What could my problem be? (freezes)

[dmogg29]

My newly built computer has been having weird crashes, it will often only happen after I have left the PC on for long periods of time though today it happened after leaving it on for a mere 3 hours. When it does crash it'll have scratchy/static sounds and everything locks up completely including my mouse and keyboard. I will see little pink pixel dots on the screen form during boot up (only about 3 or so -- which crashes then as well) unless I let it cool off a bit. I've RMA'd the VC and HDD so those are probably not the problem. My guess is that it's an overheating problem involving a dying PSU but I'm not much of a tech so I'd like some opinions. I'm also suspecting the ram could be the cause but MemTest hasn't shown any errors (though I've been told that doesn't necessarily mean anything). CoreTemp also indicates normal temperatures at 33 low and up to 60 high while playing mid to high-ended games.

Sometimes when I boot it back up I'll get the message DQS training failed on previous boot, reverted to slower DRAM speed. The volt shows as 3.97v and timings are 9-9-9-20 in case you're wondering.

Specs:
Windows XP SP2 (64-bit)
3.4 ghz AMD Phenom II X4 965
2x2gig DDR3 ram Dual Channel
(x2) 1TB Caviar Black (64mb/s) HDDs
EVGA GTX 460 video card (I also had this problem on a 9800 GTX+)
600W PSU

I'd like some input before RMAing my ram/psu because I'm just shooting in the dark now.

Thank you

 

[MindoverMaster]

Whip up HWMonitor and show us a screenshot.

 

[dmogg29]

 

[Eric1]

Have you done any overclocking to your RAM? You may want to enter BIOS and revert to default settings. Also you may not have memory placed correctly in the motherboard so I would check that as well.

 

[dmogg29]

Have you done any overclocking to your RAM? You may want to enter BIOS and revert to default settings. Also you may not have memory placed correctly in the motherboard so I would check that as well.

I haven't done any overclocking, I loaded optimal defaults just now so let's see if there's an improvement. I've been testing the ram sticks individually, originally they were on slots 1 and 2. I had just 1 on slot 3 and it crashed, took it out and trying the other in slot 4 as of now.

 

[MindoverMaster]

Did you try 2 and 4? You might have a bad RAM slot. If you have Dual Channel, port 1 and 2 will not make it dual.

 

[dmogg29]

Did you try 2 and 4? You might have a bad RAM slot. If you have Dual Channel, port 1 and 2 will not make it dual.

I just matched colors but I read that setting up dual channel varies per motherboard. I'll probably try my other stick in the same slot later. Once I'm sure both sticks aren't defective I'll try 2 and 4. So far I'm still using 1 stick in the 4th port with no problems but I may be speaking too soon.

 

[dmogg29]

Well I'm definitely going to try RMAing this ram. When I first booted it this afternoon, I got a BSOD. According to the reviews at NewEgg it worked fine for some people for 2 weeks until problems started occurring (same thing for me). Reports of random freezes and BSODs. It does seem that this stick is less defective than the other though. It's a OCZ Special Ops Edition 4GB in case any of you want to look it up on NewEgg. It was $65 after rebate, I guess that's what I get for being cheap eh?

Anyway, thanks for your help. Least now I'm almost certain it's faulty ram. I'll probably bump this thread if I find out it's something besides the ram.

Cheers

 

[Eric1]

Well I'm definitely going to try RMAing this ram. When I first booted it this afternoon, I got a BSOD. According to the reviews at NewEgg it worked fine for some people for 2 weeks until problems started occurring (same thing for me). Reports of random freezes and BSODs. It does seem that this stick is less defective than the other though. It's a OCZ Special Ops Edition 4GB in case any of you want to look it up on NewEgg. It was $65 after rebate, I guess that's what I get for being cheap eh?

Anyway, thanks for your help. Least now I'm almost certain it's faulty ram. I'll probably bump this thread if I find out it's something besides the ram.

Cheers

Do you have your motherboard specs for us? I wonder if the motherboard supports that RAM? Also it could be the fact that the voltages for your RAM are too high. I've had problems in the past using any RAM past 1.80 Volt. If you get new RAM you might want to watch the voltages, but I may be able to suggest compatible RAM if we have your motherboard specs.

 

[dmogg29]

My motherboard specs can be found here. To be honest I hope this is the case so I don't have to wait an entire 2 weeks just to see whether or not it was the RAM.

Better yet I'll just paste it here:

Model

Brand
BIOSTAR

Model
TA890GXB HD

Supported CPU

CPU Socket Type
AM3

CPU Type
Phenom II / Athlon II / Sempron 100 Series
Max. TDP 125W.

FSB
2600MHz Hyper Transport (5200 MT/s)

Chipsets

North Bridge
AMD 890GX

South Bridge
AMD SB850

Memory

Number of Memory Slots
4×240pin

Memory Standard
DDR3 1600(OC)/1333/1066/800

Maximum Memory Supported
16GB

Channel Supported
Dual Channel

Expansion Slots

PCI Express 2.0 x16
1

PCI Slots
2

Storage Devices

SATA 6Gb/s
6 x SATA 6Gb/s

SATA RAID
0/1/5/10

Onboard Video

Onboard Video Chipset
ATI Radeon HD 4290

Onboard Audio

Audio Chipset
Realtek ALC892

Audio Channels
6 Channels

Onboard LAN

LAN Chipset
Realtek 8111E

Max LAN Speed
10/100/1000Mbps

Rear Panel Ports

PS/2
1

Video Ports
D-Sub + DVI

HDMI
1 x HDMI

USB 1.1/2.0
4 x USB 2.0

Audio Ports
3 Ports

Onboard USB

Onboard USB
6 x USB 2.0

Physical Spec

Form Factor
Micro ATX

Dimensions
9.6" x 9.2"

Power Pin
24 Pin

Features

Features
3+1 phases power design
Support up to 6 cores processors
2 dedicated phases for memory
X.D.C. Solid capacitors
BIOS Flash, BIOS Re-life
ATI Hybrid Graphics Support
BIOSTAR G.P.U ( Green Power Utility ) for green power saving your desktop
AMD OverDrive with ACC feature (Advanced Clock Calibration) supported