Memory fault or motherboard?
Ok so i have a computer in that was hit by 3 power spikes in a row. Well i thought the memory was at fault but i am out of ideas The computer has four 2 gigs sticks. It is an hp, It is blue screening. Also the system had to have the os reinstalled. windows vista x64. Also the video card had to be replaced.
So far i pulled out all the memory and tested them one by one. stick 0 works fine in bank 4 and 2. stick 1 did not work in any slots, the same goes for stick 2 and 3. If i put stick 0 in bank 4 and stick 1-3 in bank 2 the system boots. I tried every slot with every memory stick and it wont boot if i have more than 1 memory stick in at a time, of the original memory. I can how ever put a memory stick 512mb of the same speed and type, in any slot with any of the stock memory and it will boot, as long as it is one stock stick and the 512mb stick. If i do more than that it blue screens.
Now the wierd thing. I reinstalled vista 64, with all 4 memory sticks in, so the full 8gigs, and the install went perfect. Until 5 minutes into the desktop,and the system rebooted and blue screened. That is when i started testing the memory. The video card is good. The blue screen error is 0x00000e7 i believe. I am away from the computer, and wont bee in to work until tomorrow.
Now upon reading it could be a video adapter, driver, etc... But why would it boot when changing the memory.
Now, could there be a short that happened when the computer was hit by the power spikes? Or could the voltages be causing the issues? I have not checked the voltages yet, nor did i test the power supply yet. I will test that tomorrow, but i really need help because we are stumped.
So far i pulled out all the memory and tested them one by one. stick 0 works fine in bank 4 and 2. stick 1 did not work in any slots, the same goes for stick 2 and 3. If i put stick 0 in bank 4 and stick 1-3 in bank 2 the system boots. I tried every slot with every memory stick and it wont boot if i have more than 1 memory stick in at a time, of the original memory. I can how ever put a memory stick 512mb of the same speed and type, in any slot with any of the stock memory and it will boot, as long as it is one stock stick and the 512mb stick. If i do more than that it blue screens.
Now the wierd thing. I reinstalled vista 64, with all 4 memory sticks in, so the full 8gigs, and the install went perfect. Until 5 minutes into the desktop,and the system rebooted and blue screened. That is when i started testing the memory. The video card is good. The blue screen error is 0x00000e7 i believe. I am away from the computer, and wont bee in to work until tomorrow.
Now upon reading it could be a video adapter, driver, etc... But why would it boot when changing the memory.
Now, could there be a short that happened when the computer was hit by the power spikes? Or could the voltages be causing the issues? I have not checked the voltages yet, nor did i test the power supply yet. I will test that tomorrow, but i really need help because we are stumped.
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althouh i could only run prime 95 one stick at a time because it wont boot with more than one stock memory stick.
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Also again i do have UBCD and tried that. I also can use memory base programs such as UBCD, ERD 05, and Spotmau
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Ok. I can use all the memory and run UBCD. I am going to right now test the power supply for correct voltage. Also i am not sure if the customer will want to replace the motherboard. We are hoping that it was not a motherboard issue, though it looks like it, and more. I will post back when i completed more tests.
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Ok so last night i left stick 2, in memory bank 4 and it worked fine and i ran the system overnight and it did not bluescreen.
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Check Disk just completed and recovered a lot of orphaned files. And applied attributes to a few.
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Ok. I have another computer in shop that uses ddr2, so i put so far 2 of the memory sticks in that computer that i know is good, and it booted into windows fine and i will be running UBCD shortly.
The power supply voltage is good and not flucuating. Infact 12.1v 5.2v and 3.4v resectivly.
The power supply voltage is good and not flucuating. Infact 12.1v 5.2v and 3.4v resectivly.
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Ok so i tested the new video card in the other computer WITH the memory in question and a red vertical bar appeared on the righ hand portion of the screen. Bad memory? Testing the ram 1 by one with the video card in the other system
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You see though the computer in question works with a kingston 512mb stick that I know is good.
I just tested 2 sticks of memory in the other computer with the video card and those passed so far.
I just tested 2 sticks of memory in the other computer with the video card and those passed so far.
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Ok, so i tested ll the memory with that video card and it passed. The video card itself is fine. I will now test the memory in the known good system with the onboard video card. Will test the memory in pairs of 2. starting out like this 0,1 0,2 0,3 1,2 1,3 2,3.. Ok thats it i am calling it. Bad motherboard. I will tll the customer to make an insurance claim. WIll refund his money for the video card. I took too much time on this and made no money working on it. All the memory is fine in other systems. Ty for the help.
tx for the feedback
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