Prime95/Memtest86 Errors Please help

Hi guys, I have ASUS NCCH-DL/dual Xeons 3.6 Nocona with 4Gb of RAM (OCZ Performance Series DDR400) with X800XT PE and I had some anomalies happening when working, but nothing too often. The most noticable problems started appearing in BF2 (crashing to desktop, rebooting etc). So I've been reading around the web and on this forum too and noticed that 2 good programs to test 100% stability are Prime95 and Memtest86. So I ran Prime 95 first and got that infamous Rounded 0.5 when it should've been 0.4 or something like that...this error appeared 2-3 hours into the testing.

Now, my Xeons run at 46-47C idle (on CPU1) and 49-50C (on CPU2) and under load (CPU1 goes up to 59-60C) while CPU2 goes up to 65-66C. The problem was confirmed when I tested under Memtest86 and the initial test (12 hours) went through without a problem, but when I started testing memory sizing Memtest86 locked the computer when I ran BIOS All (it also reported errors but it locked the computer). When I ran PROBE test it started testing but I got a few errors on the memory. Can someone tell me please what this might be or what should I do. Should I take the memory out (does this mean that one of my modules is bad or what?)

Attached is the image of the errors:


Thanks a lot.

P.S.
I tried taking out all memory sticks and putting one after another to find out which one is bad...They all report errors..WTH?! It's impossible that all 4 modules are bad. What am I suppose to do now?
Btw, my computer does run fine in general (I do a lot of Photoshop and other apps) and don't really have problems..Also, the computer often stays on for a week or more without rebooting and I never experienced problems with that either. I just hate when I get into testing with diagnostic apps like Prime and Memtest and they start reporting errors.

It could be that the memory slots on the mobo are bad. I had to RMA my Lanparty for this reason. Slot 2 would give me ~20 errors per pass & slot 3 would give me 100,000 errors per pass. Nothing would change that. I tried different CPUs (to check for a bad memory controller), different memory chips & the same problems happened in every possible configuration unless the memory was set below 160MHz. It was very odd. More than likely there were damaged traces or something like that. When my new mobo comes I'm thinking I won't be seeing the same issues.

Try the memory in another system to see.

Well let me first thank you for your response..I don't think it's memory simply because I took it out and replaced the memory with Kingston module and booted up..same errors..Why I'm ****ed off is simply because this test goes through on my laptop which has 1 gb of ram and the ram is DDR333. Is it possible that this memtest86 has issues with dual CPU boards or this ASUS NCCH-DL i875 7505 hybrid? I just can't believe that my motherboard is to blame as well as memory simply because they are really really good and this is actually my second ASUS NCCH-DL motherboard in my system (don't ask why, I burned the first one with stupidity). My computer works ok, I might add..it's just that Prime95 reported an error, then I ran Memtest86 and as Memory Sizing test with BIOS(Std) option selected goes through no problems. Even after 12 hours..no errors whatsover...

This only happens when I run the Memory Sizing test from the menu with BIOS(Probe) selected or BIOS(All)...it not only reports errors..it locks down the whole computer..I have to hard reset it...

Please if someone has any idea what's going on here..I would really appreciate it..I need to know that is it possible that Memtest86 is wrong?

what voltage are you running the sticks at? What is their rated voltage? Trying upping the voltage by 0.1 and see if it helps. The board may be undervolting the RAM.

Yeah, I tried that..no go...I might as well try 2.8V because that's max that board will allow for DRAM, and I actually tried it and the memory works without problems, but I didn't run tests on it.

Now since you guys are experts (btw, I have really high opinion about ocforums), is it possible that errors in the games are related to System BIOS Cache enabled and Video BIOS cache enabled? I saw in the one of the other threads that these 2 should be disabled.

Boz what power supply do you have in that rig? Memtest errors in tests 1-4 are normally power or CPU related. Either the PSU is too weak, the CPU is overclocked too far or the CPU is over heating. Can you check the 12V rail(s) on your PSU and see how many Amps it/they have?

Boz said:

Now since you guys are experts (btw, I have really high opinion about ocforums), is it possible that errors in the games are related to System BIOS Cache enabled and Video BIOS cache enabled? I saw in the one of the other threads that these 2 should be disabled.

Click to expand...

Shadowing your BIOS wouldn't be causing these problems, but it is best to disable it. Shadowing the system and video BIOS has no effect on performance, unless you're working with DOS programs. As soon as your OS loads, it loads all 32 bit, or in some cases 64 bit drivers for your devices and disables the shadowed 16 bit ones.

SteveOCZ said:

Boz what power supply do you have in that rig? Memtest errors in tests 1-4 are normally power or CPU related. Either the PSU is too weak, the CPU is overclocked too far or the CPU is over heating. Can you check the 12V rail(s) on your PSU and see how many Amps it/they have?

Click to expand...

Well I don't think it's power supply because I'm using PC Power and Cooling 510XE (dual CPU one, that's the best one they had then).
Link to my PSU

The most bizzare thing actually, Prime95 ran for 7 hours last night and no errors at all, but memtest86 still reports errors.

The CPU is not overclocked at all too and I just added 2 new Thermaltake fans attached to my CoolerMaster passive Xeon Nocona coolers and they keep my Xeons at 53-55C now under full load (both CPUs with 100% utilitization).

It's weird.Again, I really don't have problems with my computer, it's just that this bugs me.

Since I have NCCH-DL mobo, the only way to correctly check temps from Windows is to use their ASUS ASWM utility and it works ok..but this is something weird. I notice that from time to time (based on this utility) Page Fault Per Second under memory view goes through the roof and ASWM app reports this as Critical..I have no idea what this is, and again it happens every once in a while (maybe every few minutes I see it goes to critical, then it goes back to normal)..can someone enlighten me what Page Fault Per Second does and if this might have an influnce on memtest86 error reports.

Is it possible that this has something to do with Voltage for DRAM? I might actually try to take DRAM Voltage to 2.8 too see what happens, but my memory is actually rated at 2.6V.

Thanks for responses guys.

Try increasing your memory timings (RAS, CAS, etc).