Computer hardware testing

[Vitnir]

I suspect that some of my hardware is faulty. I have used Memtest 3.0 to test the RAM and it seems that it is a bit flaky. BUT sometimes it passes and sometimes it dont, is there a better testprogram?
Can it also be the motherboard and how do you test that?

 

[Rat]

If Memtest intermittently identifies a chip as faulty, bin it. There's no other alternative. Memory really can be intermittently faulty, and that's not something you want. There are other memory testing utilities, but none is as thorough as memtest in my experience. Memory's not expensive; replace it.

Cheers,
Rat.

 

[Vitnir]

RAM was the first hardware part I suspected when the computer started acting up, reboot in the middle of gaming or crash to desktop. In normal use, writing or surfing everything is fine its when the hardware is pushed by a demanding game that it crashes.
That was a month or so ago, then I tested the RAM with the two chips installed according to the manual and something wasnt right. Then I tested each chip individually and found them both to be OK, then installed both of them again and the only thing that was different from the beginning was that the chips had switched places. And the test was OK!? Now I was confused and started to look the power supply instead since I reasoned myself into beliving that it was old and inadequate. After replacing the PSU the problems still remained though. Then I did the RAM test procedure again with identical results, both chips are fine when tested alone.
That left me wondering about the motherboard, another test I ran is Prime95 that lets the computer calculate large prime numbers and it can do that for hours with no errors.

You are right though, if noone can tell me otherwise I will get new RAM instead. I just wish there was a definitive hardware test (and free!) that could help me.

 

[a_unique_person]

It could be an imcompatability between the RAM itself. IIRC, the BIOS has a setting for setting the access by SPD. This will ask the Chip itself what speed and wait states it needs to run correctly. Perhaps this has been set to a specific value?

 

[Vitnir]

No idea there, I just use the standard settings for BIOS, the chips are "twins" also. The company that sell those made a point of that they were tested together as far as I recall. Besides how would you know what settings you should change to?

 

[balrog666]

You might try the online tests at www.pcpitstop.com ...

 

[a_unique_person]

No idea there, I just use the standard settings for BIOS, the chips are "twins" also. The company that sell those made a point of that they were tested together as far as I recall. Besides how would you know what settings you should change to?

It's easy to do, just go into the BIOS. One of the option pages will have an option for setting the memory access timing. Choose the "SPD" option. Then the timing should be set to value the chip itself supplies.

The other possibility is that there is a transistor failing somewhere, (it's surprises me this doesn't happen more often, when you consider there are millions of the things on a PC now), that can't drive the current any more that it should.

Another possibility is dust causing a minor 'short'. Clean the tracks, and especially the sockets the RAM fits into. A soft brush, or specialist cleaning tools, eg, a blast of air, may fix it too. (It that is the problem.)

 

[Vitnir]

Well I looked into the BIOS and the RAM-setting was "Auto", when I changed it to SPD the T(RAS) value went from 7 to 8 which to my untrained nerd eye appears to be a milder setting according to my manual.
Further long term testing will have to determine if this makes the computer stable since Memtest 86 3.0 passed with both settings after I reinstalled the chips yet again after blowing away some dust from the mainboard. The computer used to break down about once per hour during gaming so I'm not taking just one 1.5 hour session as proof that its OK.

 

[voidx]

Are you overclocking the CPU, RAM, or Graphics CPU at all? If pushed to far this often causes crashes because of the chips or RAM over-heating, or problems with voltage. Might be something else to look into if its not the RAM.

 

[Vitnir]

I have taken all steps I can think of to make sure all hardware has the correct settings and drivers and not run out of their system specs, so no overclocking anywhere. All BIOS settings have been what I thought was standard settings designed for stability, the SPD abbreviation was not explained in my manual so thats why I set it to Auto first. The BIOS is updated and so is the chipset drivers.
I changed back to a previous graphics card to eliminate that part and I pulled out the Soundblaster 5.1 digital Live card that I never was able to install properly and went back to the onboard soundcard, nothing helped.
The graphics driver are not the latest but the ones that were recomended by the game company (SOE).
I looked over the warnings in the log book and rooted out the causes of some errors there I think. There was some servers that tried to start though I have uninstalled those programs some time ago, I just edited the registry to stop the attempts to load those services.

 

[a_unique_person]

Well I looked into the BIOS and the RAM-setting was "Auto", when I changed it to SPD the T(RAS) value went from 7 to 8 which to my untrained nerd eye appears to be a milder setting according to my manual.
Further long term testing will have to determine if this makes the computer stable since Memtest 86 3.0 passed with both settings after I reinstalled the chips yet again after blowing away some dust from the mainboard. The computer used to break down about once per hour during gaming so I'm not taking just one 1.5 hour session as proof that its OK.

I knew if I handed out enough advice here, eventually I'd have a win.

 

[Vitnir]

I finally did what I should have done in the first place, swap the memory from another computer to mine. My computer still crashes and the other one doesn't. I feel that I have narrowed it down to either motherboard or CPU, is there anything else to do before getting a replacement to either? Though it's outdated I can still get the same chipset nForce2 Ultra 400, then I dont have to replace the OS again right?
CPU temperature is at 64 C and chassi around 42 C, is that too high?
Nothing can be allowed to get between me and my killscore!

 

[a_unique_person]

I have had no problem with changing the mother board. You do have to call microsoft and give a reasonable excuse, but they have never knocked me back.

 

[a_unique_person]

I finally did what I should have done in the first place, swap the memory from another computer to mine. My computer still crashes and the other one doesn't. I feel that I have narrowed it down to either motherboard or CPU, is there anything else to do before getting a replacement to either? Though it's outdated I can still get the same chipset nForce2 Ultra 400, then I dont have to replace the OS again right?
CPU temperature is at 64 C and chassi around 42 C, is that too high?
Nothing can be allowed to get between me and my killscore!

Goddam, struck out again.

 

[Vitnir]

I have had PC's since 1993 and have not seen a hardware fault that has been as elusive as this. At least I think its a hardware fault since I reinstalled W2k and it's still around. Curiously enough my DVD-reader would not read my W2k CD without errors so I had to plug in an old CD-reader instead.

BTW is it mainboard or motherboard? I used motherboard first since its a direct translation from Swedish.

 

[Rat]

Some manufacturers call them mainboards. Everyone I've met in real life calls them motherboards. In writing, like many people, I'll abbreviate it to mobo, but I try never to do so in speech. That would be as bad as those people who pronounce SCSI as 'sexy'; yes, you have to put a vowel sound in somewhere to make it pronouncable, but not there.

Cheers,
Rat.

 

[Vitnir]

I would pronounce it "scussi".

 

[Rat]

And so you should. Scussi or scuzzy. As the tech support chap pointed out once in PC Format, though, computing is essentially a solitary affair, and you find out about terms primarily on screen or in print. So it's only when you go to a computer fair or something that you find out that you're the only person who pronounces .ini files as 'inny' files. Actually, I do that; and sometimes .exe files as "exi" files. I cannot stand, though, people who refer to a 'bat' file.

Cheers,
Rat.