Hardware troubles driving me crazy

Gatsby

Gatsby

Gatsby

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28 Nov 2004
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951
I've been having a few very strange issues with my current rig and I'm really not sure as to the root of the problem. I'll start with my rig:

Core 2 Duo 6300
Asus P5B Deluxe
Nvidia 7600GT
2GB Corsair XMS2 5400 (2x1GB)
Tagen 430W PSU

Now the rig ran just fine for the first few months but then I started getting lots of random crashes and general instability. This problem was tracked down to a huge number of errors in memtest, however both memory sticks tested fine individually in any slot, and failed catastrophically together in any slot layout. At the time I created a thread on this issue here. In the end I didn't find a solution and just made do with only using one stick.

After this I hadn't had any problems at all until this morning. I have 2 identical seagate 7200.10 200GB drives, one with an XP install on it and the other with a Vista install. My computer crashed and restarted, and when the bios loaded I noticed the Vista drive had disappeared. I've checked all the cabling and its all fine. I tried adjusting the jumpers on the back (the options are limit operation to 1.5Gb/s or 3Gb/s) and the first time I did this the drive re-appeared in the bios but then disappeared again once I exited the bios to load windows. Since then no amount of fiddling with the jumpers, cables or sata ports has got this drive back.

To add insult to injury my XP install seems to be dead now as well. Having given up on the Vista drive I tried loading up XP but was greeted by a blue-screen and restart. Now I get the option screen for choosing "last known good configuration, safe mode, etc" but on selection of any of these options it just freezes until I restart.

I'm feeling frustrated to say the least, and out of ideas. Could it be a faulty motherboard that's caused all this? The memory issue seems to suggest that, could it also have caused the death of my hard drives? I was also thinking it could be the power supply but it should be enough to run my rig, shouldn't it? I aslo find it weird the Vista drive briefly reappeared only to vanish again.

Thanks for reading all this, anyone got any ideas?
 
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I hate problems like this - as you have no idea what is playing up.

My suspicion would be either the PSU or motherboard is at fault.

I had a similar problem with a machine I built a year ago - memory errors running in dual channel, fine in single channel. Had many errors in memtest, random reboots, strange graphical errors. Turns out the motherboard was at fault - I must have forced the ram in too hard.

It could also be a power problem, which may have caused some problems with your hard disks - in power failure events, most hard disks can be recovered via a chkdsk run. My advice would be to swap the PSU out, take the hard disks out completely, take any PCI cards you don't need out, and try memtest again in all combinations.

If not successful, I suspect a motherboard fault.
 
http://www.vistabootpro.org/

go there & d/l the appz, its for running diff os, including Vista, could sort it out for u maybe. It's possible u have corrupt boot files ? this would sort it.
PS! u need networkframe 2 to run this
 
Yellowbeard said:
Memtest has a conflict with ASUS MOBOs. Can you disable Legacy USB Support then check each module again individually with Memtest. Also, set the timings manually and the Vdimm to 2.1v. Also, the thread is about different modules but, this may help:

http://www.houseofhelp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=54705
Click to expand...
Done that and I still get thousands of errors in under 15 minutes with both modules in, and each module passes memtest on its own for over 8 hours :(

Thanks for everyone's help btw, I think I'll order a new psu and mobo tomorrow and see if they fix the problems.
 
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If they are passing individually then I would suspect some other problem. PSU or MOBO is my guess. Good luck and let me know if there is any way Corsair can help.
 
Well I replaced my Tagen 430W psu with a 580W Hiper psu and its made no difference. Time to RMA the mobo to Asus I guess.
 
If you run a dual boot system, and the OS that created the MBR for the dual boot gets corrupted, wether that be XP or Vista then it would fail to boot.

If you then remove 1 drive, the other won't boot up naturally, or at least how i remember it when i had issues with dual boot.

If you installed Vista 2nd i'd guess it does the rewrite of the MBR, in which case when you lost the install (you said it disappeared) i think its safe to assume this was the stem of a problem.

There's a new microsoft memory test program about (cant remember the name) thats apparently better for testing memory according to a buddie who works with PC's. According to him its picked up on problems that memtest never even picked on, so perhaps give that a shot?..

EDIT: Here's the link to the MS ap http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp
 
Ah thats interesting, so that would explain why when my Vista drive failed (I've now RMA'd it as it doesn't even spin up) my other drive refused to boot into XP. Could I have fixed my XP install by running FIXMBR from the recovery console in that case?

That question is purely theoretical as I went ahead and installed a new copy of XP on top of the old one without a format. I know its not ideal but at least it means some basic stuff works and my data is intact. It'll do until I get a new drive to replace the failed one.

Thanks for the microsoft memory test I'll give that a try. Though I don't think its any sort of issue with memtest as I was experiencing quite severe symptoms of memory errors (random crashes, programs failing to start, corrupted downloads), all of which cleared up as soon as I went down to using just one memory stick.
 
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Its a possibilty, i just wanted to point out why the xp install proberly wouldnt boot, and recovery console may have worked but i've never used it myself to know.

Just because the memory only fails with both sticks doesnt mean it isnt duff, or perhaps setup wrong?...... volts, cas and timings all set correctly?...

MS ap should be able to give you a clear idea if its faulty though, as should memtest.

If its a problem with the memory controller its possibly a mobo problem, its the northbridge that deals with that isnt it?....

Unless you have some memory to borrow or another system to try your own memory in its a bit hard to narrow down the problem. Unless of course someone knows of this problem in particular, it could be one of a few things really.

And just to add to what i said earlier, the guy who recommended the MS had 4 sticks or duff memory that tested fine on memtest, not so lucky with the MS ap though. This was after he blew his system with a QTEC, lost his mobo, memory and possibly some other bits, but like i said memtest said his memory was fine, odd i know.....
 
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The memory failed the microsoft test together, but passed individually. Same as memtest.

As for the timings and voltages they're all standard, but I have tried upping the voltages and/or lowering the speed and timings and that hasn't helped either. Also tried upping the voltage on the northbridge, but again, no cigar.

Am I correct in thinking that the memory controller on intel setups is on the motherboard and not the cpu (as it is on AMD chips)? Just want to be sure it can't be anything but the motherboard before I RMA it. Unfortunately no one else I know has a DDR2 setup so I can't swap out parts with anyone to be absolutely sure.
 
Yeah A64 chips have the memory controller built into the cpu, so you don't have a northdridge on the mobo's for them. I'm not sure if thats the sole purpose of the northbridge but i'm pretty sure its deals with the memory controller.

Perhaps someone else is reading and knows if i'm right so far, don't wanna yabber on when i'm wrong, lol.......

If the tests only fail when more then 1 stick is present, i'm stumped myself, can't say i've ever seen anything like it, or if i have it was likely fixed with the bios update.

You could just have a faulty board, but at the end of the day without having other parts to test with i can't see any way to say for sure what the problem could be.
 
1.35V CPU.
2.2V Mem.
1.3V FSB Term
1.65V NB
1.6V SB.

Try that.


Or try clearing CMOS for 12 hours (or overnight) make sure you dont get the case instrusion jumper!!! (ull never get it back :p)
 
Concorde Rules said:
1.35V CPU.
2.2V Mem.
1.3V FSB Term
1.65V NB
1.6V SB.

Try that.
Click to expand...
No luck. Oddly I got a couple of errors in tests 3 and 4 with these settings, whereas usually its fine until it hits test 7 and I get thousands. No idea if that means anything.

Concorde Rules said:
Or try clearing CMOS for 12 hours (or overnight) make sure you dont get the case instrusion jumper!!! (ull never get it back :p)
Click to expand...
I'll give that a try, but why do you think it'll help? Won't clearing the CMOS just reset the bios?
 
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