Bad ram or whats goin on?

G

Glow

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Jul 20, 2002
Messages
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Had cpl bluescreens in Vista sad.. Anyones it said this: PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA

Whats the cause of this and how do I test my ram?
 
http://www.memtest86.com/

Go get that, burn the tiny ISO to a CD and boot off it, let it run for two complete passes - should take a few hours. But two complete passes through the entire test[/i (the top progress bar is the Total Progress of the test; you'll need to let that go two complete passes through 100% and then you can safely assume it's not a RAM issue.

You can also boot off the Windows Vista DVD, choose Repair options, then use the Windows Memory Diagnostic - it's fairly reliable but I prefer Memtest86+ personally.

Good luck...

Ugh... too slow on posting. :D

All good info, two different versions of memtest86, but both work fine. Just remember: RUN IT FOR TWO COMPLETE PASSES. :)
 
How will I know when a cycle is completed?
In all of the colums it says there are errors but memtest hasn't failed or anything...what does that mean?
 
Glow said:
How will I know when a cycle is completed?
In all of the colums it says there are errors but memtest hasn't failed or anything...what does that mean?
Click to expand...

Is it showing progress at the top of the screen? I have burned copies of memtest that act like they are working correctly, but there is no progress info at the top of the screen... in fact, if I remember correctly the last time I had a bad disc the top half of the screen was black and it was showing hundreds of errors... but when I later ran memtest on the same stick using a Ubuntu live cd all was fine after an overnight test.

Just make sure you have a good image and burn before you rma anything... maybe download a *nix live cd and use the memtest option at boot there and see if you get the same results... but it does sound like you likely have a bad stick or two......
 
*** The top half of my screen is black the rest is blue and running stuff is that mean it's not working right?



This is basically what I see:
Error Confidence Value: Test Errors
Lowest error addresss 0 0
Highest address 1 24
Bits in Error Mask: 2 40
Bits in Error - Total: 14 Min: 0 Max 13 Avg 9 3 56
Max Contiguous Errors: 2 4 72
ECC Correctable Errors 5 88
Errors Per Memory slot: 96 4: 16 32 2: 48 8 6 104
21053765: 20 36 52 7 120
6: 24 40 56 8 136
12 7:28 1:44 99 60 9 152
10 168

How do I know which slots are bad This ^-- didn't make sense how do I know which module is bad? It's not finished yet then again I dunno how to know when it is
 
DeaconFrost said:
You can try them one at a time to find which is bad.
Click to expand...

I rather try them all at once cause I rather not F with my BIOS unless I have to. But yeah iff it's a half black screen does that mean it's not working?
 
I'm not exactly sure what messing with the BIOS, and trying one chip at a time have to do with each other...but if you want to find out exactly what chip is bad, you pull all but one and try them one at a time. You certainly don't need to enter the BIOS for that.
 
newhouse101_2006



^--------- Is this how it is supposed to friggin look



DeaconFrost said:
I'm not exactly sure what messing with the BIOS, and trying one chip at a time have to do with each other...but if you want to find out exactly what chip is bad, you pull all but one and try them one at a time. You certainly don't need to enter the BIOS for that.
Click to expand...

Well considering if I only have 1 stick in I dont think the current settings I have are going to end in anything but my system crashing. Sooooo before I do that I'd like to see if all together theres any issues and ironicly enough 3rd time asking IF MY SCREEN IS HALF BLUE AND HALF BLACK DOES THAT MEAN ITS NOT WORKING?! Not to be snippy at the rest just this smug clown.
 
So you call me a smug clown, when I'm the only one responding, trying to help? Nice.

I've had Memtest show only half the screen before, and if the application is running it is doing the job. I guess I didn't spell it out for you (since I'm a smug clown), but you can see the bottom half, and it's showing errors. 99% of the time, that means you have bad memory. That leads directly into what I was saying, about trying one stick at a time, which should NOT require any BIOS configuration.

The half screen part isn't the main issue at hand, it's that you are getting errors in Memtest. Just because I'm not giving you the answers you are hoping for, doesn't mean I'm wrong, nor does it mean I'm a smug clown. Testing out the memory sticks one at a time is very simple to do, and if you aren't willing to do that, no one is going to help you past this point.

Your thread title is asking if you have bad memory. Based on the results, the answer is yes. I answered your next question on how to tell which stick is bad. Drop the attitude (especially when you asked for help, and I gave you answers to the important questions), and worry about fixing the problem at hand.
 
OKAY soooo burned a different cd cause sick of waiting around sooooo far I see a lot of red and anyone else who might be searching it should be all blue not half black.

Okay so if certain stix are bad if I RMA them and get my new sticks in and sell them do they carry the warranty with them or no? Cause I think I might just change companies after this.
 
I would imagine the warranty clauses would change from company to company, in terms of what's transferrable or not. From my own experiences, anytime I've RAM'd sticks of memory, they've replaced the entire kit, even the good stick. The new package I was given was new, sealed, unopened, and had it's own warranty period.
 
Download a Ubuntu live cd and boot from that, select memory test and let it run overnight..

Maybe it's just me, but I personally have more faith in the memory diag on *nix live cd's than I do the others.... but like I said, that might just be me.....
 
DeaconFrost said:
I would imagine the warranty clauses would change from company to company, in terms of what's transferrable or not. From my own experiences, anytime I've RAM'd sticks of memory, they've replaced the entire kit, even the good stick. The new package I was given was new, sealed, unopened, and had it's own warranty period.
Click to expand...

Good to know can I just package them in anything or do they have to be in a nonstatic type package
 
I guess it depends on what you have handy. I always keep the plastic blister packs handy from my memory purchases in case I need to transport of ship out any memory. If not, I'll usually wrap them in a static bag, and make sure it's in a padded box.
 
Well this is what I did, tested 2 sticks at a time this way wouldn't lose my OC in my BIOS plus a lot faster to do since I'd be returning both stix anyways not just the 1. But tested them in same slots just to make sure it wasn't the mobo that was having issues.
So looks like my 2 are going to get RMA.

But I'm scared about my mobo do you think it could have killed the ram? I have my good ram in the slots that the bad ram was in should I be leary?

One more thing In CPU-Z it shows under SPD Max Bandwidth PC2-5300 333MHZ <-- Is that right my rams sposed to be ddr2 6400 firestix?
 
Some RAM is offically listed at a slower speed in the SPD chip, but has been tested to run faster, and is sold as such.

As far as testing one stick, and I said this above, you wouldn't have to change anything in your BIOS to run one stick at a time. On top of that, backing up a bit, if you have anything overclocked, you need to immediately put everything back to stock speeds and run the tests again.

The funny thing here is, you got pissed at me for not answering a question, but yet you completely disregard the proper steps to troubleshoot. Nice.

I'll say this one more to for clarity's sake. Put everything at stocks speeds, use one memory stick at a time, and run the tests. It's possible the memory is fine, but that you have it overclocked too far. Follow the steps that are needed properly, and find out for sure what's wrong.
 
DeaconFrost said:
I'll say this one more to for clarity's sake. Put everything at stocks speeds, use one memory stick at a time, and run the tests. It's possible the memory is fine, but that you have it overclocked too far. Follow the steps that are needed properly, and find out for sure what's wrong.
Click to expand...

This is sound troubleshooting advice. I suggest you follow it. Kill the OC, test 1 stick at a time. It will give you concrete results. If you get similar results for all sticks change slots on the board. (like SLOT 0 and 2 are paired, move to either SLOT 1 or 3) That way you can rule out system board. Its a LONG process to test RAM, but it will get you the correct results.
 
What you guys talking about I already found the bad sticks?

Glow said:
So looks like my 2 are going to get RMA.

But I'm scared about my mobo do you think it could have killed the ram? I have my good ram in the slots that the bad ram was in should I be leary?

One more thing In CPU-Z it shows under SPD Max Bandwidth PC2-5300 333MHZ <-- Is that right my rams sposed to be ddr2 6400 firestix?
Click to expand...
 
Glow said:
What you guys talking about I already found the bad sticks?
Click to expand...
You now mentioned that you're OCing the memory. It's possible the memory may not be bad at all, just OC'ed to far. It makes no sense what you said earlier about not wanting to disrupt your OC by running with only one stick, but that's not the point. If you suspect a bad part, you shouldn't be OCing at all.

At this point, it is up to you if you want to find out exactly what's wrong or not. If the memory isn't bad, but pushed to far in the OC, you'll likely have the same problem with the returned memory you'll get back from the RMA. It's a simple process and it will tell you exactly what's going on.
 
Ummmm what? Okay My system is OCed take a look at my specs bellow. I already said like 3 times in the past that I didn't want to lose my settings in my BIOS. This is cause I have everything running how I want. If I can run my system stable with 4 sticks then it can run even easier with 2 cause it's lax to accomodate the extra 2. Hence why I didn't want to test one stick at a time. Why do you keep trying to have the same old conversation over and over here. I already said I found the bad sticks?

---------
I ran first 2 sticks with 2.5 passes and it passed not one single error.

I rant 2nd set of ram I in the same slot I had the last 2 in, I started getting errors after 10 seconds.
 
Ugggh, forget it. It's your system. If you want to be this difficult and refuse to listen to people you've solicited for help, that's fine. You don't need to do a goddamn thing to your BIOS to try one stick of memory. On top of that, no one in their right mind would continue overclocking if they suspected their memory was bad. There's a chance, albeit not a large one, that your RMA'd memory would come back and give you the same problems. Enjoy.
 
Man alive- never seen someone want help yet been so stubborn to refuse to take the steps necessary to troubleshoot his problem like this in awhile...
 
heres the deal dude.. these guys al know what they are talking about... they are not trying to fuck you up and make you loose your bios settings.. if they are that important to you, write down the settings... but please, if your going to ask for advise then at least listen to the advise given.

They could have been really mean and told you that you wherent running enought voltage and to crank it to 2.7+v and watch you squirm as it fryed.. at this point considering your attitude, it would have been justifyed.

now then.. that said.. i bet if you took them 1 stick at a time, in slot 0, without the oc, they will pass the memtest...

If they do OR dont.. give them one more shot in slot 1... if they pass in 1 (and both slots pass) every thing was fine... it was your OC. plain and simple.

if any of the sticks fail in both slots it is the sticks. rma them

if the sticks all pass in one slot, but fail in the other.. its the motherboard. rma it

BTW... when mem test displays a half black screen like that, it usually means you are running the memory controller to hard... ( meaning your OC is not stable)
 
DeaconFrost said:
Ugggh, forget it. It's your system. If you want to be this difficult and refuse to listen to people you've solicited for help, that's fine. You don't need to do a goddamn thing to your BIOS to try one stick of memory. On top of that, no one in their right mind would continue overclocking if they suspected their memory was bad. There's a chance, albeit not a large one, that your RMA'd memory would come back and give you the same problems. Enjoy.
Click to expand...

Continue overclocking? Look where I am posting, I was trying to find out if this was Vista or my Ram to begin with. This system has been stable for months until this last week or two.

How am I being stubborn?

I have set 1 and set 2.
Set 1 passes with flying colors
Set 2 Fails within seconds.

I am not testing these sets at the same time. I am testing these 2 at a time NOT all 4. Just to clarify.

Each set = 2 sticks of ram. I am not going RMA 1 stick I return the set. How is this being stubborn. They are going to send me back a new pack I would imagine.

On any system 4 sticks of ram will OC less than 2 sticks. So if 2 sticks can run a OCed system with these lax timings then obviously theres no issue with them. But when one Set can't run them at all obviously there is a problem. Am I in bizzaro world here? Ever since I took out the failed set my system has been stable no issues at all.

thore said:
They could have been really mean and told you that you wherent running enought voltage and to crank it to 2.7+v and watch you squirm as it fryed.. at this point considering your attitude, it would have been justifyed.
Click to expand...

I'm not fucking new FYI I even wrote a OC guide for this forum in the summer. I'm not going to crank my ram to 2.7 considering this guy hasn't told me one usefull thing other than the bit about the 5300. I mean look I had to ask 3-4 times if a program is running correctly but I couldn't even get an answer I mean apparently me sticking in 1 module at a time with a program that isn't working is a better idea........

thore said:
BTW... when mem test displays a half black screen like that, it usually means you are running the memory controller to hard... ( meaning your OC is not stable)
Click to expand...

Actually it means I was running the wrong software. Wrote in the wrong address and ran Memtest86.coms 86 3.4 version instead of memtest.orgs 1.7 version so that was my bad.
 
ok .. so be it.. just out of curiosity, did you test the failing stick(s) in the same channel as the good sticks?

you really havent said you did, as such if you did not, it could still be your memory controller


i relise you have been here some time... but then again so have alot of people and that dose not mean they know there ass from applebutter when it comes to trouble shooting pcs... im still amazed that you are refuseing to lower your OC and test the sticks one at a time.. but your certain so ill drop it. would just like to see your mother board ruled out is all.
 
Glow said:
This system has been stable for months until this last week or two.
Click to expand...
Just because it was stable for a long time overclocked, doesn't mean it will be stable forever. The very first "con" to overclocking is that you can shorten the life of your components. When you decided to overclock, this was a risk you accepted. As everyone has been trying to tell you, it is very possible that your OC is causing a problem, maybe causing the memory to go bad, or worse, causing the mobo or memory slots to go bad. Once you get that through your thick head, and realize people are trying to help you out, we might actually make progress. If this was my computer, I would want to know, without a doubt, the exact problem I was having, so I could replace or RMA that exact part and be done with it. Common sense, dude. Basic knowledge as well, that someone giving advice on overclocking would surely know. If you want us to believe you aren't new to this and have written guides on the subject, stop acting like an arrogant noob and follow the advice laid out before you.
 
Okay Captain Common Sense reporting in.
just to shut some of you up I de-OCed my rig and to show you I know this thing pretty well inside and out the amount of time working with it.

Shitty firestix ran in memtest FAILED
Good firestix ran in memtest Passed

Didn't see that one coming :rolleyes:.
When I could OC my rig even higher than what I had my system set at with 4, I'd say it's fair to guess that my ram (2 of them could handle the lax settings of 4) low and behold my system is just fine and stable with 2 now that the back sticks are out as I said yesterday since I went back to my previous OC settings.
Not too sure why people were fighting me on this since I dont care the dawn of OCing 2 sticks have always been able to run a system easier than 4 so when 2 cant handle the stable settings of 4 then, obviously something went wrong with the ram.
 
Glow said:
obviously something went wrong with the ram.
Click to expand...
It wasn't obvious, but it was likely the cause. It also could very well have been something else, like the mobo. Fact is, we tried helping you to be 100% sure of the problem, instead of 75% or so.

If you truly don't know why people were leaving the comments they were, you really should take a step back and read through the entire thread. I'd really hope that no one on these boards could be that dense. In short, when people try helping you, especially when you've come to them for help, don't act like an ass towards them. I would really REALLY hate to be your doctor, mechanic, etc. In the future, when you start a thread asking for help or answers, work WITH the people helping you, not against them.

I truly hope you get your RAM back and all works fine for you, but I also hope you'll remember to act differently in the future when asking for help. No one knows everything, no matter how long they've been doing it. Even us "experts" need to ask for help from time to time.
 
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