bad memory?

[WowbaggerTIP]

I've been having some really weird lockup problems since I installed my new motherboard, RAM, CPU, and power supply. At first it would just happen occaisionally, usually during a game. In the last couple days though, it has been locking up about every 5 minutes, literally. I first thought it might be an overheating problem, so I installed Asus Probe and had it monitoring the temp. The temp seemed to be fine though. It never reached 60 and was almost always less than about 55C. Idle temp was around 45-48. So it didn't seem to be a heat problem. Next, I tried underclocking my CPU, just in case. That kept the max temp about 3 degrees lower, but the crashing continued. Next, I swapped out the new power supply with another one that I know is good. The crashing continued. So, next I swapped out the new Corsair 512MB dimm with a 256MB dimm from my old board. It has been running without a crash for the last 2 hours or so, even after playing about 45 minutes of UT2004. So, it would seem that the memory is the problem. What I need to know is whether there is any other good way for me to test the problematic dimm before I ask the vendor to replace it. Anyone have any suggestions?


Asus A7N8X-E
Athlon 3200+ XP
Sapphire Radeon 9800 Pro
512MB Corsair CMX512-3200C2PT DIMM
2 IBM Deskstar HDs
SoundBlaster Live! 5.1

 

[johnjkr1]

Everyone around here seems to like memtest.

 

[amdskip]

What brand/model power supply. Just because "it works" does not mean its rated good enough for your system.

 

[Fern]

As said above, use Memtest86. Get it free here Memtest86 download

 

[WowbaggerTIP]

PSU is a Thermaltake PurePower 480W.

I ran Memtest86 with the problematic dimm and it didn't turn up any errors, either in the standard tests, or 3 hours worth of the extended tests. Now I'm pretty much stumped. I've put both the Corsair dimm and the replacement 256MB dimm in the same slot. The 256MB dimm runs fine there, so I'm thinking it's probably not a problem with the particular slot. Anyone got anymore ideas?

Asus A7N8X-E
Athlon 3200+ XP
Sapphire Radeon 9800 Pro
512MB Corsair CMX512-3200C2PT DIMM
2 IBM Deskstar HDs
SoundBlaster Live! 5.1

 

[yelo333]

It could be some sort of compatibility issue, as well. my K5 had 2 sticks of 8 mb memory modules in it, which would run memtest for 10 hrs straight. But, sure enough, a couple of days later, I would get a kernel panic(I"m running linux), and to make it boot, I would have to remove those 2 sticks(I had a total of 4).

So, the same sort of ting could be happening to you.

 

[WowbaggerTIP]

Well, it's only 1 dimm, and it is the correct one for my board according to Corsair.


Asus A7N8X-E
Athlon 3200+ XP
Sapphire Radeon 9800 Pro
512MB Corsair CMX512-3200C2PT DIMM
2 IBM Deskstar HDs
SoundBlaster Live! 5.1

 

[Fern]

Here's a wild guess...

When you put the 256 stick in, I'd guess the SPD thingy changed your timings automatically.

What were your timings originally? Did they change when you put in the 256 stick? Do they change again when you put back the 512 corsair stick?

Tell us what u got your ram timings at.

 

[rougeuxm]

I'm having a similar problem...
I just bought a corsair 512MB DIMM, it's PC3200C2
My previous config was this:
A7N8X Deluxe rev 1.xx (with 1.07 BIOS)
two corsair 256MB PC3200 XMSLL twinx matched pair, plugged into the blue DIMM slots
althon XP 2400+ O/C'ed to 2070 (11.5x180MHz FSB)
ATI radeon 9800 pro
I just plugged in the new stick of 512MB, and watched to see what would happen after I
booted up winxp
Well, it worked for a while, but it was really unstable. exiting from BF1942 or Savage would
cause the computer to just spontaneously reboot. weird.
So I monkeyed around with the latency... after all, the new DIMM isn't the ultra low
latency, just C2.. I tried just the 512MB DIMM to see what the SPD wants to put the latency
at.

SDRAM Active Precharge, RAS to Cas delay, RAS Prechage delay, Cas Latency
133MHz = 6, 2, 2, 2T
166MHz = 7, 3, 3, 2T
200MHz = 8, 3, 3, 2.5T

so put back in the twinx 256MB modules into the blue slots (2 and 3 I think)
It still uses the SPD values from the 512MB DIMM.
If I try running my system at the 180MHz speed tho, everything goes to hell
So, I put everything back to stock speeds.
At 166MHz memory speed, things are fine. rock solid...
After a bit of tweaking, I found that 12.5x167 is perfectly stable.
it gets thru memtest-86 just fine with a couple of passes..
anything over 166MHz with this supposedly 200MHz PC3200 capable chip gives me grief...
Even 172 x 12 gave me trouble (even when using 3T - 3 - 3 - 8 latency!!)
Supposedly it should be able to do 2.5T latency at 200MHz... at 172 it can't even do 3T
pulling the 512MB chip back out and running the system at 180x11.5 with the twinx stuff is perfectly stable (2T - 2 - 2 - 6 no less)

Maybe the mixing of different size RAM is causing the problem? It also states I'm running the memory in Dual Channel mode, I don't seem to be able to control that thru BIOS settings tho (at least I couldn't find a setting to change for that)
I see no reason why I shouldn't be able to run all three sticks at 180MHz especially with 3 - 7 - 7 - 8 latency settings
I think its the 512MB DIMM tho- maybe corsair sent out a bad batch?off the back of the package - CMX512-3200C2PT LOT#0339064-2

 

[Gamingphreek]

Dont worry ive had this problem before too . You are either having memory conflicts or IRQ conflicts.

First: Are you using a Creative Labs product

Second What are the IRQ's for you Video Card and Sound Card

Third: Try moving things around in your PCI slots (if anything in them)

If we cant find anything wrong with the things listed above then your having a memory conflict.

Good Luck