Still unstable :(

[Streethawk]

anyone who has followed this saga will know I'm trying to detect the cause of an unstable PC that I've built from scratch.

memtest86 ID-ed a faulty RAM stick that is on it's way being replaced
it remained unstable with just the one stick. I borrowed a mate's PSU and no change - still unstable, so after much discussion forums came to the conclusion it's prob. the mobo

Well, the brand new a7n8x-x seemed to be running fine. I reformatted, installed XP and folded for about 30 stable, cool hours before it reset again. and again. and again... so there's no way it could have been the mobo!

it keeps falling over - suppose i'd better diable the BSOD supression and report my fault!

bah, there's £45 quid i won't see again.

new clues anyone?

[robbie]

temps?

[Streethawk]

Originally Posted by robbie

temps?

35c stable

[surlyjoe]

Have you checked the mains voltage to see if its OK?

[dsio]

Do you know for sure that you are 35C?

Because Mobiles and NF7s can give bad readings, and that 2200+ mobile is a very strange chip really.

Have you used an accurate external thermal probe?

[Streethawk]

Originally Posted by surlyjoe

Have you checked the mains voltage to see if its OK?

no, and i'm not sure how to... stick a multimeter in it ?

[Streethawk]

Originally Posted by dsio

Do you know for sure that you are 35C?

Because Mobiles and NF7s can give bad readings, and that 2200+ mobile is a very strange chip really.

Have you used an accurate external thermal probe?

well, it's currently the Asus on board, but i haven't got a probe to check it.

it's been up for about 6 hours now, no problems yet today... i slowed the fan speed to quieten it whilst i watched a video and it went up to 40c - back down to 37 now though

[~* InSoM *~]

are you using software to monitor the cpu temp (such as MBM) or are you using a front panel display or BIOS?

[Streethawk]

software (hardware sensors monitor)

[Streethawk]

well, the bugger finally dumped on me - and i'm confused as to the outcome -

on the BSOD where the second line reads "memory - management", is that because it is then going on to describe the memory dump, or because there is a problem with the memory management?

anyway - error report reads:
0x0000001a (0x00041284, 0x169c0001, 0x00000000, 0xc0503000)

who knows what these things mean then?

[~* InSoM *~]

it looks like a memory error, but dont count me on that

[Streethawk]

Originally Posted by ~* InSoM *~

it looks like a memory error, but dont count me on that

oh no, you've said it now!!!

[surlyjoe]

all the resetting sounds kinda like the Zotob got ya..

[45 Auto]

That particular stop error involves the memory. Either the ram is being corrupted, or some piece of hardware is trying to illegally access a reserved memory address. Anytime you have a stop error, best thing to do is check at microsoft and do a search for that specific error. If the system is passing memtest, best thing to do is strip it down to bare minimum and then add 1 piece of hardware at a time until the error recurs.

[Streethawk]

Originally Posted by 45 Auto

That particular stop error involves the memory. Either the ram is being corrupted, or some piece of hardware is trying to illegally access a reserved memory address. Anytime you have a stop error, best thing to do is check at microsoft and do a search for that specific error. If the system is passing memtest, best thing to do is strip it down to bare minimum and then add 1 piece of hardware at a time until the error recurs.

well, i only have one piece of hardware plugged in that I can remove and still have the pc run! (tv card) - although I should run it without the usb modem too! I'll give it a trial run today and report back this evening

I'm pretty sure it's not the zotob worm - I've removed the partition since then and reformatted twice - it'd have to be pretty resilient! AVG hasn't picked it up either and it's on their list...

can i ask a stupid question please? how do i check it at microsoft?

[~* InSoM *~]

have you got AVG setup to scan BIOS etc on boot, something might have infected the hardware somewhere, other than that I would be encouraged to grab some more memory from somewhere and test it with that, even if you have to buy a cheap stick of 256mb...

[45 Auto]

@Streethawk: To check what stop errors mean, just go to M$.com. Then do a search there using the stop error code as the keyword. The code is the first group of characters. In this case, it's 0x0000001a. You'll see references to windows 2000, but since xp is built from 2000 they still apply. If it's not a hardware issue, then the ram is bad and needs to be rma'd

[Streethawk]

well everything is pointing at a memory problem - i realised cheap memory (matrix) would slow down my computer, but i wasn't aware it would prevent it from working completely! The fact that it works fine for 8+ hours each time before crashing suggests some sort of overheating problem...

dabs.com are unlikely to refund me these sticks - one is already on the way to getting exchanged. I suppose I'll have to offload them on ebay to some mug (bad karma) - although I'm trying to persuade dabs to credit me against something better

I haven't a mate than can lend me some pc3200 to try it out and see if that is indeed the problem unfortunately

corsair and kingston both seem to do a budget stick for about £23 per 256Mb... another £8 for crucial... and i can't justify spending any more when my aging gsxr needs two new bridgestones and fork seals fitting as well as all the old merc & cavalier's problems !!

[Gizmo]

What are your memory timings?

[Streethawk]

Originally Posted by gizmo

What are your memory timings?

7-3-3-3

not too scary!