Is this a memory problem ?

[kevpuk]

My PC has taken upon itself to randomly shut down, seemingly after been asked to do something vaguely taxing such as a complete (300k files) system-wide Norton AV scan.......sitting on pause screen in Oblivion......

Now I have yet to catch the little monkey to see if there actually is a BSOD and always have come back to a switched-off PC

Looking in Event log, I always find an error as follows :

The computer has rebooted from a bugcheck. The bugcheck was: 0x0000004e (0x0000008f, 0x0005972d, 0x000458dd, 0x00000000). A full dump was not saved.

Although it doesn't reboot itself - this is what I find next power up

Searching around, I have been led to believe that the 0x0000004e can often be attributed to memory problems (hence posting here...... )....and have downloaded Microsoft's Memory Test and booted with it in the old FDD.

Always seems to fail, even when reverting all settings to stock/resetting BIOS, taking one RAM stick out (I have 2 x 1GB DDR400 value stuff) and so on.....even tried giving a little extra juice to the RAM.....still fails

So, tried a spangly new 512MB stick of DDR400 and same issue - crashed in Memory Test......now I am thinking Memory Controller (on CPU - Boooo !) or motherboard - Booooo ! or RAM ????

Any ideas ?

 

[Dutch Guy]

I doubt it will be the memory as you tried with a new stick and with one stick.

Have you tried to run the CPU at stock to see if that helps the situation?

 

[kevpuk]

I have tried reverting all settings to default, CPU included, but still got the errors..... Thing is, at the moment the PC seems to run fine for most things - like this - but I am now concerned it will suddenly stop in the middle of something......

 

[Admiral Huddy]

Firstly, change your startup and recovery option so that it doesn't automatically restart in an the event of an error ..

Control Panel>System Properties> Advanced tab> On Startup and recovery panel, click on Settings then uncheck the "Automatically restart" tickbox. Then press ok.

Next, have you checked the voltages for the new memory. DDR400 typically likes around 2.7 or 2.75volts and. The voltages are not always set automatically and my be set to low. This is is a common problem and does result in BSODs and random restarts.

 

[kevpuk]

Thanks for the pointers, although the system is not set to reboot - I just never happen to see it lock-up.....just come back to the PC to find it off ! On booting, checking Event Viewer gives me the info.....

The RAM is not new and has never given me any probs previously....and, as I have now tried a totally different stick which also fails the Microsoft Memory Tester, I figure maybe mobo or memory controller on CPU....perhaps I need to run more volts through them ? Or perhaps this will kill off whatever is 'teetering' ????