Re: Re: memtest fails, but is it the RAM?

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memtest fails, but is it the RAM?
\ Iain Buchanan (6 Jul 2007)
. \ James (6 Jul 2007)
. . \ Iain Buchanan (10 Jul 2007)
. . . \ Dan Farrell (11 Jul 2007)
. . . \ Mick (11 Jul 2007)

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Subject:	Re: Re: memtest fails, but is it the RAM?
Group:	Gentoo-user
From:	Mick
Date:	11 Jul 2007

On Wednesday 11 July 2007 00:29, Iain Buchanan wrote:
> On Fri, 2007-07-06 at 00:40 +0000, James wrote:
> > Not sure this is useful, but, if you can get the system to boot, you
> > and look more closely at the memory specifics with the 'lshw' command.
>
> hey, neat command. The system boots knoppix and windows fine, but I
> don't have gentoo on it (yet :) and I don't have lshw on any live cd I
> have... It can take PC2100, PC2700 or PC3200 though. I currently have
> 2x 512Mb PC3200 in it.

Use apt-get install to install the lshw package on Knoppix. It has a small
footprint and it should hopefully not exhaust your RAM.

> > If you can, swap the memory with another know good system for a few
> > days.... Something might show up as a problem
>
> I did that. The new RAM (another PC3200) works ok, but memtest still
> fails at the same point (test 3). This is confusing me. the same
> live-cd runs memtest on my other machine (DDR2) without fail...
>
> The other funny thing about memtest is this: The info it displays about
> the system is a bit strange. Sometimes it shows a CPU clock of 2999MHz,
> sometimes 3000MHz; sometimes the RAM shows DDR398, sometimes DDR400.
> It's always the same for one particular run of memtest, but sometimes
> changes between boots.

Hmm, is there a BIOS firmware upgrade you could perhaps flash it with?

Can you swap around the RAM modules or remove them one at a time until you
find the culprit? (not sure if you tried that already).

> > > (Ultimately, I'm trying to diagnose a random reboot problem, which
> > > makes me suspicious of the memory, but I'm not sure)
> >
> > I always look at the temperature as the mobo makes it available,
> > or checking the temperature of the hard drive with 'hddtemp /dev/<drive>'
>
> I plotted some GPU and CPU temperatures while running some games, and
> they all go to a reasonable maximum and stop there. I even turned the
> case fans off, and they don't go higher.
>
> The "random reboot" problem is now a "won't boot" problem! I put the
> original RAM back in the same slots, and now the HD's, CD's, and fans
> spin up, but no display appears. I hear a bios beep, and that's it.
> Maybe it's a MBoard issue? Maybe a video card issue? Hmmm, I don't
> want to replace the whole lot!

POST error. Could be due to dodgy memory. Have you tried removing the CMOS
battery and then reflashing the BIOS with the latest firmware?
--
Regards,
Mick