biosol Posted December 23, 2004 Share Posted December 23, 2004 Hello, I've discovered running memtest-86 that my RAM is the cause of my system instability. It's occured from the beginning. I ran the test with my 2 VS512MB400 modules and it indicated 12 errors and appeared to freeze the system. A second test revealed 27 errors midway through the second pass. Today I have run the test on each module individually and recieved 2 errors on 2 passes for the first one and 5 errors so far on the 3rd pass for the second. Both run in slot 1 (the second individual module tested was in slot 2 when both were installed). My question is, is there an acceptable tolerance in terms of the number of errors or does even 1 error indicate bad memory? Thanks, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wired Posted December 23, 2004 Share Posted December 23, 2004 There should be no errors. So little an amount of errors may mean that it's something else other than the memory, like voltage. What CPU / FSB / motherboard do you have? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
biosol Posted December 23, 2004 Author Share Posted December 23, 2004 Well, I just exchanged it at Fry's and have put in the new memory. Are you saying that 12 or 27 errors are within working ranges? My system is this: MB = ECS PT800CE-A VIA chipset CPU = Intel P4 3.0E Ghz HT, prescott RAM = Corsair 2x512MB Value Select for 1GB total Video = Radeon based 9200SE card HD = Seagate 120GB 7,200 rpm Sound & NIC = onboard CDRW = Sony 12x/10/32 Case fans = 3 Case lights front = 2 Neon tube light = 1 (didn't know it came with the case, just put it in for fun) Edit: Let me add a little more. The MB I had been using in another system with a Celeron D 2.66 Ghz CPU and 512MB Mushkin RAM. It ran fine for over a month. I switched things around because this ECS board has 5 PCI slots and I wanted to pair that up with the new P4 3.0E processor. The other system that the MB was in had essentially the same components, video card, VIA chipset, onboard sound & NIC, 120 GB WD drive, DVD+-RW. FWIW... I used a power calculator from http://www.3dcool.com and it calculated that out to 299W, so I thought at first the 300W PSU that came with the case wasn't enough. So I put a 450W PSU in (since I will be adding 4 firewire and 1 wireless Lan cards and possibly another drive or two at some point. The calculator listed all that around 400W). Are there specific BIOS (btw, I updated it to the latest version 1.1b) settings I should have? Please advise... Thanks, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wired Posted December 23, 2004 Share Posted December 23, 2004 Are you saying that 12 or 27 errors are within working ranges? Well it's entirely possible, but based upon the way RAM works no errors is optimal, some errors are playing with chance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
biosol Posted December 23, 2004 Author Share Posted December 23, 2004 Ok, I just ask because I mentioned the error testing to the sales guy at Fry's when I exchanged the RAM and he said those error numbers weren't a problem, it was probably some other components. It doesn't seem like anything more than a single error would be allowed, but I'm no expert. Testing it out right now. So far it's played through 40 mins of a Divx clip without a problem. Hope exchanging the memory is all that's needed... Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
biosol Posted December 25, 2004 Author Share Posted December 25, 2004 Just an update. After exchanging the RAM the system has run fine for two days now... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wired Posted December 26, 2004 Share Posted December 26, 2004 Glad to hear! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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