Random BSOD's :(

Man of Honour
Joined
15 Mar 2004
Posts
28,140
Location
Liverpool
I keep getting random BSOD's which don't appear to be related to anything specific I can be doing on the computer.

The latest error message I get is:

0X0000008E (0XC0000006, 0X805EF4AI, 0XB0F2FBA4, 0X0000000).

My RAM is just over a year old and is high quality OCZ stuff. I recently upgraded to an AMD X2 6000+, which doesn't appear to be recognised in the BIOS or e.g. Everest. But it does appear as a an AM2 chip running at 3.0Ghz.
 
As has been suggested, reseat the modules, reset your bios to fail-safe defaults and see if that helps. In addition, I'd run some tests, e.g. with MemTest86 or Orthos. In Orthos, run the Mixed CPU+RAM stress test and see if that fails. If it fails, you might try upping the DRAM voltage ever so slighty and try again. (I've seen cases where perfectly good RAM would actually not 100% reliably at stock on a given mobo while it was put under stress. The problem went away when the DIMM voltage was increased marginally.) If it still fails your memory might be duff.
 
Hmm...ran it for around 40 minutes and not a single crash. lol my computer sucks, if I play a dvd and I've got company, my computer crashes, otherwise it doesn't.

I think I'm going to wait until a new bit of hardware arrives, install that, re-seat my ram and cpu+cooler, and then reinstall windows.

But anyhow's BUMPY!
 
Ok, I have just run Orthos and :

More than one CPU detected.
You should run two copies of SP2004 simultaneously.
Type: Blend - stress CPU and RAM Min: 8 Max: 4096 InPlace: No Mem: 1790 Time: 15
CPU: 3014MHz FSB: 200MHz [200MHz x 15.0 est.]
CPU: 3013MHz FSB: 200MHz [200MHz x 15.0 est.]
14/08/2007 08:41 Beginning a continuous self-test to check your computer.
Press Stop to end this test.
Test 1, 4000 Lucas-Lehmer iterations of M19922945 using 1024K FFT length.
Test 2, 4000 Lucas-Lehmer iterations of M19922943 using 1024K FFT length.
Test 3, 4000 Lucas-Lehmer iterations of M19374367 using 1024K FFT length.
FATAL ERROR: Rounding was 0.5, expected less than 0.4
Hardware failure detected, consult stress.txt file.
Torture Test ran 6 minutes 44 seconds - 1 errors, 0 warnings.
Execution halted.

Where is stress.txt lol?
 
I think it's not called stress.txt anymore, instead splog.txt or whatever, in the folder where orthos is located. Anyway, now repeat that test, but run it focussing on the CPU only (the topmost test type.)

My bet is that it will keep running/pass.

If it does, then everything points to slight memory instability. If so, as mentioned before, I'd try upping the DIMM voltage marginally, by say 0.1 or 0.2 volts. Then re-run the blended CPU+RAM test and see if it now is stabler for longer/stable.
 
What type of RAM (and size) have you got by the way? And what motherboard? What's the RAM currently running at (voltage wise?) And speed wise? Mostly all of this you should be able to get from the BIOS and/or a Pc info program (like Sisoft sandra)
 
Hi :

Asus M2N-E with a AMD AM2 6000+, with PC5400 2GB Matched OCZ Ram. I have just run a CPU only test for a few hours and no errors have come up.

I have just turned on to look at the voltages from windows using AI booster (from Asus) and have realised that my CPU (Upgraded from a 4600+) is now running at 1000Mhz...I think my RAM is fine, I just need faster modules don't I?
 
cpuzfq7.jpg
 
Well everything seems ok. The RAM is PC5300 (DDR2 667) and is running at that speed approx. The CPU is running at 3.0Ghz. But, for some reason, as was proved by the Orthos tests, your RAM is not running stably. As I say, I've seen this before, and in that case, a marginal increase in VDIMM voltage completely solved the instability issues. Sometimes the motherboard defaults to a voltage (e.g. 1.9V say) whereas the memory sticks require more (e.g. 2.1V say.) I'd therefore still suggest you try increasing the VDIMM voltage slightly before you start replacing anything.

Edit: Or if you don't want to mess with the voltage, then loosen the timings slightly to give the RAM more headroom. Aside: It looks like your RAM wants 1.9V (can go up to 2.2V) and that your mainboard supports DIMM voltage from 1.8V - 1.95V. See e.g. http://dlsvr03.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/socketAM2/M2N-E/e2630_m2n-e_manual.pdf page 80 (marked as 4-20) and this thread here: http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=26943
 
Last edited:
ByteJuggler said:
Well everything seems ok. The RAM is PC5300 (DDR2 667) and is running at that speed approx. The CPU is running at 3.0Ghz. But, for some reason, as was proved by the Orthos tests, your RAM is not running stably. As I say, I've seen this before, and in that case, a marginal increase in VDIMM voltage completely solved the instability issues. Sometimes the motherboard defaults to a voltage (e.g. 1.9V say) whereas the memory sticks require more (e.g. 2.1V say.) I'd therefore still suggest you try increasing the VDIMM voltage slightly before you start replacing anything.

Edit: Or if you don't want to mess with the voltage, then loosen the timings slightly to give the RAM more headroom. Aside: It looks like your RAM wants 1.9V (can go up to 2.2V) and that your mainboard supports DIMM voltage from 1.8V - 1.95V. See e.g. http://dlsvr03.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/socketAM2/M2N-E/e2630_m2n-e_manual.pdf page 80 (marked as 4-20) and this thread here: http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=26943

You're spot on, I looked in the bios and in Asus' own program (AI Booster) and the voltages were too low, 1.8V, I increased them to (1.85, and now to 1.9V) and I've not had a crash in over 24 hours.

Thank you kind sir you've been most informative :)
 
Last edited:
Back
Top Bottom