IS MY RAM BAD?

[hotsella]

I built my own Pc from scratch

AMD +5200 DC 64x2
Power supply 680 watt apevia
WD 320g HD
MSI K9A Platinum Mobo
1 gig stick Ram gskill DDR2 800
Windows xp Home

Well ym pc was working fine for about 4 weeks then al of a sudden I started getting restarts. I try to click on an application pc would restart. So I turned the option off to restart on errors. then i started to get the BSOD. with lots of differnt errors everytime one being MEMORY MANAGEMENT.....IRQL something Not equal or less then.

So i restarted my pc partioned the whole cdrive and reinstaled windows. during the windows in stall the PC errors and restarts in the middle of Windows install. I can get on sometimes for 1 min or 5 min but it always crashes. Im thinking its the ram. I cant even run mem test or anyother test casue it will error like a min into the scan.

Somebody please help

 

[utaka95]

Can you borrow a stick from someone or another machine to make sure it's the ram? It sounds like the classic "bad" ramstick. RMA time.

 

[hotsella]

Well i think im gonna got to comp usa to day and get agig to test out if it works fine ill order 2 gigs from new egg.


And no this PC im on now is 184pin and no one i know has a newer PC then mine. I need 240 pin ram

 

[hotsella]

Ill get on WOW and play for like 2 mins then I get access Violation wow crash then PC goes Blue

 

[mike99]

You didn't give video card? That PSU does not have a good reputation! Did Memtest fail the test, or did system crash? If you have a high power video card, PSU would be likely cause of problem. Cheap PSU is unstable and can damage other parts! If Memtest gave memory error, is faulty memory.

Mike.

 

[speed4life]

You should always run Memtest86+ right after you are done with your build to make sure the ram isn't defective. I usually run 2 complete tests at the rated specs. If I get any failures then I check the BIOS settings and run it again. If it fails then I RMA the ram.

Will save you some headaches down the road.

 

[hotsella]

my Vid is Raedeon 1300 256mb. Ive spent a week on this PC trying to work with BIOS and installing and unintalling Windows. Changing different stuff in BIOS and same thing happens. Would Bad PSU give Memory Error and IRQL error? Everything worked fine untill a week ago then started to get random shut downs and the BSOD errors.

 

[night_wolf_in]

You should always run Memtest86+ right after you are done with your build to make sure the ram isn't defective. I usually run 2 complete tests at the rated specs. If I get any failures then I check the BIOS settings and run it again. If it fails then I RMA the ram.

Will save you some headaches down the road.

he said it pretty well, just use MemTest86+ it will help u to know if u have any issiues with ur ram.

 

[hotsella]

well thats the problem i cant even run memtest windows will error like a min into it and I will never get to finish it. Its just very random errors some times it will error right after I load onto windows. So Its very random But it will never let me finish anything important. LOL as if it knows what i am doing.

 

[hotsella]

Dont know if its worth anything but I can leave it in BIOS all day without errors but hay Im a nooblet at this so dunno if its worth anything

 

[billdcat4]

Dont know if its worth anything but I can leave it in BIOS all day without errors but hay Im a nooblet at this so dunno if its worth anything

memtest is meant to be run before windows loads. You are supposed to boot from the disc.

If you do not get any errors after running it overnight then your ram is ok.

It would then probably be your PSU, for a cheap and reliable replacement get the FSP AX450: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817104954

Your PSU is not very reliable, and thus can easily be blamed or the issue. A dying msu can make it seem as if all of the other parts in the pc are the cause.

 

[Mondoman]

As bdc said, memtest86+ (not to be confused with "memtest") is a standalone program that runs from its own boot floppy or boot cd. You can download it for free as either a boot floppy image or a bootable CD image.
Once you have it, boot with it and let it run through at least a couple of complete cycles (this should take some hours). If no errors are shown, you may have a problem with some other component, such as the hard disk or video card.

 

[billdcat4]

As bdc said, memtest86+ (not to be confused with "memtest") is a standalone program that runs from its own boot floppy or boot cd. You can download it for free as either a boot floppy image or a bootable CD image.
Once you have it, boot with it and let it run through at least a couple of complete cycles (this should take some hours). If no errors are shown, you may have a problem with some other component, such as the hard disk or video card.

bdc? now ive got an acronym?

 

[Mondoman]

mm doesn't like to type long names - bdc should be happy he got 3 letters.

 

[arcace]

In addition to everything thats been said already, I would check your ram voltage. In the past I ran a set of GEIL memory. I wasn't aware of this but the board wasn't detecting the voltage correctly and set it to the default for DDR. The GEIL memory required about .7 volts more and this caused a lot of problems. I don't know what the voltage on GSKILL memory is supposed to be but that would be one of the first things I'd check.

 

[hotsella]

well the voltage is 1.9 to 2.0 It was and has always been at 1.9. I have tried thru Bios to change it alittle higher and I cant change that option. So I dont know if I have the option to change it.

 

[Jaer]

the memory management problem is solvable via a windows patch.

although I have gskill as well, and I have issues with WoW. I've ran memtest and it's fine. I'm going to run it over night tonight and see what happens.

 

[Mondoman]

...In the past I ran a set of GEIL memory. I wasn't aware of this but the board wasn't detecting the voltage correctly and set it to the default for DDR. The GEIL memory required about .7 volts more and this caused a lot of problems....

Your board set the voltage correctly, as there is only one standard DDR2 voltage - 1.8V +/- 0.1V. Any DDR2 memory that doesn't work at that voltage is by definition defective and can be returned for warranty replacement. Note that I don't say the RAM will run at its advertised speed/latency at DDR2 standard voltage; that's because many manufacturers today advertise RAM according to factory-sanctioned overclock settings, not the settings it will support at standard DDR2 voltage.

 

[grieve]

Do you ever see any distortion on your display? Vid card overheating?...check that.

This is exactly what happened to my old PC. I replaced the heatsynch/Fan on the VID card with a way stronger one and then i could run for 30mins !

 

[hotsella]

I guess im left with the option to give it to Comp USA tech service and let them hold it for a few days and fix cause im about to kill it. cost 180 buck O Roneys to get it fix.

My Idead was to get a gig of ram from them see if that fixes the issue and if so take it back and send this ram back and get 2 gigs Duel Channel. if Cosiar "Spelling"