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Thread ID: 53428 2005-01-17 07:04:00 Possible memory error Lizard (2409) Press F1
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315042 2005-01-17 07:04:00 Hi all,

I've been having problems, possibly memory related.

The first was ZoneAlarm's update - I downloaded it with DAP, but when I went to run the update, it came up with the message "Program too big to fit in memory". Odd.

Then came the problems with Unreal II - it crashes out randomly. There were some error messages, but I didn't write them down (stupid!). They were similar to the kind that looks like 0x017f6b57 or some such combination. I haven't had any like that from Unreal II for a while, though the crashes still occur.

Then came Half Life 2, with its shiny new Steam engine. Once I got through the barb wire fences that is the authentication and update process (funny how few people mentioned that...), it was great. Until today, when it crashed for no apparent reason. The error message (I wrote this one down...) was "The instruction at 0x241f94b7 referenced memory at "0x0107f5c0" the memory could not be 'read'" <click> to terminate the program." It happened again just now, and again for no apparent reason.

It sounds to me like a memory issue.

The specs are as follows:
Athlon 64 2800+
MSI K8N Neo Platnium Mobo
1 x 512MB Transcend JetRAM DDR400
GeCube Radeon 9800Pro 128MB
WD 160GB SATA HDD

Help! :dogeye:
Lizard (2409)
315043 2005-01-17 07:57:00 Yes it *could* be memory, but just as easily a software issue or a hardware addressing issue.

That type of error is ubiquitous and is derived from any action that gets directed to non valid memory, for a large number of reasons.
godfather (25)
315044 2005-01-17 09:02:00 Do you have XP SP2? If so, I know what's causing your Unreal crashing problem. You have to disable DEP, it doesn't like Unreal Engine based games. This could also fix your HL2 problem, which is another well known issue with the source engine. I'm not sure what caused it- I used to get it and it went away after I got another half gig of RAM. Zygar (29)
315045 2005-01-17 09:40:00 I ran v1.40 of Memtest86 and let it run for 1.5 hours. Test #5 threw up about 130000 individual errors. I have to confess to not really understanding the data it produces, but I would imagine that any kind of error in mem test is a bad sign...

Comments?

Lizard
Lizard (2409)
315046 2005-01-17 09:44:00 Re: DEP - I have it set to essential windows programs and services only. Is this M$ way of saying "disabled"?

BTW, I only encountered DEP recently when trying to copy a 700MB video file from a CD to the HDD. DEP popped up and said "NO!". Changing the setting to the one above let me copy the file, but it seemed to be another mysterious link in the possible memory problem...

Am I even on the right track?

Lizard
Lizard (2409)
315047 2005-01-17 20:06:00 Try downloading Prime95 (www.mersenne.org) and run it on the torture test (default settings) for a while. It sounds like you do have a problem with your memory though, but both those errors you've had I have encountered, and fixed in games of my own. To disable DEP properly, go into boot.ini and find the line containing "NoExecute". Set it to /NoExecute=AlwaysOff and see if you still get the problems. Zygar (29)
315048 2005-01-17 21:02:00 I ran v1.40 of Memtest86 and let it run for 1.5 hours. Test #5 threw up about 130000 individual errors. I have to confess to not really understanding the data it produces, but I would imagine that any kind of error in mem test is a bad sign...

Comments?

Lizard
You've confirmed your suspicions. It's bad ram.

Lo.
Lohsing (219)
315049 2005-01-17 21:50:00 Don't be so sure - in some cases the CPU produces the errors...

But based on the other info in the post - yeah - it sounds like the RAM.
HadO (796)
315050 2005-01-18 01:10:00 I don't trrust memory testing programmes, but normally I don't trust them when they say the memory is perfect. ;) When they find something wrong, I start to believe. Graham L (2)
315051 2005-01-18 05:25:00 Try downloading Prime95 (www.mersenne.org) and run it on the torture test (default settings) for a while. It sounds like you do have a problem with your memory though, but both those errors you've had I have encountered, and fixed in games of my own. To disable DEP properly, go into boot.ini and find the line containing "NoExecute". Set it to /NoExecute=AlwaysOff and see if you still get the problems.
I think I've tried to edit the Boot.ini file (through MSCONFIG), and it wouldn't let me edit any of the lines. Added to which, there is no line containing "NoExecute", so I'm stumped there...
Lizard (2409)
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