Bad Ram?

T

Trev

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It seems that my computer has been bluescreening with no error randomly lately. I tried to narrow it down to what the problem was. Someone told me that it could be bad ram. I have a year warenty on it, but they said if they test it, and its not bad, its like a $65 charge per hour.. thats bull. So i decided to ask here first.

I ran a program called memtest, it seems if i test 32 megs of ram, it will run fine forevor, once i run 128 megs of ram, it starts to error out. I guess im trying to ask, is there any defenate way to figure out if its my ram or not?

Thanks in advance
--Trev
 
Is it memtest-x86? If memtest says it's bad, then it's most likely bad.
 
do u have 4 chips of 128?
if so...its probably one of ur chips that is bad
take one out
run a 128mb test on the one in there
if it is fine
put the other in
and see if that one tests alright too
put them both in the same slot
if they both come up bad
try a differenet slot
and do the test again
if they both come out alright
its your motherboard
if only one is messed up
you will probably have to replace that stick of ram
if u dont understand i'll explain it again...
 
No i only have 1 strip of 512 mb 2100 ddr ram :-/
i attached some screenshots of what happens when i run the memtest proggy to this message.... if you could maby take a look and tell me what you think
 
See but when i do a lower amount of ram, it is sucessfull...
 
hmm.....
im not too sure
but try and put it into a different slot
run the tests again
and see if that fixes it
if it does....its your mother board...
if not
try on a friends computer puttin it in n runnin the test
 
Well i tried that, there was a big clump of dust in the first ram slot. There was also dust on the copper conducts, hopefully this was the problem... i moved the ram over to the last slot. I am not sure if it works yet, but ill keep you posted, any other ideas in the meantime?
 
no question it's your ram. whether or not it's actually bad is questionable. some mobos just aren't very compatible with some sticks of memory. first, go into your bios and turn down the latency on your memory. make it cas 2.5 and 'normal' timing and see if you have the same problem. if not, tweak with those settings until you get a good performance/reliability compromise. if you still have problems, i'd probably take the chance and return it for testing.
 
I have seen those options in my bios before for ram settings, i never knew what they did though. Do you have a guide on what everything means, so i dont screw myself over? I never played with tweaking ram before.

Thank you again, you all have been so helpfull.
 
don't know enough about them to give solid definitions and detailed explanations... i just kinda know how they work and mess with them. maybe someone else can find a guide for you which explains everything.

until then, the book that came with your mobo should be okay. i wouldn't worry about screwing anything up. at the worst, it will not post, then you just have to clear the cmos jumper and try again. first try setting "SPD" (serial presence detect) anywhere it lets you in the ram settings. if you still have problems, set the latency to 2.5 (2 is faster) and timings to normal.
 
Thanx

Well thanx everyone for all your help with it, i eneded up just going out and buy a 512 strip crucial ram :) the old strip was defentally bad, ill probably go and sell it to some lamer for $100 :)

Thanx again
--Trev
 
you should just return it, if you still have your invoice.. most RAM, if not all, has lifetime warranty...
 
yeah i mite do that, than sell it... im not going to use generic ram with my nice new stick of crucial :)
 

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