Hey guys,
Ok, let's post this in the right forum this time!
Over the last few weeks I've been experiencing very sporadic crashing with my PC - and it came to a stage last week where I couldn't play Bioshock for 30 seconds without the PC locking up, so I started to look into it.
I replaced my PSU anyway with a Zalman 500W as it was quieter than my old one, so that eliminates that. Also my gfx card has been replaced (just because I wanted to upgrade from my 7600GT, bought an X1950XTX from a friend. The lockups pre-date this though.).
I ran memory diags (MS Memory Diag and Memtest86) and the tests failed or locked up at random points (4x512mb PC3200 GeiL matched pairs). So I played around a bit and this is what happens.
All sticks tested independantly - Pass
Memory in slots 1+2 (Dual Channel) - Pass
Memory in slots 3+4 (Dual Channel) - Pass
Memory in slots 1+2+3 (Single Channel) - Fail
Memory in all slots - Fail
Basically, with more than two sticks of memory in (or if the CPU is trying to address more than one bank?) it fails/locks up the diags, and crashes repeatedly. So, I replaced my Mobo. Old mobo was a DFI CFX3200 (ATI Chipset), new is a Foxconn NF4SK8AA-8EKRS (nForce 4), but the same is happening.
I've borrowed some OCZ RAM off a friend and the same happens. I have an Athlon X2 4400+ so I'm thinking it must be that, as the memory controller may be faulty. I am currently running with only 2 sticks of RAM in slots 1+2 and have been playing bioshock for the last 2 days with no issues whatsoever, and no crashes.
Does anyone have any other ideas? Or do I seem to be on the right track? Has anyone come across an Athlon 64 with a faulty memory controller before?
Based on what someone has asked, everything is running at stock speeds. As for Temperatures , my CPU runs at between 35-45C depending on load, my ambient case temperature is ~40C.
Cheers,
qbie