# How do you know when RAM is failing?



## Chryonn (Jul 6, 2010)

the title says it all. what are the tell-tale signs that RAM is on the way out?
i've been having problems with XP stability and a couple of Steam games (freezes, resets) and memtest has been inconclusive with its testing - although my suspicions are there. i've tried swapping sticks and changing slots with the same results. but it could it something else?


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## Sasqui (Jul 6, 2010)

Generally running with one stick, then the other (for a while each) will tell.  A pair won't go bad simultaneoulsy (or VERY rarely).

Every time I hear of system instabilty I get chills after having my PSU go bad and taking a MB with it.  Took a long, long time to rule everything else out.


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## Scheich (Jul 6, 2010)

Your mainboard can fail aswell. My mobo used to do 485 fsb, now it can barely handle 420.

Try to run it with 266 fsb and see if there are still problems.


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## Chryonn (Jul 6, 2010)

hmm, well the original mobo was faulty so i RMA'd but the company couldn't fix it so they gave me money that was "left" on the mobo. i bought this, identical, one on eBay and everything was fine since last Oct. then a few days ago i was in L4D2 and it started rebooting after five minutes in game. this happened a few times, i figured it must be the RAM, memtest confirmed there was a problem (but doesn't tell you what). 
i've had graphics card go bad on me before and there aren't any graphical glitches apart from the freezes/reboots in-game.


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## Frederik S (Jul 7, 2010)

RAM failure usually causes reboots rather than freezes. If it is a minor memory issue you could get a hung process every once in a while. Download the UBCD and uses memtest+ it is the easiest way to diagnose a RAM issue. 

You could also use Orthos, but it is not as specific as memtest+.

How long did you run memtest? you need to run it 12 hours + to be sure. I had a PC where the RAM failed after 16 hours and then failed constantly after that.


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## Kantastic (Jul 7, 2010)

I run MemTest86+ in DOS mode. Usually 2-4 passes is more than enough for me.


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## Frick (Jul 7, 2010)

+1 on memtest. Easiest way to tell it.


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## hat (Jul 7, 2010)

Yep, bootable memtest86+ is a good way to test memory.


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## Chicken Patty (Jul 7, 2010)

I vouch for memtest as well.  If RAM is failing, that'll show it.


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## Chryonn (Jul 7, 2010)

i've run bootable memtest but sometimes it just locks up the PC. at the moment i am certain one of my sticks is faulty as it just keeps rebooting before it gets into Windows. the other stick seems a bit more stable (although causes freezes). i've ordered one identical stick from eBay to try and rule out or confirm it IS bad RAM.


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## Chicken Patty (Jul 7, 2010)

Sounds good man, keep us posted.


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## Chryonn (Jul 8, 2010)

the new RAM arrived this morning, i've found out that its timings are 5-5-5-18 and the ones i had before were 5-5-5-12 although CPU-Z reported these as 5-5-5-18. is there any real difference between the 12 and 18? CPU-Z also reported the voltage as 1.8 for the -12s and in the -18 chip it says 1.9V.


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## Chicken Patty (Jul 8, 2010)

That can make a big difference in stability.  The tighter those timings are the more voltage you'll new to have your RAM running stable.  So how's the rid now?


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## mATrIxLord (Jul 8, 2010)

best way to find out if a ram stick is bad is using bootable memtest... let it run a couple of passes and you'll find out, it is also good to find out if your memory settings are stable or not..


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## Chicken Patty (Jul 8, 2010)

@matrixlord

I had suggested thr same thing but he already stated I stopped during the test.  Not sure why but memtest wasn't working for him.


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## mATrIxLord (Jul 8, 2010)

perhaps a bad boot CD???? it happend to that sometimes either the bootCD or the CD/DVD drive didn't like the bootCD and simply didn't work..


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## douglatins (Jul 8, 2010)

BSODs


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## Chicken Patty (Jul 8, 2010)

@matrix

Could be, not sure how many times he tried it.


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## mATrIxLord (Jul 8, 2010)

@chicken... we'll have to wait and see what he posts... also the timings he put are wrong... i had many issues with a couple of ram sticks some time ago, they were generic ones but had Samsung memory modules on it and they were unstable even running on 800 mHz (their correct speed was 1024 mHz).. the problem was with the timings, i had to put in all the timings manually to get it to run stable...


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## Chicken Patty (Jul 8, 2010)

Yep, he states they were wrong.  Hopefully he gets it sorted out soon.  Waiting on his feedback.


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## Chryonn (Jul 8, 2010)

Ok here's an update on my situation: the "new" RAM from eBay doesn't want to "POST the machine." 
in my desperation i swapped it out for the older "faulty" RAM - the one that would lock up the machine randomly - and left the case's side panel off.  

now here's where it gets interesting: the rig is more stable now then it's been in recent days. no lockups/freezes. 

i tried playing that Sniper: Ghost Warrior game and it went well but after a time everytime i would mouselook, the game would freeze until it settled, for example if i turned 90 degrees the game would freeze for the duration of the mouse movement but would update the view to 90 degrees from where i was. using the WASD keys i could move as normal, so only mouselook was affected. definitely NO reboots or freezes though.

now, here's my question: would an overheated case cause "symptoms" similar to RAM failing? bearing in mind that one stick is definitely faulty - with the random reboots.

here's another question: would i be able to install the 5-5-5-18 with the 5-5-5-12 stick and get them to run in dual channel?

EDIT: i haven't actually re-installed the eBay RAM, i've just been running the old one for now. the seller has put no returns accepted so i may have sell it. 
my suspicions and experience tell me it was an overheated case with one bad stick, and with the side panel open, no freeze yet.


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## Chicken Patty (Jul 8, 2010)

To answer your question about timings, Yes you can install both sticks, but the BIOS will set thr sticks to run at the looser timing I believe which would be 5-5-5-18.  Either that or you have to set it. Manually to that.

The reason why the eBay one is not posting now is because you might have to set up the RAM to specs manually.

A overheated case can cause all sorts of things to run bad. The more heat the more voltage that leaks and the more voltage components need to run stable, it's a viscious cycle.  Something can be running really hot causing instability.  Is anything in there hot to the point you can't really touch it?  RAM, NB, SB etc?


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## Chryonn (Jul 9, 2010)

i'm in a poorly ventilated room - there's a window and i have a free standing fan on the go but the heat just builds up. i'm going to keep it running for a few hours. maybe play something online and see how stable it is, all using the old RAM.


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## Chicken Patty (Jul 9, 2010)

Chryonn said:


> i'm in a poorly ventilated room - there's a window and i have a free standing fan on the go but the heat just builds up. i'm going to keep it running for a few hours. maybe play something online and see how stable it is, all using the old RAM.



K dude, keeping the rig cool makes a big difference on stability.  you have something to monitor case temps and NB temps, etc?


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## Chryonn (Jul 9, 2010)

using hwmonitor as a stop-gap solution, it's probably not the best.
PC's been on for 2 and a half hours and not one lock up. seems it was trapped heat that was causing it.


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## Chicken Patty (Jul 9, 2010)

Chryonn said:


> using hwmonitor as a stop-gap solution, it's probably not the best.
> PC's been on for 2 and a half hours and not one lock up. seems it was trapped heat that was causing it.



You might not think, but maybe the temperature inside the case was rising to a point where certain component (s) could have been running very hot to the point well it was causing instability.  Keep in mind, the NB on most boards tend to run pretty hot.  If the NB was getting too hot due to lack of cooling it can also cause all sorts of troubles.  So could have been many things.


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## Chryonn (Jul 9, 2010)

you're right. i'd built this PC in the summer of '07 and up till now, it's never overheated to the point of instability. always a first i guess.


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## Chicken Patty (Jul 9, 2010)

Chryonn said:


> you're right. i'd built this PC in the summer of '07 and up till now, it's never overheated to the point of instability. always a first i guess.



Perhaps needs some cleaning? Is it really dusty, maybe the fans are clogged with dust?


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## Chryonn (Jul 9, 2010)

no, it's not that dusty. i use air cans every few months. but crisis averted (for now).


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