.

  1. Click on the Cortana icon on the taskbar and type disk cleanup.
  2. Select Disk Cleanup from the result.
  3. Choose the target drive from the drop-down list in Disk Clean: Drive Selection window.
  4. Click on the OK button to confirm.
  5. Wait for the calculating process.
  6. Select the files you want to delete.
  7. Click on the Clean up system files button.

Don’t worry if you have deleted files by mistake through Disk Cleanup since MiniTool Power Data Recovery can help you recover them.

Other methods that you can try in order to fix the Windows stop code MEMORY_MANAGEMENT in Windows 10:

  • Remove recently installed software and hardware.
  • Increase Virtual Memory.
  • Look for software problems like software corruption and conflict.
  • Update your Windows 10 to the latest version.
  • Revert the PC’s settings to default if you have changed the clock rate of your PC.
  • Make use of the System Restore feature.
  • Reset or reinstall Windows 10 (it's the last trump card).

Verdict

Memory management BSODs seem to be difficult to take care of, especially for inexperienced computer users. According to the study, many reasons could cause the memory management error in different situations. But you don’t need to get panic too much since several ways to tackle the problem have been demonstrated above.

If there is indeed something wrong with your RAM memory, you already know what to do, right?

Memory Management BSOD FAQ

Literally, the memory management error means problems are found in the memory management feature. A critical memory management error could lead to computer Blue Screen of Death (BSOD). Once that really happens, users will not be able to access their system.
To tell the truth, there are a lot of causes of the memory management error in Windows 10. The common ones include: faulty RAM, faulty drivers, hardware failure (such as damaged/outdated/incorrect video card driver), software issues, and hard disk errors.
  1. Go to open Control Panel on your computer.
  2. Look for Administrative Tools link and click it.
  3. Double click on the Windows Memory Diagnostic tool from the list.
  4. Choose Restart now and check for problems or Check for problems the next time I start my computer.
  5. Wait for the process to complete.
Definitely, the RAM of your computer will wear out over time. When it really fails, you may encounter one of these situations: frequent freeze, Blue Screen of Death, unexpected reboot, and corrupted files (how to recover the corrupted files yourself).