Prime95 killed my memory?

[FP]

I have been running with 2Gb of Corsair XMS memory for the last year. My rig runs 24x7 and I have only rebooted about 5 times in that year. I typically stress test my machine whenever the temperature increases during spring/summer to make sure the temps don't go above 60C while I am away (I run F@H).

I started up Prime95 Torture Test the other day in blend mode which tests a lot of RAM. I accidentally forgot about it and left it running for about 4 hours. My machine never registered above 60C (averaged about 55C) and I simply stopped the torture test without incident.

Fast forward two days to this morning and I wake up to my machine emitting a single long beep followed by two short beeps. I plug in my speakers and the ASUS POST reporter tells me there is a memory problem.

I pop both sticks out and try each one individually. Sure enough, one of the sticks causes the computer to continually boot into Windows (constant reboot) and is eventually completely unresponsive.

The other stick works fine and I am running on it right now.

I burned these sticks in originally with 2 days of Memtest+ and 2 days of Prime95. No errors at that time.

Is it possible my last round of Prime95 killed my RAM? I have never seen RAM fail after a year of flawless use. Has anyone else?

 

[Rubycon]

Most likely not.

The module could have been weakened from an ESD hit, etc.

It should have a lifetime warranty. Hit up "The Ram Guy" over at the Corsair site and they'll give you a replacement.

 

[FP]

Hmm... Not really sure where the ESD hit would have come from as I haven't even cracked open my case in 8 months.

I just completed the RMA process with Corsair and ordered 2 sticks of G.Skill memory.

Hopefully the Corsair and G.Skill sticks will play nice together for a total of 4Gb. I know about the 32-bit XP limitation on memory and would expect to only get around 3Gb of memory out of the 4Gb.

Maybe I just need a new rig?

 

[jkresh]

folding at home does not stress components as much as prime so it is possible that your ram was faulty from the beginning and prime stressed it enough to push it over the edge. I would not have ordered the G.Skill to go with the corsair, generaly mixing memory is not the best idea (especially with 4 1gig sticks and even more so if you overclock).

 

[Nocturnal]

Originally posted by: jkresh
folding at home does not stress components as much as prime so it is possible that your ram was faulty from the beginning and prime stressed it enough to push it over the edge. I would not have ordered the G.Skill to go with the corsair, generaly mixing memory is not the best idea (especially with 4 1gig sticks and even more so if you overclock).

Exactly what this guy said. It was already on its way out and was just given that last needed push in order to fail.

 

[FP]

Yeah, if the G.Skill and Corsair don't work well together I will just sell the Corsair RMA sticks. I just can't be without my computer for more than a couple days because I work from home. I don't overclock so I am hoping they work together.

 

[SparkyJJO]

If prime killed the RAM then it was already weak.