When I tried to install the Fall Creators Update for Windows 10 on my Surface Pro 4 device using Windows Update, I was greeted with a "Your PC ran into a problem" bluescreen message highlighting the stop code Memory Management.
The error happened during the installation of a feature update, but reports on the Internet suggest that it may also happen on boot, installation of minor updates, or while the PC is in use.
The full message on the bluescreen read:
Your PC ran into a problem and needs to restart. We're just collecting some error info, and then we'll restart for you.
If you call a support person, give them this info: Stop Code Memory Management
Good news is that the error message hints at the problem (something memory related caused the issue); bad news is that there is no "do this" fix to correct the issue as it may have multiple causes.
The first thing that you may want to do is create a backup of your system. This is a precaution and ensures that you still have access to your data if the machine dies or something unexpected happens.
If you can boot into the Windows 10 environment do so afterwards. If you cannot, try booting into Safe Mode on Windows 10 instead.
Note: Many "help" sites out there suggest that you run a "repair" tool to fix the issue. This is an advertisement for the program, and you will have to buy the program to fix any issues that it finds. These programs don't fix serious issues usually.
The computer's memory may have caused the memory management bluescreen on the device. Since this is all the information we have at the point, it makes sense to run memory diagnostics to make sure memory is not defect.
Note: Memory Diagnostics needs to run when Windows starts. You are prompted to restart right away, or run the diagnostics module on the next start of the computer.
Tip: You can run a third-party tool like MemTest64 or MemTest86+.
Here is a quick video that demonstrates how to run the built-in Windows tool to fix Memory Management Error 0X0000001A in Safe Mode.
Windows checks core files of the operating system to make sure they are not corrupt or missing. The process takes a couple of minutes to complete.
If you get "Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations", everything is fine and you can move on. If integrity violations were discovered, you may have found the issue that caused the memory management bluescreen.
Once you are done with that, run chkdsk C: f\ afterwards to check the primary hard drive of the computer for errors.
Smaller things you may want to try:
My Surface Pro 4 threw the memory management error when I tried to upgrade to the Fall Creators Update. It did not matter how I tried to update: Windows Update and running the update from a bootable USB Flash drive ended in the error being displayed on the screen, and the earlier version of the operating system being restored.
I ran memory diagnostics and other check ups, and nothing came out of it. I made the decision then to clean install Windows instead.
The downside to this was that I would lose access to all files and programs installed on the device if the operation would complete successfully. I created a backup of the system to store the files safely, and started the process.
The clean installation worked in my case, the Surface was not throwing any memory management errors during installation, and booted into the Windows 10 desktop just fine afterwards.
I had to copy my files back to the device afterwards, and install the software that I wanted to use on it as all of that was gone due to the clean install of the operating system.
The memory management bluescreen does not necessarily mean that the memory or the memory banks of the computer are damaged. While that is certainly a possibility, it can also be caused by software or drivers, and other things that are easier to fix.
Now You: How do you handle bluescreen errors?
Please click on the following link to open the newsletter signup page: Ghacks Newsletter Sign up
Ghacks is a technology news blog that was founded in 2005 by Martin Brinkmann. It has since then become one of the most popular tech news sites on the Internet with five authors and regular contributions from freelance writers.
If Microsoft can’t even update their own device that they designed and has hardware in it that they put there without causing issues you really have to wonder what’s going wrong, one would assume they actually have a few Surface devices hanging around that they can test these updates on before foisting them on an unsuspecting public.
Have similar issues but installed fresh. Consistent with dragging files between apps is from 7zip and Everything to wherever. Bug check with reference to win32kfull.sys. Seems to be a widespread problem from what I can see when troubleshooting. Going back to 1703.