What does Windows error code 779 (ERROR_MEMORY_HARDWARE) mean?

ERROR_MEMORY_HARDWARE

the hardware has reported an uncorrectable memory error.

ERROR_MEMORY_HARDWARE indicates this condition. This code reports a machine-check or platform memory event that Windows could not correct transparently. It points below ordinary application allocation failures: the failing component may be a DIMM, memory channel, processor memory controller, motherboard trace, firmware configuration, or another part of the memory path.

Where the result appears

• Windows Error Reporting or Reliability Monitor records created after a corrected or fatal hardware event.
• system logs generated by WHEA, firmware, or a hardware monitoring service.
• applications that receive an I/O or memory failure after the operating system retires a damaged page.
• diagnostic tools reading the final Win32 status from a failed operation.

What to collect

• the WHEA event ID, error source, bank, physical address, and error severity.
• server or workstation model, BIOS/UEFI version, and recent firmware changes.
• DIMM slot population, ECC counters, and vendor hardware diagnostics.
• whether failures recur on the same physical page, channel, or processor socket.

Handling and recovery

Treat repeated occurrences as a hardware reliability incident, not as an application retry problem. Preserve volatile diagnostic data, run the vendor memory test, verify seating and supported DIMM combinations, and replace the implicated component when the platform identifies one. A one-off event still deserves correlation with WHEA history because an uncorrectable report can precede a crash or silent service interruption.

Common misinterpretation

Do not confuse this code with ERROR_NOT_ENOUGH_MEMORY. The latter describes unavailable virtual or physical resources; it says the platform reported defective or unreliable memory hardware.

References

• Microsoft: System error codes 500–999