Memory wearing out? Plus more!

[Brolly345]

This is something I have been wondering about. Is is possible for memory to wear out? I have a feeling my memory is wearing out. It just doesn't work the way it used to.

I keep getting memory errors. These only happen when I'm doing something RAM intensive though. Like editing in Premiere, or playing Half Life 2 Deathmatch. I checked the memory out with Memtestx86 for ten hours, and passed all the tests thrown at it. I also made sure it wasn't overheating.

For those of you who want to know what kind of memory error I'm getting:

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*** STOP 0x000000F4 (0x00000003, 0x85B3CDA0, 0x85B5B3CF14, I missed the last one.)

Now I know what the error is. I don't need help with this. It has only happened once.

My memory type:

PC3200/DDR400 512MB Modules of RAM totaling 1GB in dual channel mode. The RAM was made by Corsair. It was the 1GB kit.

My motherboard is an Intel D865PERL with an 865PE chipset. The RAM I bought was guaranteed compatable with the motherboard. So I don't think it's a compatabilty issue. But could there be something wrong with the board? Like maybe the DIMMs somehow breaking, or something similar?

One other odd quirk I've noticed with my system is sometimes it will not boot the OS. I turn the computer on, and it turns right back off again after a few seconds. (I'm on XP PRO) Is this something with my hard drive? I think this because I got this message one time:

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NTLDR is missing
Press Ctrl+Alt+Delete to reboot.

Correct me if I'm wrong but does this mean something is not loading from my hard drive, or does this have to do with some problem my motherboard having with the BIOS? I've updated the BIOS several times to different versions to no avail. It still does this.

The error I get from Premiere is something that happens when I go to render sometimes. It tells me it is unable to do it because of a hardware or software problem. It tells me nothing more.

HL2DM just freezes, but I can't get it to go back to the desktop to see what the error is.

The problems just started happening not more than three weeks ago. At first it was few and far between, it never happened, but it started doing it, and now the frequency is going up. I used to be able to play Far Cry and Doom 3, which are equally RAM intensive if not more than HL2DM, without these problems. I also used to be able to boot my computer without worry of it not booting.

It's what spawns these questions:

1. Is my memory just wearing out?
2. Is there a problem with my motherboard?
3. Is there a problem with my hard drive?

Thanks for any help.

[Kalium]

This would seem, from where I'm sitting, to be either a HD issue (sign of wear) or physical damage happened to the RAM. RAM, being completely digital, shouldn't normally be subject to wear.

[Brolly345]

I don't realy think the RAM has taken any physical damage. I don't move it around pretty much at all. It just sits on my table. But I will take that as a possibilty, though unlikely.

The thing I'm leaning towards is my HD wearing out. But would that make Premeire not be able to render video? You would think that would be a memory thing. I can save the project, and do other things that write to my HD just fine. I just have to restart Premiere to fix it. Which is why I think it could be a memory problem.

The other issues seem to have to do with my HD. Maybe it's a combination of the two. I hope not.

[trythil]

This would seem, from where I'm sitting, to be either a HD issue (sign of wear) or physical damage happened to the RAM. RAM, being completely digital, shouldn't normally be subject to wear.

You'd be surprised...

Contacts can corrode, chips can just go bad, and so forth. I had this happen in my laptop; it was quite annoying.

However: (to original poster)

If you really did run memtest86 for ten hours and found nothing, then it's probably not a memory issue.

The "NTLDR is missing" message means that the bootloader bootstrap code (nonstandard terminology, but it works in this case) could not find the NT bootloader. If you get this intermittently then it's probably a sign of drive failure.

If you experience random system lockups, then overheating probably _does_ have something to do with it. (It may also contribute to drive failure; hard drives, like everything else in the computer, are suspectible to high heat.) What are the temperatures of your case, CPU, and motherboard?

[Brolly345]

Well, in terms of temperature my computer runs like this:

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CPU:
Idle - 35 degrees celsius
Working - up to 55 degrees Celsius at the most

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Motherboard:
Idle - 30 degrees Celsius
Working - 43 degrees Celsius at the most

I have seven fans trying to keep this thing as cool as I can. It has yet to reach the upper thresholds set by my monitor. These are 50 degrees Clesius for the mobo, and 68 degrees Celsius for the CPU. My case runs about 2 degrees higher than the mobo.

So unless my monitor is on crack I don't think heat is a major problem, although it more than likely is a factor.

But one other thing I neglected to mention about my hard drives. I have more than one, last time I formated the drive, recently, I switched the two around. I got that NTLDR message after I did this. I never got it before I switched the drives.

But...

I still had the same issues. I thought maybe switching the drives would help, but it did nothing. I guess both the drives may be failing, but I don't know that for sure.

[trythil]

So unless my monitor is on crack I don't think heat is a major problem, although it more than likely is a factor.

Don't discount that possibility; I've seen MANY hardware monitors that just outright suck. The ones on the Shuttle FN85, for example, have a tendency to dramatically overreport temperatures (until you flash the BIOS).

But one other thing I neglected to mention about my hard drives. I have more than one, last time I formated the drive, recently, I switched the two around. I got that NTLDR message after I did this. I never got it before I switched the drives.

But...

I still had the same issues. I thought maybe switching the drives would help, but it did nothing. I guess both the drives may be failing, but I don't know that for sure.

It may be the BIOS getting confused, but I still disk failure is the more likely culprit.

[Brolly345]

Don't discount that possibility; I've seen MANY hardware monitors that just outright suck. The ones on the Shuttle FN85, for example, have a tendency to dramatically overreport temperatures (until you flash the BIOS).

Don't get me wrong, I'm not dicounting the possibility. I just sort... of... you know... trust... intel. (They made my monitoring program.)

But in all seriousness...

Are those temperatures in an acceptable range? I always thought they seemed high.

Also, maybe your right about the BIOS getting confused. I never updated them after I formatted. But I still had the problems before I switched which drive was the slave, and which one was the master. I'll try updating them again and see what happens.

[Kalium]

Don't get me wrong, I'm not dicounting the possibility. I just sort... of... you know... trust... intel. (They made my monitoring program.)

There's your first mistake. Never trust the vendor more than you have to.

Also, maybe your right about the BIOS getting confused. I never updated them after I formatted. But I still had the problems before I switched which drive was the slave, and which one was the master. I'll try updating them again and see what happens.

Try putting both drives to cable select. That should help eliminate this issue. In my machine, I actually have one of my burners rigged as master, but I have my reasons for that.

[Brolly345]

Well, they were both on cable select when I got the "NTLDR is missing" screen. I switched that out after my brother got frusterated with my drive settings dicking his computer up.

[Brolly345]

So, uh, does anyone else have any suggestions for me?