Ran HCI Memtest 18 hours -- BIOS was Borked. . .

[jmacfarlane]

Okay -- first off, my system is NOT overclocked, I just figured this was the best place to put this post, since normally you benchmark and stress test a lot after an overclock.

My situation is that I've installed 4 2-GB sticks of MUSHKIN memory into my Asus P5Q PRO MB. Every slot is filled -- I set RAM settings according to ASUS specs and had placed the voltage to 2.1 for the DIMMS (they're rated 2.0 - 2.1).

Here's my relevant system details:

Pentium Quad Q6600
Asus P5Q PRO
Radeon 4870
NZXT 800W Power Supply
8 GB MUSHKIN PC6400 DDR2 800 (4 2-GB Modules), model # 991580

So I then tested the memory within windows using HCI Memtest to make sure it was stable. It ran for 18 hours without errors. I ran SPEEDFAN while it was running and my CPU and MB temps didn't get above 40 or 45 celsius, but my CVPU was running 100% usaged all CORES. I then exited the test and shut down the system.

About 3 hours later I went to boot up again, and it would not POST. IT would power up a bit then power down, nothing appearing on the monitor. Took out 2 of the RAM sticks, same result. TOok out a third stick (ran on just one), same result. Swapped my vid card to the other PCIE slot and the bios poped up, but wanted me to reload setting / loaded default settings.

I then booted to windows, and shut down to re-set everything. Put the vid card back in right slot, all RAM back in, entered BIOS, set all settings and got it up and running again.

So my question is -- what happened? I ask because I want to avoid it happening again, I've no desire to fry anything. I'm thinking I just screwed up my CMOS by stressing the system for so long, which I've heard can happen while stress testing -- is that accurate?

If that's what happened, now that I'm up and running, should I be fine?

If I stress test again, should I just do it for a shorter period of time?

Thanks in advance for any help anyonme can provide!

 

[jmacfarlane]

No replies yet, so I'm bumping and here's the CLIFF NOTES:

I stress tested then could not POST after I shut down.

Can stress testing for too long (18 hours) screw up your BIOS even when you're not overclocked?

If so, can just moving things around (swapped video card and took out/put back in RAM) fix it? Cause after I did this, I was able to get to BIOS, which then loaded the default settings. . .

Thanks!

 

[jmacfarlane]

One more try. . .

Can stress testing corrupt your BIOS? See above for details. . .

THanks!

 

[faster3200]

Stress testing can't corrupt your bios.

It is possible that you might just need to reset your bios though. It seems like most mobos don't really like 8gb of ram as lots of people report problems around 8gb.

P.S. Memtest won't work with 8gb of ram either as it can only address 4gb.

 

[jmacfarlane]

Thanks for the reply

With HCI memtest you can test 8 gb within windows -- just open up 1 instance for each GB to be tested, and set the first 7 to "1023," then set the 8th to "test all available," and it tests all 8 GB.

Sad to hear about the BIOS though, I dunno what caused it. If just running 8 GB is gonna cause corrupted BIOS though, it's not worth it to me. . . )

 

[faster3200]

Ahhh, I missed that HCI part. Try with 4gb installed and see if it makes a difference or not.

You can also try upping the voltage to chipset.