Bad RAM or not enough power?

[maxfire92]

ISSUE :
I've upgraded RAM, DISK and Graphic card on my HP Pavilion Elite M9458FPC and since then, I have random computer freeze and reboot while gaming.

TROUBLESHOOTING :
- I ran furMark and Call Of Pripyat Benchmark six or seven times and both of them ran perfectly fine each time. This mean, graphics cards is OK.
- Windows's bad memory check didn't found issues either.
- However, whenever I run Prime95 in blend mode it does fail on bad rounding. The quick mode without memory test does pass. The CPU's temperature doesn't get any hotter than 75°C while running Prime95, so this temperature isn't the issue.
- Tried running Prime95 with each memory stick at the time. Two of sticks passed and the two others froze the computer. I'm not sure the result are trustworthy here because windows has already used all the RAM available prior to launching the test.
- I've put back the old memory sticks and never had random reboot and freeze since then. But the computer is slower.

More information :
Base on the troubleshooting, I'm pretty sure the issue is either bad RAM or that the RAM eat just enough power to go over the limit of the 350watt PSU.

Spec :
Monitor1 : ASUS 24" DVI
Monitor2 : ASUS 24" HDMI
Graphic Card : ATI Radeon RX 550
Disk1 : SSD Kingfast 128Go
Disk2 : Regular 500 Go disk from Samsung
Disk3 : Regular 500 Go disk from Western Digital
Mouse1 : USB Logitech G502
Mouse2 : PS/2 HP mouse regular
Keyboard : Regular PS/2 HP keyboard
Headset : USB Razer
Motherboard : Pegatron Benicia 1.01
CPU : Intel COre 2 Quad Q6600
There is also a blue-ray reader doesn't is never used.

Old RAM : 4 sticks of DDR2 1Gb at 400 MHz
New RAM : 4 sticks of 2 Gb (PC2-6400 DDR2-800MHZ 240pin Desktop DIMM)

Question :
Am I dealing with bad memory or not enough power? If we can't know with provided information, is there a quick win test to know right away?

I would like to avoid having to test each stick of RAM one at the time because I can't use the computer while the test is running for hours. Also, I would need to create a bootable usb drive with mem86 to have a relevant memory test without windows interfering...

If it's bad memory, then I'll just buy replacement. If it's the PSU, I thinking about down-clocking something to free up some watt.

Thank you very much,
Regards

 

[jojesa]

You should run memtest86+ to find out if the ram is at fault.
Also you could try with two RAM sticks and see if the issue goes away.
Are those 4 sticks from a memory kit?

 

[maxfire92]

You should run memtest86+ to find out if the ram is at fault.
Also you could try with two RAM sticks and see if the issue goes away.
Are those 4 sticks from a memory kit?

I bought all 4 sticks together from China on Ebay. Each stick had its own little protective box.
So basically, there is no way around creating that bootable usb key with memtest86+ on it and test one stick at the time. I dread doing this, because it will run for so long..... I may try to use two of new sticks (the one that didn't freeze while tested alone with Prime95) with two of the old stick and see how it goes.

 

[jojesa]

I bought all 4 sticks together from China on Ebay. Each stick had its own little protective box.
So basically, there is no way around creating that bootable usb key with memtest86+ on it and test one stick at the time. I dread doing this, because it will run for so long..... I may try to use two of new sticks (the one that didn't freeze while tested alone with Prime95) with two of the old stick and see how it goes.

I understand the hassle but that's the best way you will find out.
I would try to test them in pairs.
You could look at the model numbers and that will tell you if it is a kit, which are tested (timings, frequency, voltage, etc) to work together.
Different type or RAM specially more that two sticks could get finicky working in tandem. Even if each stick passes Memtest86+ separate... it won't guaranteed that they will work together.
Try disabling dual channel (it might decrease RAM performance) and see

 

[maxfire92]

[/quotemsg]
I understand the hassle but that's the best way you will find out.
I would try to test them in pairs.
You could look at the model numbers and that will tell you if it is a kit, which are tested (timings, frequency, voltage, etc) to work together.
Different type or RAM specially more that two sticks could get finicky working in tandem. Even if each stick passes Memtest86+ separate... it won't guaranteed that they will work together.
Try disabling dual channel (it might decrease RAM performance) and see

[/quotemsg]

All 4 sticks of ram are identical and weremade by Kingston and use the same voltage (1.8V). Looking at them, I'm pretty sure they aren't kit
Here are the result for MemTest86+ :
Test #1 : 2 sticks of the new RAM and 2 stick of the old one >>>> Passed
Test #2 : The 2 others new RAM sticks alone. >>>> Passed twice
Test #3 : All 4 sticks of the new RAM. >>>> Passed twice.

Here is the error that Prime95 gives with the new RAM but don't with the old one :
[Jun 29 21:46] Test 1, 1000 Lucas-Lehmer iterations of M63390273 using type-2 FFT length 3360K, Pass1=896, Pass2=3840, clm=4.
[Jun 29 21:47] Test 2, 1000 Lucas-Lehmer iterations of M62390273 using FFT length 3360K, Pass1=896, Pass2=3840, clm=4.
[Jun 29 21:48] FATAL ERROR: Rounding was 0.5, expected less than 0.4
[Jun 29 21:48] Hardware failure detected, consult stress.txt file.
[Jun 29 21:48] Torture Test completed 61 tests in 1 hour, 45 minutes - 1 errors, 0 warnings.
[Jun 29 21:48] Worker stopped.

I've just realized that Prime95 doesn't stress the GPU at all while testing. This means that my small power supply is probably not the issue either.
I've tried googling to learn how I can disable dual channel but I couldn't find anything.Since both RAM and Power Supply are ok, I don't know where I should be looking next .
I'll probably try prime95 again with 2 old and 2 new sticks together and see if it fail or pass.

 

[jojesa]

If the 4 stick are not from a kit they are not identical, even if they are make by the same manufacturer and run at the same voltage.
Even though most errors will appear within 2 passes, it is recommended at least 8 passes to be confident that the RAM is free of errors.

To stress the GPU and PSU power delivery use Unigine (valley) or 3DMark (firestryke)...scroll to the bottom of the page for the 3DMark Basic Edition.

 

[maxfire92]

Hi jojesa,

Memory tests passed
So I've tested again all four new memory sticks at once with Mem86+. It did 10 pass which took 24h 20 min.
I've also run two others times three pass.
All pass were successful.
With my initial test, this represents a total of 18 pass.

GPU tests passed again
Still using the four new memory sticks, I've ran unigine on High setting for 8 hours and almost 24hours on ULTRA setting.
It ran fine just like furMark and Call Of Pripyat did.
CPU and GPU handled it with success and no error.

Issues happen only with all sticks of new ram
Still using these four memory sticks, games keep crashing :
- while gaming, my desktop suddenly appeared and the game and the process are gone. No error displayed.
- while gaming, the game freeze for a moment before the computer reboot out of nowhere.
- while gaming, the game freeze and I'm forced to kill it in task manager. (No more room in hell)
- while gaming, a memory read error appear in a window dialog and the game disappear when I press ok. The game's process is gone when I'm back on the desktop. Only Fornite Battle Royal does this.
- while gaming, I get a bluescreen. only Warcraft III does this.
So the issue happens across multiple games but doesn't happen doing only some website browsing. Lowering settings of the games only help reduce the frequency of the issue. Also, I close all opened browser tabs and also close application I don't need while gaming to free up RAM.
I've never had this issue with the old memory. As of now, I'm rocking two sticks of the new ram with two sticks of the old one and I'm not having any errors with this setup. With this setup, Prime95 blend test does pass but will always fails within half an hour when using the new memory sticks only. I didn't try using 3 new sticks with only one old because I'm not sure if this would be a good idea or not.

I've uploaded some images to a google drive so you can see the results of the tests for yourself as well the memory error message given by the game Fortnite. It's in French because my windows is in French. I've also included a picture of the four new sticks of memory next to each other so you can know if this is a "kit" or not. To me, it looks like regular ram sticks to me. Here is the link to see these images : https://drive.google.com/open?id=1xCdSU973EdC2eE0XebIZow0TQqX1Rkwx

Conclusion / what to verify next?
I'm far from a hardware expert, but the issue seems to be hardware related, but I can't tell what is going on. The only thing I could think of is that my Mobo is the bottleneck to supply power to all four memory stick when power is also required to CPU, GPU and hard drives, but I don't know if this can be a thing or not.

Do you more idea on the issue or do we close this issue as "unsolvable"?

Thanks

If the 4 stick are not from a kit they are not identical, even if they are make by the same manufacturer and run at the same voltage.
Even though most errors will appear within 2 passes, it is recommended at least 8 passes to be confident that the RAM is free of errors.

To stress the GPU and PSU power delivery use Unigine (valley) or 3DMark (firestryke)...scroll to the bottom of the page for the 3DMark Basic Edition.

 

[smorizio]

is the mb bios up to date?? sometimes if it old it might be missing ram or cpu code fixes.

 

[maxfire92]

Looking at the HP support site and others forums, it appears I already have the latest version for my Pegratron Benicia 1.01 because I have version 5.43 with date 09/10/2009 from American Megatrends Inc.
However, it's weird because on HP support site, it is stated that this version was released in August 2010.
Same Bios version but different date. How come !?

is the mb bios up to date?? sometimes if it old it might be missing ram or cpu code fixes.

 

[maxfire92]

Hi, I'm back at it. @jojesa @smorizio
All this time, I've been running 2 old sticks and 2 new sticks. A new stick paired with an old one.
Like I stated back then, this setup doesn't crash but doesn't use the full capacity of the MOBO with the RAM I've bought.
Last autumn, the computer got a brand new 650 watt psu because the other one died out.
So this week, I gave it a shot again since the issue might had been resolved by the new PSU.
However, I got the same result....
I also tried an other new 2go memory stick at PC2-6400 DDR2-800MHZ that I've got recently and it didn't change anything.
I ran some more mem86+ with all fours sticks together and they still passes like they did back then.

I'm getting interested in finding what is going on here.
Could errors be caused by the fact that new sticks weren't made to work in pair?
Would buying new paired memory sticks resolve the issue or would I still ran into the same problem with new paired memory sticks of 2go to max out my MOBO at 8go?

Also, I should have mentioned that the computer is a HP Pavilion Elite m9458f .
So, although I can't overclock anything with HP's bios, I could bsel mod the q6600 cpu to run at 1333MHz instead of 1066MHz. Could doing this mod help in anyway to make the errors go away?
By the way, I've recheck my bios and it's the latest version released by HP (5.43).
When doing office work, computer has yet to crash, but when gaming, it always crash within 30 minutes.
When gaming, CPU is always at 100% usage since it's a weak CPU, so that might be a reason why mem86+ passes but prime95 fail, because prime95 's blend test sure stress the CPU as well. So it may be because of this, but why wouldn't it crash with the old memory? With new or mixed old/new memory, the CPU is at 100% usage anyhow.

Screenshot of CPUZ Memory tab here

Anyone curious or willing to help to get to the button of this?