RAM Issues

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

Specs: Pentium 4 3.0Ghz / Windows XP SP2 / ATI Radeon 9800 Pro / 2 Kingston
DDR 512mb on an ASRock P4V88 Motherboard
All drivers and BIOS are up to date and no viruses or spyware are detected.
Problem:
It started out with random reboots while playing games like Doom3, but then
also during other applications, burning DVDs, surfing the net, etc. I then
dissabled the "reboot function" in Windows and now I get the BSOD: STOP
0x000000A... IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL I'm thinking it's RAM because:
When I run memory diagnostic tools I always get errors: In Windows Memory
Diagnostics I keep getting errors in the "LRAND" and "ERAND" tests and in
Memtest86 I get errors in test #7(random number sequence) and in the Windows
based Memtest I get an average of 8 errors at 100% pass.
I have also tried other new memory sticks and switching them around, but
they keep failing the same tests.
This is a new PC, about 6months old, everything else seems to be running ok

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated,


--
just browsing...

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

Sorry, hit Post too soon. How do you know the other sticks are good? If
it's a consistent with known good RAM - then I'd suspect the motherboard.

"Mirox" wrote:

> Specs: Pentium 4 3.0Ghz / Windows XP SP2 / ATI Radeon 9800 Pro / 2 Kingston
> DDR 512mb on an ASRock P4V88 Motherboard
> All drivers and BIOS are up to date and no viruses or spyware are detected.
> Problem:
> It started out with random reboots while playing games like Doom3, but then
> also during other applications, burning DVDs, surfing the net, etc. I then
> dissabled the "reboot function" in Windows and now I get the BSOD: STOP
> 0x000000A... IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL I'm thinking it's RAM because:
> When I run memory diagnostic tools I always get errors: In Windows Memory
> Diagnostics I keep getting errors in the "LRAND" and "ERAND" tests and in
> Memtest86 I get errors in test #7(random number sequence) and in the Windows
> based Memtest I get an average of 8 errors at 100% pass.
> I have also tried other new memory sticks and switching them around, but
> they keep failing the same tests.
> This is a new PC, about 6months old, everything else seems to be running ok
>
> Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated,
>
>
> --
> just browsing...

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

I think Frodo is right, I have a Kingston an Ultra and a Rosewill all DDR
512mb, thing is they are all new sticks and even when I use just one I get
the same errors. Funy thing is I haven't had the BSOD in a while now, I even
ran a bunch of applications in the background while playing Doom 3 for about
an hour and it worked just fine. Pretty damn strange if you ask me, because
if Memtest is reporting these errors, why don't I BSOD while using so much or
all of my RAM???
--
just browsing...


"frodo@theshire.org" wrote:

> check bios and make sure mem timing is set right - sometimes they don't
> detect the chip's specs correctly. disable any turbo modes. try bumping
> up the ram voltage, 2.7 is not too much. You could try to manually back
> off on the timings to see if you can get it to pass.
>
> check a forum that has users of your motherboard - they may have good
> tips.
>
> if memtest86+ says it's failing, then you can count on it. as stated, try
> moving the sticks around to different slots to see if that fixes it. at
> least it may help you determine which stick it is (error address moves w/
> the stick).
>
> Sometimes, a particular brand of stick just doesn't work right in a
> particular motherboard, when it works just fine in someone else's
> motherboard. If you do replace a stick, I would try a different brand
> (unless its under warentee, then get them to replace it).
> corsair and crucial are pretty rock solid brands.
>
> Once it's working, I would (perhaps) not trust your install. A ram error
> could have resulted in a bad write to disk, and it's possible that some
> system file is now bad on disk. So, consider a clean install.
>
>