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Please help....Can a bad motherboard

AMDZen

AMDZen

Lifer
Ok. I built a computer a few months ago, and have had nothing but problems since. Quite frustrating since I've never had anything even remotely similar for problems and I've built quite a few computers.

So any way, once I built it and started having problems. I was able to run Memtest and found that the DIMM on slot 2 of the board had an error. After removing the DIMM all of my BSOD's went away so I figured that had to be the issue. I returned the DIMM and got a new one, (comp ran fine in the mean time) after receiving the new one I put the DIMM in the slot and great - seems this DIMM is OK so I just got a bad one. Computer runs flawlessly for at least 2 weeks, and then bam - BSODs constantly, of all types. Figure it could be the new DIMM so I run Memtest again, and sure enough it seems the new DIMM has the same issue, which BTW is a single error and if my memory serves me correct, its at almost the exact same Location - after removing the DIMM problems cease.

My question is this. Could I have got two bad DIMMs like that? Unfortunetely I didn't run memtest when I got the new DIMM back, so I cant say whether the DIMM arrived with the error or if it developed the problems. Seems to me that the DIMM was fine at first, since I didn't have a single BSOD for two+ weeks and then all of a sudden the comp wouldn't even run Mozilla Firefox without a BSOD. And if what I'm saying turns out to be the case, could it simply be the Slot on the motherboard?? The only thing I can think of is the slot is somehow making these DIMM's go bad. Since the DIMM seemed to be fine in the comp originally, and then went bad - and now a new DIMM seems fine at first - and then seemed to just "go bad", it seems a logical theory. Is this possible though? Any other theories?
 
A few things....
When you run memtest, run it one memory stick at a time
and run it in slot 1, 2,3,4 if possible. some mobos won't let you do that.

What you want to do is test the memory AND the slot.
You can have good memory but a bad mobo memory slot

Keep an open mind..and don't get hung up on a memory problem



 
Please don't bump your own posts unless it's been more than a few hours. Give people some time to respond.

Could you have a 'killer motherboard' that is damaging your RAM over time? It's possible -- but extremely unlikely.

Could you have gotten two bad DIMMs? Also possible, but unlikely as well.

It's far more likely that the motherboard or CPU is just being intermittently flaky (and yes, these are the most frustrating problems to troubleshoot). Do you have another system you can test the RAM in?
 
I do have another comp to test the RAM. Do I need to consider the CPU now as a possible cause as well?
 
Originally posted by: AMDZen
I do have another comp to test the RAM. Do I need to consider the CPU now as a possible cause as well?
Click to expand...

I you have another system to test the RAM, run memtest86 on it in that system. If no problems show up, your issues are most likely with the motherboard or CPU.

If you know the RAM is good, but you still are failing memtest, the possibilities are narrowed to the CPU or motherboard. Since the memory controller is built into the CPU on the Athlon64, it's possible that the CPU itself is causing the failure (that is, it's the memory controller, not the RAM itself). But at that point it's basically impossible to isolate the fault unless you can switch out the CPU for a different one.
 
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