Sounds like my mobo is going out

[The Great Destroyer]

well, its been running fine on 3gb of ram (tested my spare stick too) until today. BSOD'd 3 times already today.

[FuzzyPlushroom]

x88x is right, man. Running Memtest86+ will prove whether or not it's memory-related, and if it throws out errors, test the RAM in another machine.

[The Great Destroyer]

memtest won't run on x64 for some reason, and i dont have another machine to test the ram on.

[slaveofconvention]

memtest should run on pretty much anything - it's a bootable .iso so once you burn it to a cd, you restart and it boots from the memtest CD (assuming you have CD before HD in the bios boot order) - has nothing to do with what operating system you have installed - as a matter of fact, it doesn't even matter if you have a hard disk in at all...

[Crazy Buddhist]

Slave is right .. memtest will run on anything. Run a full memtest on each stick to rule that out but my first guess here would be the PSU falling over. It's behaviour I have seen before so if you can borrow another one try that too. If you get no errors with memtest (though if your PSU is dying bear in mind that it *could* throw up errors here) and a replacement PSU stops the BSOD's and other errors you have your culprit.

How long have you owned the PSU?

Also take a look at the Handy PSU calculator and see if after 24/7 operation your PSU is underpowered. 24/7 operation leads to a PSU losing a high percentage of its output in a fairly short time. You'll need to change the Capacitor aging to reflect the use and age of your PSU:

Electrolytic capacitor aging. When used heavily or over an extended period of time (1+ years) a PSU will slowly lose some of its initial wattage capacity. We recommend you add 20% if you plan to keep your PSU for more than 1 year, or 25-30% for 24/7 usage and 1+ years.

The way you have been running it it may well have been powerful enough on spec when new to run your system but could have lost 20 - 30% or more of it's power output by now and be causing these various errors.

If it is your PSU the next thing it will blow could be your MOBO or CPU so seriously worth getting to the bottom of it sooner rather than later.

CrazyB

[FuzzyPlushroom]

The age of the PSU isn't the only factor - what brand/model is it?

[nevermind1534]

Is your memory getting enough voltage?

[The Great Destroyer]

ran memtest (each stick individually) and they all checked out

How long have you owned the PSU?

Also take a look at the Handy PSU calculator and see if after 24/7 operation your PSU is underpowered. 24/7 operation leads to a PSU losing a high percentage of its output in a fairly short time. You'll need to change the Capacitor aging to reflect the use and age of your PSU:



The way you have been running it it may well have been powerful enough on spec when new to run your system but could have lost 20 - 30% or more of it's power output by now and be causing these various errors.
CrazyB

The age of the PSU isn't the only factor - what brand/model is it?

its a 500w Ultra X-Connect. ive had it for about 2 years.

voltage calculator says i need about 300w, so i should be good.

Is your memory getting enough voltage?

i think thats part of the problem. first it would boot with all 4 sticks then crash, now it will only POST with 1 stick installed. any more than that and it wont POST.

i'm picking up a power supply today, and if that doesnt fix the problem, i'll return it.

[nevermind1534]

Did you set the memory voltage high enough in the BIOS settings?

[The Great Destroyer]

i havent touched the memory voltage. mobo is at factory settings.

picked up a corsair TX750W for $109 today, everything is going smooth so far. SIW power/temp recordings: