I believe I have a bad stick.

[xZAOx]

Hi. Had my computer for a little while, and things have always been funky. My RAM is the TWINx1024-3200XLPT pack, which is 2x512 MB sticks, rated at 2-2-2-5 1T.

 

I'll give you the short version:

 

At tight timings, both sticks:

-passes Memtest overnight

-applications randomly crash

-games randomly crash

 

At this point, I didn't think it was the memory, since they passed memtest. Hence my frustration. Yet...

 

At loose timings, both sticks:

-applications stable

-games randomly crash

 

Since I don't game 24-7, and lots of times in short bursts (just 15-20 minutes), it was annoying, but not the end of the world. Since apps where fine, but games were bad, I first started focusing on the video card. Borrowed a friends, problems seemed to go away, and actually RMA'ed my old video card. Got a new one, and everything was fine for a little while. Then it started happening again.

 

I looked around for new testing methods, got Prime 95.

 

Tight timings, both sticks:

-prime95 errors within 10 minutes

-applications crash randomly

-games crash randomly

 

So, started focusing on single sticks.

 

Stick A, tight timings

-prime95 went for 20 hours with no problems

-quake 4 for over an hour no problems

 

Stick B, tight timings

-prime95 errors within 10 minutes

-quake 4 crashes within 10 minutes

 

I did some switching back and forth between the sticks, and each time, things crashed with stick b. Decided to go back to trying memtest yet again. Grabbed the latest Memtest86+ v1.65 cd iso. And, finally, got an error with Stick B:

 

Failing address: 000097fcbc0 - 151.7mb

Good: 95819c12

Bad: 95809c12

Error bits: 00010000

Count: 1

Chan: 1

 

So, am I ready to follow the link your sig, Ram Guy? I know you guys recommend memtest86 alot, and when it was passing it, I was a bit worried about going through the RMA procedure. But now I'm fairly confident this stick is the issue.

 

Note: All the numbers from Stick B:

CMX512-3200XLPT

XMS3200 512MB

XMS3208v1.1

0438067-1

400MHz 2225

 

Oh, last question - if I can RMA, can I just RMA the one stick? I need something to keep my comp running for a little while. Plus, now that I know one stick is good, I'd hate to get another good stick/bad stick pair...

 

Edit: Before I started using Prime95, I realized my ram was running at 2.7volts. Since then, all testing has been with it at 2.8volts.

[RAM GUY]

I have no problem replacing your modules but I would suggest you try them one at a time to see if you can identify one of the modules causing this. Some systems just will not run reliably with aggressive timings no matter what you do. In addition, I would make sure that you have the latest bios for your MB and then load setup/optimized defaults and set the timings to like Cass 2-3-2-5 with the Ras to Cas set to "3" and test them one at a time and then together and see if the system is more stable. If you just want to get them replaced please follow the link in my signature “I think I have a bad part!” and we will be happy to replace them or it!

[xZAOx]

I'm guessing that was one of the standard replies, as in my post I detailed the testing I had done on a stick-by-stick basis, and had determined it was a single stick that was bad.

 

Saturday I had a LAN party to attend, which usually involves me crashing a lot. This time I had just the one good stick of ram, at 2-2-2-5 1T, and I didn't have one problem.

 

RMA will be on it's way soon :sunglasse

[RAM GUY]

Honestly if you posted that I missed it, but based on what you had said that was the way to determine the problem. Yes in part was pre written, but not all of it? Honestly I do more than 100 of these a day, so some times its like reading the same thing over and over again and it becomes easy to miss something.