System not stable w/basic settings, no overclock

[TJones2]

Can't seem to manage to put a system together without running into problems.

Gigabyte MA785GM-US2H (F5 firmware)
Phenom II X2 550
Crucial Ballistix 1mbx2
Radeon HD4870 (9.12 drivers)
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB
Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit

This is the second time in less than two days the computer has crashed, given a blue screen, and rebooted. The error:

< Event xmlns =" http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event " >
- < System >
< Provider Name =" Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-Power " Guid =" {331C3B3A-2005-44C2-AC5E-77220C37D6B4} " />
< EventID > 41 </ EventID >
< Version > 2 </ Version >
< Level > 1 </ Level >
< Task > 63 </ Task >
< Opcode > 0 </ Opcode >
< Keywords > 0x8000000000000002 </ Keywords >
< TimeCreated SystemTime =" 2009-12-18T23:51:13.286011800Z " />
< EventRecordID > 4458 </ EventRecordID >
< Correlation />
< Execution ProcessID =" 4 " ThreadID =" 8 " />
< Channel > System </ Channel >
< Computer > Ian-PC </ Computer >
< Security UserID =" S-1-5-18 " />
</ System >
- < EventData >
< Data Name =" BugcheckCode " > 80 </ Data >
< Data Name =" BugcheckParameter1 " > 0xfffff8800521c040 </ Data >
< Data Name =" BugcheckParameter2 " > 0x0 </ Data >
< Data Name =" BugcheckParameter3 " > 0xfffff880010f2597 </ Data >
< Data Name =" BugcheckParameter4 " > 0x0 </ Data >
< Data Name =" SleepInProgress " > false </ Data >
< Data Name =" PowerButtonTimestamp " > 0 </ Data >
</ EventData >
</ Event >


I ran Memtest 4 for 9 hours, no errors (in another system), Prime95 went five hours before I shut it down. The system is not overclocked or pushed in any way. Basic settings all around. The motherboard's top temperature is 28c, the CPU is 45c under load.

Might be relevant, I changed to the generic Microsoft AHCI 1.0 driver from the AMD SATA driver when the hard drive would repeat attempts to park (x4) the heads when closing down the system. The MS driver cleared that up.

If its a hardware issue, I'd love to get to the bottom of it before my return period runs out (in about two weeks), better still, before I give the machine to my son for xmas. At this point, overclocking isn't a possiblity.

Can anyone lead me in the right direction?
_______

 

[BD231]

What kind of power supply are you running? Have you checked your DDR timings? I know you've done tests but I wouldn't rule it out. What about CPU voltage? It might not be getting enough power in an idle state. Check to see if your motherboard is running less than stock voltages.

Perhaps a bad install of windows? Those all have easy answers, I'd start there.

 

[TJones2]

Thanks. Anyway, I just found a discussion in another forum on troubles people have had with Crucial Ballistix and one thing that stood out was that they're rated at 2volts. My MB has been running them at 1.9 so I upped to 2.1 and I'll see how it goes. Apparently also Memtest no longer does a good job of testing ram so can't be relied on. The system is currently getting the torture test from my son.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Apparently also Memtest no longer does a good job of testing ram so can't be relied on.

This is news to me. Can someone elaborate? I am slightly concerned about them lowering the initial test time. I thought that it just ran the tests, I didn't think that it duplicated any of the cycles, so I don't see how they can reduce the testing time. Are they skipping test cycles now?

 

[Gillbot]

Never heard that either. Every stick of ram I've RMAed, they said if it fails memtest send it back.

 

[TJones2]

Come across a lot of discussion lately how Memtest + doesn't catch bad ram, unless you run it for around 48 hours. I'm sure if its especially bad, it will catch it before that. Memtest (from Memtest.com) apparently does a much better job.

 

[ekoostik]

The website mentioned above appears to be some sort of adverstising site. Maybe a domain squatter.

The original memtest application can be found at: http://www.memtest86.com/
However this version has not been updated in some time and is not recommended.

Instead, memtest86+ should be used. The latest version is 4.0. http://www.memtest.org/

 

[aigomorla]

Thanks. Anyway, I just found a discussion in another forum on troubles people have had with Crucial Ballistix and one thing that stood out was that they're rated at 2volts. My MB has been running them at 1.9 so I upped to 2.1 and I'll see how it goes. Apparently also Memtest no longer does a good job of testing ram so can't be relied on. The system is currently getting the torture test from my son.

ummmmm there raited at 2.. however if you keeping following ballastx threads you'll see they tend to DIE really fast.

Keep them at 1.95 if u think you need the voltage, 2 is kinda pushing it without active cooling, 2.1 and you definitely need a fan on there, and most likely it will die in a year.

 

[exar333]

Memtest is valid, to a point. There can definitely be issues with a stick of RAM that Memtest fails to find. On the other hand, if your ARE getting memtest errors, the RAM will 100&#37; need to be replaced (assuming the MB/Slot are functioning correctly).

Try running a single stick of RAM in each slot, and see if that helps. Test each stick in each slot, and see if you can pinpoint the problem.

 

[waffleironhead]

a question about your voltage settings and the northbridge temps.

I have the us2h and a x4 620, the bios was set to auto-voltage, which instead of my assumed auto-setting to recommended volts, it was auto ramping to 1.475 instead of the default 1.4.
Also, i have read a few places where the hs for the northbridge was not set properly from the factory and overheating nb was causing instability.

 

[ShawnD1]

Come across a lot of discussion lately how Memtest + doesn't catch bad ram, unless you run it for around 48 hours. I'm sure if its especially bad, it will catch it before that. Memtest (from Memtest.com) apparently does a much better job.

You don't need to run complicated tests to check for bad ram. Even a simple Prime95 blend test will find bad ram.

 

[TJones2]

a question about your voltage settings and the northbridge temps.

I have the us2h and a x4 620, the bios was set to auto-voltage, which instead of my assumed auto-setting to recommended volts, it was auto ramping to 1.475 instead of the default 1.4.
Also, i have read a few places where the hs for the northbridge was not set properly from the factory and overheating nb was causing instability.

I'll look into that. Should the NB settings be 1.4 with the Phenom 555 too? And do you also think the ram should be 2v rather than 1.9? I think if I drop down to 1.9 the problems will come back. Right now, I'm told its solid (my son tells me).

 

[finger-Shaun]

What is the ram's detail? DDR2-1066? 5-5-5-15?

 

[TJones2]

DDR2-800 I think 5-5-5-18 or something. The ram is being run at stock.

 

[finger-Shaun]

Then I think 2.0v is fine if your system is stable, and ram is lifetime warranty anyway.

 

[stag3]

Crucial Ballistix 1mbx2 ?
probably need more than 2mb of ram for the system



crucial ballistix is horrible ram, i've had 4 sets rma'd and they've all died within ~3-6 mos of getting a refurbished set from them

 

[chusteczka]

Your motherboard has an eight pin connector for the cpu voltage. Make sure all eight pins are correctly seated. If you have an 8pin to two 4 pin molex adapter, then make sure that adapter has not broken.

I had such an adapter that broke and pushed out one of the pins in the 8pin connection to the motherboard. This created system instability and I finally caught it as I was disassembling my system to RMA the motherboard. All indications showed a memory issue and I spent weeks troubleshooting perfectly good memory.

 

[TJones2]

Nope, no adapter. Have a Corsair power supply. Suppose there could be a lose connection, I'll have a look. BTW, turns out I didn't track it down to ram, there was another BSOD that my son didn't tell me about (I found about about it when I booted into my administrative account and got the message). Sent the dump file over to the forum at TechNet and I hope they can track it down better than I have. If it is ram, it should be solved in a week or so since I've ordered 4gb of G.SKILL ram. The old stuff will move into my system (and I'm not as picky about it).

Just hoping its not the motherboard or CPU (never heard of a cpu screwing up, so I'll discount that).

 

[faxon]

Gskill is great ram. I have 12 gb of it in active duty now and it rocks

 

[Markfw]

Another guy on these forums had a similar problem, and he updated his ATI drivers, and it fixed his problem.

Worth a try.

 

[TJones2]

Another guy on these forums had a similar problem, and he updated his ATI drivers, and it fixed his problem.

Worth a try.

9.12 drivers, the most recent.