RE: [gentoo-user] [OT?] ram question
-Original Message- From: Ryan Sims [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: 14 January 2006 23:24 To: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] [OT?] ram question My bios will let me change the FSB frequency (100, 133, 166 and 200MHz), and then sets the ram by that number. You could start at 100MHz and work your way up until your machine becomes unstable. Generally speaking I stay with the speed that the memory is rated at - some of my hardware is a bit dated and would not like to fry them for a relatively small overall speed benefit. I ran memtest86, it found errors in test #5 (Block move, 64 moves, 52 of them), but I've read that tests 5 and 8 are sometimes squirrelly on Athlon systems. Is there a way to tell in which stick the error is happening? Or should I just test them each individually? I would test them both individually. There's an application which will mark bad blocks so that they are no longer used by the CPU but I can't remember its name . . . Of course if one of the sticks fails on MEMTEST86+ then I would just bin it or return it for healthier sample. It's not really worth the hassle trying to fix it. On top of everything else mentioned with regards to memory speed and settings for memory parity error checking, I found two things of importance when I was trying to fix a box crashing at random on me: 1. The positioning of the sticks is important - follow your Mobo OEM's recommendations. With two sticks you may need to use memory slots 1 3, as opposed to 1 2 or 1 4. 2. Certain memory sticks will only work happily with other sticks of the same make/model/speed and size. Mixing and matching has often caused previously stable boxes falling apart on me. -- Regards, Mick -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list
Re: [gentoo-user] [OT?] ram question
memtest86+ ( http://www.memtest.org/ ) works well for detecting bad RAM, and comes standard on the x86 Gentoo install CD, I believe. Ryan Sims wrote: only the new stick is in. Is this indicative of something? I'm already pretty convinced that it's a bad stick, but I wondered if anyone could shed further light for me. -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list
Re: [gentoo-user] [OT?] ram question
On Saturday 14 January 2006 17:27, Ryan Sims wrote: I just bought a 512M stick of Crucial ram to complement another 512M stick...suddenly I'm getting tons of crashes, reboots, failed compiles, etc. I removed the new stick, and all is well, now I'm trying just the new stick alone, see if perhaps it was the both together... Something odd I've noticed, however: the new stick takes longer during the BIOS memory check...i.e. the old stick (infineon, I believe) the numbers go by essentially instantaneously. The new stick, however, I watch them tick past for a good second (unless I hit ESC, of course) This is true if the two sticks are in together, or if only the new stick is in. Is this indicative of something? I'm already pretty convinced that it's a bad stick, but I wondered if anyone could shed further light for me. -- Ryan W Sims If you got the Crucial stick from them, not second hand, it's very unlikely it's bad- they test them at the factory- I've never gotten a bad stick from them in many years of building computers. Does the Crucial stick by itself cause the problems? Have you tried changing which stick is in ram slot 1- that's the slot that will control the memory HZ and timings. If they aren't compatible, you may have problems. For example, if a faster pc3200 stick is in slot 1, and a slower pc2700 stick in slot 2, you can have problems, as it will be forced to try and run are a higher speed that it can handle. I assume you have reset the sticks in the slots. What about overheating? What about checking the ram timings in the bios. What about the power supply? There's a lot of things that could cause this, but if your box boots and runs normally for a short while, them problems start occurring, I'd suspect overheating- maybe the second stick blocks airflow to the first stick- it's unlikely, but who knows? Maybe you moved some ribbon cables around in the case when you added the new stick, and disrupted air flow that way. -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list
Re: [gentoo-user] [OT?] ram question
On 1/14/06, Robert Crawford [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: If you got the Crucial stick from them, not second hand, it's very unlikely it's bad- they test them at the factory- I've never gotten a bad stick from them in many years of building computers. Does the Crucial stick by itself cause the problems? I just finished testing that out, and no, it doesn't seem to. Have you tried changing which stick is in ram slot 1- that's the slot that will control the memory HZ and timings. If they aren't compatible, you may have problems. For example, if a faster pc3200 stick is in slot 1, and a slower pc2700 stick in slot 2, you can have problems, as it will be forced to try and run are a higher speed that it can handle. They're both pc3200, but I just rebooted with them in but reversed, so we'll see. I assume you have reset the sticks in the slots. What about overheating? What about checking the ram timings in the bios. My bios will let me change the FSB frequency (100, 133, 166 and 200MHz), and then sets the ram by that number. What about the power supply? There's a lot of things that could cause this, but if your box boots and runs normally for a short while, them problems start occurring, I'd suspect overheating- maybe the second stick blocks airflow to the first stick- it's unlikely, but who knows? Maybe you moved some ribbon cables around in the case when you added the new stick, and disrupted air flow that way. Power supply's ok, and heat doesn't seem to be an issue. Hemmann, Volker Armin [EMAIL PROTECTED]: Are all ram timings on auto? If there is a 'ram flexibility' or 'compatibilty' option, is it activated? Are you overclocking? I'm not overclocking anything, unless setting the FSB freq to 200MHz counts, but I can't find any other ram-related settings in my bios (compatibility/flexibility or such as was mentioned earlier.) I ran memtest86, it found errors in test #5 (Block move, 64 moves, 52 of them), but I've read that tests 5 and 8 are sometimes squirrelly on Athlon systems. Is there a way to tell in which stick the error is happening? Or should I just test them each individually? I will look for other test programs, as well. -- Ryan W Sims () ascii ribbon /\ campaign - against html mail - against proprietary attachments -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list
Re: [gentoo-user] [OT?] ram question
I read and noticed that you said both sticks are PC-3200. I have another question: are you mixing registered and unbuffered memory (registered memory has an extra chip in the middle)? If so, it's possible that this could be a problem (I had a problem that actually turned out to be a bad BIOS setting, but I also can't remember if the same thing was due to my mixing the two at some point, which I had at first thought was the problem. It may be a long shot, but it's worth looking at anyway.) James -- My blog: http://www.crazydrclaw.com/ My homepage: http://james.colannino.org/ If Carpenters made houses the way programmers design programs, the first woodpecker to come along would destroy all of civilization. --Computer Proverb -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list
