prime95 FATAL ERROR... Need Help

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bshadow

n00b
Joined
Apr 12, 2007
Messages
19
hello guys..
im new here..
recently my computer started freezing on random occasions, i understood that it freezes up when i make him process alot of things (make it work hard).. like encoding video or something like that..
i guesses something is wrong with my hardware so i ran the prime95 test. but i got not idea what to do with its results.. plz help me..
thanks

the results:
[Thu Apr 12 02:35:25 2007]
Self-test 1024K passed!
[Thu Apr 12 02:51:29 2007]
Self-test 8K passed!
[Thu Apr 12 03:07:18 2007]
Self-test 10K passed!
[Thu Apr 12 03:24:38 2007]
Self-test 896K passed!
[Thu Apr 12 03:42:10 2007]
Self-test 768K passed!
[Thu Apr 12 03:57:45 2007]
Self-test 12K passed!
[Thu Apr 12 04:12:50 2007]
Self-test 14K passed!
[Thu Apr 12 04:30:19 2007]
Self-test 640K passed!
[Thu Apr 12 04:46:18 2007]
Self-test 512K passed!
[Thu Apr 12 05:01:45 2007]
Self-test 16K passed!
[Thu Apr 12 05:20:57 2007]
Self-test 20K passed!
[Thu Apr 12 05:36:17 2007]
Self-test 448K passed!
[Thu Apr 12 05:52:44 2007]
Self-test 384K passed!
[Thu Apr 12 06:10:59 2007]
Self-test 24K passed!
[Thu Apr 12 06:26:08 2007]
Self-test 28K passed!
[Thu Apr 12 06:41:41 2007]
Self-test 320K passed!
[Thu Apr 12 06:58:30 2007]
Self-test 256K passed!
[Thu Apr 12 07:16:54 2007]
Self-test 32K passed!
[Thu Apr 12 07:32:10 2007]
Self-test 40K passed!
[Thu Apr 12 07:48:53 2007]
Self-test 224K passed!
[Thu Apr 12 08:04:29 2007]
Self-test 192K passed!
[Thu Apr 12 08:19:46 2007]
Self-test 48K passed!
[Thu Apr 12 08:34:56 2007]
Self-test 56K passed!
[Thu Apr 12 08:50:29 2007]
Self-test 160K passed!
[Thu Apr 12 09:06:19 2007]
Self-test 128K passed!
[Thu Apr 12 09:25:30 2007]
Self-test 64K passed!
[Thu Apr 12 09:41:36 2007]
Self-test 80K passed!
[Thu Apr 12 09:58:45 2007]
Self-test 112K passed!
[Thu Apr 12 10:14:42 2007]
Self-test 96K passed!
[Thu Apr 12 10:32:15 2007]
Self-test 1280K passed!
[Thu Apr 12 10:48:08 2007]
Self-test 1536K passed!
[Thu Apr 12 11:04:29 2007]
Self-test 1792K passed!
[Thu Apr 12 11:21:38 2007]
Self-test 2048K passed!
[Thu Apr 12 11:38:45 2007]
Self-test 2560K passed!
[Thu Apr 12 11:54:00 2007]
Self-test 3072K passed!
[Thu Apr 12 12:10:45 2007]
Self-test 3584K passed!
[Thu Apr 12 12:27:37 2007]
Self-test 4096K passed!
[Thu Apr 12 12:46:17 2007]
Self-test 1024K passed!
[Thu Apr 12 13:02:37 2007]
Self-test 8K passed!
[Thu Apr 12 13:22:14 2007]
Self-test 10K passed!
[Thu Apr 12 13:40:18 2007]
Self-test 896K passed!
[Thu Apr 12 13:57:44 2007]
Self-test 768K passed!
[Thu Apr 12 14:13:25 2007]
Self-test 12K passed!
[Thu Apr 12 14:28:48 2007]
Self-test 14K passed!
[Thu Apr 12 14:46:54 2007]
Self-test 640K passed!
[Thu Apr 12 15:02:46 2007]
Self-test 512K passed!
[Thu Apr 12 15:21:57 2007]
Self-test 16K passed!
[Thu Apr 12 15:37:13 2007]
Self-test 20K passed!
[Thu Apr 12 15:53:13 2007]
Self-test 448K passed!
[Thu Apr 12 16:09:58 2007]
Self-test 384K passed!
[Thu Apr 12 16:28:23 2007]
Self-test 24K passed!
[Thu Apr 12 16:45:17 2007]
FATAL ERROR: Rounding was 0.5, expected less than 0.4
Hardware failure detected, consult stress.txt file.
 
It looks like Prime95 failed after running non-stop from 2:30 AM to 4:45PM. That is pretty good. I wonder if you have a dual core processor, like an AMD X2 or an Intel Core 2 Duo. If you do, you should be running two instances of Prime95, with the affinity of each set to a different core.

It looks like your machine is Prime95 stable to >14hours. What type of Torture Test did you use? The default "Blend", the "small FFT", or the other one?

If you used the "small FFT", I can say that any crashing you experience is likely not related to a CPU issue (improper CPU cooling, too much voltage, too high an overclock - they are all related).

If you used "blend", I would say you can rule out RAM issues as the cause of your crashes. If you can do either for >4 hours, much less >14 hours, I would say the related subsystem is doing fine.

If your computer gives a Blue Screen of Death, you have a better chance of finding what is wrong than just randomly stressing various subsystems until you find the issue. You might be getting a BSoD, even if you think you are, since Windows' default behavior is to restart automatically on every BSoD. You might think about changing that setting so it does not reboot after a BSoD. If you do, and you can write down the memory address that experienced the stop error, (usually written as the Hex value that is the second one, of up to 4, inside the "()" section). You may not get the memory address, or it may just tell you the name of the driver file that is causing the issue if you're lucky.

It is helpful to get the memory address with the issue, because you can then go to the Device Manager and set it to view "Resources by type", or something to that effect, then find where in the listed ranges under the "Memory" section your offending memory address is located.

For example, I had an 0x0000008E with a memory address like 0xF1______. It turned out that in the Device Manager, when set to view "resources by type", you can see that my graphics card drivers, and its associated PICe Bridge drivers, are located in the range of F0______ to FDDDDDDD (you need to drop the leading "0x", in case you were wondering).

Since F1______ is between F0______ and FDDDDDDD, I had an 08E error with my video card, apparently. I later got a 0x000000124 (or was it 125?), and that mapped to a "System device" that had "siblings" that included my CPU (and some various busses and devices) which led me to believe the offending "system device" was perhaps a bus that my CPU (and other things) resided on. Seemed like an FSB related "System Device" to me.

Also, both of these errors (and the many "random reboots" from before I corrected the "automatically reboot" setting in Windows) occurred almost immediately after I dropped my NorthBridge and Front Side Bus voltages while trying to find the lowest settings for a stable overclock. Both of the affected devices appeared to be off the NB, so I put the NB voltage back up a bit (and the FSB voltage, just to be thorough), and I have not had any problems since that cluster of BSoDs/random reboots.

You should be able to go through a similar process for any BSoD you get, since Prime95 doesn't seem to have a problem with your CPU or RAM (assuming it is single core, if it is dual core run another instance of Prime95 using the -a1 switch, with the "Affinity" set to stress both cores should you need to keep randomly testing various subsystems because you actually do not get a BSoD).
 
no blue screen. just freeze.
i got intel penitum 4 3.2ghz.
with 2gb of ram..

i ran the normal test which is just checking the torture test, didnt touch nothing else...
 
Yeah, a freeze with out an error message is a hard one.

It sounds like you ran a "blend" test, which is the one you get with out changing anything, and just clicking on OK after selecting Torture Test. That is pretty memory intensive. Try a "Small FFT" test, and see if it does worse.

How often does the system freeze, and what are you doing to "make it work hard" when it will freeze? Is it only 3d games, for instance? That might mean your video card fan is dieing and it heats up too much when you use it a lot. Any one here who wants to help you is going to need a lot more information than you have given us, so far.

Basics:

What components do you have (P4 3.2Ghz, but which one? I believe there are several, but I am not really up on the P4s, never liked them much). Do you know what motherboard? What video card? What OS do you use, and when was it installed? If you really would like the people here to help with something like this, we really need as much information as possible.

How familiar are you with computers? Did you build this system? Did you buy it from a local retail store? Just wondering.

Also, good luck.
 
here is the results for the small fft test:

Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.20GHz
CPU speed: 3211.31 MHz
CPU features: RDTSC, CMOV, Prefetch, MMX, SSE, SSE2
L1 cache size: 16 KB
L2 cache size: 1024 KB
L1 cache line size: 64 bytes
L2 cache line size: 128 bytes
TLBS: 64
Prime95 32-bit version 24.14, RdtscTiming=1
Best time for 512K FFT length: 15.070 ms.
[Fri Apr 13 16:26:23 2007]
Self-test 8K passed!
[Fri Apr 13 16:41:48 2007]
Self-test 10K passed!
[Fri Apr 13 16:57:51 2007]
Self-test 12K passed!
[Fri Apr 13 17:14:17 2007]
Self-test 14K passed!
[Fri Apr 13 17:29:34 2007]
Self-test 16K passed!
[Fri Apr 13 17:46:06 2007]
Self-test 20K passed!
[Fri Apr 13 18:02:15 2007]
Self-test 24K passed!
[Fri Apr 13 18:10:17 2007]
FATAL ERROR: Final result was 43BA1666, expected: B0680C2B.
Hardware failure detected, consult stress.txt file.
 
The answers to these questions will help. So you have a Pentium 540 not overclocked.

Betrayer00GT said:
Basics:

Do you know what motherboard? What video card? What OS do you use, and when was it installed? If you really would like the people here to help with something like this, we really need as much information as possible.

How familiar are you with computers? Did you build this system? Did you buy it from a local retail store? Just wondering.

Also, good luck.
Click to expand...
 
motherboard: asus p5gd1
video card: sapphire x600 pro
os: windows xp sp2 was installed 4 months ago
i built it, and it worked find for 3 years.
 
bshadow said:
here is the results for the small fft test:

...
Click to expand...

Hmm... Almost two hours. Not horrible. I would say the CPU and RAM are both out as likely causes. Maybe the CPU though, just not likely in my opinion.

If this machine is ~3 years old, when was the last time you stripped it out and cleaned everything, really well (heatsink crud, films of dust on chips, air vents - etc)?

Also, what has gone in since the freezing started, hardware and software, both? Drivers, applications, other things.
 
oh yeah, I was having stability issues with my old p4 box, I used air-duster to clean up the dust clogs in all the fans and it was fine again :) I vote cleaning up the computer and see how it goes after that.
 
done cleaning :)
i managed to encode a file which i couldnt b4, but it still get frozen after a while of other encoding, maybe the first worked coz the computer just started and was cool, and after a while it wasnt...
i dunno...
the computer is 3.4 years old, and as for now very clean...
still looking for your help.... thanks though...
 
bshadow said:
done cleaning :)
i managed to encode a file which i couldnt b4, but it still get frozen after a while of other encoding...
Click to expand...

Hmm...

Based on how often it freezes at this point (post cleaning), do you think there is improvement, or just a fluke maybe on the encode that used to fail? I ask, because maybe this is a combination of time, usage, and local conditions (perhaps something as simple as poor condition of local power or a poor quality PSU that has aged components prematurely) that has put a previously fine system "over the edge", so to speak.

My roommate dealt with a similar sudden onset issue with an old 3Ghz P4 based system, and his solution (after having me swap the PSU, the gfx card, and even the entire case) was a $2600 Alienware C2D setup with his bonus. It was more to reduce his stress level than it was about a hardware upgrade.

He has had 2 "issues" with his Alienware in the ~9 months he has had it, and each have been fixed with a <1 hour phone call with their Latin American support. Much less stress and a much lighter wallet, but that is how he ultimately "fixed" his issue.

The sad thing is, I turned that CPU, MB, RAM, and video card (with the addition of a Zalman 9700 LED HSF) into a perfectly working lab machine for professional development at home. It doesn't do much ATM, but it passed the Prime95 "stability verification process" I put it through.

Looking back, I think my roommate's issue was likely caused by the original, improper mounting of the (for the day) rather good HSF. The guy that installed his 3Ghz P4, when my roommate upgraded from a 2.6 several years ago, didn't spread the thermal compound in anything that may be considered an "even" fashion. It worked for years, but then the improper mounting along with an aging HSF just brought it below tolerance, I guess. I didn't figure that out until his new Alienware was up and running, and I got around to parting the thing out for a lab machine. We never thought to remove every component and re-seat everything (HSF/CPU included), so I never saw that before.

I guess my point is basically that there is a cause, but how much is your time worth to you, and what resources (especially known good spare parts) do you have available if you want to spend your time on fixing this? No one here is going to be able to tell you what is wrong, exactly, you're going to need to find that out for yourself by looking at literally everything. And it could still be some random chip or damaged trace on your motherboard and not even fixable. :mad:

To proceed, you should just focus on the things in there that could be contributing to this. Maybe remove the modem you put in originally for faxing but haven't used in years, maybe swap out that x600 for the card it replaced (if it's still around) to see if things improve, try removing half the memory modules and add them back in different arrangements and see if things improve, maybe try a PSU from another machine on the off chance that is contributing to your problems...

I could go on, but really you need to think along these lines and try to find a culprit, or potentially even the culprits. If you have a few issues working together to cause these freezes it could be very difficult to resolve this.

Again, good luck.
 
One last thing, I have personally seen 2 different Saphire, ATI-based videocards have fan issues over the years. Maybe it is that. I just took another look at this thread and noticed your card is made by them. Just a thought, based on my previous experience with Saphire cards that were a year or two old.

I believe the video card is capable of freezing a system like you are experiencing, it happened to me when I tried to run some cheap cards @ AGP 8x. It then quit when I switched to 4x and disabled the "write caching" or whatever. Not sure why encoding programs would cause a freeze if that was your issue, but maybe it's only if it gets too hot in your case or something. Those P4s are monster space-heaters, so anything is possible.
 
i dont have the resources or time u mentioned... so i guess im in trouble, i gotta find some kind of solution for that.... i dunno what ...
 
What worked with my roommate's situation (though he already had the Alienware by the time it did so) was to tear the whole thing apart (in this case to get an inventory together of it and all the other almost/partially working machines we had around) and rebuild it properly from the get-go. Anything that was damaged or not quite right (in this case, only the HSF) was not used and a replacement was ordered (the Zalman 9700 LED, here), then with all the parts available the whole thing was reassembled with best practices (quality thermal compound, care to ESD damage, proper routing of cables, sufficient ventilation - etc). At that point, it worked again.

After it is totally torn apart on your workbench, if nothing seems amiss, just clean off the old thermal compound and remount everything. Worth a shot if you can do it.

Otherwise, you might want to look at a cheap system that re-uses a couple things, like your RAM, HD and PSU for example. An original DDR, AMD-based system can be made for pretty cheap, hardware wise, off www.pricewatch.com
 
Well, like it was mentioned, tear your system apart, clean up every single piece with compressed air, put it back together, pray :D
 
pray is good :)
ill try to keep it clean, i hope some can find a better solution for me..
until i buy a new computer next year
 
ok....
this is getting seriously, i cant play my games..
i try to play nba live 07 and uefa champions league 06/07, i play for like 5-10 min and the computer freezes!!!!
nothing to do but to shut down it from the button on the case :(

plz.... im thinking on throwing it through the window :)
plz help me with this,,

thanks
 
You should tear it down to each seperate component on one table, then rebuild it from scratch using best practices. Other than that, I can't say.

Good luck.
 
freezing like that with no BSOD had often been memory related in my observation.. try adding a touch of vdimm or maybe relaxing your memory timings a little..
 
revenant said:
freezing like that with no BSOD had often been memory related in my observation.. try adding a touch of vdimm or maybe relaxing your memory timings a little..
Click to expand...

What I have seen has been videocard related, but those are still good suggestions.
 
You shoulds install your memory modules one at a time and run stress testing. Also, do the same but run memtest on individual memory sticks.

http://www.memtest.org/

Try memtest-ing individual modules first
 
ok...
i did the test... nothing went wrong .... evrything is fine on that test...
so now what?
 
just wanted to updated i opened my case switch memory slots and removed cpu and cleaned it and its fan... lets try the tests again.. and ill update :)
 
hmmm.. there is a button called edit post so you dont multi post. K thnx. ^^^^^

Also . Ide say its time for an upgrade if your doing heavy encoding. But honestly Ide say if you cant figure out the problem . Reinstall windows.
 
well, after couple of days trying , nothing have changed, the computer keeps freezing when i make him work hard, i cant play nba live, csi or whatever.
 
Hi,
I'm having the same problem with prime95, except that i'm using orthos. I can run small FFTs for 3hrs+ but large FFTs (and blend) fail after 5sec, and i get the same error message, but no freeze. This suggests that there's somehing wrong with the RAM i think. I'll run memtest on the individual sticks and see how they go.
 
Why do people run Orthos or Prime95 for more then 30 minutes? Honestly, I have yet to have a need to do so beyond 25 minutes and never had problems. Also, even if you pass its no guarantee that you are stable in games.
 
There answer has been posted. Tear it apart.

Yes its work. Yes it sucks. But if you want it to work again, you are going to have to put forth a few hours effort.
 
Take everything out of the case. Just set up cpu + ram + videocard + heatsink + [su. Hookm it up, run it.. see if it still crashes. Take off heatsink, clean off gunk, add new thermal paste.. try again.
 
Find someones ram you can borrow.. switch out ram.

Find someones CPU you can borrow. Switch out CPU.

Find someones PSU you can borrow. Switch out PSU.

Find someones videocard you can borrow. Switch out videocard.

If none of those, its mobo
 
Eastcoasthandle said:
Why do people run Orthos or Prime95 for more then 30 minutes? Honestly, I have yet to have a need to do so beyond 25 minutes and never had problems. Also, even if you pass its no guarantee that you are stable in games.
Click to expand...

This guys pc is a perfect example of why you should run for more than 30min. It has a serious problem that wasn't evident within a 30min stress test.
 
Install some sort of temperature and voltage monitoring software such as SpeedFan or Motherboard Monitor 5. Then when running through the stress tests that fail, keep an eye on the temperatures of your CPU and Motherboard. Also check the Measured Voltages and be sure that none of them are much below what they should be.

For Example: My current alternate computer reports the following voltages.

Standard = Reported
3.3v - 3.22v
12v - 12.41v

So my power supply doesn't put out exactly 3.3v or 12v, but is close enough that my computer runs just fine.

Honestly it sounds to me like there is a problem with either PSU, CPU, or RAM, and I'm going to guess it's not RAM if memtest86 ran without errors. The first error you reported came from the CPU not performing a calculation correctly. It rounded a number up when it should have rounded it down. Now the PSU not putting out enough voltage can cause the CPU to act up, and a CPU that is failing can also cause calculation errors. Once you find out your temperatures and voltages I may be able to help you more.
 
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