Memory Problems?

[Lars]

My system is crashing quite often and since I fixed all the driver issues so far (well, I think I did) I thought it might be the memory. I now used memtest86 to test the memory and got 16 errors in Test5, all other tests were ok. So can I now be sure that the memory is bad? TIA

(It is a 512MB stick of Samsung PC2700)

 

[drag]

I would just take the memory stick out and replace it with a different one and see what happens. I can't think of any thing else. Maybe you should take the memory out and make sure the connections are clean and dustfree. Dust trapped in the slots can cause unusual and eratic behavior. Also goto the board's manufacturer website and see if they have a upgraded bios image that may correct the problem you are seeing. Maybe e-mail them describing your problem and see if it is not uncommon, they may replace your board if they think it's defective. You could try going into your bios and play with the memory settings and run the memtests agian. Maybe the board is sending info into the memory stick faster than it can handle (latency), or something....
Did you handle the memory properly? a small electrostatice shock that is completely unperceptable to you can can cause bad stuff to happen to the chip.

Make sure you only do one step at a time and see if you can narrow down the problem. Also take notes, they may be informative to a tech guy you may have to talk to and you can make sure you didn't forget something you tried or had noticed.

other than that I have no clue

 

[Lars]

I know the best thing would be to test the system with another stick but the only RAM I have here besides this stick of PC2700 is some PC133 SDRAM.

The connections are clean (everything was brand new when I put it together) and I also handled the memory were good. I upgraded the BIOS of the Soyo KT333 Dragon Ultra to its newest version a few days ago but that did not help as well. In the BIOS is am using the default (rather slow) memory settings.




So there is no way to definately say if the memory is bad or if it is the motherboard?

 

[Lars]

a little bump


Please help!

 

[Lars]

Somebody on another site mentioned that I should try to up the voltage. So I set it from 2.5v to 2.6v and it somehow seems to work fine now. I just hope it is not temporary. If it crashes again I will RMA it back (but then I can't use this computer for like a week until I get a new stick ) if not then I will just keep it. So with 2.6v it is stable now although I now get 140+ errors with the memtest86 test instead of like 16 before. Strange.

 

[Lars]

Well, I just got a 0x0000001A MEMORY_MANAGEMENT BSOD

This probably is some kind of memory (hardware) error? Or is this a software error?

 

[Markfw]

Could you give details on you motherboard,CPU,system more details on the memory, and most important, what you bios setting are for the memory, timings, etc...

 

[Lars]

Originally posted by: Markfw900
Could you give details on you motherboard,CPU,system more details on the memory, and most important, what you bios setting are for the memory, timings, etc...

Memory:
Manufacturer Part Number:K4H560838D-TCB3
Samsung 512MB DDR Memory
PC2700 (333MHz)
64x64/32x8

Motherboard:
Soyo KT333 Dragon Ultra

CPU:
AMD XP 2000+ (not overclocked)

I am using the default (automatic) settings for the RAM in the BIOS and normal timings (not fast or turbo).
Or do you need to know the exact infos from the BIOS?

I am also using a cheap generic 400W power supply. Does this maybe have to do something with this? (I got an Enermax 431W PSU on my way, here and it should arrive Friday or Monday)

 

[Markfw]

OK, here is the deal. Most memory for PC2700 is CAS 2.5. SOME motherboards default to CAS 2. If this is the case, you will get all sorts of errors, or maybe even no post. Check those settings (I think it is the second menu option submenu, not sure). Make sure that is set to CAS 2.5. Let me know what it is, and if you change it , what the results are.

 

[Lars]

Originally posted by: Markfw900
OK, here is the deal. Most memory for PC2700 is CAS 2.5. SOME motherboards default to CAS 2. If this is the case, you will get all sorts of errors, or maybe even no post. Check those settings (I think it is the second menu option submenu, not sure). Make sure that is set to CAS 2.5. Let me know what it is, and if you change it , what the results are.

Thanks for the tip. I checked it and it was set to CAS 2.5 though.

 

[Markfw]

Well, at this point, first you HAVE to fix your memory problem before trying to install anything at all. I don't know if there are other settings you can choose. Also, you may have bad memory, or a bad motherboard. You just need to try known good memory in your motherboard, and if that works, then the MB is bad. If you can't get a stick of known good memory, then I don't know what you can do now. Good luck.

 

[Lars]

Ok, then I guess I will have to send the memory back. I don't have access to another stick and currently do not have the money to just buy some other stick to test the system. At least I can fix my old system and run that until I get the RAM back.

 

[Lars]

I changed my computer in the XP device manager to "Standard Computer" (before it was A... something) and have not seen any kind of BSOD for two days now.