Miguel,
In the past, there have been problems with the ASUS P2B and P3B series of motherboards that required correction by ASUS in order for Photoshop to run properly. Hopefully yours isn’t a similar problem with the A7V8X.
Good luck,
Daryl
Miguel,
You definitely have a hardware or BIOS problem
I had a similar problem recently when I bought a new computer. The board is an ASUS A7V600 with 400 speed DDR RAM. Both Photoshop 6 and CS would cause it to crash but the BSOD didn’t indicate any driver problems.
I solved it last week. It was due to an incompatible brand of memory. The guy who built it never checked the ASUS website for compatible RAM. I did eventually and found that the brand I had installed (Infineon) was ok for the high speed Pentium boards but not for the A7V600. Changed to a compatible brand last week and I’ve not had a crash since.
I’d suggest checking the ASUS website and seeing if the memory you have installed is compatible. If WIndows is reporting a definite driver problem rather than it might be a driver, then maybe it is a problem driver of course but these error messages often seem to be way off the mark.
Miguel
Just an add-on to what I said above. I just has a look at the Asus site for your board and it is very similar to mine, the only major difference being that mine has 400FSB and yours is the earlier version with 333FSB. Given the similarity in the boards and symptoms, I would say that there is a strong likelihood that the brand of memory is at the root of your problem.
However (and this is weird), I just did a recheck on my board and in fact the Infineon memory is one of the recommended and tested brands for my board. When I visited the site, I downloaded the recommended memory for the A7V600-X (not the A7V600) and this did not have Infineon as one of the brands. Therefore by a fortuitous accident I have solved the problem. The lesson here is that even the tested brands may not work properly. Perhaps they don’t give them a real drive with Photoshop which certainly had something to do with the whole thing as the machine was working perfectly in all other apps such as Office, IE etc.
I was fortunate in that I got a local dealer to build the machine and he was extremely cooperative in getting it working. We also tried out 333 speed memory which worked for a while and then caused all sorts of problems with the BIOS. If I had had to mail-order the memory, I could have been a while finding something suitable. He just ordered in new memory and took back the Infineon without any problem. The stuff that works in mine is Samsung but that doesn’t necessarily mean it will work in yours. I wish you luck with this and I hope this helps.
You might also take out the ram and have it tested. Hopefully, you can do that locally. It won’t guarantee that the ram is correct for your board, but will catch a ram out of spec.
I don’t know if Miguel is coming back but I better finish what I started here. It looks like I tempted fate in stating that my problem is solved. After 10 days of trouble-free computing, my new machine crashed in exactly the same way as before -twice in a few minutes. Again using Photoshop with the processor belting out at 100%.
I am now at a loss as to what to do but I think I’m going to go for a different brand of motherboard as I am now more or less convinced that the Asus board is at the heart of the problem. I’ve already switched the board for another the same so it is unlikely to be a faulty board. I’ve also switched the power supply and added a super cooler so it’s not overheating.
I have a friend who uses an Albatron (sp?)board with an AMD processor, for vidio capture, editing and DVD burning. No problems at all in the several months of use. Frys sells them.
Thanks Lawrence. I’ve just done a BIOS update which was specifically for greater stability for systems using Kingston and Kingmax memory (no mention of Samsung) but obviously there must be problems with this board. It’s a pretty new board and this is the first BIOS update. I’ll try this first and see if it does any good. I’m actually in England and haven’t heard of Frys by the way.
I was considering the Asus A7V8X for a new hardware update, and now I see that maybe I need to look elsewhere. I have an A7Pro, running ancient front bus and cpu speeds and I have had minimal problems with it, mostly due to dirt and grime.
Len, if you are still here, of what sort of BIOS problems do you speak?
Wanna buy a VT600 Lawrence? Going cheap. I’ve just done my test routine using an action to convert a folder containing 700 JPEGS to small thumbnails and it got to about 600 (about 5 minutes) when it crashed so the BIOS update hasn’t helped. I’m at a complete loss now as I think the only thing left is to go for a different brand of board.
I read back a few months ago in a PC mag test of several motherboards that the Athlon boards were very sensitive to the type of PC3200 memory installed but so far I can’t find any other major manufacturer besides Asus specifying memory brands. However, even going for slower memory didn’t work. I tried some PC2700 Micron memory before the Samsung and this was much more unstable than the PC3200.
I wish now I’d bought a Pentium system.
I have this same motherboard, ASUS has updates to the BIOS and chipset for this motherboard that specifically address this issue. Start there if you haven’t already
I suppose it’s asking a lot of Adobe, but given the complexity and resource drain of their products, particularly their CS products, I would like to see a list similar to MS concerning hardware they could sign off on,(off on?) as well as the parameters necessary from a generic point of view. Those not willing to take on the assembly of correct hardare from the specs could compare their vendors offers againt the list.
David
I updated the BIOS and the Via 4in1 drivers to no avail. I can crash the machine at will. The only other download that seems relevant is the ViaRAID stuff although I am using an IDE drive. However I’ve just downloaded the package and read the readme file about four times to try to make sense of it and am not really sure what to install.
Can you clarify by any chance? Do I need to install everything or just the VT8237 plus the drivers. I assume the latter but the whole thing is really vague to me and because it is affecting the BIOS I don’t want to just blast ahead regardless without knowing what I’m doing.
Lawrence,
of what sort of BIOS problems do you speak?<<
Incorrect timing settings, AGP aperture size settings etc.
some boards also allow overclocking. if you’re overclocked turn it off!
I wouldn’t overclock this thing Dave. It would probably fry my dinner for me if I did. The Athlon 3000 processor is fast enough for me.
<< if you’re overclocked turn it off >>
….especially if your PC uses an AMD Athlon. Those things can get hot enough as it is. I had to replace my Athlon XP 2000+ two weeks ago. Apparently it got fried – my PC was frequently crashing and rebooting. When I tried to reinstall Windows XP, I kept getting PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA and the instruction address when it failed was always the same. Coincidentally, all this happened just after I upgraded to Photoshop CS. Also, one of my two intake fans was faulty.
Bill
Seems that, if it’s a BIOS problem as Len suggests, setting everything to default would have to be first. Some mobo’s now will do this auto if it detects a bootup problem.
Dave, thanks for the link, but boy, the options, especially chipset options, are bewildering. I need to examine them to decide which one, and I am no expert on chipset performance, especially for a program like PS. The deciding factor in picking AMD/Asus was the VIA chipset, which reviewers gave high marks for labor intensive use, such as PS. I haven’t been sorry, but then, it’s all I know/use.
Just to clarify: I’m not overclocking, the processor is not overheating (it’s hitting max 59C since I installed a new cooler as this was the first thing I suspected which is 20C below the cutoff point on the board), I’ve installed a replacement motherboard (same model) so it’s unlikely to be a faulty board, I’ve tried three different brands of memory and I’ve tried three different power supplies. I’ve updated the BIOS and VIA chipset drivers yesterday.
The only things I haven’t changed are the hard drive (brand new Hitachi with no detectable problems using checkdisk) and the processor, I believe it is the design of the board that is causing the problems, particularly given that Asus released the BIOS update to improve stability of certain memory brands and David says it is a known problem.
Lawrence, if I were you I would try something else for now rather than an Asus board- either a different brand of board for Athlon or a Pentium.
Yeah, much as I’d like to do this, we simply don’t have the resources. It takes an army at Microsoft to do the compatibility testing, and even then, it still very incomplete.
-Scott
I expected as such Scott, but I made the suggestion anyway.
The shorter version would be to zero in on the specs that would:
a)provide the optimum environment, and
b)Hinder CS processes.
That take Adobe out of the loop so far as qualifying all manner of hardware suppliers, but leave a basis for narrowing down choices. Dave left me a link to Intel based systems and boy, I sure can’t (won’t!) wade through the large number of choices just on the chip set.
Thanks so much for your patient monitoring and responses to the CS questions, Scott. I appreciate it to no end! 🙂
Thanks guys for the imput.
I am still checking on different source of problems(overheating, power supply), so far I don’t have any crash and no CS.
At this point, looks reasonable the idea of something is conflicting with the type/brand of memory. Before CS was not an issue.
Snowing here in NY and is the perfect weather for the project of reinstalling Photoshop. This time, I will try with Xp in safe mode as sugested for some one in this forum.
Thanks again
It’s not just Photoshop in any case. I’ve just tried out one of my kid’s games – EA Sports FIFA 2004 – and it hit the deck after about 5 minutes. I couldn’t monitor performance but I suspect this probably uses a lot of processor. I’m off to seriously spec some different motherboards.
wrote:
It’s not just Photoshop in any case. I’ve just tried out one of my kid’s games – EA Sports FIFA 2004 – and it hit the deck after about 5 minutes. I couldn’t monitor performance but I suspect this probably uses a lot of processor. I’m off to seriously spec some different motherboards.
Might I suggest that when you do this, take a good look at Abit boards. They perform well and seem to be well-made and reliable (My P4 board, a BD7, has been excellent, unlike the ASUS P2B-S it replaced). ASUS has had a reputation for excellent benchmark performance but my personal
experience (which was discussed a bit on this forum a couple years ago) is that their customer support is non-existent if you have a bad board. Also, if your finances permit you to consider a new cpu with your new board, I would urge you to consider a Pentium. Love ’em or hate ’em, the
Intel chipsets have historically been rock-solid, something which definitely cannot be said for VIA, which has only been shipping reliable, high-performance chipsets for the last couple years–and even then there are still issues with incompatibilities and driver problems. If you want to
stick with your Athlon, it might be worthwhile to go with a motherboard with an nVidia chipset–these have been well-received in the enthusiast "community," to the extent that "Maximum PC" magazine is building its new baseline machines using nVidia-based boards (FWIW). It’s true that
nVidia has had its own (mis)adventures with drivers over the years, at least with its video controllers, but that appears not to be the case with its motherboard chipsets. Abit doesn’t yet have an nForce3-based board, but its nForce2-based NF7 (or the NF7-S if you want Serial ATA and
FireWire support) looks attractive for an Athlon system.
http://www.abit.com.tw/page/en/motherboard/motherboard_detai l.php?pMODEL_NAME=NF7&fMTYPE=Socket%20A And Athlons are notorious for running hot. I don’t know what the "target" temp is for your cpu, but 59C seems pretty high to me (my 1.6 GHz P4 is running at 41C as I write with just Intel’s stock fan, and I’d be happy if it were a bit lower). You might want to look into beefing up your
cpu cooling. It’s been my impression also that Athlons are sensitive to power-supply issues, so you may want to consider upgrading to a more powerful and higher-quality power supply (check out PC Power & Cooling).
If you do choose to go with Intel, you’ll probably want to look at boards with the i865PE or i875P chipsets.
http://www.intel.com/design/chipsets/linecard.htm?iid=ipp_br owse+chpsts_compare& Abit has several Intel-based boards to choose from, and Intel’s own boards have a reputation for stability and reliability while being a bit conservative in terms of performance. Keep in mind too that just like VIA, SiS, nVidia and the rest, Intel also releases updated drivers for their
chipsets, although not nearly as often as these other companies, and these can be found with a little searching of the Intel website.
Good luck!
Great site, dave! I wish all mobos had the kind of depth of information that the Intel site provides. But then, Intel is in Oregon, where we, at Tektronix, pioneered that attitude. 😉
First time I ever went with intel. (First pc was a 286 clone). I AM impressed. Very impressed.
fc callahan:
I have been running an Asus A7pro with very little problems that couldn’t be traced to problems other than the board itself (like accumulated dirt and grime!). It runs with the Via Apollo chip set, and except for updating as apps get more complicated, I would be happy to keep on truckin’. The CPU runs at 54C, and has been as high as 61C on a hot summer day. I shut the system down when the board temp hits 49+C. If I remember my specs correctly, 100C is the maximum recommended operating temp at the junction of a Si based semiconductor, so 60C or so at the heatsink junction should be fine, if the heat sink is properly installed. The Asus max probe temp for the CPU is default at 85C. The junction failure point for Si materials is around 200C, or 392F, BTW.
It’s notable that the Asus mobo giving people headaches today include a model with the nVidia chipset.
I may be migrating to the Intel, and if I do, I probably will go with the 865PERL.
I just checked prices on the 865perl and wow! not an expensive board at all! $83 to about $113, and the difference id between an 800MHz and 400MHz FSB speed.
I was expecting double, as the high end AMD boards fron ABIT, Asus, and Albatron are in the mid $150 range.
Impressive!
check out all the ports! usb2’s, firewires, 100mb ethernet onboard 5.1 surround sound (not using yet, but I think i’m going to dump my creative labs card and give it a shot). nice set of sw utils w/the board too. this is also the first board i’ve ever been able to reliably let fall into standby without the whole system locking up. comes out ever time clean as a whistle.
Now, all I need is the cash to buy the memory sticks!
I didn’t see the Firewire ports. I thought the PER* series had one with a Gigabit Ethernet port but when I looked again, I couldn’t find it.
How fast of a CPU did you settle on? And, is this the board your custom made computer uses?
Are you snowbound Dave? You must be measuring the snow in feet by now. We are waiting out a storm from the south, which can bring winds in excess of 50 mph inland, and 80 at the beach, about 80 to 90 miles from here. I will have to shut down, then move the car from under some trees notorious for thier instability in a south wind after rain softens the earth. New Year’s eve about ten years ago saw one take out the hood and radiator of my Saab.
Oh well, we all have weather to deal with.
BTW, when I saw the Perl designation, I thought it had someting to do with that programming language. Thought, "Well, now I know why dave likes them". Then I saw it was some sort of serial designation.
Gotta watch them acronyms!
I didn’t see the Firewire ports. I thought the PER* series had one with a Gigabit Ethernet port but when I looked again, I couldn’t find it.
there’s 4 available configs:
<
http://developer.intel.com/design/motherbd/rl/rl_available.h tm>
i’ve got the 3rd from the left.
How fast of a CPU did you settle on? And, is this the board your custom made computer uses?
I went with 2.8 hyperthreaded. couldn’t justify the cost to go to 3. yes this is the board in my system.
Snow? Yup. 8 inches so far. Now in a break supposed to pick up 12 tomorrow. Much as I like the white stuff, it looks like it’s going to cancel my melissa’s 7th birthday party (kids bowling). 🙁
actually it’s possible I have the 4th config on that page. I could’ve sworn the docs read 100 mb lan… <shrug> either way, it’s a screaming board!
Interesting that there is no designation to identify the configurations on the chart.
Also why is the AGP slot rated for voltage? 1.5v?
Finally, isn’t it strange about the warranty? They all have 3 yrs but some have also 1 yr, others not. So, does that mean that the ones without the one year warranty won’t be honored unless they fail after one year?
Too bad about the party. Move to Oregon. No snow here. (Yeah, right!)
Looks like the high wind didn’t materialize, at least in my neighborhood.
Later……..
Also why is the AGP slot rated for voltage? 1.5v?
because some old (first rev) agp cards won’t work. if you check the tech doc on the first link, you’ll see an explination. hence my need to go get a new vid card! 🙂
I’m not too concerned about the warrenty as the whole system is good for a year. After that, well …
Too bad about the party. Move to Oregon. No snow here. (Yeah, right!)
Called the bowling alley this morning. Bunch a’ bowlin’ hicks! "Heck yea we’re open! We ain’t shuttin’! We’s got a tourney today! The parkin’ lot’s immaculate!" It’s just starting to flurry again. Here comes round 2! 🙂
Thanks for the input fc callahan. I posted something on an Asus newsgroup and this is pretty much the same advice. As I can’t really swap back the processor and it’s almost brand new, I think I’ll go for an nForce2 board. If at that point I still can’t get this machine stable, then I may just dig deep and go for a Pentium. The Athlon 3000 400FSB processor will be donated to my six year old son at that point I guess.
Milbut set me off in a research mode and one thing that came out of it so far is to be sure the memory is certified for the board you are using. This seems to be especially true for the Intel boards, but probably true for Asus as well.
<
http://www.cmtlabs.com>
It’s the site Intel refers users to for information. Hey, for $399 you can buy a sophisticated memory test system!
The reviews for the 865 chipset vs memory seems to indicate that the mobos using this chipset be very carefully matched to a certified memory. Intel offers this on their products using cmtlab, and I would, by induction, assume competency on their part for the other mobos they certify.
Dave, if you are around, certain reviewers and providers really denigrate the 865 chipset, and the disadvantages appear to relate to 3D graphics.
Any comment would be appreciated (apart from: PS don’ use 3D graphics! ;-))
Lawrence, all the 400DDR memory I’ve tried is certified for the Asus board. Unless the memory itself is fake it would seem to suggest that this is meaningless in this case at least in the real world.
No, not meaningless, as the problem cannot be traced to a memory that is highly likely to fail, so far as vendors are concerned. It doesn’t mean that the memory is still not at fault. But it also doesn’t mean that the memory is definitly at fault, at least not yet.
If it is, we may be in big doo-doo!
and the disadvantages appear to relate to 3D graphics.
All I know is I’ve played about 3 or 4 3d intense games on it – start to finish – since I’ve gotten it and never seen a stutter or hesitation. Can you provide me a link or 2?
The board doesn’t have on board graphics. I’m using an ATI All-In-Wonder 9700 Pro 8x AGP w/128 meg ram (REALLY nice board!)
be sure the memory is certified for the board you are using.
this is crucial (no pun intended) for any mobo. IMO, even moreso, now that systems have reached these incredible speeds and the tinyest mis-timing can fudge up the whole she-bang!
Crucial, like in the memory sticks? 😉
Interesting that Crucial is not on the list of qualified memory providers. Also, there doesn’t appear to be any 1G memories either.
I’ll look up the link.
How was the birthday party?
Just to complicate the issue, I’m having exactly the same problem with a different MB and processor. I’m running a Shuttle AK31 with an up-to-date BIOS, an AMD XP2400+, 1gig memory, WinXP, and good stable drives. No overclocking, tweaking or messing around of any kind.
I’ve narrowed it down to PS CS. If I don’t run it, I never crash. If I do run it, I crash to the BSOD most of the time usually after I exit PS and start another application.
The Blue screen gives me nothing consistent to key on.
The only solution I’ve found so far is to NOT run PS CS ;(
If I do run it, I crash to the BSOD most of the time usually after I exit PS and start another application.
BSODs in XP are usually driver related. Start with the latest xp signed video drivers and keep updating drivers until the BSOD goes away.
It seems to come down to XP and driver issues as #1. I don’t see the same problems with W2K. At least, the same frequency of occurance and problem intensity.
I am seeing an interesting phenmenon that may have to do with video accereration: Blinking cursor while moving around the screen. I also note that the cursor won’t change to the arrow when exiting the image. If I have a crop tool, it shows that icon even when I go to the task bar. Clicking along the way changes it to the arrow.
The reverse is sometimes true. The arrow won’t change to the tool icon until I click it in the image area. Exiting PS and reopening fixes this for a while, then finally, I have to Reset Prefs (again!)
This is only true (the blinking cursor) in PSCS. All other apps the cursor runs true.
Don:
Try this:
Unistall CS, during the process will ask you about removing the activation key. Don’t do it. Only the program.
Reboot.
Make sure system is stable (try for a day or 2).
Reinstall CS in safe mode (press F8 after Bios and before Win loads) to make sure no drivers are loading and/or conflicts occur.
Hope this help.
I am seeing an interesting phenmenon that may have to do with video accereration:
easily checked. turn down acceleration.
Actually, it’s referenced in the PSCS "read me". Exactly as I stated it. At least, I don’t hafta reset prefs……..
Hi Dave,
How do I find the list of signed drivers? Sure sounds like a low-risk, low-effort approach.
Thanks,
Don
don, go to your vid. card manufacturer’s web site. They’ll have drivers for each operating system.
Don:
Try this:
Unistall CS, during the process will ask you about removing the >activation key. Don’t do it. Only the program.
Reboot.
Make sure system is stable (try for a day or 2).
Reinstall CS in safe mode (press F8 after Bios and before Win loads) >to make sure no drivers are loading and/or conflicts occur.
Hope this help.
Thanks but I think I’ll try a series of simpler steps before this one. It’s more time consuming than other:
1) Set memory to conservative settings. I entered BIOS setup and recorded my memory timing settings. Then selected the option for safe settings (can’t rember off hand hows it’s titled in my BIOS); recorded what changes were made (there were two); reset BIOS settings to "OPTIMIZED"; manually set memory back to the conservative settings.
Did this 24 hours ago and haven’t failed yet. If this works, I plan to inch memory back to determine where it fails.
2) Check the Events Log whenever it fails to determine a pattern.
3) As Dave Milbut suggests, I’ll start updating the lastest signed drivers — if I can figure out how : )
4) Reinstall as you suggest.
I have a feeling my problem results from either drivers or marginal memory chips. In the "old days", it was commom to move memory chips around to see if the failure point changed. Not sure if this is relevant today.
Will keep you posted.
Dave Milbut wrote: don, go to your vid. card manufacturer’s web site. They’ll have drivers for each operating system.
Thanks again, Dave.
Updated Video drivers. We’ll see if that makes a difference. If I have no more problems, we’ll have to decide whether the drivers or memory settings made the difference. Naturally, I hope it’s the drivers.
Also achieved another nice upgrade : ) I knew my Windows XP "activation points" were getting close to marginal. Since installing XP I’ve replaced all my drives, my CPU, and added memory. Only the video card, MB and network card were unchanged. Uninstalling the video drivers resulted in a prompt to reactivate. After installing the new drivers, I did reactivate. What a nice and easy process! So now I’m back to the maximum "activation points". Let’s see, what can I upgrade next? ; )
those "activation points" age you know. as long as you don’t do them all at once you shouldn’t have a problem. after about 6 months they reset themselves.
Don
Is it just Photoshop CS? HAve you tried earleir versions. Does it crash when the processor is flat out (cheeck this in Task Manager) or is it random. If it is after quitting PS, it kinda suggests a memory problem but I saw this as well. What about heavy duty 3D games?
Have your tried this www.memtest86.com/
I’ve been posting on an Asus forum since Friday and getting a lot of good feedback. Memtest does some very thorough memory checking and is highly regarded by the guys on the Asus site. The procedure is to do what you are doing – changing the BIOS settings – but then using memtest to test stability at particular settings.
I downloaded it on Saturday and tried it with various settings but the machine actally crashed during the high setting test which apparently is very odd and led to somebody suggesting that my processor was faulty. I changed the processor today and the machine now seems to be very stable. I am keeping a conservative outlook right now but I am very optimistic that this might finally have solved my problem after 6 weeks of changing everything but the processor.
Microsoft activation is supposed to reset after 120 days by the way. It’s strange because I reckon I went way over the allowed changes without reactivation of Win or Office XP so far.
Good luck
Is it just Photoshop CS? HAve you tried earleir versions. Does it crash when the processor is flat out (cheeck this in Task Manager) or is it random. If it is after quitting PS, it kinda suggests a memory problem but I saw this as well. What about heavy duty 3D games?
Heavy-duty 3D games? Not even 2D 🙂
CS is my first full version after using PE2 for over a year. I tend to agree it’s a memory problem. I’ve run over 24 hours without problem since I reset memory to conservative settings. Also ruled out CPU since I still had my AMD 1600+ to swap for my 2400+.
I did upgrade my video drivers as suggested but that was long after the memory changes.
Have your tried this www.memtest86.com/
Just ran it for about an hour on my conservative settings thanks to your suggestion. Passed. I’ll return the settings to "Optimized" tonight and let it run until it fails or I give up. If it fails, I have room between the conservative and optimized settings to try again.
Microsoft activation is supposed to reset after 120 days by the way. >It’s strange because I reckon I went way over the allowed changes >without reactivation of Win or Office XP so far.
Most, if not all, of my upgrades have probably been made in the last 120 days so manybe it reset before I upgraded. The reset must be done in the background since I’ve never received a reactivation request before.
Thanks
Don
Well I wish you luck and I hope I am not back in a similar situation myself again soon. Having spent a good part of the last six weeks trying to diagnose the problem with my brand new machine, I empathise with you.
The reason I asked about games was I thought it only happened in Photoshop until a few days ago when I played a soccer game with my 6 year old son and it blew halfway through. The only good thing about it was that he was going to win.
Another thing I discovered in changing the processor from the 3000 FSB400 down to 2800 is that there is absolutely no difference in speed between them using PS on this machine but quite a difference in price.
I think (fingers crossed) I’ve settled the memory issue. At my conservative setting everything passed. At my "Optimized" setting I failed halfway through the tests.
There are only two differences in the settings: Que Depth [1 to 4] and Command Rate [1t Command and 2t Command]. Optimized is 4 & 1t; conservative is 2 & 2t. 4 & 2t also passed so that’s my current setting. Time will tell.
Luckily I haven’t really spent that much calendar time on this problem. Ten days max.
And you’re absolutely right; it’s hard to see much speed difference once you’re using a fast machine. Before this CS problem, I ran my AMD 2400+ at 2600+ without any problems. Hey, maybe I’ll try that again 🙂
Well, I crashed again 🙁 So I ran memtest86 again and it reported 2 test #6 failures at 786.9MB and 795.8MB respectively. To determine which stick was bad, I began switching them around but couldn’t get a repeat failure. So I next began testing one stick at a time — no failures! Soooo… I set my memory settings to the more aggressive "Optimized" setting and, guess what, — no failures!
OK, I put all the sticks back in and ran memtest86 all night — guess what — 8 hours and NO FAILURES!
Is it possible that simply reseating the memory sticks cleared up a bad connection? That’s all I can think of at this point.
I couldn’t advise on that one Don. Do you believe in gremlins? Some real world testing over a few days might be more revealing. At least if you know which stick is bad you can replace it without too much hassle or cost these days.
I’m over a week now with my new processor and I’ve not crashed yet. I’ve given the machine a good pounding with my PS actions tests which run the processor flat out. I am extremely optimistic now but, having said that, I went 9 days without a crash before and then it went haywire.
Yes, that’s quite possible. Sometimes if a memory stick isn’t locked in firmly, or if some of the fingers aren’t quite as long as they should be, that thermal expansion and contraction can get them to "walk" out of place over time and a re-seat can cure occasional failures from a previously weak connection.
-Scott
Many years ago I worked as an Engineer at our campus power plant. To clean relay contacts we used an ink eraser — like a pencil eraser but white and ever so slightly more abrasive. Wonder if that would work to clean the contacts on a stick of memory. Of course, if it ain’t broke, I ain’t agonna fix it 😉
I’ve made it through today OK so maybe there’s hope. And I’m running at the more aggressive "Optimized" setting!
don, yes, they work well (at least pencil erasers do). Just make sure to blow thouroughly with compressed air to make SURE you get all the eraser particles off!
Don,
It works, but a proper glass fibre contact cleaning brush is the correct tool to use….
