Random crashes with Corsair, cheaper works fine...?

[brgr88]

I just bought a new machine:
Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe
AMD FX-55 CPU
Corsair PC3200 512Mx2
BFG GeForce 7600 GT OC

I dumped my old hard drive into the new box, loaded the drivers & it seemed to be working fine, but after about 30seconds playing a game it shut down hard & kept doing so when I'd reboot. After awhile, I got the "start in safe mode?" prompt, then it wouldn't start at all, just keep rebooting.

So I wiped the hard drive and put in my Windows XP install CD (SP1, from 2002), and couldn't get past the license agreement when the same thing would happen -- I couldn't even re-install the OS!

I took the Corsair RAM out, put in some old, generic (Samsung chips) 333 RAM, and lo and behold, everything is fine, I installed XP, trouble-free, I haven't run any games yet (this was only a couple mins. ago), but I couldn't even get this far before.

This Corsair RAM cost $140 & I figured it was top of the line. Is there anything special I should do or just chuck it and go generic? I've reset my BIOS to defaults, though I never messed with OCing anything anyway, but I'd rather have PC3200 in there.

THanks.

 

[brgr88]

Okay, let me add, I just tried to do Windows Update and about 90% of the way through, it shut down again.... :-( still farther than with the other memory though....

 

[htoon]

Okay, let me add, I just tried to do Windows Update and about 90% of the way through, it shut down again.... :-( still farther than with the other memory though....

Hello

do you have updated bios version. do you supply enough power to the system.

let me know if that helps.

 

[sailer]

Why does this look familiar? Oh yes, it happened to my machine. I think you eliminated the ram sticks as the cause, as crashes still occur. Try pulling the video card and any other periferals one at a time and see if the crashes stop. If the video card looks suspect, try it in the other PCI-E slot and see what happens. If still the crashes occur, then its probably the motherboard.

I have the same model motherboard and I went through what's happening to you. Followed all the suggestions from the factory tech's, which I just told you to try, and finally the tech admitted there was a motherboard problem and to RMA it. As for the Corsair sticks verses the generic ram, the generic is slower in timings so it probably didn't stress out the board until later. You might try testing the Corsair sticks, one at a time, in someone else's machine to verify whether they are good or bad. I may be wrong, but I think you have a motherboard problem.

One last thing I can think of is to check the tempts of the board, the video card and the CPU in case there is an overheat problem. That's probably not your problem, but it never hurts to check.

 

[brgr88]

I switched the vidcard into PCI-e slot two, and oddly enough, it seemed to run a bit more stably, but it was just like the RAM, after awhile, it bombed again. But it did stay up long enough to d/l all the XP SP2 & other updates, etc..., plus, I'd put the Corsair RAM back in and it didn't seem to get worse.

Stayed up for awhile, then, after all the drivers & updates I'd installed, the onboard sound stopped working! I then went to download something else, started the d/l, went to get some food & when I got back home, it was off again... grr

 

[bmouring]

My suggestion:

Strip the system to the bare minimum (PS, Mobo, RAM, CPU/HS, Video in the case).

Get ahold of some bootable tester (a great one is the Ultimate Boot CD, lotsa great tools/testers/etc. here)

Boot it and run one or more stress tests (Lucifer, Memtest86+, one of the Mersenne Prime crunchers to name a few) for a few hours to a full day, basically try to determine what the weak link is.

If nothing breaks at that point, hook up the hdd's and use some tool to check the SMART stats of the disk(s) (some tools are included on the UBCD)

If the hdd's look good, look at BIOS updates / drivers / other low-level software.

If this still doesn't help, I dunno. Google the mobo + a part (video card, memory maker, etc) to check for compatibility issues.

 

[brgr88]

Thanks to all who replied & helped out. I took the ASUS back to the store & got an MSI K8N Diamond Plus instead, and I have no problems now, been up & running, played CoD & CoD2 for about 1hr+ each w/ no crashes, etc.

I'm sure I just happened to get a lousy board outta the box, but I didn't want to take any chances so I switched to a different brand altogether.

When I think back, maybe the only possible thing I could've done wrong is there is a 4pin molex like for the back of a HDD right on the mobo that said it was for xtra PCI-e power that I never hooked up, but the manual said I didn't need to unless I was in SLI. Looking back, I probably should've tried it, esp. since the MSI docs. say to hook it up regardless of if you're in SLI or single. It wouldn't've been the first time a mobo manual lied to me.... ;^)

So I guess the Corsairs are fine after all, which is good, cuz I'll prolly head back & add some more for grins & Gig-gles (pardon the pun!)