Another hardware issue

[imported_default]

Hey guys, obviously I am a hardcore lurker and don't make many posts, but I can't figure out what is going on here, and this is my last resort! Please help!

System Specs:

Vista Home Premium 32 bit
ASUS P5N-E SLI LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 650i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard
EVGA 320-P2-N811-AR GeForce 8800GTS 320MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Video Card
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3320620AS
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600
XCLIO STABLEPOWER 500W ATX 500W Power Supply
Patriot eXtreme Performance 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)

I built this system a few weeks ago. This is long, so please bear with me, I am desperate for help.

For those familiar with this motherboard, there are 2 yellow and 2 black memory slots. I put the ram in the yellow ones first, and installed Vista and everything seemed fine. The next day, I got a BSoD and could no longer get back to the desktop. I reformatted the harddrive and tried installing windows again. THe install process crashed several times, including a couple BSoDs, so I moved the memory sticks into the two black slots and manually set the timings to 4-4--4-12 and 2.17volts as I read about from other people who had stability issues. After this, vista installed fine and the system seemed to run perfect.

Fast forward to a week ago when I started playing Quake 4. My system crashes after 20-30 minutes of gameplay, some times to desktop, sometimes BSoD. Some of the errors I have seen include:

BAD_POOL_DUMP
REFERENCE_BY_POINTER (0x018)
PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA

I thought it was my video card, so I upgraded to nVidia beta vista drivers and still no luck. I checked my GPU core temps and they idle around 65C, not going much over 70C after 20 minutes of playing Q4.

Next I ram memtest with both mem sticks in, and after a half hour it picked up a bunch of errors. I didn't write down the tests they failed on though. After two hours of running, there were 200+ errors so I stopped. After that I took one stick out and ran it for 8 more hours, no errors. I took the first stick out and put the 2nd one in the same slot and ran it for 8+ more hours, no errors. I did the same thing, each stick individually, in the other black slot for 8 hours each and still no errors.

Now my system occasionally crashes when I am doing lots of tasks like photoshop, image browsing, limewire, all at the same time. Sometimes it completely freezes, other times I get a BSoD. Most recently my computer locked up, and when I rebooted and tried to log into windows I got an RPC error (the same error I got when windows crashed after my first install). I thought my OS was done again, but fortunately it booted. A couple boots later (after another semi-crash), I log back in and my desktop is gone and get this error: "C:\windows\...\Desktop refers to a location that is unavailable...". This was the last thing I saw before I had to reformat the first time. Fortunately, it booted back up, but here I am writing this essay now hoping someone can give me answers.


Oh, I forgot to mention that Prime95 gets an error after less than 5 minutes.

I have no idea how to isolate the hardware issue, or what it could be. What could it be or what should I do?


Thanks

 

[montag451]

I would start by trying another psu in your system -
Memtest sometimes ok, and sometimes not... doesn't sound good.
I like a problem that is there all the time.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Possible heat problem and the manual says to run the ram in the yellow slots. The only simular situations I've had with clients computers turned out to be either malfunctioning PSUs or micro fractures on the MB that caused probs when it heated up. Good luck and keep us posted.

 

[RadiclDreamer]

You are running dual channel memory, which means you typically need 1 in slot 1 and one in slot 3

 

[SilthDraeth]

Originally posted by: RadiclDreamer
You are running dual channel memory, which means you typically need 1 in slot 1 and one in slot 3

hence him mentioning yellow and black. 1, and 3 are yellow, 2 and 4 are black.

 

[SilthDraeth]

Quick question, you ran Memtest, with both ram sticks, and it showed tons of errors, but none with just a single stick.

Have you tried running Vista with just one stick in your computer for hours, and seeing if you get the BSOD?

After you answer that, lets start over.

Run memtest with one stick in each memory slot. Check for errors. Then try running them both in dual channel mode, (same color), then single channel, 1 black, 1 yellow.

Report your findings.

Just for my personal feelings, I never heard of that PSU company, (doesn't mean they are not quality) I recommend Thermaltake for cheaper psus, fortron, sparkle, Antec even, look on the Egg, for the reviews.

Memory, I would go with crucial, ocz, kingston, mushkin, micron. Make sure you get a matched kit with lifetime guarantee. I don't know much about patriot, but from everything I read about them, they are hit or miss.

Try those few things and get back to us.
I r

 

[imported_default]

I tried running vista with only one stick, still same problems. I will try memtest in single channel mode tonight. Thanks for all the help so far. I will report back

 

[SilthDraeth]

Default, if you are running with one stick, that is single channel mode as well, and is normally the most stable way to run a system. If you are getting problems with a single stick, I would definitely see if you can run a different psu.

Thinking on it as well, that is a pretty bumping video card you have. See if you can get a decent 650w psu from one of the brands I mentioned. Also, have you tried the whole system under XP?

 

[hurtstotalktoyou]

Hmm. Okay, why don't you try this....

1. Clear the CMOS using the jumper. Don't fuck with a single setting until step #4.
2. Make sure the CPU hsf is properly installed, if you haven't already.
3. Try one DIMM at a time in multiple slots. Run Orthos first for stability, and if it checks out then memtest.
4. If nothing works, raise DIMM voltage to 1.9v and relax the timings to 5-5-5-12.
5. If that doesn't work, reset the CMOS again and this time set your bus speed to 200 and RAM multiplier to 2.0x. If you can lower your CPU multiplier, do that too.

If you're still having trouble, try playing around with your BIOS settings. Sometimes it can glitch up.

Also consider buying a cheap used stick of 256MB DDR2-533. This will help you isolate the problem, and you can hopefully sell it to someone else when you're done for a minimal loss. You can do the same with some cheap Celeron and possibly a video card, though by the time you get all three we could be talking a $30-$40 net loss.

Good luck!

 

[imported_default]

Here is what I have done so far:

Last night I put my ram into the first 2 dimm slots (1 black, 1 yellow) and ran memtest over night (~8 hours). There were no errors.

A couple days ago, I updated to the new vista drivers for my video card - v160.xx. I have had system crashes since then, but I'm playing quake 4 for the first time since I installed those drivers AND with the new ram configuration, and I have been playing for over an hour with no game crashes (much longer than I have ever played so far without a crash). Also, my system has NOT crashed since I switched the ram config last night..allthough I havent used my system other than to play quake and run memtest since then so it may be a bit early

PS: I don't know if I mentioned earlier, but I my memory timing is programmed to 4-4-4-12 at 2.17 volts (I did this when I built the system)...

If it crashes again, I will reset my CMOS like above suggested, and try again. If that does not work, I will pick up a new PSU at fry's on my way home from work and see if that helps.

Thanks again for the help everyone...i'll stay posted.

 

[SilthDraeth]

Default, it definitely is sounding more like a RAM issue than a power issue. If it was the PSU, you would get errors all the time, no matter what you changed or left alone. The system however behaves differently based on how you stick your RAM slots in.

Try hurts suggestions for resetting the CMOS and then playing with voltage and timing settings. If none of that checks out, then I am pretty confident you are looking at a RAM issue, and not a PSU issue.

 

[imported_default]

So I played quake 4 for 2 hours with the 1black/1yellow ram config, and no crash. I haven't been able to play it for more than a half hour without a crash. I ran prime95 blend test for 12 hours with no error, and my system has not crashed since then. I haven't reset my CMOS or anything yet either.

So, is it possible I have a bad dimm slot/mobo? My next move is to take one stick out and try each of the 4 slots and see which one I get an error in.

 

[montag451]

I would have thought a bad DIMM slot would show up as errors in memtest.

Are you saying that at the moment, all is well, but you would like to find out what the source of the original error was?

 

[imported_default]

As I mentioned earlier, the first time I ran memtest I got errors, but I haven't seen any since.

Just now I tried both sticks in the two yellow slots (1 & 3), and it blue screened on bootup. Then I tried again in both blackslots (2 & 4), and ran 3dmark and it also bluescreened. So my 3 & 4 slots both appear to be bad. The only time my system is stable is with the memory in the 1 & 2 slots (1 black, 1 yellow).

So I take it this means I need a new motherboard?

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

The only way to correctly identify errors and find solutions is a systimatic approach. You CAN NOT randomly make changes, play a little Quake and, expect to identify and correct any problems. There is no easy fix.

While sometimes you get lucky, depending on luck to fix computer problems is foolish and in the end futile. Follow the advice already given you. Please post back with your results.

 

[imported_default]

Originally posted by: MagnusTheBrewer
The only way to correctly identify errors and find solutions is a systimatic approach. You CAN NOT randomly make changes, play a little Quake and, expect to identify and correct any problems. There is no easy fix.

While sometimes you get lucky, depending on luck to fix computer problems is foolish and in the end futile. Follow the advice already given you. Please post back with your results.

I tried one last ram configuration, and then I was going to go through the steps that hurtstotalktoyou posted. But the last config has proven stable, I've run multiple tests (memtest, 3dmark, prime95) for hours with no problems and my system has not crashed once. As soon as I move on of the sticks into slots 3 or 4, my system becomes unstable. 3dmark blue screens, prime95 gets an error after just 5 minutes, and my system randomly crashes if it is stressed with video games or other memory-intensive applications, so I thought I had located the problem. Is it still possible that resetting my CMOS and/or changing my memory timings could fix the problem with my other two dimm slots? I'm pretty new to this, but to me it looks like a hardware problem with the motherboard if my system is only unstable when using either one of those two slots.

I did check my cpu hsf and it appeared to be installed correctly. I will also try orthos.

 

[SilthDraeth]

Originally posted by: default

Originally posted by: MagnusTheBrewer
The only way to correctly identify errors and find solutions is a systimatic approach. You CAN NOT randomly make changes, play a little Quake and, expect to identify and correct any problems. There is no easy fix.

While sometimes you get lucky, depending on luck to fix computer problems is foolish and in the end futile. Follow the advice already given you. Please post back with your results.

I tried one last ram configuration, and then I was going to go through the steps that hurtstotalktoyou posted. But the last config has proven stable, I've run multiple tests (memtest, 3dmark, prime95) for hours with no problems and my system has not crashed once. As soon as I move on of the sticks into slots 3 or 4, my system becomes unstable. 3dmark blue screens, prime95 gets an error after just 5 minutes, and my system randomly crashes if it is stressed with video games or other memory-intensive applications, so I thought I had located the problem. Is it still possible that resetting my CMOS and/or changing my memory timings could fix the problem with my other two dimm slots? I'm pretty new to this, but to me it looks like a hardware problem with the motherboard if my system is only unstable when using either one of those two slots.

I did check my cpu hsf and it appeared to be installed correctly. I will also try orthos.

I believe you stated that it was unstable with just one stick as well...was that stick in 3 or 4, or is it unstable in all 4 slots?

But your conclusion sounds pretty spot on. I was leaning towards RAM being bad, with you stating it being unstable in one slot, but since you have been having really good stability with it set up in 1, and 2, using both sticks, the motherboard does seem to be the problem.

Now the question to ask is, are you ok with the performance running your RAM like that, or can you afford $100 or so for a new motherboard.