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Hardware fault somewhere, random problems - PLEASE help!

J

Jay487

Junior Member
OK, I'll start off by saying I appreciate any help at all to get this computer running again as school is starting next week and it's essential.

Specs:

Asus A7N8X Deluxe
AMD Barton 2500+ (1.83GHz) [stock hsfan]
Antec 400W P/S
512MB DDR PC3200
ATI Radeon 9700 Pro
80GB WD 7200 RPM

I apologize for the length that this will be however I am uncertian which information is relevant and of importance to solving this, so I will reiterate exactly how this problem came about.

Built this PC last year, had it overclocked to a 3200+ (only for an hour or so) on stock hsfan but wasn't delighted about the temps I was getting, so I went back to default (1.83ghz) and its been that way for almost a year now. A few days ago I installed Motherboard Monitor 5 and noticed my CPU diode was around 65C doing windows task. I knew it wasn't this hot before so I was thinking about getting a new HSFAN. But before ordering, I decided to vaccum out and dust off my PC/heatsink. Lots and lots of dust later, the temp dropped about 20C and I was happy. I did however have plans of ordering that new hsfan so I figured I would see if I could OC it again, and then when my new HSFAN arrived I'd leave it OC'ed.
So with MBM5 running to monitor the temps I had it stable at 11x191 (1.75 cpu volt, 2.6 dram volt)
The next step was 11.5x185 (1.75 and 2.6) but when the computer restarted it said "system failed memory test" (It literally says that when you reboot, and then the monitor goes into standby mode, and in order to get it to boot again I have to remove battery and put it back in) I asked a buddy whos knowledgable and he said to up the dram voltage from 2.6 to 2.7 and see if that fixes it. It did not, so he then said to try 11.5 at a lower fsb. I did 11.5x166 and it would STILL not boot (same error, "system failed memory test". So I went back to 11x195 and it booted, 11x200 and it booted, but would restart so I knew it was becoming unstable. (and for some reason 11.5 didnt seem to want to boot) At this point I said Okay, 11x191 isnt bad, I'll order a new hsfan and OC it to that when its installed. I went to go back to default configuration (11x166) and restarted, and I get the "system failed memory test" error! I removed and reinstalled battery, rebooted (this resets BIOS, which means my CPU is only on 11x100 (1.1GHz)) It booted up fine, went into windows; as only 1.1GHz of course. I rebooted, went into bios, changed fsb from 100 to 166, and I get the same "system failed memory test" when rebooting. BIOS was reset so I knew everything was default. Anyways I went to turn the computer on again and when it would load windows (remember this is with cpu on 1.1ghz still, only way it would work) windows would freeze either on the WinXP logo screen or right after it, and leave the screen blank. Did it 3 times in a row. I took the battery out, unplugged it etc, went to work, came home, put battery in, turned it on, and it went into windows fine (on 1.1ghz) I tried to restart the computer and its freezing when loading windows again. So basically it went from not worknig at its default speed, to not booting at all, but would boot sometimes. I downloaded memory test and let it run but on the 12th test (last one I think) I accidentally restart that test (12 of 12) and it seemed to have froze. No errors seemed to have been found up to that point unless it doesnt tell you until the end. I plan on running memtest overnight again and letting it go by itself.

I thought for sure the ram was bad but again when I came home from work it booted to windows fine, and ran good. (unfortunatly on 1.1Ghz)

So, I'm clueless, but quite pissed @ myself for screwing around with this. Sorry for the length, thanks for any help, if I left anything out just ask 🙂

-Jay
 
you don't list what brand your memory is. If it's generic it may be going bad. Try to swap it with a good quality stick of ram and see if that solves your problem.
 
The RAM is from OCSystems.com (probably not real high quality, no) The computer kept saying system failed memory test so I changed ram with this computer (it's a compaq) and it said the same thing. I have not, however, tried it again when windows wouldn't load.

How long does memtest take? It's done 22 passes and it's been going for 11 hours.... It gives me zero information as to its overall progress. - This is rather important because if the RAM is okay then I'm definatly clueless.

Thanks for your replies.
 
memtest reports errors as they occur
many people say 6 to 8 passes are sufficient for a standard test.
are you testing one stick at a time at stock settings ???
 
I only have one stick, it's been going for 19 hours+

I assume I have to stop it myself?

And no errors have popped up, so if that means my RAM is okay, then... what do I do 🙁

computer wouldnt run at its default speed, so its underclocked 800mhz, now it freezes at the "loading windows xp" screen

Edit: No errors yet, almost 20 hours, so I stopped it. Tried to restart, froze at loading windows screen. Tried upping FSB from 100mhz to default (166Mhz) and the monitor goes into standby and says "system failed memory test"

Is my CPU junk? what's causing this?
 
guys I took out and put in the battery and it decided to boot into windows (only on 1.1ghz though)

and if i reboot I know it will freeze again, so... this means at least everything is working right?

Please im desperate here, $$ rewards if you fix this, AIM name = Jay487
 
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