Memory puzzle

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

Yesterday, with everyone's help, I solved a big piece of my system's
instability due to bad CPU cooling. But unfortunately, some instability
still exists. It appears to be related to the memory so I've been playing
around with it all day along, taking notes along the way. I'm wondering if
anyone sees my findings unusual or if any thoughts or advice come to mind.

MB=Chaintech 7VIF4 (2 memory banks)
CPU=AMD XP Barton 2600+ (runs at FSB-166, 49C temp at full load, 42C at
idle)
Module#1=PNY(Samsung) 256MB PC2700 DDR333
Module#2=Centon 256MB PC2700 DDR333
2-80GB WD Hard drives (On same cable)
1 DVD R/W on secondary
New case with (supposedly) premium quality power supply

Here's what I've found:

1) PNY in bank 1. Not workable. Frequent instantaneous reboots in Win2K
when copying from 1 HD to the other or when reading from the DVD. Sometimes
brings up the scanner software upon Win boot-up. Random programs can't
initialize/start. Manually re-boot and the software problems are solved.
This is by far the worst configuration. Fails very quickly.
2) PNY in bank 2. Works much better. Only one phantom re-boot during
Sandra 2004 burn-in after 3 hrs.
3) Centon in bank 1. A phantom re-boot after an hour of Sandra 2004
burn-in. After re-boot, ran fine for 3 hrs.
4) Centon in bank 2. Not a single problem after 6 hours of Sandra 2004
burn-in and still running. Before I started taking notes and doing more
testing, it also ran 9 hrs overnight without a failure.
5) Together, either bank. Results similar to #1 above. Fails quick and it
doesn't matter what the bank configuration is.
6) Everything seems to work great at FSB-133. But I haven't done any
rigorous testing as I have with 166. I just know that the system worked
well under constant load for 2 straight days, even with the CPU running at
60C.

For testing, I copied 30GB from 1 drive to the other repeatedly. Copied a
DVD disk to HD. Ran Sandra 2004 CPU/memory burn-in continuously. These are
the things that I know causes the phantom reboots.

So does anyone have any thoughts or ideas? Is it fairly common to have
memory this touchy? Any other diag/testing tools I might try to get more
info? I'm kind of surprised that the Centon is more stable than the PNY
(Samsung). I would have bet it would have been the other way around.
Tells you how much I know

Thanks for any input/advice....

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

"Russ M." <acid_maltxspam@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:2q484hFq938vU1@uni-berlin.de...
> Yesterday, with everyone's help, I solved a big piece of my system's
> instability due to bad CPU cooling. But unfortunately, some instability
> still exists. It appears to be related to the memory so I've been playing
> around with it all day along, taking notes along the way. I'm wondering
if
> anyone sees my findings unusual or if any thoughts or advice come to mind.
>
> MB=Chaintech 7VIF4 (2 memory banks)
> CPU=AMD XP Barton 2600+ (runs at FSB-166, 49C temp at full load, 42C at
> idle)
> Module#1=PNY(Samsung) 256MB PC2700 DDR333
> Module#2=Centon 256MB PC2700 DDR333
> 2-80GB WD Hard drives (On same cable)
> 1 DVD R/W on secondary
> New case with (supposedly) premium quality power supply
>
> Here's what I've found:
>
> 1) PNY in bank 1. Not workable. Frequent instantaneous reboots in Win2K
> when copying from 1 HD to the other or when reading from the DVD.
Sometimes
> brings up the scanner software upon Win boot-up. Random programs can't
> initialize/start. Manually re-boot and the software problems are solved.
> This is by far the worst configuration. Fails very quickly.
> 2) PNY in bank 2. Works much better. Only one phantom re-boot during
> Sandra 2004 burn-in after 3 hrs.
> 3) Centon in bank 1. A phantom re-boot after an hour of Sandra 2004
> burn-in. After re-boot, ran fine for 3 hrs.
> 4) Centon in bank 2. Not a single problem after 6 hours of Sandra 2004
> burn-in and still running. Before I started taking notes and doing more
> testing, it also ran 9 hrs overnight without a failure.
> 5) Together, either bank. Results similar to #1 above. Fails quick and
it
> doesn't matter what the bank configuration is.
> 6) Everything seems to work great at FSB-133. But I haven't done any
> rigorous testing as I have with 166. I just know that the system worked
> well under constant load for 2 straight days, even with the CPU running at
> 60C.
>
> For testing, I copied 30GB from 1 drive to the other repeatedly. Copied a
> DVD disk to HD. Ran Sandra 2004 CPU/memory burn-in continuously. These
are
> the things that I know causes the phantom reboots.
>
> So does anyone have any thoughts or ideas? Is it fairly common to have
> memory this touchy? Any other diag/testing tools I might try to get more
> info? I'm kind of surprised that the Centon is more stable than the PNY
> (Samsung). I would have bet it would have been the other way around.
> Tells you how much I know
>
> Thanks for any input/advice....
>
>

Your problems are typically caused by a bad power supply. You ALSO had a
CPU running too hot, until you got that ironed out. I think it's possible
that your power supply has been bad all along. It's either that, or you've
got two bad memory sticks. While somewhat unlikely, that's possible.
Another possibility is that the CPU was damaged by running too hot. Best
guess is poor power, though. -Dave

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

Thanks Dave,

You don't think it could be the motherboard? I initially thought it was
being caused by a poor power supply, so I bought a new case w/350w psu. It
acted the same way. The folks I bought the case from have been in biz for a
long time and they do a great job. But that's not to say you're not
correct. I don't even know what to say to them.

So why would going from 133(x2) to 166(x2) tax the PSU so much? I'm afraid
my lack of knowledge is haunting me.

Thanks again.....

>
> Your problems are typically caused by a bad power supply. You ALSO had a
> CPU running too hot, until you got that ironed out. I think it's possible
> that your power supply has been bad all along. It's either that, or
you've
> got two bad memory sticks. While somewhat unlikely, that's possible.
> Another possibility is that the CPU was damaged by running too hot. Best
> guess is poor power, though. -Dave
>
>

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

Russ M. wrote:

> Thanks Dave,
>
> You don't think it could be the motherboard? I initially thought it was
> being caused by a poor power supply, so I bought a new case w/350w psu. It
> acted the same way. The folks I bought the case from have been in biz for a
> long time and they do a great job. But that's not to say you're not
> correct. I don't even know what to say to them.
>
> So why would going from 133(x2) to 166(x2) tax the PSU so much? I'm afraid
> my lack of knowledge is haunting me.

All else being equal, CPU power consumption increases linearly with
increasing speed.


> Thanks again.....
>
>
>>Your problems are typically caused by a bad power supply. You ALSO had a
>>CPU running too hot, until you got that ironed out. I think it's possible
>>that your power supply has been bad all along. It's either that, or
>
> you've
>
>>got two bad memory sticks. While somewhat unlikely, that's possible.
>>Another possibility is that the CPU was damaged by running too hot. Best
>>guess is poor power, though. -Dave
>>
>>
>
>
>

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

"Russ M." <acid_maltxspam@yahoo.com> wrote in message
<snip>
> MB=Chaintech 7VIF4 (2 memory banks)
> CPU=AMD XP Barton 2600+ (runs at FSB-166, 49C temp at full load, 42C at
> idle)
> Module#1=PNY(Samsung) 256MB PC2700 DDR333
> Module#2=Centon 256MB PC2700 DDR333
> 2-80GB WD Hard drives (On same cable)
> 1 DVD R/W on secondary
> New case with (supposedly) premium quality power supply
<snip>

hi. i was just searching in hopes of solving a very similar problem
with a very similar setup. heres what i've got:

MB: Chaintech 7VIF4
CPU: AMD XP 2600+ Barton core
512MB Ultra PC2700 DDR333
512MB Crucial PC2700 DDR333
425W Power supply (Just 4 PC)
Thermaltake TR 2 M4 CPU fan

like you, i just put this system together, and immediately started
running into problems that seem like memory issues. if either stick
of ram is in either slot i will get badram errors in minutes when i
run memtest-86 (tests 6 and 10 using the modulo-x algorithm). it is
completely unstable. i can't hardly get through a linux kernel
compile without it giving me mysterious segfaults or worse. i have
tried everything i can think of to make it work... ...at 166 fsb.

here's the kicker. everything seems solid at 133 fsb. i haven't been
able to replicate any of the errors. my cooling setup and power
supply is more than what i should need, especially when just running
memtest-86 and no hard drives. i haven't completely eliminated the
other possibilities, but i am beginning to think that the 7VIF4 can't
really handle 166 fsb.

i think that we should combine all of our results from our various
experiments. please e-mail me directly.

Steve Asher

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

sja8rd@mizzou.edu (S. J. A.) wrote in message news:<d695918a.0409081346.6a750209@posting.google.com>...
> "Russ M." <acid_maltxspam@yahoo.com> wrote in message
> <snip>
> > MB=Chaintech 7VIF4 (2 memory banks)
> > CPU=AMD XP Barton 2600+ (runs at FSB-166, 49C temp at full load, 42C at
> > idle)
> > Module#1=PNY(Samsung) 256MB PC2700 DDR333
> > Module#2=Centon 256MB PC2700 DDR333
> > 2-80GB WD Hard drives (On same cable)
> > 1 DVD R/W on secondary
> > New case with (supposedly) premium quality power supply
> <snip>
>
> hi. i was just searching in hopes of solving a very similar problem
> with a very similar setup. heres what i've got:
>
> MB: Chaintech 7VIF4
> CPU: AMD XP 2600+ Barton core
> 512MB Ultra PC2700 DDR333
> 512MB Crucial PC2700 DDR333
> 425W Power supply (Just 4 PC)
> Thermaltake TR 2 M4 CPU fan
>
> like you, i just put this system together, and immediately started
> running into problems that seem like memory issues. if either stick
> of ram is in either slot i will get badram errors in minutes when i
> run memtest-86 (tests 6 and 10 using the modulo-x algorithm). it is
> completely unstable. i can't hardly get through a linux kernel
> compile without it giving me mysterious segfaults or worse. i have
> tried everything i can think of to make it work... ...at 166 fsb.
>
> here's the kicker. everything seems solid at 133 fsb. i haven't been
> able to replicate any of the errors. my cooling setup and power
> supply is more than what i should need, especially when just running
> memtest-86 and no hard drives. i haven't completely eliminated the
> other possibilities, but i am beginning to think that the 7VIF4 can't
> really handle 166 fsb.
>
> i think that we should combine all of our results from our various
> experiments. please e-mail me directly.
>
> Steve Asher
I just built 4 of these systems for a customer and they do not work at
166 fsb. They work perfect with the 133 fsb. I have used a program
called goldmemory to test the memory at 166 and get hundreds of
errors. At 133 I do not get any errors. I have tried 4 different power
supplies, 12 different sticks of memory including Crucial, and
Kingston. I have tried 333 and even 400 speed memory. I have tried
playing with all the memory settings in the BIOS and still no good
unless I run my Barton 2600 at 133FSB which then gives me a Athlon
2000. I wished I knew about this problem before I made my purchase. I
got them from Newegg and the customer reviews were all pretty good.
Does anybody know of a VIA KM400 chipset motherboard that works well
at 166 FSB? I might go back to the Biostar with the Nvidia chipset
with onboard geforce video, but they cost a lot more.
BEWARE of the CHAINTECH motherboard 166FSB problem before you spend
your money!!!
Rick