Hi,
This error has recently kept appearing on my system crashing whatever program it happens to. The application varies, so far it has happened to
-rundll
-WUSB54G (Linksys Wireless Adapter software)
-Winamp
-Half-Life 2
Sometimes it says "cannot be read", and sometimes "cannot be written", and also gives different memory locations. It happens at different times too, sometimes after the system has been on for ages, today it happened to WUSB54G as windows was booting. And WinXP has locked at couple of times also (I presume the same problem but happening to something critical and then can't report the error).
I presume this is hardware problems, so I'll give as brief an explanation of my setup and other problems I've been having, incase they are related.
*********** Setup ************
Windows XP Home Edition - Fully Updated.
Abit NF7 Mothboard with latest BIOS.
Athlon 2800+ XP with ThermalTake TR2 M8 (sometimes OC'd to 3200+)
512MB Geil DDR400 RAM ( + 2x256MB Geil DDR400 RAM previously, explain later). (Running @ 333Mhz - 400Mhz)
Galaxy GeForce 6800 GT
80GB Maxtor HDD PATA IDE Primary Master - Windows XP Installed here on C:\
200GB Seagate HDD PATA IDE Secondary Master
Teac CDRW IDE Secondary Slave
Freecom External DVDRW USB2.0
Linksys Wireless G Adapter
Creative Soundblaster Live
Tagan 480W PSU
******* The Story *******
ok. here goes.
I bought a webcam, and it wouldn't work, kept showing a blank screen 90% of the time (worked 10% of the time), I tried another one (different manf) and it didn't work right either (very flickery). Both worked fine on another system.
So after fiddling I discovered that if I
a)disabled USB Enhanced Host Controller in Device Manager or
b)disabled USB2.0 from the BIOS
the webcams started working.
But also, sometimes when I connect a device to the USB, all other devices would occassionally "disconnect" and "reconnect", often asking me to reinstall them. So if I plugged in the webcam, the Wireless USB adapter would disconnect and reconnect and ask bring up the "driver install screen", also incrementing the device number. (ie: if it was called "Wireless G Adapter" in the network connections, after this it would be called "Wireless G Adapter 1", this happened so many times that it was eventually called "Wireless G Adapter 14".
Also, occassionally the DVDRW would "die" (as if the signal from windows to it stopped, and if the DVDRW isn't connected to the system it shuts up, even though its got its own power lead.) If I take it out and plug it back in it starts up again, and would be reconnected.
BUT sometimes windows would throw up an error saying "this device has malfunctioned, and cannot be installed" error. Reboots didn't even work. The ONLY was to fix it was to remove ALL USB devices, reboot with none in, and THEN reconnect the DVDRW, followed by the rest of the devices. Strange or what ! ! (Also the DVDRW works fine in another system).
First I though that maybe I should stick in a PCI USB1.1 card and try it. Very strange thing was it did EXACTLY the same thing as the USB2.0 ports when USB2.0 was enabled. I worked when USB2.0 was disabled. Why this would be considering it was (a)in a PCI slot, and (b) a USB1.1 hub, I have absolutely no clue.
Then I thought that maybe the 6800GT was sucking too much power so I replaced the then 400W Mercury PSU with the 480W Tagan. It actually helped alittle with the USB disconnects, but not much with the webcam not working.
The reason I'm mentioning the webcam is that it seems as though a steady flow of data through the USB such as a webcam was causing a problem maybe? Although the DVDRW worked reasonable well.
The main webcam still was buggy, but the secondary one I tested earlier started to work much much better with no flicker since.
So I presumed that the first one was just rubbish, but the second one working meant that something in the system had changed for the better. Maybe the old PSU was the problem.
The CPU disconnects still happened sometimes though (just much less frequently) so I tested the RAM too.
I had 1x512 ram in Dimm1 at this stage and 2x256 in Dimm2+3, so 1024MB in total running in Dual Channel Mode (which the NF7 supports, 3 chips in Dual mode).
I found out that one of the 2x256 chips had errors in it.
At this stage my CPU was running at stock FSB of 333 and the RAM in sync at 333 (therefore the RAM was underclocked to do this). I changed the CPU setup to 200Mhz * 11 Multiplier (3200+ setup) so the RAM was running as it should, and the error disappeared !!!, but the CPU temps were alittle high (55C compared to 48C) so I just removed the 2x256 sticks and set it back down to stock (166Mhz * 12.5 Mulitplier).
(But I still have the worry it was my mobo not liking 3 RAM chips in it, as there is currently only 1x512 in it now).
At this stage there was no 200GB drive. Shortly after I added the 200GB drive to the setup, these memory errors started appearing (I don't know whether this was coincidence or not). So I worried that it was the drive's fault, but it is working great itself. I've loads of data on it now, and it's not giving me any problems (unless its related to the errors).
It sounds really really like memory trouble, but I've ran DocMemory on the 512 stick for about 24hours and memtest86 for about 24 hours with not a single error. I also ran Spinrite which I had on the 80GB drive which passed fine (although Spinrite said it couldn't get access to the 200GB one, though it said the BIOS may be blocking it if there was some sort of gap on it somewhere. I used Partition Magic 8 to set it up.)
Finally, I changed the CPU setup to 400 * 10.5 (my CPU seems unlocked, I can changed the Multiplier to anything I want, up or down) to see if it was a memory problem and setting the FSB back to 400 would help the RAM incase it was a problem not showing up in the tests (as 400 helped the other bad sticks). It didn't help, you'll notice that the Multiplier is lower than the first OC I did (now running in between 3200+ and 2800+ at 2100Mhz), funny enough this CPU setup runs COOLER than the stock setup.
******** Conclusions ********
So in total I've had Bad RAM, USB2.0 problems with webcams not working and devices dying and disconnecting, and now "mem cannot be read/written errors".
So something is needing replaced, and I'm hoping if you guys understood everything above (sorry if it sounds a mess, it is) someone will have some suggestions.
To me I think one of the following :
a)The RAM is bad, no matter what the tests say
b)The new HDD is somehow causing the errors, either because its bad or because the motherboard doesn't like 2 HDDs connected.
c)The CPU is intermittantly faulty
**I'm thinking this one (d) might be the problem**
d)The motherboard is faulty, a combination of the USB problems, the disconnects, the RAM, and maybe even 2HDDs on 2 IDE channels, all could be the mobo possibly.
Problem is that the other system I have here is older (SDRAM etc) so I can't switch and changed parts to find the problem (which by trial and error would be the best way to process, but I don't have the components to do so.)
So if anyone could help it'd be so much appreciated. I bought this machine and built it to get a good performance machine, and its given me soooo much more hassle than lowend machines I've built.
If anyone doesn't understand anything above please ask,
Thanks in advance.
