Technical > PC Hardware Discussion/Reviews > PC Ram testing software...

reply to CylonRed

Re: PC Ram testing software...

reply to MrFixit1
1) XP Pro SP3
2) Asus M4A79XTD EVO AM3 motherboard
3) AMD Phenom 2 x4 945, 4 gigs of GSkill DD3 (1600) ram
4) EVGA GTX 670
5) Nothing OCd.
6) Not that I remember - a zillion settings with this Asus board. At least nothing more than turning off Asus logos and boot priority.
7) Yes...
8) Yes.
9) Nope.
10) So far only games though I am not sure I have run Furmark. I have run Seti#Home 24x7 on PC and video card since I got the vc. Always turn off Seti before playing.
11) Nope.
12) No.
13) Call of Duty - Modern Warfare 3, Black Ops, and Dead Space 2.

Decidedly not heat as well.CPU not getting above 52c (back room PC is in is quite chilly in the winter). Don't remember the temps on the GPU but it was low. I will have to see if I can find the log.
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Brian

"It drops into your stomach like a Abrams's tank.... driven by Rosanne Barr..." A. Bourdain

There's no logs what so ever mentioning this - other than the power cycle records in the event viewer?

Edit: grammer

The first couple of times there was a note about the nvidia driver and that was with the newest driver. Since I went back to an older driver (earlier this year) - nothing. Just the logs for the services restarting.

I am running Furmark but I expect no issues. Was going to check it before I left for work but I forgot. I plan to check at lunch and see if it is still running.
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Brian

"It drops into your stomach like a Abrams's tank.... driven by Rosanne Barr..." A. Bourdain

Maybe something like hardware acceleration for the graphics card is affecting your system?

But then it got me thinking, did you install the graphics update off Windows update recently?
See here in the security updates topic.
Can you check for KB2670838 in the update history too please?
--
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing - Edmund Burke

reply to CylonRed
Isn't windows screaming at you about improper shutdown ?
Would expect it to be very unhappy when it restarts .

Will say you have more courage than I do . Not too sure I would leave FurMark running without being there to monitor it
FurMark is designed to run the card up to max temp , and it does a very good job of it .

How loaded is your computer as far as programs installed ?
To put it another way , how much of a hassle would a reinstall of windows be ?
Be sure to try norwegian"s suggestion of a clean boot first though .

You would think that a software conflict would lead to video distortion or freezing instead of shutdown , but since the motherboard is what tells the power supply to shut down , I can see conflicts causing a hard shutdown .

Have you tried down-clocking the video card ?

What you mentioned about setting back video settings helping suggests that the power supply may think it is seeing a short or overload and that is causing it to shut down . The question being if it is a real or false sensing .

What is your normal power supply load when not gaming versus gaming ?

Do wish you had another video card and power supply to try , but what is is .

FurMark - 7 hours 16 minutes. 76C, 100.9% TDP, fan @ 51%, AA set to 2x 1280x1024 resolution, avg FPS - 43.

Still running when I left the house a 1:40 PM. It was still running when I got back home - that would be almost 12 hours of burn-in running.

Windows asks if I want to boot into Recovery Console or the Windows install - that is it.

Have not tried the clean boot (never had to do that) and a reinstall would be a pain but I will eventually need to do it. I would like to get Win7 in the near future.
--
Brian

"It drops into your stomach like a Abrams's tank.... driven by Rosanne Barr..." A. Bourdain

reply to norwegian
Those updates all look to be Windows 7 updates...

reply to CylonRed
Man almost out of ideas
Only hardware that has not been tested are the input devices .
Am thinking that since the failures occur while gaming , but do not seem to occur on computer controlled testing , there might be something wrong with the mouse or keyboard .
I realize that is a real reach though ,and not sure how to test for it . Maybe try using a different USB port ?

Since it happens in 3 different games , don't know if reinstalling the games would do any good .

When you rolled back the video drivers . how did you remove the old drivers ?

I suppose you could also try testing with prime 95 and 3dMark , but have a feeling they will not show anything .

If I had the computer in front of me , I would probably start by imaging the drive to another (external) drive ,then wiping and reinstalling windows . Fully patch windows , then install the video drivers . Install 1 of the games and test . If ok install game 2 etc.
If the problem reoccurs , try power supply first ,then try with only 1 stick of memory (unless more required by motherboard )
, then video card . If problem still persists , try another motherboard.
I realize that this is not practical to do unless you have spare components on hand , which is one of the few advantages to rolling your own

I have a feeling that this is going to be one of those WTF? I didn't know that could cause that moments .

Use Driver Cleaner Pro to remove the drivers. My keyboard is ancient - literally. It is the keyboard from 1995 and my first PC - Zeos and of course it has an AT connector... Doing the clean reboot to see if it makes any difference..

I dunno - maybe the PSU is still in play.... Or there is a odd software issue but then I think I would upgrade to Win7.

Anyone know if I get the upgrade of Win 7 if I have to have a XP base install or can I do a clean install right from the Win 7 disk?
--
Brian

"It drops into your stomach like a Abrams's tank.... driven by Rosanne Barr..." A. Bourdain

reply to CylonRed

quote:

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Doing the clean reboot to see if it makes any difference..

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reply to CylonRed

reply to CylonRed

Just so we don't confuse anyone , EVGA GTX 670 is NVIDA
Procedure described is correct though , just switch NVIDA for AMD.-ATI .
Driver Cleaner should have done this , but it never hurts to check .

reply to CylonRed
Couple of final thoughts .
Just to confirm , when it shuts down the power light on the motherboard is not on ? Not the one on the front panel but the green one on the board itself ?

If I remember correctly , a short on an AT style keyboard - mouse connector would cause a shutdown . Don't know if that still holds true on current generation boards , since most of the ones I work on seem to use USB . Any chance you have another keyboard available to try ?

Took a look at the manual for that motherboard , see what you mean by options up the wazoo .
Don't think it would do any good , but it looks like it would be easy to save the bios profile that you are using now , and then reset everything to default .

reply to CylonRed

Just a couple of other thoughts of things you can try that does not cost anything. MrFixit1 mentions RAM and saving the profile of the bios and resetting the bios, most of the below items can or could cause power issues on the motherboard side I would think, but saving the current bios profile might be advised first:

1. RAM and trying 1 stick only as mentioned, have you tried the second batch of slots? I'm gathering you are running 2 x 2GB sticks of RAM?
2. Have you tried manually setting the RAM instead of having it set to AUTO. (ref - 3-14)
3. Have you tried turning off Secure Virtual Machine Mode (ref - 3.5.2, 3-16)
I've known my motherboard, an asus amd board too (earlier model), has to have this turned off unless there is virtual machines running - and gaming / over clocking was mentioned when I hung out at the ASUS forum, you would have thought they sorted that one out in later motherboards/chipsets.
4. Have you tried turning off C1E support? (ref - 3-16)
5. You have the latest bios? Microcode updates checked off ASUS support?
6. PCIPnP is set to no? (ref - 3.5.6, 3-20)
7. Suspend Mode is set to off? (ref -3.6.1, 3-21)
8. Disabling of Power On by hardware? (ref - 3.6.4, 3-22)
9. Tried with Quick Boot disabled? (ref - 3.7.2, 3-26)
10. Express Gate disabled? (ref - 3.8.2, 3-29)

Good luck.
--
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing - Edmund Burke

reply to CylonRed
I think it is the power supply.

Also, Windows XP on that hardware could be causing problems as XP was never designed for that level of power.