nix_pug

I built my computer about 6 months to a year ago and had a few problems to start off with, problem was due to a faulty 512ram board. Everything seemed really good after that until reccently.

I have experienced the scary blue screen a couple of times BAD_POOL_CALLER or something iirc.

Also, the CPU goes to 100% occasionally and cant cope with some types of video and gets really jerky. sometimes doesnt even play videos and the media player screen changes to green.

anyway, i want to test the RAM to see if thats my problem. i downloaded memtest an started running it a coupla hours ago. Does this test each ram board seperately or should i run it with one in an then swap over?

Also, how long should i run it for, ie how many passes, and is each pass different?

also, if anyone knows what else could cause these symptoms that would be great.

spec
amd64 3200+ chip
ASUS MB iirc
256MB graphics
1024 DDR 333 RAM i think
SATA drive
win xp
cheers

Nick

D16GER

Okay, here's a tip.....

Right-click 'My Computer', select 'Properties' > 'Advanced'....

Then under 'Startup and Recovery', press 'Settings'....

Now under 'System Failure', remove the tick from 'Automatically Restart' and apply.

This will now allow you the time to read the blue screens. They will begin with a lot of numbers, eg: 0X0000X0000. This is the code for your error. Write it down carefully.

Once you reboot, you can then Google the code as there are loads of resources for Stop codes out there. This is the best way to diagnose the problem.

However, I suspect that the memory is indeed at fault. Did you download the bootable version of Memtest?

If not, then get this one because it runs on boot, is more modern and will give very reliable results.

nix_pug

yes, it was the bootable one i d/loaded. Its been running for about 4 hours an done 10 passes with no errors, how long should i leave it for?

the blue screen came up for a while, an i took a pic, so i'll have a look on google again, think i did that last time but couldnt coem up with much

D16GER

I would honestly go with the version I linked to. The one you have is way out of date TBH. But, a couple of full runs should do fine.

And here is a list of some common error codes

nix_pug

oh, i dint realise it was an updated version, i'll give that a go, an i'll have a look at the error codes
cheers