 CylonRedPremium,MVM
join:2000-07-06
Bloom County | PC Ram testing software... I want to test my system ram to see if it is the cause of my PC shutting down in a couple of games. No warning, no BSOD, just playing and then shutdown. Time to shutdown varies and this is with newest and older video card drivers. No overheating of GPU or CPU. Turning down the video settings seems to help in general.
Went to get the newest MemTest 86+ and I can't get it to boot from the DVD. Black screen with blinking cursor. Downloaded and USB boot install and get the same thing (yes - removable drive is set to the first boot device).
System also runs Seti@Home 24x7 without issues.
Other software I have used to test the system - OCCT to test video ram, CPU, PSU without missing a beat.
Not sure what else to do or ram testing software to try. Others have had issues with the USB drive and getting a PC to boot to memtest on the USB drive. Going to try a different USB drive and see if that helps.
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Brian
"It drops into your stomach like a Abrams's tank.... driven by Rosanne Barr..." A. Bourdain |
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CylonRedPremium,MVM
join:2000-07-06
Bloom County | Got memtest running on another USB drive...
Any other ram testing software people think is better than Memtest86? Just in case it comes back clean
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Brian
"It drops into your stomach like a Abrams's tank.... driven by Rosanne Barr..." A. Bourdain |
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| Memtest is kind of the "gold" standard of memory testing software .
Just make sure to run it for at least 12 if not 24 hours .
You may want to take the side off and take a close look at the capacitors around the cpu . Look for any signs of bulging , or any discoloration of the tops . I know the bad cap issue is supposed to be a thing of the past , but am stilling seeing it on boards only a few years old . |
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Reviews:
 ·WestNet Broadband
| reply to CylonRed
Windows Memory Diagnostic
»technet.microsoft.com/en-au/maga···ght.aspx
Not sure why the download link is dead - but the utility mtinst.exe can be found all over the internet.
I can upload it somewhere if you want - as we cannot upload .exe files here.
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The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing - Edmund Burke
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Reviews:
·WestNet Broadband
1 edit | reply to CylonRed
Also MajorGeeks can help with a few tools. 
»www.majorgeeks.com/downloads26.html
Or if you want to spend money:
»www.rst.com/rst-usb.shtml |
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CylonRedPremium,MVM
join:2000-07-06
Bloom County | reply to MrFixit1
Good to see that Memtest is still highly regarded - 17 hours and 16 passes - not a hiccup in the system ram dept.
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Brian
"It drops into your stomach like a Abrams's tank.... driven by Rosanne Barr..." A. Bourdain |
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Reviews:
·WestNet Broadband
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I look at it that way too - however the Microsoft tool picked up errors that came to my attention via a bug report while beta testing. The developer pointed me to it after Microsoft tech returned the report on the crashes I logged in tests as bad modules.
It would have to be worth a look at if you trust other sources of the .exe - just to cross reference against the memtest results.
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The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing - Edmund Burke
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CylonRedPremium,MVM
join:2000-07-06
Bloom County | Running video ram now while I am at work. Wonder if my DVD reader/writer is going bad since I can't seem to boot to it anymore. That may prevent me in the short term to testing with the other program.
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Brian
"It drops into your stomach like a Abrams's tank.... driven by Rosanne Barr..." A. Bourdain |
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| Fairly good site on memory testing , actually good site on testing for all kinds of issues .
»www.carrona.org/memdiag.html
Did you see any signs of bad caps ? May want to look at the video card also .
May want to consider running a test program like FurMark against the video card . Just be careful to keep an eye on voltages and temps when you do .
System logs give any hints at all ?
If you ran Memtest86+ overnight with no errors , I have a feeling that the issue is not system ram .
Trying to determine whether an error like this is hardware or software caused can be a real pain 
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| reply to CylonRed
I'd say a video card is a possible failure point. I had a AGP Radeon 9500 fail this way, monitor would either power down to standby mode with computer still running or total shutdown.
As far as DVD-Drive, if it has been frequently used 2-3yrs straight it'll be overdue for replacement----they don't make 'em like they used to do |
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Reviews:
·WestNet Broadband
| reply to CylonRed
said by CylonRed:Running video ram now while I am at work.
I posted these tools in another topic - the Russian Video ram test tool at the bottom of the link would be worth running if you want to check the video ram - it covers a lot relative to the graphics ram.
»Re: Not enough voltage or bad drivers?
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The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing - Edmund Burke
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CylonRedPremium,MVM
join:2000-07-06
Bloom County | I believe that is the one I am running - not many video ram testers out there... |
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CylonRedPremium,MVM
join:2000-07-06
Bloom County | reply to HappyFrappy
said by HappyFrappy:I'd say a video card is a possible failure point. I had a AGP Radeon 9500 fail this way, monitor would either power down to standby mode with computer still running or total shutdown.
As far as DVD-Drive, if it has been frequently used 2-3yrs straight it'll be overdue for replacement----they don't make 'em like they used to do
Video card is not that old (less than a year) so I will be pissed if that is the issue.
I have never had a DVD player/recorder last less than 5 years. This one of probably close to 6 years old (only IDE device in my PC) and I could boot to it less than 2 months ago... Hopefully it is not bad - I need to test more with a few more disks.
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Brian
"It drops into your stomach like a Abrams's tank.... driven by Rosanne Barr..." A. Bourdain |
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| reply to CylonRed
Video cards can fail at any point new or old. The most recent graphics card that failed on me was a EVGA GeForce 8400GS after 8 months(mid 2008 to spring 2009), it scared me away from using "low-profile" cards in dual-monitor setups.
IDE drives are often picky of cheaper media, AZO dye discs are usually the safest on such older drives(ex: ancient 12" PowerBook G4 slot-loader). Maybe I burn too many CDR/DVDR media, on average I wear out two drives in that time frame(Internal PC and a Firewire enclosure). |
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 Gordo74Premium
join:2003-10-28
Monroeville, PA | reply to CylonRed
I would put money on it being the power supply. |
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 MacGyverDon't Waste Your EnergyPremium,ExMod 2003-05
join:2001-10-14
Canada
kudos:1 | Check for bad caps on the motherboard, video card, and in the power supply. |
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CylonRedPremium,MVM
join:2000-07-06
Bloom County
1 edit | reply to CylonRed
34 passes in 12 hours - no errors with video ram.
No bad caps on the motherboard. Video card would have to be taken apart to even SEE the caps (nVidia 670) and I need more time to check for caps on the PSU. . |
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| reply to Gordo74
I'm thinking this as well.
OP: What power supply are you using?
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KI6RIT |
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CylonRedPremium,MVM
join:2000-07-06
Bloom County | I believe it is my ThermalTake Toughpower - 650 watt (modular). |
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| reply to CylonRed
Time to get serious
1 What OS ?
2 What motherboard ?
3 Details on CPU and memory
4 Details on add on cards including video
5 Is anything overclocked ?
6 Any non-default settings in bios ?
7 Is the problem repeatable on demand ?
8 Is it a " hard " shut down including all fans ?
9 Any problems restarting when this happens ?
10 Does this happen only in games , or will a video test program like FurMark cause it to happen ?
11 Have you done any " tweaking " of keyboard or mouse settings ?
12 Access to any spare parts for testing ?
13 What games cause the issue ?
If it is a " hard " shutdown , the question is if the power supply is initiating the shutdown , or is the motherboard telling it to .
You would think that if the power supply is doing the shutdown , a high load test situation would also trigger it .
So far it sounds like this only happens in certain games ? |
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