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Inconsistent errors in Memtest86+

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Sage2050

Member
Joined
Apr 8, 2005
Location
PA
Abit IP35-Pro
E8400 @ stock
Corsair HX520W
4x1gb Corsair Ballistix 5-5-5-12
EVGA nVidia 8800GT 512

my build is like 4 years old now.

anyway I started getting blue screens recently so i run memtest and, unsurprisingly, i get a list of errors. in an attempt to isolate the problem, i run each stick in each DIMM, yet memtest returns no errors. i put all the sticks back in, in the same order, and run memtest again and it passes clean.

this has actually happened before, and after all my attempts at a diagnosis i'd end up just sticking all my sticks back in and my pc will be fine for a few months, then it happens again. I've RMA'd the ram several times and the problem persists. at this point i'm thinking its a motherboard issue, but i can't RMA the board since abit went under =/
 
Have good airflow? It might be overheating (or it might not, and you might just have a very flexible board), and the expansion/contraction over time may be causing a module to lose connection, causing the errors until it is re-seated.
 
hm well some of my case fans have died recently (probably dust, i really need to clean them) so that's plausible.
 
Could be a motherboard issue. Maybe the northbridge is unhappy with multiple DIMM slots populated. 4x1GB means more work for the memory controller.

You could try a 2x2GB set, or you could also try loosening up the timings on the RAM. If Memtest says something is wrong, something's probably wrong.
 
It could also be bad caps, pretty likely as it is getting older and they can go bad slowly, over time. Check for any that are slightly bulged or discolored on the ends. They may not be to difficult to replace if you find some. Had a Magnovox flat screen TV that used cheap Chinese caps to save a few cents, replaced 6 and baked the board and all was well.
 
It could also be bad caps, pretty likely as it is getting older and they can go bad slowly, over time. Check for any that are slightly bulged or discolored on the ends. They may not be to difficult to replace if you find some. Had a Magnovox flat screen TV that used cheap Chinese caps to save a few cents, replaced 6 and baked the board and all was well.
I'd be surprised... Abit made pretty high quality stuff. Certainly never hurts to check!
 
Could be a motherboard issue. Maybe the northbridge is unhappy with multiple DIMM slots populated. 4x1GB means more work for the memory controller.

You could try a 2x2GB set, or you could also try loosening up the timings on the RAM. If Memtest says something is wrong, something's probably wrong.

this is probably what's up. i've never had any issue running 3x1gb, only 4.
 
did some more tests, it seems like the problem might be with DIMM 2 in particular.
 
I don't think the capacitors are a problem with that model motherboard because photos I've seen indicate it's made entirely with solid polymer capacitors, which seem to fail far, far less often than wet electroltytic capacitors do.

OTOH Ballistix memory is famous for being unreliable and failing, especially the older ones rated for 2.2V. If I had any bad Ballistix, I'd try to get Crucial to replace them with regular PC6400 DDR2 modules that have no heatsinks on them and that are rated for 1.8V, even if they were slower.

Also EVGA used to sell graphics cards with bad capacitors in packaging that made them look like solid polymers, but they were actually conventional wet ones. If you looked closely, you could see fine vent slits on top confirming this, and the caps would eventually pop (EVGA FX5200 card):

2461471181_352c511a5a_o.jpg

EVGA later changed to conventional-looking Sam Young brand wet caps that were better but still not good enough (different EVGA card, with high quality replacement Sanyo caps installed where the Sam Youngs in back originally sat):

4545256598_e1725ee45a_o.jpg
 
I've found memtest86+ to not find errors that other programs will find, try memtest, or to a lesser degree because they involve a lot of CPU Prime95, LinX.
 
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