New around here, hello! Long story short, decided to reinstall Windows XP over some weird driver issues I was having. Had 1.5GB of Crucial Ballistix, very nice RAM. Upon reinstalling, started to get tons of read errors, having very strange problems that I've never seen before. Could get to the point of installing SP2, but, it would fail from there. I started getting frustrated and realized it might be hardware, so, I ran MemTest86. Diagnosis found TONS of bad sectors on each stick of RAM (tested them independently). I also tested them in another computer, still registered bad. What can cause ALL 3 sticks of memory to go bad like that? Chances are it's not just bad luck. Power supply? Memory Controller? The power supply was a 330W Antec TruePower (I believe). If I replace the the power supply, would any of the other hardware that was used in this system (CPU, motherboard, videocard, soundcard etc) possibly damage any new RAM I put in there? Should I scrap my whole system except what I can get off the hard drives? Any advice is very appreciative, I'm at quite a loss here. Anyone seen anything like this before?
Well, what's your system specs? 330W may be fine if you've got a low-power box, but it could be an issue in the future. I do know that there were some batches of the DDR Ballistix that had some issues. One of my sticks went bad, but they replaced it, and that's been working fine. I even purchased mine off Newegg, so that was nice. I'd just call them up at their phone and look into replacing those sticks. Just off hand, it does look you've run into a batch of bad sticks. The CPU temp could be an issue, but that typically doesn't show up in Memtest as much.
Big B, Thanks very much for the reply! It's not a new system by any means, but, not very old either. P4 3.2. So a CPU running hot can fry RAM? I will have to check the temp in the BIOS, see if that is causing any issues. I got the RAM through Newegg too, hopefully I can RMA them. I hear Crucial is pretty good about their warranty too. Any other suggestions?
Generally, no, a hot CPU won't fry RAM, however, if it does get too hot, that can interfere with programs running. I still lean toward the RAM being bad, particularly because I do know that there were some problems with earlier batches, but before you go through getting the RAM replaced, it's still a good idea to make sure it is the problem. The memory controller would be on the chipset northbridge (the major chip closest to the CPU, and typically covered with a heatsink), so if it is bad, you'll have to replace the motherboard, but a memory controller dying is pretty rare. Unless you've really, really jacked up the voltage to the northbridge and run it with inefficient cooling to handle it, the odds are pretty slim that the memory controller is borked. You can determine this by testing your Ballistix in another known good system.
Big B, thanks again for the reply. I verified that the RAM was bad on another computer as well. I replaced the power supply just in case, did load testing on some new RAM and checked the hard drive. Very strange that they all 3, from two different batches, died at the same time. Thanks again!
