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 Posted: Wed, 30th Dec 2009 17:08 Post subject: RAM Problems/Questions |
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So, my computer was behaving strange lately and I'm pretty (but not 100%) sure its the RAM thats causing the problems.
My RAM is the following: 2x1GB Corsair DDR2-667 CL5 XMS2 Twin
My Mobo: ASUS P5W DH Deluxe S775 (supports up to DDR2-800 no DDR3)
Both are 2.5 years old
First I'll describe problems I have, then the tests I ran and finally there is a question:
1 Problems)
There are hardly any problems when in Desktop mode, browsing the net, watching vids, encoding stuff working with programs etc.
Very rarely, after closing an application the screen freezes for like 20 seconds and the computer beeps once or twice, after some secs everything is fine again.
And only once, my newsreader was stuck in an infinite download loop and couldnt decode any articles until I restarted it.
Playing games is where the problems become more serious, its like every 2-3 hours SOMETHING strange happens. I was playing Borderlands, Modern Warfare 2 and Mass Effect.
I get bluescreens (nv4_disp.dll), freezes, slowdown, funny rainbow-coloured textures and once the whole screen became garbled and messy.
Once these problems occur, they can only be fixed by a reboot, exiting and re-starting the game DOES NOT work, the problems remain.
2 Tests)
To the tests; I ran the Windows Memory test, memtest86 from a bootable CD and the memtest.exe from the Desktop.
The Windows test is useless, most of the time it finds no problems, sometimes it does but I get no detailed logs whatsoever.
The bootable memtest86 nearly always gets stuck at the 4th test (random patterns, only once I made it past that) and then never resumes.
It seems to find one error, one of the numbers at the bottom always jumps from 0 to 32667 and its stuck in an infinite loop like that.
The Desktop memtest asks me to run 2 instances of the test, each to test around 800mb of unused RAM.
I let them do 4 passes (400%). One instance went fine with no errors, the other one found over 20. Does that mean only one ram stick is damaged??
I also removed the sticks, blew the dust out, swapped slots, but the problems remain.
I'm not gonna fiddle with this again to see if only one stick is damaged, I'd have to swap sticks 3 more times and run all tests and honestly I don't want to go through all this again and it still could be a Mobo/CPU problem.
3 Question)
So can I be sure its the RAM thats causing the problems, any other way to check this?
As far as I know, theres still a possibility thats its the mainboard or the CPU and then I'm fucked.
In this case I'd get a new socket 1xxx mobo with DDR3 and an i7, rendering both my E6600 CPU and the old RAM useless.
I didnt plan on buying a new computer until Summer 2010.
And if I buy some DDR2 ram now and it still gives me errors, I'd know its not the RAM but Ive wasted 50 euros on useless old RAM that I can't exchange.
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Werelds
Special Little Man
Posts: 15098
Location: 0100111001001100
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| Posted: Wed, 30th Dec 2009 19:29 Post subject: |
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Only way to be sure it's the RAM is to take one chip out at a time. Take one out, run the bootable memtest. If it finds an error, swap the sticks and run it again.
This can be any number of things though, you'll need to test both sticks separately first to be sure of it 
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| Posted: Wed, 30th Dec 2009 23:27 Post subject: |
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Okay, so I spent the whole evening swapping and testing sticks and it seems that I found my suspect. First I took out the 2nd stick (lets call it B) and tested the remaining one (A).
I ran 2 passes with memtest86 and it found no errors. Then I removed Stick A, put in Stick B and ran the test again. After 13 minutes I got the good old "memtest stuck in infinite loop" error, numbers jumping from 0 to 32676 (or kinda) etc., this time on test number 6, pass one. So I guess Stick B is damaged. Going to replace it.
I seriously hope this one is causing the rainbow coloured textures, bluescreens and garbled mess graphics or else I have a serious problem with my graphics card. I mean is it common for memory errors to cause fucked up textures in video games?
I got my graphics card which is a Zotac GTX 275 AMP only half a year ago! Overheating I can definitely eliminate, cause I monitor that 24/7 since I got some kind of history with overheating GPU's and know all symptoms. I also got the newest WHQL drivers installed (195.62).
My Windows and HDD are brand new (the old one + windows headcrashed 2 months ago) and I ran chkdisk with /f and /r parameters and it found no bad sectors.
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| Posted: Wed, 30th Dec 2009 23:30 Post subject: |
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Video card - thats my guess too. Its most likely when your graphics get messed up, vid card is the reason. Usually this happens when you overclock the vid card.
RYZEN 5 2600|RADEON 570| |ASRock X370 Killer|DDR4@2800Mhz||Corsair SPEC-05 Case|AOC G2590FX 24.5''144hz 1ms|
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| Posted: Wed, 30th Dec 2009 23:38 Post subject: |
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Well the Zotac AMP! card comes pre-overclocked, so all I could do is force an underclock.
But then other people with the same card would have similar problems and I couldnt find anything about it.
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Werelds
Special Little Man
Posts: 15098
Location: 0100111001001100
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| Posted: Thu, 31st Dec 2009 15:19 Post subject: |
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Ok I got lucky, my cousin borrowed me one of his sticks which are exactly the same, I now replaced the faulty stick and ran two passes of memtest86 without any errors. Memory should be fine now.
Now I'm going to play Mass Effect for the rest of the day and see if there are still problems...in case there are I'd have an 8800 GTS to replace the GTX 275.
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Werelds
Special Little Man
Posts: 15098
Location: 0100111001001100
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| Posted: Fri, 1st Jan 2010 11:45 Post subject: |
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Good luck mate
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