BSOD, faulty RAM?

[fivesixseven8]

One of my machines has started to hang and give me the bsod. I've reset the bios to fail safe settings but it still gives the bsod, sometimes as it draws the desktop on boot but someimes after a few mins.
I've not installed or changed anything on the machine for ages so I'm confident it's not a software or config issue. It has been running for months and up for several weeks at a time with no problem.

In trying to diagnose what I am guessing is a hardware problem, I removed one of the 2 x 1gb ram modules. It's since been up and running fine since around 7pm last night where before it couldn't stay running for more than ten mins.

So, failed RAM? Is there a way to explicitly test it before I get it replaced? It's some Crucial Ballistix ram, can't remember the type off the top of my head.

[Trevelyan]

I had similar problems to you recently, but in my case it turned out to be a different cause. I was convinced it was the RAM as well, and had tried all the various permuatations of putting the modules in different order in the slots, removing one module at a time and so on. Every time I thought I'd found the faulty RAM module the PC would fall over again. Then after I'd lost patience and was doing a bad thing (poking around inside with the whole thing powered up) I found that I could cause the PC to fall over just by touching the heatsink on the Northbridge chip.

Turned out that the problem was that the thermal grease had dried out over time and the Northbridge was overheating. Bought some new grease, redid the heatsinks on the Northbridge and CPU, and it's run without missing a beat ever since.

[buggalugs]

I'd give it a few more days on the one stick, then put the other back in and if it starts crashing again then I'd say that was fairly cut and dried.

[fivesixseven8]

Trevelyan said:

I had similar problems to you recently, but in my case it turned out to be a different cause. I was convinced it was the RAM as well, and had tried all the various permuatations of putting the modules in different order in the slots, removing one module at a time and so on. Every time I thought I'd found the faulty RAM module the PC would fall over again. Then after I'd lost patience and was doing a bad thing (poking around inside with the whole thing powered up) I found that I could cause the PC to fall over just by touching the heatsink on the Northbridge chip.

Turned out that the problem was that the thermal grease had dried out over time and the Northbridge was overheating. Bought some new grease, redid the heatsinks on the Northbridge and CPU, and it's run without missing a beat ever since.

I did fit a new heatsink not too long ago but have been keeping an eye on temps and they haven't gone too high at all. I will keep this in mind though.

[Morningside]

A common memory test program.
http://www.memtest86.com/

Also a lot of Linux distos have an option for memory test - Got me out of some head scratching moments

[aclivity]

Morningside said:

A common memory test program.
http://www.memtest86.com/

Also a lot of Linux distos have an option for memory test - Got me out of some head scratching moments

I was going to post this - I've had similar symptoms in the past. Best thing is to boot with a linux distro, and run the memtest program overnight (let it go through several times).

[Chimune]

Download memorytester to a floppy and boot from it. It will do exhaustive tests on yr rams. Ultimate Boot Disc will do the same if you have no floppy.

[fivesixseven8]

aclivity said:

Morningside said:

A common memory test program.
http://www.memtest86.com/

Also a lot of Linux distos have an option for memory test - Got me out of some head scratching moments

I was going to post this - I've had similar symptoms in the past. Best thing is to boot with a linux distro, and run the memtest program overnight (let it go through several times).

So something like this then? http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/ (I've no floppy drive on the machine!)

I've checked the machine now I'm home and it's still running. Looks like the RAM I've taken out is at fault. I'll put it back in over the weekend and see if it starts giving me bsod again.

Thanks for the help!