Stress Test Failure - But What Failed?

I read something somewhere the other day about unpaired RAM giving problems like this.

Are you using two sticks that were out of the same box?

If you are, then I reckon its the PSU.
Sudden voltage drops can give errors like the ones you've been experiencing.

New rig looks tasty :D But I'd recommend saving the time and money and just shelling out for the PSU first and replacing that. If you're still getting problems, then do the motherboard, then the graphics.
 
Yep these were a match pair of RAM.

OK. I'll get the PSU to start with. My concern with just replacing the PSU is getting one with enough of the standard 4 pin power connectors, molex I think they call them. I need at least 6 of them.

Of course if it's not the PSU I will need one that I can use with SLI and SATA drives etc.

Is the Antec NeoHE 550W Modular ATX2.0 PSU (CA-046-AN) £68.95 a good choice? Does somebody have a recommendation for a good stable and reliable PSU??

Thank you
 
Good grief, got this message this morning:

Problem description

The error was caused by an unrecoverable hardware error which forced the operating system to stop functioning.

Although we know the problem is caused by a hardware component, unfortunately the error report does not contain enough information to tell us the specific component. More than likely the problem is being caused by problems with one or more of the following computer components:

* Random Access Memory (RAM)
* System board
* Central Processing Unit (CPU)
* Power supply

Recommendations

If you have received this error more than once, it could indicate a serious problem with your computer. We recommend that you do the following:

1. Back up your files to avoid data loss in case of a complete hardware failures.
2. Contact the original manufacturer of your computer or your local computer repair shop. Either will have advanced hardware diagnostics to determine the specific component which is failing.

Hope it's not the CPU :)

Gonna look at PSU alternatives today.

Cheers
 
Dont bother with SLi unless you plan to run massive massive resolutions. Save some money and just go for an ATi X1900XTX - this card is better than most SLI setups so its worth a look :)

SiriusB
 
SiriusB said:
Dont bother with SLi unless you plan to run massive massive resolutions. Save some money and just go for an ATi X1900XTX - this card is better than most SLI setups so its worth a look :)
SiriusB
Click to expand...

I was considering a Dell Ultrasharp 2405FPW 24" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Midnight Grey (30906) (MO-001-DE) or a Dell Ultrasharp 3007WFP 30" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Midnight Grey (MO-008-DE) in the not too distant future. Do you think the Ati X1900XTX would be happy with either of these lovelies?

Cheers
 
If increasing the Voltage to the ram didnt work, try increasing the memory timings a little.

With single channel boards timing becomes more critical as the memory sticks are sharing a single 64bit wide bus. With your dual channel board it should be less of a problem, as each channel gets its own dedicated bus. (However please make sure you have the sticks plugged into the right sockets, if your board has space for 4 memory sticks, and you plugged both sticks into a single channel, then your wasting performance, and increasing the risk of errors on the memory bus).

Anyway, you already tried increasing the memory volts, and that didnt help, slowing up the timings slightly may help. If your using the 'By SPD' setting, use a program like CPUID to see what settings the motherboard is picking for CAS/RAS etc, then go into the bios and increase each setting by 1. (IE if SPD was 2-2-2-5-1T, try 2.5-3-3-6-2T

Then run Prime95 again and see if the problem is gone. Now assuming the problem is 'fixed' you computer will be slightly slower, if you feel its performance have been affected too badly, go back to bios and now change the ram timings again, but this time only change 1 thing at once, each time you make a change run prime95 again and see if the computer is still stable.

By the time your done, you'll hopefully have your computer running as quickly as the memory will allow, without having spend any money on replacement parts.

Good luck
 
Thank you Corasik.

I changed the timings from 3.0-4-4-8-T1 to 3.0-5-5-9-T2 and so far so good. Prime95 has reached Test 11 so far without error. I couldn't increase the 3.0 as that's as high as my motherboard will allow me to go.

I assume this points to some sort of incompatability between the RAM and my motherboard? Am I right?

Of course I don't know if this is the reason World of Warcraft crashes, but it's a step in the right direction.

Looking promising though :)

Ian.
 
IanB001 said:
Thank you Corasik.

I changed the timings from 3.0-4-4-8-T1 to 3.0-5-5-9-T2 and so far so good. Prime95 has reached Test 11 so far without error. I couldn't increase the 3.0 as that's as high as my motherboard will allow me to go.

I assume this points to some sort of incompatability between the RAM and my motherboard? Am I right?

Of course I don't know if this is the reason World of Warcraft crashes, but it's a step in the right direction.

Looking promising though :)

Ian.
Click to expand...

Those are pretty shocking timings for the ram unless it's overclocked. Even if it is I would suggest running it on a divider
 
Monstermunch; I found out last night that even with these timings my computer still crashes. Dammit!!

No my system is not overclocked, everything is running at stock. I'm still wondering if this RAM is faulty, but I have no other way of testing it. I've used Microsofts Memory tester and Memtest and both indicate no problems. Although I couldn't get Simmtesters DocMemory to work at all with this RAM, it just closes down before testing.

You talk about a "divider". I've no idea what that is. Please explain?

Thank you

Ian.
 
Mikey1280; I ran Memtest from a floppy disk. No I haven't played with the speed just those timings suggested in an earlier post. To be honest I would have no idea what settings to change, there are soo many.

Cheers

Ian.

This is what the BIOS screen looks like:
BIOS Screen
 
Last edited:
IanB001 said:
I was considering a Dell Ultrasharp 2405FPW 24" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Midnight Grey (30906) (MO-001-DE) or a Dell Ultrasharp 3007WFP 30" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Midnight Grey (MO-008-DE) in the not too distant future. Do you think the Ati X1900XTX would be happy with either of these lovelies?

Cheers
Click to expand...


1920x1200 is pushing the limits of a single card, 2560x1600 is well beyond a single, for games like Oblivion even SLI won't cut it. I have to play at 1920x1200 on both my SLI 7900GTX and Quad SLI rigs, 2560x1600 is just too slow. If you're looking at a monitor that's going to push 1920x1200 or higher, start contemplating a 2 card solution if you want to run at native resolution.
 
Thank you [ui]ICEMAN.

2 x XFX GeForce 7900 GTX Extreme Edition 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (PVT71F-YDER/YDPR) (GX-073-XF) it is then. Now where can I get the money :)

By the way, is that your motors in your signature? :)

Cheers

Ian.
 
IanB001 said:
Thank you [ui]ICEMAN.

2 x XFX GeForce 7900 GTX Extreme Edition 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (PVT71F-YDER/YDPR) (GX-073-XF) it is then. Now where can I get the money :)

By the way, is that your motors in your signature? :)

Cheers

Ian.
Click to expand...

Just a word of advice, I and many many others have experienced problems with even the factory overclocked cards, Nvidia themselves have admitted the problem and it can, if your card is affected cause lockups and freezes of random lengths during 3D use.

Not all will be affected however, I think the majority of the problems were ironed out after the first batch of cards (my 3 were from that batch, all of them have been faulty, I just don't feel its worth the hassle replacing the newest 2 for the sake of just downclocking the cards to stock.

And OT, yes they are.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom