XP - Random Reboots and Windows Memory Diags Failure

scargill

my PC is randomly rebooting - can happen at anytime - usually at the wrong time! It happens about once or twice a day.

I have this motherboard: Abit AS8, I865P, Socket-775 and this RAM: Corsair TWINX1024-3200XL DDR-DIMM 1024MB

When XP reboots it tells me that windows has rebooted after a serious error - most likely a hardware fault and points me at this page:
MS Online Crash Analysis

I made a bootable CD and ran the diagnostics - it fails most of them. Both RAM modules have errors on them (if it was faulty RAM it would most likely just be one of them ?)
Am I using the wrong RAM with the wrong motherboard ?

(PS - I've flashed the motherboard using the Abit utilities - so it's up to date)

If it helps - this is the full spec of the PC

Sgtshaft

It maybe one stick is screwed but d/load a few diagnosic progs first start with Memtester and then give Prime95 a shot and run the torture test, its one the best progs to discover is your rig flaky.

Edit: Forgot to say, try ram in different slots and by themselves to narrow down the problem dimm.

Endurance Man

More than likely your powersupply is poo, the numerous random restarts may have been the cause of your damged ram?? How many times has it done this before u posted this ??

Capt'n Midnight

If you have over clocked it the go back to normal speeds.
Try one stick of ram at a time in case of mis timings
Set the BIOS to most compatible/setup settings - turn off cache on the off chance, at this stage you aren't worried about speed, just get it running first

BTW: don't keep running windows if diags fail, because windows doesn't like that, if you damage the registry then game over.

If it fails diags then try removing say the HDD to reduce the power load - if it's stable overnight possibly the psu. Could also be ESD on any /all components

scargill

If you have over clocked it the go back to normal speeds.

its not over-clocked - everything is standard.

Try one stick of ram at a time in case of mis timings

will try this later on

Set the BIOS to most compatible/setup settings - turn off cache on the off chance, at this stage you aren't worried about speed, just get it running first

i've tried turning off the cache - same errors occur

BTW: don't keep running windows if diags fail, because windows doesn't like that, if you damage the registry then game over.

windows disappeared up its own backside recently so this is a brand new installation.

If it fails diags then try removing say the HDD to reduce the power load - if it's stable overnight possibly the psu.

will try - but have often left the pc on for a few days (bittorrent) and its been fine. its only when i am actually doing something on the pc that is making it work - like playing doom - or doing development that its most likely to occur.

Could also be ESD on any /all components

Not sure what ESD is ? Static ? I'm careful with the components i put in and take out - always make sure I'm earthed when fiddling around.

scargill

Endurance Man wrote:

More than likely your powersupply is poo, the numerous random restarts may have been the cause of your damged ram?? How many times has it done this before u posted this ??

machine has been flakey since I put it together around 5 months ago. I just put it down to a dodgey XP installation. I had installed every game under the sun - and every piece of shareware known to man!

XP died a few weeks ago (probably because of the rebooting) - so i rebuilt from scratch, careful to make sure I had flashed mobo and had all the correct drivers for video card, sound card, etc. So I know the OS is stable. I've got a ghost image in case it all goes wallop again.

I should have run those RAM tests as soon as I put the PC together and returned them.

I don't think it is the PSU (I could be wrong) - cos as I said above the PC can work fine for days if left alone. It tends to crash most when, for example, I open up the tenth explorer window - or if I'm playing Doom3 and enter a new room (i.e. its loading a new level)

Sgtshaft

What temp is your CPU at? I once had a similar problem with an abit board which after being stumped for quite a while it came down to heat, certain abit boards automatically shutdown when CPU temp goes above 60 degrees, no matter what u set it at in the bios.

scargill

Sgtshaft wrote:

What temp is your CPU at?

can't remember off hand - but I think it hovers around 60 ?
It has the stock fan installed on the cpu. I'll check later on when I'm home.

I'm calling over to a friend this evening to try different RAM - and I'll put my RAM in his PC. see if I can track it down to RAM or mobo.

Sgtshaft

I think it definalty heat related, underclock your CPU a bit and then stress test it and see does it restart, if it does not (when underclocked) then get a better hsf.

scargill

I'm assuming that the RAM or the motherboard is faulty and that it has been faulty from the beginning.

From the gist of the replies here I might be barking up the wrong tree. The RAM could be damaged by a faulty power supply. Or it could be damaged because of rebooting caused by overheating CPU. I should have fully tested all the components from the start - this was my first PC to assemble so I'll know next time.

If I do isolate the problem to faulty RAM what are the chances of Komplett changing it after 5 months ? What are the chances of them blaming overclocking/overheating CPU, overloaded PSU, mishandling ?

scargill

Sgtshaft wrote:

I think it definalty heat related, underclock your CPU a bit and then stress test it and see does it restart, if it does not (when underclocked) then get a better hsf.

thanks sgtshaft (why I am uncomfortable typing that!). But if the PC has been off and I boot it from CD and the memory test fails how could it be caused by overheating CPU ?
do u reckon the ram has been damaged by rebooting caused by overheating. i.e. the source of the problem is the CPU and not the RAM ?

Sgtshaft

scargill wrote:

thanks sgtshaft (why I am uncomfortable typing that!). But if the PC has been off and I boot it from CD and the memory test fails how could it be caused by overheating CPU ?
do u reckon the ram has been damaged by rebooting caused by overheating. i.e. the source of the problem is the CPU and not the RAM ?

Its hard to know, what I would do is, first bring your multplier/bus speed down to 10*133 and then get memtest to check is your ram ok, if it fails then test on one module at a time and see if at least one is ok, if one on more of your dimms is ok then boot your rig with normal clock settings and run prime95s torture test, this will probably reboot your rig due to overheating, then underclock again and give prime another go to see does it reboot, if it does not then you know its your HSF.

Edit: I think your PSU is ok as its an Antec (my favourite) and have used them for years without any problems

scargill

fair play to you sgtshaft !! I reduced the CPU speed from 3ghz to 1.5 ghz and it passes all the tests fine I'm having trouble getting the Abit utilities to read my CPU temparture since I flashed the motherboard. I can look at the temp in the BIOS but that doesnt really give much of an indication of real world temps.

In the BIOS at 3ghz to CPU temp is 50 degrees, at 1.5ghz its around 34 degrees. I can only imagine what happens to it when its running Doom3 or Half-Life.

I'm going to root around for abit utilities that work to see if I can get accurate readings when running that prime number thing.
I'll get the thermal paste out later on and reapply it properly (after cleaning).

i'll probably get myself a better cpu cooler - zalman or the likes.

scargill

I downloaded the latest ABIT utilities and try to run 'Abit EQ' I just get a message box with 'Warning','Open file error!'

not sure what the problem is - i've read around a few newsgroups and seems a common problem.

know of any other utils to give me the CPU temp ?

scargill

I eventually got the proper Abit Utilities here.

I fiddled around with changing the processor speed and now have it running at 2.8 ghz and it seems pretty stable.

Running the comprehensive tests using the Microsoft Memory tester I'm getting around 4 errors. I was getting around 500 errors running at 3.0 ghz.

At rest the CPU temperature is 32 degrees - under stress while running the prime95 stress tests it gets to 49 degrees. I ran Doom3 for around half an hour and it got to around 48 degrees.

I won't really know how stable it is for a while - I'll just have to tell the gf that its essential that I play Doom3 every evening for an hour !

If its stable I'll leave it alone - 200 mhz won't hurt me. If it still gives me grief I'll splash out on a Zalman CPU cooler.

Sgtshaft

Good to hear it (been away in the Dam ), I know how much of a fcuker it is 2 track down such an annoying problem, glad to hear its just heat related but do your self a favour and get your self a decent HSF and get what u paid for.

P.S:I am an AMD fanboy so ask some other geezer to advise u on a HSF for a smelly pentium :rolleyes:

scargill

a week later, after many, many hourse of Doom3 and COD there have been no crashes at all !

Thanks for your suggestions