Core2Quad Q6600 on MSI 975X PowerUp Edition with 4*1G Ram on Vista64

[narcis79]

Hello. I have a problem that is bugging me for about one month.
I have this configuration with an Intel Core2Quad Q6600 on a MSI 975X PowerUp Edition mainboard, with 4G Ram memory from Kingmax (4x1G DDRII 800 MHz) <The mainboard has the latest bios version 7.7>. I am running on Windows Vista x64 OS and I always get a blue screen after a nonequal period of time. I have remarked that usually it happens when running a media file (e.g. movie, DVD, play mp3) and downloading something from the internet. If I only do one type of operation at a time nothing happens, but if I do both types in the same time... in crashes. I can't figure out what may be the problem I've ran 32 memtests (one with v1.70 and one with v3.4) on each memory on each slot (4 memories x 4 slots) and got no errors. Of course than I ran one single test with both versions of memtest with the full 4G installed and got a lot of errors only on test 8 of them (regardless of the relevancy of 4G on a memtest that is on 32bit).
I also gave a memory test from the Windows Vista x64 DVD and the system hangs at 37% for hours. I checked the HDD and has no problem.... Now I don't know what else to test anymore in order to see what may be the problem. Is it somehow a problem from the processor?, any incompatibility in the system?
I saw that when making the regular updates for windows, on one particular update the system crashes giving me the same BSOD that bugs me (note thet the system does this problem imediatly after a clean install with no updates, and after the updates are installed)
I've installed windows about 5 or 6 times on this configuration. Not once crashed or hanged during installation and in windows... in applications, never hanges or crashes into the same applications... they work just fine... only when I am using some media and downloading.... it happens at a total random time between a few minutes and even one hour. Sometimes if I am lucky I watch an entire movie while downloading and nothing happens... I just don't get it.
Ah.. and when I get BSODs it never is the same error. Or it's a memory adress (stop error 0x0029940<random at adress 0x41625753<random), or it's a win32.sys, or it's a ntfs.sys, or some other file stored in windows directory.

Please tell me what should I try? any DOS or Windows programs that may stress the CPU in order to see if it's OK please just help me somehow, any ideea will be good.
I wonder if anyone from MSI could give me a hint or at least tell me about a software they use currently in order to debug a MB problem (if t's possible to do so).
Thanks

 

[cfvh600]

what is the spec on your psu?graphics card? You shouldn't be getting any errors when running memtest.

 

[Scotteq]

Some motherboards have issues driving 4 DIMMS at once.

Try bumping the voltage to your DIMMS a notch, and see does that help. You may need to loosen your timings, or possibly even downclock a speed in order to get 4 DIMMS to run stably.

 

[leo2kp]

Hm, could be virtually anything. I would try re-seating processor, another processor, and another set of RAM. You could try using SiSoftware's Sandra for CPU and RAM multi-media tests, Prime95 for processor and RAM testing (mostly with math calculations), and 3DMark05/06 for multimedia too. Neither test will look at your sound card. You could have any number of conflicts with hardware too, so try another video card, disable your sound card and NIC, try another sound card or NIC, and even try another PSU. It's possible that it could be either PSU fluctuations or a voltage regulator problem on the motherboard trying to regulate power to all 4 slots at the same time.

The point is to use process of elimination. Good luck with that

*edit*
Yup Scotteq is right, try his suggestion too =D

 

[Jim_L9]

It sounds like a memory controller problem on the MB. Do the memtest errors always happen at the same addresses? I had a similar issue a couple of years ago with an NF4 MB.

 

[narcis79]

Those errors occur in the same place but let's be honest it's a 32 bit memtest on 4G at once, so I guess it's pretty normal, while each memory was tested OK. Check this out what happend to me while I read about this problem on Microsoft Tech forums:

http://forums.microsoft.com/technet/showpost.aspx?postid=2515776&siteid=17&mode=16&sb=0&d=1&at=7&ft=11&tf=0&pageid=0


I made a clean Install again...At first I installed the updates one by one (took me 2 hours with restart after each and every one) <the reason I did that was that a few days ago windows "BSOD'ed" me right during an update install and on the next start after BSOD. afterwards there were o problems>. Then I installed the drivers (chipset, audio, vga... and so on) 'Till here no problem whatsoever (not even one BSOD, not even on installing updates) and then I started putting the software I usually put and worked fine 'till i got to a group of 3 softwares I installed. I gave a restart and started with first one (ACD SEE photo manager - no restart required, Adobe Reader 8.1 - no restart required, Nero 8.1.1.4 <only Nero Burning ROM and Nero Cover Designer were installer from the package> - restart required) Guess what? I gave that restart ad during startup, it hanged for about one minute from welcome 'till the Windows Side Bar opened (probably because there were a lot in StartUp Registry) and after 2 seconds, out of the blue..... BSOD just when I was happy that everything worked smooth.<I went to sleep from here> The next morning I opened the computer, boots normally and after a few minutes I try downloading Windows Mobile Center.... and the next second the doenload starts.. BSOD.

Now I wonder what made all go crazy like this? is it possible to be Nero? having a conflict with a driver or so?, or Adobe Reader? why did it happen after I installed this softwares?


It seems definitly a software conflict problem. because I have no other problems in the system, it works smoooth in each and every application, and fast also.

As a response to other responses I got:

I arranged the CPU about 3 times since then, the problem persisted
My PSU is an Allied 500W and I measured all the voltages and nothing out of the ordinary, the power is stable after the PSU and before it. The Computer stays on a 1000VA UPS and I have no voltage fluctuations. so this is out of discussion....

I will try these 2 things and keep you posted
-downclock memory from 800 MHz to 667 MHz (although it is supposed to be at 800 while fsb is at 1066)
-install a Vista x32bit even though I lose bout 800M RAM and tell you later if in 32 bits runs smooth with only 3,2G RAM

 

[Scotteq]

Also - Check and install KB929777, if you haven't done so. You'll need to remove 2GB, do the install and required reboot. The reinstall the other 2GB later.

 

[narcis79]

I am Tired of this KB929777 Update. It's no use with it.with or without 2G . Tried both of them and it hasn't done anything good to me. I installed Vista 32bit and got the same problem of BSOD only when I was editing a movie, actuallt making a DVD in Sony DVD Architect. That was the only program that made me a lot of problems. Seeiong that I got down the memory speed from 800 to 667 and solved the problem. With this speed I actually saw with my own eyes when the system was supposed to give me a blue screen but didn't. The video playback just either runned nuked for about 30 seconds either froze the image for about 5 seconds and afterwards... it turned back to normal, so it must be a CPU-FSB Memory Clock ratio problem. I guess I'l try to raise the memory voltage a little bit in order to see if it will become stable but... as I said before... this problem is regardless of the type of OS (32 or 64) and also no change with that KB929777 update (32 or 64) <for me, maybe for other people it helped>. It's just a hardware problem, a freaking incompatibility between the FSB (266)x9 multiplier and the memory clock speed (800) 400x2... There must be a stable ratio, an fixed ratio number.

 

[Phenium 4 FX]

Do you have the same problem with windows xp?

 

[narcis79]

I don't know about XP but I am not returning to XP since I bought this Vista x64 .
So let me tell you what I did Just raised the memory voltage from 1,8V to 1,9V in BIOS and the system got stable in Vista x64 no more blue screens, just the way it was ment to be.