Problem occured during gaming but not sure if its a memory problem

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fanka295

6 posts

Wannabe Geek

#14155 18-Jun-2007 19:49

Hi

Lately I have been experiencing problems (mainly with computer freezing) while I am playing 3D-games. At first I thought it might be the hard drive, but then I replaced it with new one and problem is still there. I also find that sometimes when running multiple applications same things happens. This is usually followed by a strange noise made by the hard drive then I have to press the reset button to restart the computer.

So I guess what I am asking is whether this sounds like faulty memory modules and if yes
What should I replace it with

I am quite keen on getting the Kingston ones because I heard they are quite good

Kingston HyperX Dual Channel Memory Kit DDR-SDRAM400
http://www.ascent.co.nz/productspecification.aspx?ItemID=115959

Kingston ValueRAM Dual Channel Memory Kit DDR-SDRAM400
http://www.ascent.co.nz/productspecification.aspx?ItemID=113751

System Information
Computer : Shuttle XPC FN25
Processor: AMD Athlon 64 3500+
Memory: Corsair DDR400 (VS512MB400) x2
Gfx: Nvidia GeForce 6600GT

Any advice/suggestion would be greatly appreciated

lou

fanka295

6 posts

Wannabe Geek

#75096 18-Jun-2007 21:43

okay
the problem occured again
this time i was able to write DOWN what the error message was
it was a whole page of white text with blue background
and the error message is KERNEL-DATA-INPAGE-ERROR

rscole86

4973 posts

Uber Geek

Moderator

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#75097 18-Jun-2007 21:53

Make sure that your PC is up to date.

Also try running " Chkdsk " from the run command in the start menu.

You can try swapping the RAM modules around, while you are doing that see if it happens with only one RAM module installed?

EDIT:

You can try this tool to test your RAM also.

AllNightNerding

411 posts

Ultimate Geek

#75098 18-Jun-2007 21:56

i get the same problem when playing command and conquer and have been suggested by ea support to set the game to use only one core as alot of games are not designed to use multiple processors.

to do this start the game and then bring up task manager and click on processes. right click on the process of the game and click set afinity and untick cpu 1. this hasnt worked for me but it could work for you.

also make sure the game and your computer have the latest updates including mainly the video card driver updates

zaptor

745 posts

Ultimate Geek

#75236 19-Jun-2007 22:30

Based on you saying that it happens when running multiple apps and not just 3D games it sounds like it's either the motherboard or the memory - or worst case both.

Usually you can discount memory by testing it with memtest86 - thrash it for at least 30 minutes or more.

If it passes memtest86, then your next bet is probably to boot up with live Linux distro, and just run various apps for a while to see if still freezes. If it freezes here, then your motherboard is possibly going.

If it still doesn't freeze, then you might want to consider re-installing Windows - I'm guessing you're running XP. Bit rot is a major problem with XP, and unless you're very careful about what you install, the only way to "repair" XP sometimes is just to re-install it.

fanka295

6 posts

Wannabe Geek

#75238 19-Jun-2007 22:38

Hey zaptor
Thx for replying my post. I have consulted a few people today who have agreed with what you said about the motherboard or memory being the culprit of my problems. I have tried re-installing new winxp when i bought a new harddrive but that didnt do much but I am still yet to try out the memtest86 program and I'll see how I'm getting on with that and yeah, thanks for the advice.

fanka295

6 posts

Wannabe Geek

#75825 24-Jun-2007 23:47

thanks everyone for your valuable suggestions
my computer seem to be in good working order now
what actually fixed (supposedly) the problem was a good clean (vacuuming) of the interior space
which led me to believe that the culprit of my problem was clogging of airflow due to dust build-up and result in the overheating of CPU or hard-drive (supposedly)

thanks once again

UnrealSolo

26 posts

Geek
Inactive user

#76009 26-Jun-2007 18:54

if it happens again its probally your hard drive thats been blown up, at first i was playing a game then all of a sudden it froze without notice (only if it happens on games its ok)