• Some users have recently had their accounts hijacked. It seems that the now defunct EVGA forums might have compromised your password there and seems many are using the same PW here. We would suggest you UPDATE YOUR PASSWORD and TURN ON 2FA for your account here to further secure it. None of the compromised accounts had 2FA turned on.
    Once you have enabled 2FA, your account will be updated soon to show a badge, letting other members know that you use 2FA to protect your account. This should be beneficial for everyone that uses FSFT.

system lockup troubleshooting

S

Sajomir

n00b
Joined
Jul 8, 2007
Messages
27
GIGABYTE GA-M57SLI-S4
Patriot Extreme Performance 1x1GB 800MHz
OCZ Reaper HPC Edition 2x1GB 800 MHz
EVGA 512-P3-N802-A1 GeForce 8800GT Superclocked 512MB
MSI PC60G IEEE 802.11b/g 32bit PCI2.2 Turbo G Wireless Adapter
AMD Athlon X2 5200+
Cooler Master 650-watt power supply
Windows XP Home SP2
Nvidia display drivers = 169.02 (I think that's right, I know I used the most recent non-beta drivers from their site)

This system worked great for about a day. Got it up and running, set up Windows, got antivirus and anti-spyware software set up. Tested it out by installing some game demos and running them as high as they could go. Dawn of War, Call of Duty 4, Crysis, and so on.

While running a F2P mmo called Sword of the New World at 1600x1200 with settings maxed, the game froze after maybe an hour of play. The screen locked up with some nasty distortion, and the PC became unresponsive. While playing the full version of Battlefield 2142, the game runs fine on default settings for several hours. When details are cranked and resolution is set to 1600x1200, it locks up within minutes - sometimes before the loading is even finished. The game plays GREAT until then, 30+ fps, no choppiness.

During troubleshooting I found that one ram slot on the motherboard had gone bad, as well as one module of the OCZ memory. We replaced the defective memory with a Patriot module (same type as the first Patriot), and placed everything in the working slots. Battlefield 2142 currently works on default settings, but continues to crash at high detail levels.

Once, several seconds before the game crashed, the PC speaker gave off two beeps. Now while the game is running on default settings, the speaker occasionally beeps. (twice in about 45-60 minutes) The game has not crashed yet.

Any suggestions as to what's up? I'm hoping it's not a faulty motherboard. I can live with only 3 DIMMs working, as XP doesn't go higher than 3 gigs. However, if there is danger of more damage or the system keeps acting up, then an RMA might be in order...
 
Sajomir said:
GIGABYTE GA-M57SLI-S4
Patriot Extreme Performance 1x1GB 800MHz
OCZ Reaper HPC Edition 2x1GB 800 MHz
EVGA 512-P3-N802-A1 GeForce 8800GT Superclocked 512MB
MSI PC60G IEEE 802.11b/g 32bit PCI2.2 Turbo G Wireless Adapter
AMD Athlon X2 5200+
Cooler Master 650-watt power supply
Windows XP Home SP2
Nvidia display drivers = 169.02 (I think that's right, I know I used the most recent non-beta drivers from their site)

This system worked great for about a day. Got it up and running, set up Windows, got antivirus and anti-spyware software set up. Tested it out by installing some game demos and running them as high as they could go. Dawn of War, Call of Duty 4, Crysis, and so on.

While running a F2P mmo called Sword of the New World at 1600x1200 with settings maxed, the game froze after maybe an hour of play. The screen locked up with some nasty distortion, and the PC became unresponsive. While playing the full version of Battlefield 2142, the game runs fine on default settings for several hours. When details are cranked and resolution is set to 1600x1200, it locks up within minutes - sometimes before the loading is even finished. The game plays GREAT until then, 30+ fps, no choppiness.

During troubleshooting I found that one ram slot on the motherboard had gone bad, as well as one module of the OCZ memory. We replaced the defective memory with a Patriot module (same type as the first Patriot), and placed everything in the working slots. Battlefield 2142 currently works on default settings, but continues to crash at high detail levels.

Once, several seconds before the game crashed, the PC speaker gave off two beeps. Now while the game is running on default settings, the speaker occasionally beeps. (twice in about 45-60 minutes) The game has not crashed yet.

Any suggestions as to what's up? I'm hoping it's not a faulty motherboard. I can live with only 3 DIMMs working, as XP doesn't go higher than 3 gigs. However, if there is danger of more damage or the system keeps acting up, then an RMA might be in order...
Click to expand...

I would say a RMA was in order as soon as you discovered one of the ram slots had gone bad. The motherboard is defective.
After you RMA the board and get the replacement and all your ram slots are now working and if the problem persists, I would start looking at the power supply or video card as the possible culprit.
 
Thanks.

Now this is the first time I've had bad memory show up, so I just want to run my troubleshooting process by you to make sure I got fair results.

We tried booting each module of RAM alone, and discovered that one caused the computer to not boot - long beeps came from the PC speaker every few seconds, but nothing on screen.

To test the faulty DIMM, we moved a confirmed working module around to each DIMM. When the system failed to boot and gave the PC speaker sounds, we concluded that the DIMM was indeed bad.

Memtest seemed to get 15 errors no matter what combination of modules we had in. Would a faulty DIMM cause that? I can get the exact data if really necessary, it looked like a consistent result of the same errors every time with every combination.

Thanks again
 
If I understand you correctly,
Each stick of ram is only coming up with errors in the suspected bad ram slot?
Each stick of ram passes Memtest in any of the other ram slots?
If the above is correct then it is a good bet the motherboard is defective.

If any of the sticks of memory are getting errors in other slots, it may be the memory that is bad.
 
When any memory is in the defective slot, the system will not boot at all, only long beeps from the PC speaker.

When the defective module is alone in any slot, the same happens - no boot, long beeps.

So far it has not mattered what combination of any kind of RAM we have inserted, Memtest has kicked up what I think is the same 15 errors in the same short amount of time (less than 30 sec).
 
just a thought;have you checked with gigabyte to see if the the two brands are compatable.if i have read right you are having memory errors no matter which sticks are in place. am i right,or have i misread the post?
 
Sajomir said:
When any memory is in the defective slot, the system will not boot at all, only long beeps from the PC speaker.

When the defective module is alone in any slot, the same happens - no boot, long beeps.

So far it has not mattered what combination of any kind of RAM we have inserted, Memtest has kicked up what I think is the same 15 errors in the same short amount of time (less than 30 sec).
Click to expand...

Ah, It looks like you have 1 bad stick of memory. But if you can test the memory in another pc to be sure.

Also as DrDoU has said, make sure you memory is compatible with your board.

Another thing you could try is raising the memory voltage a notch or 2 in the bios and see if that helps.
 
No, neither model of memory is on the official supported list. I'd test the memory on another PC - in fact, an identical one, as I'm building two identical machines for two brothers. However, THAT pc either has a DOA psu or a DOA mobo.

This is the first time I've ever had any problems with parts, and boy is it turning out to be a doozy.

Since I'm going to have to RMA the one motherboard for a defective DIMM, I'm going to transplant the psu to test if that gets the second pc up and running. I'd like to at least have one machine up and running...
 
It looks like the ram voltage for your ram is ment to be running a 2.1 volts.
Make sure that your ram is running at the correct voltage. I would boot into the bios with 1 stick, set your ram voltage to 2.1v. Then shut it back down and put the other sticks in and see if that solves your ram problems.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top