Memory/Drive Question MemTest86 plus some other hardware stuff
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Posted by on January 5, 2006, 6:37 pm
Please log in for more thread options found during my tests was that memtest86 reports me as having only 1023 megs of ram. I have always noticed that during boot-up the memory test sort of goes normal speed to 1023 then sort of rolls as an afterthought to 1024, but since it passed the boot-up test I figured that was okay. I did find it weird that memtest reported 1023 though. Is this normal? Also, what prompted the tests was that I have a fairly new computer and the hard drive has crashed twice this year. The most recent time the entire disk reported having cross-linked files. I lost everything on it, and had to reformat it. I ran a disk scan utility to see if the drive was defective (I had a hardware error reported during logoff right before the data loss - when I rebooted everything was lost and scandisk basically went sector by sector repairing cross-linked files) and it reports that there is no problem. I was dealing with very large amounts of data right before the second, cross-linked issue occured. I have read that perhaps the motherboard timing could be off (Would overclocking cause cross-linked files...how would I even play with the timing). Is there anyway to test whether this is the issue? Should I trust the harddrive test? Any idea as to the cause? Thanks! | |||||||||||||
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Posted by kony on January 6, 2006, 6:27 am
Please log in for more thread options >I have been having computer trouble (see below)
What is this computer like? A brief list of all major components make, model, etc, goes a long way. Also if you have multiple drive controller options on your motherboard or system, describe how the drive(s) are hooked up. >and the first thing I
>found during my tests was that memtest86 reports me as having only 1023 >megs of ram. I have always noticed that during boot-up the memory test >sort of goes normal speed to 1023 then sort of rolls as an afterthought >to 1024, but since it passed the boot-up test I figured that was okay. >I did find it weird that memtest reported 1023 though. Is this normal? I wouldn't be concerned about it, that is close enough. More important is whether memtest86+ ran for at least several hours and found no errors. >Also, what prompted the tests was that I have a fairly new computer and
>the hard drive has crashed twice this year. Define "crash". Was the drive physically capable of working (seemingly) fine afterwards or was it necessary to replace the drive? Did you run the HDD manufacturer's diagnostics on the drive? If not, do so. >The most recent time the
>entire disk reported having cross-linked files. I lost everything on >it, and had to reformat it. I ran a disk scan utility to see if the >drive was defective (I had a hardware error reported during logoff >right before the data loss - when I rebooted everything was lost and >scandisk basically went sector by sector repairing cross-linked files) >and it reports that there is no problem. I was dealing with very large >amounts of data right before the second, cross-linked issue occured. > >I have read that perhaps the motherboard timing could be off (Would >overclocking cause cross-linked files...how would I even play with the >timing). Is there anyway to test whether this is the issue? Should I >trust the harddrive test? Any idea as to the cause? Overclocking could cause it, but with overclocking you would of course expect to see speeds reported that are higher than expected. it would have helped to have the description of the system up front, as an opening to your post. If you have not personally overclocked it and trust the seller, it probably isn't overclocked. To determine this you would need know the capabilities of the motherboard, the correct speeds it should use then contrast with what it is using (obvious enough). Knowing correct speed comes from prior exposure to the data or research per your specific parts. Finding actual speed can be done in the bios menu, on the bios post screen, or though various utilities one can boot to (like memtest86, it shows CPU speed) or in windows or another OS, software such as CPU-Z, Sisoft Sandra, Everest, WCPUID, and other titles. If your CPU is overheating or instable due to motherboard faults (it, itself might be overheating) that could also cause corruption. After running memtest86+ for several hours you might try Prime95's Torture Test for several more hours to check that. If your drive is running too hot you might seek ways to cool it more. | |||||||||||||
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Posted by on January 6, 2006, 2:07 pm
Please log in for more thread options Thanks Kony,
I did run memtest86 for 8 hours with no problems reported. At the time of my drive errors I had the following configuration: P4PXXXXE motherboard (I will have to get the exact model later) with a hyper-threading 2.8 GHZ Pentium processor. Dual-Channel OCX Ram. 2 DVD drives EIDE, 2 Hard Drives on another EIDE channel, and 1 SATA drive (this is the drive that keeps crashing). The drive is usuable after scandisk and a reformat each time). Also an ATI AGP video card. I will gather more specific information system information once I get home to take a look. Another interesting thing, though I don't think it is related, is that my computer will reboot when I put in certain DVD movies. I don't know why. I figure it is some conflict with the ATI driver...it certainly seems unrelated to this particular problem, but perhaps is worth mentioning. I will also take your advice regarding the torture test software. Will post more info next week. Thank you!!!! kony wrote: > On 5 Jan 2006 15:37:06 -0800, ryan.d.rembaum@kp.org wrote:
> > >I have been having computer trouble (see below)
>
> What is this computer like? A brief list of all major > components make, model, etc, goes a long way. Also if you > have multiple drive controller options on your motherboard > or system, describe how the drive(s) are hooked up. > > > >and the first thing I
> >found during my tests was that memtest86 reports me as having only 1023 > >megs of ram. I have always noticed that during boot-up the memory test > >sort of goes normal speed to 1023 then sort of rolls as an afterthought > >to 1024, but since it passed the boot-up test I figured that was okay. > >I did find it weird that memtest reported 1023 though. Is this normal? >
> I wouldn't be concerned about it, that is close enough. > More important is whether memtest86+ ran for at least > several hours and found no errors. > > > >Also, what prompted the tests was that I have a fairly new computer and
> >the hard drive has crashed twice this year. >
> Define "crash". Was the drive physically capable of working > (seemingly) fine afterwards or was it necessary to replace > the drive? Did you run the HDD manufacturer's diagnostics > on the drive? If not, do so. > > > >The most recent time the
> >entire disk reported having cross-linked files. I lost everything on > >it, and had to reformat it. I ran a disk scan utility to see if the > >drive was defective (I had a hardware error reported during logoff > >right before the data loss - when I rebooted everything was lost and > >scandisk basically went sector by sector repairing cross-linked files) > >and it reports that there is no problem. I was dealing with very large > >amounts of data right before the second, cross-linked issue occured. > > > >I have read that perhaps the motherboard timing could be off (Would > >overclocking cause cross-linked files...how would I even play with the > >timing). Is there anyway to test whether this is the issue? Should I > >trust the harddrive test? Any idea as to the cause? >
> Overclocking could cause it, but with overclocking you would > of course expect to see speeds reported that are higher than > expected. it would have helped to have the description of > the system up front, as an opening to your post. > > If you have not personally overclocked it and trust the > seller, it probably isn't overclocked. To determine this > you would need know the capabilities of the motherboard, the > correct speeds it should use then contrast with what it is > using (obvious enough). Knowing correct speed comes from > prior exposure to the data or research per your specific > parts. Finding actual speed can be done in the bios menu, > on the bios post screen, or though various utilities one can > boot to (like memtest86, it shows CPU speed) or in windows > or another OS, software such as CPU-Z, Sisoft Sandra, > Everest, WCPUID, and other titles. > > If your CPU is overheating or instable due to motherboard > faults (it, itself might be overheating) that could also > cause corruption. After running memtest86+ for several hours > you might try Prime95's Torture Test for several more hours > to check that. If your drive is running too hot you might > seek ways to cool it more. | |||||||||||||
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Posted by kony on January 7, 2006, 6:27 am
Please log in for more thread options On 6 Jan 2006 11:07:12 -0800, ryan.d.rembaum@kp.org wrote:
>Thanks Kony,
> >I did run memtest86 for 8 hours with no problems reported. At the time >of my drive errors I had the following configuration: > >P4PXXXXE motherboard (I will have to get the exact model later) with a >hyper-threading 2.8 GHZ Pentium processor. Dual-Channel OCX Ram. 2 >DVD drives EIDE, 2 Hard Drives on another EIDE channel, and 1 SATA >drive (this is the drive that keeps crashing). The drive is usuable >after scandisk and a reformat each time). Also an ATI AGP video card. I think that it is significant that it's on the SATA controller. Research bugs on the specific board or controller chip (whether it be southbridge or discrete chip like one from Silicon Image). Either way, sometimes a newer motherboard bios will incorporate this kind of fix, but there should (likely would be) someone else also reporting this kind of problem. >
>I will gather more specific information system information once I get >home to take a look. > >Another interesting thing, though I don't think it is related, is that >my computer will reboot when I put in certain DVD movies. I don't know >why. I figure it is some conflict with the ATI driver...it certainly >seems unrelated to this particular problem, but perhaps is worth >mentioning. There's a windows restart-on-error setting in the System-advanced-Startup&Recovery section called "automatically reboot". If you disable it you may see a bluescreen with some error codes. This is most likely unrelated and should be handled separately. Yes I suppose it could be a driver, or a media player setting if you had changed those, or maybe a buggy codec or ... lots of variables, the error code (if one results) might be good to Google search. | |||||||||||||
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