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Yogurticecream wrote on 2013-07-25 17:07
It is annoying me a fair bit. The odd part is that the computer keeps freezing until I run a complete / incomplete memtest (Windows Memory Diagnostic), after which it can run fine for a few days.
The last complete memtest I had showed memory errors which asked me to contact the manufacturer or something. I tested both sticks, same problem with the freezing for both of them, so I have my doubts whether it is really the problem with the RAM. I have lifetime warranty for the RAM but I just want to be sure it is really the RAM problem. The other possibility is the motherboard but I don't know how to deal with that.
So far I'm doing fine with the computer, it's no longer freezing. I'd hate to see my assignments turn to dust just because of this problem though. Any ideas what could be the problem?
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Yoorah wrote on 2013-07-25 17:26
If Windows Memory Diagnostic detects an issue, then it's guaranteed to be a hardware problem. It's probably not your motherboard, as motherboards these days are just wires that connect the CPU memory controller to the RAM chips. So it's either a hardware fault in the CPU or the RAM, with the RAM failure being more likely.
What I would do is go into the BIOS and see if you can disable one of the RAM slots. Then test the memory again. It's unlikely that both RAM sticks or both memory controller channels on the CPU have malfunctioned at the same time. You can isolate which one is healthy and which one isn't. This will let you run the computer stable at half its original memory capacity.
Or you can take it a bit further to determine if it's the CPU or the RAM that's at fault by swapping the two RAM sticks. Check if the healthy stick from, say, slot 2 is still healthy in slot 1. If it is, then the other stick is faulty 100%. If the stick worked in slot 2 but doesn't work anymore in slot 1 (and the other stick now works in slot 2) then obviously the RAM is not at fault, meaning the CPU is.
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Yogurticecream wrote on 2013-07-26 01:18
It's weird, the second time that it crashed today after at least 1 hour plus (which I left the computer on just to test if it is still freezing again), memtest says there aren't any errors at all.
I'll try what you said if it crashes the next time.
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Yogurticecream wrote on 2013-07-28 11:01
Oh well, had I known it was a HDD issue I would have proceeded to do instant full backup from that time. I didn't save much of my stuff as a result of that.
Ended up buying a new HDD, initialising it myself and installing the essentials....now I only can cross my fingers that person I entrusted my old HDD to can retrieve the data there...
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Yoorah wrote on 2013-07-28 16:07
That's really odd, I'm sorry to hear about that. D:
It's odd because bad memtest results have nothing to do with your hard drive. The only thing that affects memtest results is the RAM and the CPU (usually it's the RAM out of these two).
Your computer must have something against you. :x
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Yogurticecream wrote on 2013-07-28 20:02
It is really odd...I think it was a combination of faulty system files (which could have come about due to a failing HDD) and the failing HDD. I wonder how the RAM was detected as faulty but I also thought it was a RAM problem at first, until the second check showed that the RAM was fine.
Wouldn't blame anyone for not guessing it, this is the first time I've seen a failing internal HDD...I usually get terrible luck with external HDDs...