Every now and then I receive a memory parity error message, my computer freezes and I have to restart it. What to do?

The error means that the hardware detected an error in the memory (RAM). If over clocking, slow back down. Verify that the memory modules are correct for the system.

Most systems now days do not use Parity/ECC memory modules, but you must have it in your system to get this error. There is also the small possibility that the error is in the L1/L2 cache of the processor.

In the ones that do have these slightly more expensive memory modules, they are normally setup for ECC mode of operation instead of plan Parity checking. To get a Parity check error on one of these, you have to have more than a single bit failure.

Run a standalone memory test like MemTest86_v3.2 and check out your memory for several hours. If it detects an error, it is most likely time to find and replace the failing memory module.