Need insight on RAM Failure

[NateSLC]

I have an Epox 8K7A with 2 sticks of 256MB DDR PC2100 Ram. I came home yesterday to a locked PC. When I rebooted, WinXP would only barely get to the logon screen before it rebooted (on both XP installations I have on this PC). I took out every piece of hardware, and finally found it was one stick of my RAM that was the culprit. I've had both sticks running stable as hell for over 6 months.

I'm wondering if anyone can give me some ideas as to if it's most likely a motherboard problem or just a bad stick of RAM. I would hate to buy another just to have the same thing happen.

Anyone care to share some experience?

Thanks,
Nate

 

[nemo160]

try the stick you think is bad in the other slot, then try your good stick in the slotthe bad one was in
that should rule out a bad ram slot
also try the bad stick in another computer

 

[NateSLC]

I did try the suspect RAM alone in the other slot, and I got some beep codes and no boot. The RAM is definitely bad, but I'm kind of wary of putting in another piece of RAM in that slot. I had a different board that I found would over volt the CPU and after several months fried my T-Bird 850. Is there any way to check whether or not this motherboard is not playing nice with RAM?

 

[Goingmad]

I guess there is no good way to know, though I also have an Epox mobo (8k3a) and had ram problems recently myself.

In my case, I got lockups whilst running £D applications such as games, or when switching betwen resolutions frequently, or sunning 3D applications in the background. I had one pc2700 256 ram stick, and was advised to tune it down to 2100 in the bios, which I did. I haven't had any problems since then, thankfully, but this was little over a few weeks ago so it is too early to tell.

Offhand, the only way you can test wether its just bad luck or the mobo, is test a new stick in the slot where the other stick went bad, and make sure you buy the ram stick with a guarantee so you can exchange it if it does go bad.

Not much help at all, I am afraid, sorry for pointing out the obvious,

 

[NateSLC]

Thanks Goingmad,

I will definitely get some more RAM with a good warranty.

Nate