Good Morning (its Friday so im feeling good)
Firstly apologies for the long description of the problem
I purchased a full system from the good guys at Overclockers not too long ago. It is this one:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-210-OK&groupid=43&catid=1444&subcat=
Now I’m not as competent with computers as some of you guys here, so please bare with me as I try to explain the situation.
When I would turn on the computer, I would get random blue screens (I’ve come to find out these are called blue screens of death!) and the system would simply not do anything and it would automatically reset, too quickly for me to read the reason. Sometimes Windows 7 would boot up, it was like for every 10 boots I would get 4 blue screens on boot up. When windows would boot, a blue screen would generally happen after around 5-10 minutes, generally after browsing the internet. During the time it was running, the system would feel really "flaky" and just do wierd things like close internet browswer for no reason, fuzzy lines on the screen etc.
So I called Overclockers and they suggested it must be the RAM. And they gave me some advice to make some changes in the bios:
Something like, 9 9 9 24 2 and change the voltage and set something to 1600mhz. Something like that, the first number I believe relating to something called CAS. But still blue screens
So I RMA the whole system back not feeling comfortable enough to open it myself and diagnose.
Apparently after review there was a “brown like treacle” substance on the CPU which was gratefully changed. So happy days, everything appears to be fine and the system comes back. However, the blue screens continue to happen, not as often but enough for me to feel something isn’t right.
So I call them back and the technicians suggest run Memtest. Not wanting to send the computer back for a week I run Memtest myself on each stick of RAM separately. Nothing comes up after 4 passes. I run it on both and let it run overnight for 8 hours – no fails
The memory i have is this:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-203-CS&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=1517
Sick of the blue screens, I read the motherboard manual and they mention that if you only have 2 sticks of RAM which I do, they recommend it to go in the first 2 DIMM slots. Mine were in the last 4. So I made the change run Memtest but still the blue screens.
By this time I figured out how to not allow the system to automatically reset after blue screens, and big capital letters the words “MEMORY MANAGEMENT” appear at the top.
Sick of the situation, I go into the BIOS and click “Load Fail Safe defaults” as the manual states this runs the machine in a stable mode. Everything works fine now. No blue screens. I go into the bios to see what has changed, and I noticed my RAM timings have changed to:
11 11 11 11 29 1 and its running at 1300Mhz with different voltage
As I mention I don’t know much about computers but having read enough about it, I know that my memory can get better numbers so should run faster. I make the changes to the bios and now I get no BLUE SCREENS but BLACK SCREENS!
When I turn on the computer, sometimes there is nothing on screen, nothing comes up. When I reset sometimes it works but most of the time nothing happens.
Really really frustrating situation and was hoping someone could explain what is going on? For me it seems like the memory.
I feel embarrassed calling Overclockers as I have called them everyday for the past 5 days and they probably think “its that numpty again” but im losing all hope.
I have RMA’ed the whole system back as they will run some more stress tests, but that’s on Monday and was hoping maybe some of you guys might offer some advice so I don’t have to send it back and use it over the weekend!
Apologies once again for the long description of the problem!
Final point I got the odd blue screen due to an ATI driver. I was running driver 10.9 and the technicians mentioned i should revert back to 10.6. This was only yesterday so cant gauge if this has any affect. Although i havent seen this type of blue screen since.
Firstly apologies for the long description of the problem
I purchased a full system from the good guys at Overclockers not too long ago. It is this one:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-210-OK&groupid=43&catid=1444&subcat=
Now I’m not as competent with computers as some of you guys here, so please bare with me as I try to explain the situation.
When I would turn on the computer, I would get random blue screens (I’ve come to find out these are called blue screens of death!) and the system would simply not do anything and it would automatically reset, too quickly for me to read the reason. Sometimes Windows 7 would boot up, it was like for every 10 boots I would get 4 blue screens on boot up. When windows would boot, a blue screen would generally happen after around 5-10 minutes, generally after browsing the internet. During the time it was running, the system would feel really "flaky" and just do wierd things like close internet browswer for no reason, fuzzy lines on the screen etc.
So I called Overclockers and they suggested it must be the RAM. And they gave me some advice to make some changes in the bios:
Something like, 9 9 9 24 2 and change the voltage and set something to 1600mhz. Something like that, the first number I believe relating to something called CAS. But still blue screens
So I RMA the whole system back not feeling comfortable enough to open it myself and diagnose.
Apparently after review there was a “brown like treacle” substance on the CPU which was gratefully changed. So happy days, everything appears to be fine and the system comes back. However, the blue screens continue to happen, not as often but enough for me to feel something isn’t right.
So I call them back and the technicians suggest run Memtest. Not wanting to send the computer back for a week I run Memtest myself on each stick of RAM separately. Nothing comes up after 4 passes. I run it on both and let it run overnight for 8 hours – no fails
The memory i have is this:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-203-CS&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=1517
Sick of the blue screens, I read the motherboard manual and they mention that if you only have 2 sticks of RAM which I do, they recommend it to go in the first 2 DIMM slots. Mine were in the last 4. So I made the change run Memtest but still the blue screens.
By this time I figured out how to not allow the system to automatically reset after blue screens, and big capital letters the words “MEMORY MANAGEMENT” appear at the top.
Sick of the situation, I go into the BIOS and click “Load Fail Safe defaults” as the manual states this runs the machine in a stable mode. Everything works fine now. No blue screens. I go into the bios to see what has changed, and I noticed my RAM timings have changed to:
11 11 11 11 29 1 and its running at 1300Mhz with different voltage
As I mention I don’t know much about computers but having read enough about it, I know that my memory can get better numbers so should run faster. I make the changes to the bios and now I get no BLUE SCREENS but BLACK SCREENS!
When I turn on the computer, sometimes there is nothing on screen, nothing comes up. When I reset sometimes it works but most of the time nothing happens.
Really really frustrating situation and was hoping someone could explain what is going on? For me it seems like the memory.
I feel embarrassed calling Overclockers as I have called them everyday for the past 5 days and they probably think “its that numpty again” but im losing all hope.
I have RMA’ed the whole system back as they will run some more stress tests, but that’s on Monday and was hoping maybe some of you guys might offer some advice so I don’t have to send it back and use it over the weekend!
Apologies once again for the long description of the problem!
Final point I got the odd blue screen due to an ATI driver. I was running driver 10.9 and the technicians mentioned i should revert back to 10.6. This was only yesterday so cant gauge if this has any affect. Although i havent seen this type of blue screen since.
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