Memtest86

[sandpaper600]

I am have some sporadic issues with crashing to desktop from some games (Far Cry & Call of Duty) and from firefox as well. Two times it has crashed the whole system, resulting in my having to do a hard restart. I'm not saying it only happens with these games, it's just that those are the ones I'm replaying now. I have updated my graphics and sound drivers, but no help. I am suspecting a possible bad stick of memory, so I ran Memtest86 v3.4a. Now I have some info, but I don't know what it's telling me. Also, I'm not sure it was a complete test & I think it may have gotten stuck during the testing. What I would like is to know if anyone can decipher this info and could you tell me if you believe the test is incomplete.

The test info as well as my system info is in the attached word file, (which I had to zip because of file size constraints).

Thanks in advance for anyone taking the time to look into this and render an opinion.

[cauzomb]

your log does show a memory error, but that can also be caused by a power supply issue, or other issue, such as overheating. Have you cleaned the dust off the internal parts? CPU/heatsink fan and inside the PSU should be dust free before moving on. use a bulb blower, canned air or a tech/vac/blower to clear the dust out of these areas. If you use canned air, try not to tip the can at an angle, to prevent any liquid/compressor residue from squirting out onto your parts. Do all this ouside, take care to prevent static discharge on your PC by using a static grounding wrist strap.

Are you overclocking at all?

If you are overclocking, try running memtest without overclocking. If it passes, you might need a bump up in memory voltage to get it stable again.. I don't like overvolting, so I don't recommend this to "fix" it. It's better to back off your overclock and run it as close to stock voltages as possible while still passing your torture tests without errors..

If you are not overclocked, do you have any spare parts? a spare power supply to test with/ do you have more than one stick of ram installed? If you are not overclocked, and the system is free of dust and the heatsink is properly seated/ still having memory issues, run memtest with one stick of ram installed at a time to find the faulty stick of ram. If you bought ram from a good MFG/sellr they should have a lifetime waranty, then you can RMA the bad stick of ram.

[sandpaper600]

I just built this system a year ago and upgraded the PS in March this year to a 550 watt Viotec G2 from 3btech. I am not over clocking anything. I am running 3 sticks of RAM. A 2 gig and two 512's. They do have a lifetime warranty on them, though I'm not sure the brand.

I'm sure the box could probably benefit from a bit of airing out. I'll try that first, tomorrow. I'll get back to you with any results.

Thanks for the info.

[cauzomb]

if you don't have the manual go to ASUStek and download the memory "qualified vendor list" in the downloads section, there's an A, B and C configuration option, they don't mention anything about single sided or double sided memory, they do say that you can occupy all the slots running two pairs of dual channel; two dual channel kits, or matched vendor pairs, one pair in blue and one pair in black; as long as each pair is matched in size you should be OK.. They also say you can run 1 stick in any slot, in single channel memory mode, and two sticks in the blue slots or black slots, as single pair/dual channel...

Anyway, if it's not the dust, or the memory configuration, you should test one stick at a time with memtest; the log is indicating that the memory in slot 0 is giving one consecutive error; so start with just that stick first...

[sandpaper600]

OK, first let me say that I'm APPALLED at the dust inside the box!!
I guess I'm really lucky I didn't burn out the CPU. The heatsink was all but plugged solid with dust! I first used a soft artists brush, the blew out the rest. Everything is breathing much better now and I've run the system for two days now with no failure.

Moral of the story: A clean box is a happy box!

Thanks for your time and input. As usual, IANAG ROCKS!!

[cauzomb]

COOOL! Glad to know that you don't need an RMA. I've seen some CPU's whith a dust cake ontop of the heatsink so thick that it was rubbing the fan! The computer would run for about 30 minutes then crash, wouldn't work again for a couple hours till everything cooled off.. Take care of the dust situation! I tend to blow the dust off my heatsinks every other month. If you have long pile carpet or long haired pets in the room that the PC is in, the dust can build up pretty quick.