Major problems- Reboot failures, random reboots...

[Zambini]

I've had many problems in the past 2-3 days. My comp, which has been running 100% efficient and smooth and error free for the past couple months overclocked from 2.13 to 3.2ghz, 400mhz FSB and 2x memory multiplier.

Now, I was crapping my pants fearing I had a virus...... But I had just done a virus scan with AVG and it didn't reveal anything, and SMART on my two drives reads 100% and 98%, and Disk check on all 3 of my drives showed up perfect.

So it all started yesterday when Explorer died, and has been buggy ever since. I tried rebooting @ the above OC'd settings, and it didn't boot, it just halted running, but nothing was happening. So every time it went back to default BIOS settings and I changed it back to my perfect OC and it crashed, and then it started crashing randomly, even w/o OC, and then it FINALLY worked, I went to desktop (after 2 desktop reboots). Then, whenever I would open a program, it would insta-quit after about 10-20 seconds (hence the virus speak). After i put in the XP pro CD, (which oddly didn't boot into recovery mode), it just loaded perfectly normal with everything normal.

Then XP popped up and said the error was caused by my faulty Random Access Memory (RAM)



Does anyone know WTF happened? Why would it all of a sudden decide to die? Why would it crap itself for 2 hours, making me cry on the inside every time it didn't successfully boot?

so.....I'm gonna run memtest @ defaults, and then if that shows up anything, RMA the ram. (for the billion'th time). Then try to run memtest @ OC'd settings.....

Of course, I have a GINORMIGANTUON physics project due soon (which explains some of the massive panics I had) so I won't do it until that thing is done.

[Capper]

Test the memory modules one at a time
.....
Its hard to simply give a diagnosis....what we need to do is go down the list and whittle it down to a single cause

[Panda Man]

You ran the RAM overclocked. You produced more heat, and voided the warranty. That's what caused it to go faulty on you all of a sudden. You could still RMA the RAM, but that would be a bit unethical to do since you did the damage. There really isn't much more you can do (asusming it is the RAM) other than buy more.

[Zambini]

Actually the ram wasn't overclocked, only the CPU was.

400mhz x 2 Memory Multiplier = 800mhz = the Memory's speed.



And This weekend I'll probably get a chance to run the tests 1 by 1.
Would you suggest unplugging my hard drives during the testing? to avoid on/off operation ?

[Panda Man]

Originally Posted by Zambini

Actually the ram wasn't overclocked, only the CPU was.

400mhz x 2 Memory Multiplier = 800mhz = the Memory's speed.



And This weekend I'll probably get a chance to run the tests 1 by 1.
Would you suggest unplugging my hard drives during the testing? to avoid on/off operation ?

I thought you had OCed it. If its not OCed, then RMA it

I normally don't worry about the disks.

[stinger608]

Another thing to look at, is a possible Power supply problem. This will give all kinds of odd readings with a lot of systems. If you have another power supply, put it in and try to boot again to see if it does the same thing.

[Zambini]

0.o OH NO it cant be my HIPER PSU!!!111

HIPER has a 3yr parts warranty =/

[Dr. V]

The power supply can very well be the source of your problem.

Simply not enough power (or not good power :P) getting to all the components - I experienced this last month; upgraded and it was 100% perfect. HIPER also isn't one of my top recommendations for a good power supply. Sure, it seems sufficient enough for your setup, but I still wouldn't recommend it.

Take out as MUCH as you can, find any (working) power supply, hook it up, and test it. Only way to find out if it's a power supply problem for sure.

If Capper's "try each stick alone" suggestion did nothing, that's the next step.

Good luck!

[Zambini]

I dont mean to sound mean/nöbish, but wouldnt taking everything off make any psu work? since there's 1/10th the load of normal?

Or is this to test the actual connection between PSU and mobo (the 12v or w/e it is)

[halutzparilla]

Zambini, it doesn't really matter if its a 1/10th of the load...
it is logical to assume the PSU if memory not the problem...