Baffling problem with Asus M2N32-SLI based machine

[alisonnic]

I have had this happen more than once.
I could be a failed stick, or a failing mobo slot.



--

Rev. G.G. Willikers
(Founder, Custodian & Janitor of the Shrine of HOoMSJ)

"Sir, I am unaware of any such activity or operation - nor would
I be disposed to discuss such an operation if it did in
fact exist, sir."

After Memtest86+ generated several million errors in one pass, I
swapped both sticks of memory into the second bank of slots. No
change; still a zillion errors. I removed one stick and ran Memtest
again. No change.

Then I removed the other stick and put the first one back in. Zero
errors.

Then I moved the good stick back to the first of the four slots.
Still good.

So I'm pretty sure it's one bad stick, not a bad slot. But thanks for
pointing this out as a potential problem.

 

[alisonnic]

File copy errors while installing XP can be caused by memory errors.

Slowing down can be caused by the cpu overheating.

Stephen
--

Well, as I've mentioned in a couple of other replies, the problem was
a memory error.

CPU overheating is extremely unlikely. The case has two 120 mm fans
and the CPU has a big fan as well. I've monitored the CPU, GPU, and
motherboard temperatures, and they never get anywhere near maximum,
even after a long session of running a high performance racing sim for
several hours.

 

[alisonnic]

After Memtest86+ generated several million errors in one pass, I
swapped both sticks of memory into the second bank of slots. No
change; still a zillion errors. I removed one stick and ran Memtest
again. No change.

Then I removed the other stick and put the first one back in. Zero
errors.

Then I moved the good stick back to the first of the four slots.
Still good.

So I'm pretty sure it's one bad stick, not a bad slot. But thanks for
pointing this out as a potential problem.

Thanks to everyone who posted suggestions in this thread, especially
Dan, who was the first to suggest a possible memory problem and
recommend Memtest. It looks like you were right, Dan. Thanks!

A note regarding the possibility of a BIOS virus: I can't comment on
whether this is actually possible, but in my case it seems unlikely.
The first thing I do after I install Windows and the mobo drivers is
to install an antivirus program, in this case BitDefender.

Also, I never use Outlook or Outlook Express, and I almost never use
Internet Explorer. And I do almost all my downloading onto a
different computer, which has Norton IS, and then shoot the downloaded
files over to this computer via SyncToy. So almost all downloaded
files are vetted by both Norton IS and BitDefender before they even
get to the hard drive of the computer in question.

So it seems extremely unlikely that the BIOS got infected with a
virus. The memory errors strongly suggest that a stick of memory that
went bad was the culprit.

Thanks again for all the suggestions! You guys have been great!

 

[Noozer]

This has always been either bad (or wrongly clocked) memory or a bad IDE
cable when I've had this happen.

 

[CBFalconer]

The memory is Corsair xtreme performance DDR2. Here are the numbers
on the back:

CM2X512A-6400
XMS6405v3.1
5-5-5-12
800MHz
512MB
XMS2-6400

Tells me nothing. I assume no ECC. If the board handles it, get
some, and avoid any future memory problems. ECC means error
correcting.

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[Alex Harrington]

Au contraire. You can find it documented on the web via Google. Unfortunately
I have forgotten the search terms I used to locate it.

The only one I'm familiar with is the Chernobyl virus (CIH) which
overwrote the BIOS on some systems causing total failure to boot etc.

I'm not aware of one that causes corruption in the way you imply - I
suppose mainly as it's not in the interests of a virus writer to cripple
a machine to the point that it's no longer useful as a vehicle for
infecting other machines. CIH was a special case in that respect.

http://www.cert.org/incident_notes/IN-99-03.html

Alex

 

[Jethro]

alisonnic wrote:
<big snip>

Did you try a MEMTEST on the RAM? I've had Win XP installs fail after a
certain percetnage due to a bad stick of RAM.

 

[Christopher]

I have the same config and same memory and had the same exact memory
problem, only I boosted the mem voltage up for a few days, then back down
and my system works great now for two weeks (so far).