Ram Diagnostic

Andrew_A_Paul · 04-30-2004, 01:38 PM

My computer will shutdown and reboot on its own and i get a "system has recovered from critical error" message. Long story short i was told it could be the ram and i should get a diagnostics program (just search around on google) but havent been able to find anything. Are there any free ones out there? Or if i really want to find out if its the ram or not, ill have to take it somewhere to test it? Thanks.

StephenL · 04-30-2004, 03:03 PM

Microsoft Windows Memory Diagnostic:

http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp

Tekara · 04-30-2004, 04:41 PM

Memtest86 is still as far as I know the defacto standard for finding errors in memory. The program typically installs onto a floppy disk and then you boot your computer of the disk so that the memory program can run without the interference of windows.

Rob Gardiner · 04-30-2004, 07:25 PM

If you do need to replace your RAM, I hear that Kingston ValueRAM is both reliable and inexpensive. I have two sticks in my current desktop PC which has never crashed. YMMV

Christian Behrens · 04-30-2004, 08:34 PM

Yes, another vote for memtest86. Boot with it from floppy or CD and let it run for a while. If/When it spits out messages, it's a bad sign.

-Christian

**HTF Ads**

Harold Wazzu · 04-30-2004, 10:30 PM

I used the Microsoft program to detect some errors with my stick of Crucial ram. It does work.

Rob Gardiner · 04-30-2004, 11:27 PM

Andrew,

Another possible culprit is your POWER SUPPLY. Are you using the cheap-o PS that came with the case? A study at Tom's Hardware demonstrated that many power supplies fail at WELL BELOW their rated output! Unscrupulous manufacturers exploit the fact that there is no user-friendly "benchmark" for power supply output. Many folks who curse Bill Gates' name when their Windows box crashes on them should look at their PS instead.

Fortron is a reliable brand. Their PSs keep running even at 80-90 watts ABOVE their rated output. (not that you should test this theory at home, kids!)

Culprit #3 would be the chipset on your motherboard. You don't have a VIA chipset, do you? Their drivers are notoriously unstable. Updating to the most current drivers may help. Switching to a motherboard with the Nvidia "Nforce" chipset may give you better results. I've heard that the most rock-solid setup is an Intel CPU, Intel MB, and Intel chipset.

Andrew_A_Paul · 05-01-2004, 01:26 AM

It not the power supply that came with the case. This could be coming back f4rom a fried MOBO from over the summer. I got a new Gigabyte board and everything else seemed to be fine, so i didnt change anything. All the ATX red wires melted to the old MOBO So obviously i got a new one. This one should have more than enough power considering im not really running all that much 'under the hood'.

Andrew_A_Paul · 06-08-2004, 03:29 PM

Time to revive this thread. I ran the ram diagnostic recommended in this thread, and nothing panned out. I've read some more forums and talk to a few other people. One other think I found out and tried was a suggestion that it could be a problem with the system restore and a corrupt file and that to solve that is to go into the settings and turn it off, reboot, turn it back on, and reboot again. Well I did this and I didn't have the problem with my computer shutting down on its own for about a day. Now its back to shutting down on its own about 4 or 5 times a day. I've heard that even though the ram diagnostic didn't pan out it can still be the ram. Another suggestion was a virus (only a small possibility, I run an issue of McAfee from the university that they run updates for students so they can keep out viruses they know are common on campus. I'm going to try and get a hold of a DDR chip and run it for a week or so and see if the problem is solved. Does anyone have any other ideas or suggestions? Thanks.

BrianB · 06-08-2004, 04:02 PM

Overheating maybe??