Could RAM be causing this?

Craig321 · 20 Jan 2006 at 19:56

Hi

It seems when I put quite a bit of load on the RAM, my PC has been having complete freeze ups.

It happened again today when playing Rainbow 6 Lockdown demo.

It seems to happen mostly in games, but it's not the graphic card as it has done it with another graphic card in. I thought it could be a problem with the RAM as to boot it back up I have to take the left hand stick of RAM out and put it back in again.

So could this problem be the RAM?

Thanks
Craig.

dale1uk · 20 Jan 2006 at 20:46

could be, but without knowing full spec its hard to say. Could also be psu or heat related but again would need to see full spec to have a better idea.

Craig321 · 20 Jan 2006 at 20:59

Pentium 4 530 3.0GHZ
200GB SATA HDD
ATI Prophet 9800 Pro 128MB
2x Corsair XMS3200 512MB

I'm probably going to take the left hand stick of RAM out and run it for a week + without that and see if it freezes.

[Edit]
I have been running a Prime95 torture, I'm on test 3, heat is 60C and everything is fine.

Craig.

dale1uk · 20 Jan 2006 at 21:13

try running memtest with one stick at a time then try both togeather and see if you get any faults.
Also try different slots on the board to rule out that.

Craig321 · 20 Jan 2006 at 22:11

I have tried 1/3 and 2/4 and that didn't make a difference. I'll see if memtest finds anything

Thanks
Craig.

Cerberous · 20 Jan 2006 at 23:09

Can you borrow some memory from a friend to test?, if your still having no luck maybe try a different PSU as well.

Craig321 · 21 Jan 2006 at 01:24

Well, that'd be the same as just trying one stick at a time for a week each and see which one does it... if any as the freezes don't happen very often at all.

Craig.

Rednut05 · 21 Jan 2006 at 01:27

My computer locks up after BF2 for a while. after a round or two the whole computer locks up and so I have to turn if off on tower.

Love to see what answer is.

Craig321 · 21 Jan 2006 at 01:54

Do you have to take a stick of RAM out and then put it back in to make the PC boot again?

Craig.

Craig321 · 21 Jan 2006 at 14:43

OK, I'm probably going to test my RAM one at a time today with memtest.

Will post back here when I'm done

Craig.

Craig321 · 22 Jan 2006 at 13:09

OK, I have tested my newest stick of RAM, it passed 44 tests and ran for over 8 hours with no errors at all.

I am going to test my older stick of RAM through the night tonight, I'm really hoping it's faulty.

Craig.

KoemanGR · 22 Jan 2006 at 14:23

may I ask what was the other gfx card you tested your system with?

HangTime · 22 Jan 2006 at 19:12

Would be worth doing a memtest with both sticks in too, sometimes perfectly good memory that will run memtest for hours on its own can't handle being in dual channel mode on some motherboards. However this is usually in relation to AMD rather than Intel platforms.

What PSU do you have? What does your 12v rail read when running prime95?

Craig321 · 22 Jan 2006 at 19:38

Haven't tried in Prime95.
I've tested my system with a ATI 9200 aswell.

Craig321 · 24 Jan 2006 at 15:33

PC:
Intel Pentium 4 530 3.0GHZ Socket 775
Gigabyte 8IPE775-G
Corsair 512MB XMS3200 Pro DDR x2 (1GB)
200GB Maxtor DMax+10 SATA150/7200/8M
Akasa Ultra Quiet 460W ATX v2.0

Stats from everest when running prime95:

For some reason the +3.3v is always at 3.2 and sometimes slight below (e.g. 3.18), would that be a problem ?

Thanks
Craig.