Computer keeps crashing:(

Stupot_ · 6 Nov 2010 at 13:43

I can't narrow it down to a specific task but every half an hour or so my everything freezes. If I'm playing music at the time it will continue for about 30s then it goes on loop, then about 5 secs after that it shuts down. On reboot I get a 'windows recovered from an unexpected error message'

It's not overheating, and I'm not doing anything specific each time it happens, any idea what steps I should take to find out what the problem is?

Ta

Skilid · 6 Nov 2010 at 14:02

I had something similar turned out to be that I hadn't set up my memory timings or voltages correctly. I'd do a Memtest personally.

Stupot_ · 6 Nov 2010 at 16:13

Thanks cripple, I've run memtest now and its flagged up a load of errors. From what I read, I now need to try it on individual sticks. If one stick is clear and the other one has problems, then I need to RMA, and if both sticks have problems it might not be memory related as it is unlikely that both will fail at the same time. Is that correct?

Ive only done two passes so far but I guess if it's showing errors thats all I need to know?

FWIW the memory is 4gb (2x2gb) corsair xms3 ddr3 1066. Are corsair good with RMA's, what's the turnaround? I need it fixed soon so if it takes a while i'll have to buy some ram in the mean time

Here is what was flagged up:

ANDARIAL · 6 Nov 2010 at 16:27

Correct volts and timeings on the ram?Sometimes auto is not 100% right
I RMA a 512mb stick of DDR1 just the other week,no problem replaceing it ,just took around 14 days turnaround (about can`t remember for sure,but was at least 12 days)

Stupot_ · 6 Nov 2010 at 16:29

Andarial, I haven't overclocked so should be on auto. The ram was working fine for over a year, now the PC crashes every 5-10 mins.

I'll reset the CMOS and then check volts/timings etc.

I'm going to test each stick individually now, wish me luck!

ANDARIAL · 6 Nov 2010 at 17:16

Good Luck mate

sir-les-mp · 6 Nov 2010 at 17:33

Stupot_ said:
Andarial, I haven't overclocked so should be on auto. The ram was working fine for over a year, now the PC crashes every 5-10 mins.

I'll reset the CMOS and then check volts/timings etc.

I'm going to test each stick individually now, wish me luck!

I would as you said test each stick individually and see if you are having errors with both sticks or just one.

Just because the memory has been working fine for over a year does not mean it wont devlope a fault now.

I had a similar issue 3-4 years ago when running some crucial ballistix ddr1 4000, once i replaced the memory my system stop the random crashing.

Being Corsair Memory i think im correct in saying they have a lifetime warranty its now just a case of working out whether is just 1 or both sticks that have error's.

Stupot_ · 6 Nov 2010 at 17:41

Thanks all

sir-les: I've tested both sticks now (albeit only two passes) and one came up all clear whilst the other one gave me a bunch of errors so it seems fairly clear who the culprit is!

I'm going to test the good stick under usual PC use this evening to see if anything crashes, then RMA I guess.

Does anyone know if I can RMA just one stick? I know they should really be matched but I've got a lot of uni work on at the mo and I can't be without my PC for a couple of weeks.

sir-les-mp · 6 Nov 2010 at 18:00

Stupot_ said:
Thanks all

sir-les: I've tested both sticks now (albeit only two passes) and one came up all clear whilst the other one gave me a bunch of errors so it seems fairly clear who the culprit is!

I'm going to test the good stick under usual PC use this evening to see if anything crashes, then RMA I guess.

Does anyone know if I can RMA just one stick? I know they should really be matched but I've got a lot of uni work on at the mo and I can't be without my PC for a couple of weeks.

You should be able to just RMA one stick but if they are from a matched pair it would most likely be better to RMA both that way you get a matched pair back.

Stupot_ · 7 Nov 2010 at 09:29

Right, found the problem! Was nothing to do with the ram, sorry corsair!

Turned out it crashed with the 'good' stick, so I took the PC apart, reset cmos, reseated CPU.

Guess what I found on the pins of the cpu.... A little glob of thermal paste covering about 3 contacts. Whoops! No idea how I managed that! Anyway, cleaned it off, checked memory again and now there are no errors woo!

No crashes so far either...

Thanks for the help all