Need help with stability

[SunMaze]

Hi everyone, this is my first time posting, and also my first time building a new system. My spec is as follow:
mobo: Gigabyte GA-P35-DS4 Rev. 2.0
CPU: Intel Q6600
PSU: PC power & cooling silencer 610W (i know it's overkill but it was on sale)
RAM: Patriot 4GB kit (2X2GB) DDR2 PC6400
GPU: Evga 8800GT
HDD: WD Raptor 150GB, Seagate Barracuda 7200 320GB
DVD: Asus 20X
OS: MS XP pro 64bit

I'll start from the beginning. At first the mobo gave me a long beep which indicate the GPU wasn't installed properly, and I had no screen. After discussing with a friend of mine I solved the problem with plugging the GPU power supply from the PSU.

Now I'm in windows, but Nvidia sentinel gave me a warning that says the GPU isn't getting enough power and that it's performance is scaling down to compensate that. After some discussion with the Evga tech support, trying uninstalling the driver in safe mode and reinstall, he concluded that it was a defective card so I got an replacement.

The replacement had the exact same problem. I then reinstalled windows which seems to solve the Nvidia sentinel from coming out, however, the card's performance is more or less the same as when it was getting scaled down. Normal window use was fine, but games were unplayable. The card would function normally about 1/5 to 1/10 of the reboot, so I was just rebooting over and over until I get a working system.

At this point I also have a little HDD problem. I use the raptor as my system drive, and it would slow down from times to times, to a 0.5fps kind of speed, my mouse would stop mid air, goes to the next place 1 sec later, then stop there and again 1 sec or so later.

After some more discussion with the Evga tech, I asked him if it's possible that my psu, mobo or ram was defective, instead of the GPU. He first suggested to get a program to check the temp of the GPU, it was normal temp but after I install the program I couldn't get the card to work over 20+ reboot. So I uninstall the program and asked him if it's possible that my other component was defective, not the GPU. He then suggested to remove one RAM and see if that solve the problem. Indeed it solved my problem of unstable GPU. The HDD problem occurs less but it still happens occasionally.

I've tried using the other two slot for a dual channel mode, but it was still unstable. So I was wondering if anyone can help me fix this problem, or is my build stuck with one stick of RAM?

Thanks.

I mainly have problem with my GPU and HDD, but after emailing with the Evga tech support and taking out one of the 2 RAM it seemed to solve the problem, which lead me to believe that RAM was the cause. I was wondering if there's a way to config the bio so that i can use both RAM instead of 1 stably?

 

[pogsnet]

Try using it as single channel

 

[godless]

try running the MEMTEST86 on the ram. also try only one stick at a time to see if the problem lies in both of the sticks, or just one. also i would try different slots on the mobo.

 

[eagles453809]

sounds like a defective mobo

 

[SunMaze]

Thanks for the reply, sorry guess I wasn't clear with my original post.

Right now I have one stick in it and it's been working fine, the lottery reboot was no longer needed with only one stick, I was wondering if it's a config issue that I could fix in order to get it to work with duel channel.

To pogsnet: did you meant to try 2 sticks in single channel mode?

To godless: I tried using both sets of slots for duel channel and both sets had the problem, however I just took off the second stick so it's possible that the second stick was defective. Could you explain more on MEMTEST86?

To eagles: you really think so? That's what I'm afraid of cause it's a pain to take everything off and put it back on another mobo. Everything else seems to be working fine, just the video card, and it's normal if i use only 1 stick instead of 2 in dual channel.

Thanks.

 

[godless]

well i sounds like you have a bad ram stick, since the system is stable with one stick. did you try the other stick just by itself? see if it also causes problems.

memtest86 is a test that you perform on the ram to see if there are errors. if errors occur on the ram eachtime you run it, it usually means that the ram is bad. you can download it for free from http://www.memtest.org/ . just burn it on a cd if you don't have a floppy. i would try it on each stick and two sticks at the same time. but by the sound of things you have one bad ram stick.

 

[SunMaze]

Thanks a lot godless. Unfortunately I won't have access to my comp till the weekend, I'll try it out and let you know if I have more question

 

[SunMaze]

Just an update that the second ram stick was indeed defective, I put it back in by itself and the same problem came right back.

Thanks everyone again for the help.

 

[SunMaze]

Hi sorry I'm back again. After explaining my situation to a Patriot tech support, he asked for the part number and the timing/voltage set for the RAM. I replied that I uses the default setting and the fact that using the same slot testing both sticks, one gave a problem free environment while the other has problem. But he continued to tell me that I need to change the setting myself cause not all board recognize them in the initial boot, and I would need to contact my mobo company for steps of doing it. While all this time I'm saying I believe the RAM was defective, he did not comment in that regard.

I'd like to know if what he says is possible before I use a harsher tone in my emails. Thanks.