Re: A new, unstable system, HW problem ???

[jpahka@welho.com]

Lainaus Lennart Sorensen <lsorense@csclub.uwaterloo.ca>:

> On Wed, Apr 27, 2005 at 09:14:09AM +0300, jpahka@welho.com wrote:
> > Ok, yesterday I ran the memtest86+ utility and indeed it showed some errors
> on
> > the test 5 of the test series (but the test 8 showed no errors). > > 

> > What do you guys think? Can I be relatively certain that it's infact the
> memory
> > modules that are just not compatible with amd64 + VIA K8T800 cobination? I
> think
> > I'm going to replace the ram since when I bought it I was going for some
> "abit
> > approved" memory, but the seller convinced me that "this is as good but
> cheaper" :)
> 
> 
> Well I bought kingston value ram DDR400 512M * 2 for the athlon64 I
> built and it works.  I have had good luck with kingston and crucial
> personally.  I don't bother to "save" $10 per 512M anymore by getting
> the generic stuff.  The last generic stuff I bought was a PC100 CL2
> 256M and it never did run stable faster than CL3 (so much for their
> claim).
> 

Well, just an update in my quest-for-a-stable-and-fast-debian-amd64-system :)

I went and replaced the memory modules yesterday to Kingston value ram. Better,
but not perfect. It's actually strange. I first booted the machine and it
reported some CMOS error...I then realised that the bios (and later memtest86)
reports the memory as DDR 333, although the packages in which I received the
memory said DDR 400? Anyhow, I set up the DRAM timings to DDR 333 in bios, and
after that it booted, ran memtest86 and even kernel compile + copying of a large
directory of files + watching a video *all at the same time* without problems
...yes, the last one was a psychologically important... :)

So, now I can be 100% certain that it was memory incompatibility, just as you
guys said! But I wont settle for DDR 333...out of principle I want to make this
perfect now that I've started the war ;)

So it's back to store for me, they recomended Buffalo memory yesterday, maybe
I'll give that a shot...

Thanks guys, I'm one step closer... juhis