Likelihood of bad memory passing memory testers?

[swatoa]

My computer freezes all the time during games and part of the time out of them. Overheating isn't the problem (wasted a bunch of money on cooling solutions...). I figured the no name-brand memory is suspect, but I ran two memory testers (memtest86 and a microsoft one) for 2 days straight and it passed.

What do you think the chances are that the memory is bad? If the memory is OK, then it has to be either the soundcard, video card, or motherboard. Or processor...speaking of that, are there any processor testers?

Oh, and if it has anything to do with it, horrible crackling noises sound when it freezes in a game.

Cheap motherboard - ECS K7S5a (sis735).

 

[newbiepcuser]

Chances are high. When I work at techie, we had actual machine that tested RAM. It would past in this RAM tester but as soon we placed back into the computer, it would jump up with all sorts of errors. Before I replace the motherboard, I put in another stick of RAM. Everything went fine.


That ECS board might be picky on RAM.

 

[amdskip]

ECS is also known to be picky on power supplies. What power supply are you using?

 

[Boonesmi]

if the ram is passing memtest86 while in that system then its not a memory related problem (it is very possible like the first guy who responded mentioned for ram to work fine in one system and produce errors in another)

i would strongly suggest trying a different powersupply

 

[networkman]

Roger that on the power supply - the K7S5A boards seem to be more picky about those than about the ram. FWIW, nearly all of the ram in my rigs is Infineon - DDR of course.

For a mixture of the Seti@Home and D2OL projects, I'm running (5) of the K7S5A boards and (5) of the "Pro" version boards as well. GeoffS owns a few more than that. :Q

 

[JimRaynor]

Well, I had an epox mobo that didn't get along with the corsair value ram that I put in it. The memory passed memtests but would still sometimes spontaneously reboot. So.... Could be your ram.

 

[swatoa]

I'm pretty sure it's not a PS issue because I bought a new antec truepower 380W unit when my old crappy no-name blew. The freezing is driving me nuts, and it's really affected my thoughts on how useful a tool a computer can be if it's always doing this crap.

thanks

 

[Boonesmi]

make sure none of the capacitors on the motherboard are bulging and leaking

its not uncommon for a cheap board (which ecs is) to use low quality capacitors that go bad after a couple years, and once they start bulging and leaking the system becomes very unstable