Computer still not stable at stock

[spluff]

Hi Scan,

I recently bought 900quids worth of components from you:-

Q6600 G0 | Noctua NH-U12F | 2x1GB Corsair Twinx XMS2 PC6400 | Gigabyte P3C-DS3R Bios F4
P180b case | 500w Seasonic S12-500 | X-fi Fatal1ty | WD7500AAKS | SH-S203 DVDRW | Scan 8800GTX

As my previous post it kept failing at stock and its still doing it after this time. I have tried doing all sorts to make it stable. Prime95 can fail anywhere from less than 1 minute to 15 hours depending on how its feeling........ (sometimes not at all - i just cant wait so long). Had a few blue screens too.........

Recently been also having crashed in games with ndriver failing - this is happening at random times too.......... the graphic card is making an awful electrical buzzing noise when in 3d.

I am totally stumped what to do now - If it cant run stable at stock then I am not impressed at all!!!!!!

Is it the memory, cpu, graphics card, mobo????????? I have no clue...........

I know if i run memtest there are no errors, but that still doesnt rule out memory...........

What next?

How can I RMA this? I just want a stable system............ and I know if you test then it may or may not even fail................

[Rosaline]

Before we look at more detailed measures, check that all your components are properly mounted, including the HSF. Then check that your bios settings are correct and match the manufacturer's specification for each component.

If you are still not having any luck, it's time to break the problem down.

First of all, strip the system down to the bare minimum to get it to boot and display - primary hard drive, CPU, motherboard, graphics card (assuming no integrated graphics on the motherboard), ram and power supply.

If it is still not stable, you know know it is one of the remaining components.

Either result, try and get some alternative components to swap in, one component at a time. That should then show which component is faulty.

[SHare]

If the graphics card makes an awful buzzing sound then, personally, I'd be inclined to think that it is the problem.

[spluff]

last night I ran the system with just 1 stick of memory in and it was still running this morning with Prime95.

With 1 stick It runs a lot slower in Prime each test taking around 4 minutes instead of 2. Also the cpu heat was only 49oC whereas with the 2 sticks of memory it was 59oC. Is that because running in single mode (instead of dual) the cpu isnt getting stressed as much?

I guess if it continues working this way then its either the memory or the motherboard memory controller? (I did run memtest with 2 sticks in before and it worked fine for around 10 hours)

I will try the other stick of memory tonight.

[Platinum]

Sounds like you dont have enough voltage running through that ram, remember its performance ram so doenst run stock volts , I know on my OCZ ram it needs 2.1v.
If your memory is TWIN2X2048-6400C4 then Corsair recomend 2.1v as well.
Give that a try, I bet it will sort your problems

[spluff]

I have upped the voltage mate....... when it initially was failing at stock I upped the voltage to 2.1.

Thanks for your tip.... My memory is running at 1:1 with CPU therefore only running at 266 (or 533 in dual mode) at 5 5 5 15 so its even running slower than it should be....... no aggresive timings at all.

Everything is stock - I have had blue screens, prime fails anywhere between 1 minute and hours and hours, games crashing.

[markbrown83]

It does sound like moemory, but obviously you can def say that until the second mem chip is tested

[spluff]

yeah Im thinking it still could be motherboard (i.e. memory controller) but hopefully it is something as simple as memory.....

Funny thing is the temp thing I couldnt believe how cool the cpu was at full load with the 1 stick of memory in 49oC compared to 59oC.

[markbrown83]

Just give it a shot with the other stick tonight... time will tell! Good luck!

[Lee H]

best advice I can give is to test both the memory sticks using memtest and if you get any errors whatsoever, then you'll have probably found the cause of this crashing.

If they fail in dual channel mode, then contact the RMA team and they will be able to assist you further.

Best Regards,

[spluff]

Hi Lee - great to hear from you mate

I ran memtest for around 10hours with both sticks in and they didnt produce any errors..... thats why I initially didnt think it was the memory. I will try the other stick via prime tonight and then the next night will try memtest again.......

I am going away to Africa on Friday for 2 weeks - will I still be able to RMA okay when I get back.

The stuff was bought 15th September.

[stormy]

Spluff are you running Vista or XP? If you can try (on another partition or HD) install XP (if you are on Vista).

My machine is quite similar to yours.

Core 2 Duo E6600
Asus P5K Deluxe WIFA/AP Mobo
2Gb Crucial Ballistix DDR2 8500+ (1066Mhz) at 2.2vs
Corsair HX520W PSU
ATI Radeon X1900XT 512Mb PCIe
Audigy 2 ZS
2x WD SATA2 HDs.

I was using Vista for a few months, with various blue screens, lockups and ATI driver halting problems randomly.

I tried replacing the HS/FAN on my Graphics cards, messing with Voltages and timings on the memory and all kinds of stuff. I was getting memory errors in MS Windows Memory Diagnositc, but none in memtest86+ and such.

I ended up re-installing Vista and all the drivers, reseting my BIOS to defaults, forcing 2.2vs and forcing manual timings to the spec of the memory.

Did tests with memtest+ for many, many passes, no errors, same with Windows Memory Diagnostic, and ran prime95 for a couple of days solid and the machine was completely stable.

I can run games pretty much fine for hours and hours now, although 3DMark06 always seems to crash with an ATI driver not responding error if I run the tests over and over (although its definately not a temp issue, as the GPU never goes above 58c and the VRM never above about 78c), and once in a while games will fall over with a similar ATI driver error, also some installer programs seem to crash instantly at launch, and i also had trouble with Last.fm application errors.

I kept thinking the PC was faulty or some hardware was duff, but when I put XP on I had no issues at all with the system. So decided to get back to my Vista and see if I could isolate problems. The last.fm crash was a problem with the application and reading on forums, all my issues were happening to other people on Vista to varying degrees. Since then my machine has been ok and I have not had one blue screen in general Vista use. I just get the odd application crash which I am not even sure if due to hardware at all now.

With the latest ATI drivers, games are much more stable although I do odly have to reboot the system sometimes to get stable gaming if the machine has been on for days and days (I normally leave the PC on 24/7). Also sometimes I get errors with System Restore not being able to create restore points, but again a reboot fixes the problem. I think personally that Vista is just not as stable as its cracked up to be although I suppose even with the application crashes its still up and running.

There was mention in the ATI known issues of problems with Vista and I think its still a case of the drivers and platform are not fully stable. I suppose this still does not answer why you get prime95 errors though..

Hmm.. Try XP and see how that goes.. I hope you can get to the bottom of it, I know how it feels to have a machine that just doesnt work 100% correctly! Its annoying as hell.

Mike

[spluff]

I dont really want to go down the XP route, but I guess its another avenue I can try....... the system i bought should be able to run fine in vista i would have thought.....

[markbrown83]

Things with Vista are still not 100%. So it could be silly little things like drivers etc. Simple things can cause the system to be unstable...

However, I would try the last stick of ram with memtest tonight, and if that doesn't seem to be the problem, then I would go down the XP route - its a decent suggestion.

Surely knowing that everything was running ok in XP would be piece of mind, and you would know you don't have to RMA any parts which is a pain.... only work out how to get Vista running stable...

[s3ds]

try a memory tester like memtest86
memtest86.com
or if you can find H-i-r-e-n's boot CD that has a few tools on it

memory failures can look like other problems so its always my first test


Paul

[spluff]

Things with Vista are still not 100%. So it could be silly little things like drivers etc. Simple things can cause the system to be unstable...

However, I would try the last stick of ram with memtest tonight, and if that doesn't seem to be the problem, then I would go down the XP route - its a decent suggestion.

Surely knowing that everything was running ok in XP would be piece of mind, and you would know you don't have to RMA any parts which is a pain.... only work out how to get Vista running stable...

true i suppose....... i dont really want to RMA if i dont have to...... (with vista im using all the latest drivers/hotfixes/patches) - dunno if it would affect Prime95 failing tho...... but installing XP is an option.

It is really annoying taking ages to choose components, buying top notch stuff, taking time to build and then failing at STOCK values........ Ive been building PCs for over 10years now and never had this much trouble with a build.

try a memory tester like memtest86
memtest86.com
or if you can find H-i-r-e-n's boot CD that has a few tools on it

memory failures can look like other problems so its always my first test


Paul

I have used memtest86 from boot disk - and it ran for 10 hours without any errors......