Memtest Errors in My System

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billdcat4

billdcat4

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Nov 14, 2006
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I upgraded my PC last night with an eVGA 7900gs (from an ATI X800GT/SE 128mb), a bluegears sound card, and a second pair of 512mb DIMMS of DDR2 PC2-4200 533mhz RAM. That brought my ram from the dell supplied 1gb (2x512mb) of the same type of RAM, to 2gb(4x512mb). I just want to make sure that that is clear.

I ran 3dMark 06 and 05 on my system. Before upgrading, my score in 3Dmark 05 was 3584, whereas after upgrading it was 6941, a 93% increase in performance. So that sounds appropriate, correct? I then ran 3Dmark06 which my previous configuration did not possess the minimum requirements for. My scores were:
3dmark 06 nvidia
4002 3dmarks
sm2.0 1827
hdr sm3.0 1813
cpu 952

I then ran F.E.A.R. with no patches installed, at the autodetect settings, with only the resolution increased to 1600x1200. It ran phenomenally, although I did not benchmark it, I assume that the framerates were between 40 and 55 fps. This also does not indicate any issues, as far as I can tell.

Well, I should probably say that my system is a Dell XPS Gen 3 with an intel 925x based mobo, and powered by a P4 Prescott 540 3.2ghz 32bit CPU with Hyperthreading (currently turned on.)

I never ran memtest on my PC before last night. Last night I ran memtest86 on my system. It took approximately 35 minutes to complete the first pass. In test 7 it detected 11 errors. Included is the photo that I took of the screen, I apologize for the dark tint, but I need more experience with that camera.

MemtestErrors1.jpg


I then let it run while I slept for the next four hours. When I woke up, it had been running for nearly 5 hours, and as I groggily remember had accumulated nearly 500 errors.

Now, I do not know what this indicates, nor what further tests I should do to determine the issue. Ideas that I have come up with are: a) benchmarking the system using 3dmark06 with the original ram alone, and then in comparison, using the new ram with the old ram. I surmise that since 3dmark06 is a newer benchmark it will reflect amount of RAM present more effectively than 3dmark 05
b) Remove one DIMM at a time to try to isolate the troubled DIMM
c) RMA the new RAM (of course this is a last ditch effort.)

Well, I cannot think of much else to say except that I will be awaiting your responses quite eagerly, and would appreciate is greatly if you did so with swiftness.[/img]
 
I have a short update to my situation. As soon as I sent in the above post, I attempted to start 3dmark06. It kept at its autodetect of system components for perhaps 10 minutes, even though I had ran it before with the same configuration.

I then shut it down from the processes tab in the Task Manager. It shut down nicely. Then upon retrying to initiate 3dmark06, my mouse and keyboard became unresponsive. Nothing at all. I retried the connection, moved the usb ports, all things that usually work. I then restarted; no dice. I then added a standard PS2 kb and ball mouse and that is what I am typing with now. The other kb and mouse are wholly unresponsive.

My kb and mouse are the Logitech Cordless MX3100 with laser mouse MX1000 running off of USB. I will try next to run them off of the PS2 ports.\

Please Assist
 
I attempted to use my Logitech Kb and mouse in another system. I have used them in such a manner before without issues.

I inserted the USB plug into the PC and booted it up. Neither the mouse nor the keyboard responded. One thing that did work was the Hibernate button which did its job.

I also removed the new memory and tried to use the kb and mouse both in PS2 and in usb to no avail.

Assist me please.
 
if memtest is showing errors i wouldn't worry too much about 3dmark. I'd remove the 2 pieces of ram you installed and run memtest on the older pair to make sure they are ok, and then add one, run memtest, add another run memtest again until you find the faulty stick.
 
Your RAM is toast. RMA it if you can. You need new memory. You can tell which modules are bad based on the address, since it gives a number in MB next to the hex number.
 
Thanks for the help so far...
The errors are between 1780 or so and 1840mb which would seem to mean the 3rd dimm whichever one that would be.. I would assume the first one of the new pair.

OldDIMM1 ///// New DIMM1 //// Old DIMM2 ///// New DIMM2

I removed both new DIMMS and my system refuses to work with my kb and mouse, not that they work with any system now. And now 3dmark06 and 3dmark05 refues to start. I CANNOT GET 3d05 to quit. Its not responding, but no matter how many times I attempt to close it in the task manager either thru END TASK or under processes, its not budging.

Helo me more gosdarn it. I will wait 10 min or so and then run memtest on my current setup
 
OK, your system is most likely a dual-channel setup. The memory most likely is read in this order: Old 1, Old 2, New 1, New 2. Memory boundaries in this setup are probably as follows : O1 0-512MB, O2 513-1024, N1 1025-1536, N2 1537-2048. Since the errors are in the 1700-1800 range, that'd be the fourth module.

Troubleshooting steps:
1) Remove all memory.
2) Install one module. System should boot, just in single channel mode.
3) Run Memtest.
4) If module passes, remove it and insert the next.
5) Repeat until you find the bad module.
6) If no modules test as bad, then you may have a faulty socket. In that case, you're screwed.

Other notes:
-Make sure the memory is firmly seated in the socket.
-Check for dust in the socket? Unlikely, but never hurts to clean stuff while you got the case open anyways.


The memory you bought was a matched pair, so you'll have to return or RMA the set, not just a single module.
 
I am typing this from my dads laptop now. Memtest is running on my old ram. Its at 43 percent done with the 1st pass no issues.

Test 6,...
 
A can of compressed air is usually sufficient. Just don't get to close or tilt the can too much. Decompression causes a temperature drop so the air is very cold point blank, and if you tip the can too far while spraying, the liquid CO2 (or whatever they use to pressurize that cans) might spill out and boil off, possibly damaging the plastics in the motherboard.
 
btw what about my kb and mouse? also last night and a little today my usb external hd was having issues responding. It seems to be ok now, ill test it on my dads lappy

peace
 
It seems clean.

My external works fine on the lappy. Memtest is at 85 percent up to test 8 PAST the test 7 that generated the errors last night
 
When your RAM goes bad, all sorts of things go wrong.

I had a pair of 1 GB modules fail at the same time and didn't know because the system ran, just a lot of program were throwing errors, zip files didn't extract cleanly. I first thought I had a virus or a hard disk issue, but that all checked out fine. Then I tested the RAM and found that both modules were fried. I am glad I paid $20 more for RAM with a lifetime warranty.

As far as the keyboard and mouse, those were unresponsive because Windows had a 'hard' crash. In this case, Windows read bad data out of the failing RAM and immediately hung.

In Windows you have 3 types of crashes: a program crash, a Blue or Black Screen of Death (kernel panic), and a 'hard' freeze or hang.

Program crash: duh, the program stopped working. Kill it and get on with using your computer. Could indicate bad code or a minor internal error. Don't worry unless it's consistent.

Blue/Black Screen of Death: anything from a badly written driver to a hardware failure. In any event Windows caught the problem and halted the system to (hopefully) prevent more damage.

'Hard' Freeze: Find the reset button because your system just up and stopped. Can be caused by any number of things, none of them particularly good.
 
Removed old dimms w no difficulty

put in new dimm sn ending in 93
took a lot of work to get it in. Im not so good @ that i guess. I put in in wo force then closed the clips halfway then pushed the dimm until it the clips went in the holes halfway. Then pushed in the dimms the rest of the way. Then the clips in the rest

currenly memtesting dimm new sn93
 
Removed old dimms w no difficulty

put in new dimm sn ending in 93
took a lot of work to get it in. Im not so good @ that i guess. I put in in wo force then closed the clips halfway then pushed the dimm until it the clips went in the holes halfway. Then pushed in the dimms the rest of the way. Then the clips in the rest

currenly memtesting dimm new sn93
 
Thank you very much, basically my kb and mouse could have been bc of bad ram? Bc i tried it in another system and it didnt work. Also it wouldnt work once I removed the bad ram.

running memtest on dimm new sn93
 
7 passes no errors,and i selectively altered tests to really stress the memory.errors happen for alot of reasons.Thank gawd we have aposter here that knows this as well.
Click to expand...

what do you mean by stress tests?

could it be that my old ram really is bad?
 
Not sure about them then. If they didn't work in another system, then something else may be wrong. All I can say for certain is that bad RAM = a truckload of problems.
 
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