Cutting power fixes my memory errors?

[Viper5030]

First of all, I just wanted to comment on how helpful this forum has been for me in the past. You guys really know your stuff!

Yesterday my computer restarted unexpectedly while it was just sitting on Windows desktop without anything open. I left the computer at my boot screen overnight cuz I was too tired to worry about it then. This morning when I tried to boot into Windows again, it threw a BSOD with ecache.sys as the culprit. I immediately threw in Memtest86+ to see if it would catch any errors. The result: it caught over 100 errors in about 1 sec. beofore it crashed. I fooled around with the voltage a bit and was able to run the test without it crashing, but no matter what the voltage or frequency I set my DIMMs at, I kept on getting hundreds of errors instantly every time.

Then all the sudden it occured to me to try turning the computer off and back on to see what that would achieve. Whoolla! The tests ran straight through without a single error!

So my question is: why? It looks like the computer has a hard time refreshing its RAM. Is it a sign of faulty RAM or even MoBo? I'm using some newly purchased 4Gb of RAM (Crucial Ballistix PC2-6400) on a fairly old EPoX motherboard (EP-MF570 SLI) that supports memory remapping. The 4 DIMMs have been running fine for the past couple of weeks. Now that turned off and on my computer, they seem to be working fine again.

Any ideas or suggestions are welcome. Thanks!

 

[Viper5030]

Aw, c'mon. No comments?!?! Well, as an update, the problem has become more frequent. The computer will blue screen unexpectedly and memory will have errors until I turn the computer on and then off. Then, I can run memtest 86+ overnight without any errors. But after being in Windows for a while, it will eventually catch another error and the cycle repeats.

The funny thing is that it has NEVER occurred while I was playing a game (which I do a lot). It mostly happens while either idling or surfing the web. Prefetch sometimes crashes first as a sign of trouble.

 

[gamerk316]

You have a bad stick of RAM. RMA it and get a new one. Nothing you do can fix the RAM you currently have,

 

[Proximon]

This is not making much sense to me.

How did you run memtest and change voltages without restarting your computer? Your BIOS should take care of refreshing the RAM at restart

Ok, so what you are actually saying is you completely powered down for several seconds and then started up and the problem was solved.... is it still solved?

If I had to give a wild guess, I would say your PSU was putting out some very unregulated voltage.

 

[Viper5030]

How did you run memtest and change voltages without restarting your computer? Your BIOS should take care of refreshing the RAM at restart

Sorry, I should have clarified. I restarted my computer in order to run memtest. Yes, the RAM should have refreshed at start, which is why I was very concerned and suprised that it apparently didn't, or else why the exact same errors (same memory address) every time until I actually power down my computer?

You have a bad stick of RAM. RMA it and get a new one. Nothing you do can fix the RAM you currently have,

Don't jump to any conclusions. I have separated the 4 sticks into pairs and have been running each pair on separate computers for a few days now. I haven't had ANY problems. I'm thinking the problem lies with my mobo and maybe, as Proximon said, a problem with its power management when using 4 GB. Not from PSU side, but from mobo.

Anyone else ever experience this sort of behavior? If not, it's fine. I won't post anymore unless anyone has any more ideas. Thanks for your help!