Prime95: Hardware Failure detected

[Ginster]

People, I need help in these desperate times...

My computer keeps crashing or giving errors while I play games(WoW, C&C:Generals, Rise of Nations)...
At first I thought I could be my graphics card, but I borrowed my friends 9800 pro and I still get the same problem. So I went crazy defragmented my computer blah blah blah... and still problems. I ran Prime95 several times doing some torture testing. I torture tested Small FFT's(Max FPU stress, Data fits into L2 cache, Ram not tested much) It passed. Then I tested Blend(tests some of everything, lots of RAM tested) and it gives me a Hardware failure in less than a 5 minutes. pls share anything you know that could help.

Specs:
P4 2.4Ghz (no oc)
Gigabyte GA-8SR533 no HT
Ramol PC2700 333Mhz DDR 514MB NO-ECC
80GB Seagate
80GB Maxtor
128MB ATI Radeon 9800 Pro
Pioneer Dvd
Pioneer Dvd Writer(A106)
300 Watt
Audigy
1x80mm Fan

 

[Mojoed]

Sounds like it could be your RAM. May also be your power supply crapping out under load, 300 watts doesn't go far these days and you've got a lot of components.

Anyway, what brand RAM do you have? What are the latency settings? Have you tried relaxing the RAM latency, then retesting Prime95? This could isolate the problem if it is the RAM. Also, run THIS.

Also, how long are you running the tests that 'pass'?

 

[Ginster]

It's a Major Brand Name, Ramol i think. The latency settings are on default, cant check them right now cause I'm running memtest86.
Using Prime95, I havent tested it for more that 15 mins for the first option of torture, I know thats not enough.. i was trying different things. But when I test the blend option, it gives me the hardware error in less than 5 mins.

Brand:
512MB DDR, 333Mhz,Ramol,PC2700

 

[stevty2889]

Never heard of Ramol memory..but what is the brand name of your PSU? And what is the rating on the 12v rail? Most likely it will turn out to be memory, but a generic PSU can cause all kinds of problems, and you have it powering a good bit..

EDIT: I did find one other referance to Ramol memory, here is the quote: "The RAM that I have is some cheapo stuff, it has Ramol on the chips."

 

[Ginster]

Memtest86 already found an error less than an hr into the test.

Tst Pass Failing Address Good Bad Err-Bits Count Chan
6 3 0000003000c - 0.0MB fdffffff ffffffff 02000000 1

Dont know what that means... anyone?

 

[stevty2889]

It means your memory is bad, or your memory isn't getting sufficient power..there is probably a setting in your bios for memory voltage adjustment, try bumping it up a notch. It probably defaults to 2.5v, try going to 2.6v and re-rum memtest. And let us know what the power supply is..

 

[Ginster]

The power supply is High Power. rating on the 12v rail? whats that?
And I just got another 3 errors...
I dont remember having the option to change the voltage.. change the fsb yeah

 

[Ginster]

In the Frequency/Voltage Control in my Bios there are only 4 things I can change:
CPU Clock
DRAM Clock
AGP Clock
PCI Clock

Which do I change to increase the voltage?

 

[stevty2889]

Doesn't look like you have any voltage control options. There should be a sticker on the side of the power supply. It will list the differant voltages and underneath will be the amps. for example, it was say +12 or +12v, and then underneath it, or beside it, there will be another number, such as 12a, or 18a. The 12v rail powers the cpu, the hard drives, the cd drives, and the video card, so if it can't supply enough power to all of those, that can cause the problems you are having. I have never heard of that brand of power supply before, so it is possibly a generic brand. It is looking more like your memory is bad. If you have more than one stick of memory, you can try them 1 at a time and run memtest, to see if you can insolate to 1 bad stick of RAM. Do you have an older video card you could put in there? If so, you could put it in place of the 9800pro and unplug one of your dvd drives, and one of the hard drives, to reduce power consumption and try memtest and P95 again, so help eliminate the PSU as the problem.

 

[PingSpike]

Sounds like bad/incompatible ram...or possibly ram being run out of spec?

 

[Ginster]

+12V = 13A
I read somewhere that reducing the DRAM CLock will increase voltage, I'm not sure though, so I lowered it from 333 to 266Mhz and am still running memtest. It's been 6 hrs now and no errors. I going to try disconnecting my dvd drives and one of my harddrives and running memtest at 333Mhz, that should tell me if my PSU is bad right?
Since I got no errors after switching from 333-266Mhz, does that mean the my memory is out of the clear or could it still be faulty?
I only have one stick of ram, I wanted to buy another buy I want to make sure what was faulty first. I'm going to borrow some friends ram and do some memtests on my cpu.

Thanks guys.

 

[Regs]

You're not totally out of the clear. Since you are using a much lower bus frequency, you took off that extra strain on the PSU. The best thing you can do is if you can get a motherboard monitor to report and log your PSU rails to make sure they are consistent. Since your machine uses a lot less power when you are not running a 3D game it would be best to check back on the log to see if there was any power deficit.

And to be honest I never heard of Ramol ram.


Mobo Monitor

 

[stevty2889]

If your ram is unstable at 333mhz, but fine at 266mhz, in may not actualy be bad, but it doesn't want to work at it's rated speed. Which version of the 2.4ghz p4 do you have? 533mhz fsb? If so running your memory at 266mhz would be the norm anyway, it would keep your ram and FSB synchronized. Have you tried running prime95 with the mem at 266mhz? Your PSU isn't neccisarily bad if that doesnt' work, but it could still be too weak for your system.

 

[Ginster]

How do I find out what version my 2.4Ghz P4 is? my motherboard is 533Mhz. Why would it be the norm to run at 266Mhz?
No, I havent tired running prime95 at 266Mhz. After disconnecting my dvd drives and a harddrive, I am running memtest98 now for 3 hrs and so far no problems... I"m goign to keep it running until it stops to make sure there is no problem with the ram. Is there are no errors then for sure my power supply is too weak for my system? any advice on Psu's?

 

[stevty2889]

there is a 2.4ghz that runs on 400mhz fsb(which is really 100mhz x 4) there is a 2.4 that runs on the 533mhz fsb(133mhz x 4), and there is a 2.4ghz that runs on 800mhz fsb(200mhz x 4). The proccessor uses a quad pumped bus, so you multiply the fsb by 4. DDR = double data rate, so you multiply the FSB x 2. So if your proccessor runs on 533mhz fsb, it is really a 133mhz fsb. You then multiply that x 2 to get the memory speed. 133mhz x 2 = 266mhz. So you disconnected the drives, and your running the memory at 266mhz still, or did you go back to 333mhz? If you went back to 333mhz, with the drives disconnected, and memtest is no longer failing, then I would have to say yes, your PSU is inadiquite for your system.

 

[Ginster]

At 333Mhz I ran memtest for 13hrs and no errors. PSU is not strong enough. Any recommendations for PSU's and watts?
Thanks

 

[stevty2889]

Enermax, Antec, OCZ, those are all good brands. A 350w enermax would be plenty good, thats what I am using. Did you plug the drives back in to see if it started failing again? Anyway, just get a 350w or more psu from one of those brands, and you'll be good to go.