Possibly corrupt RAM?

dyscoria · 2009-01-26 13:03:03

I've recently been getting alot of freezes on my Dell Vostro 1700 (Core 2 Duo). The screen goes funny (with rapidly flickering lines on both sides and everything generally fuzzy), the LED's start to flash and nothing responds (apart from holding the power button).

At first I thought it was the CPU overheating, but that should make my laptop shutdown altogether right? I've been told it could be corrupt RAM, but i've run memtest86 and no errors came up.

I'm using KDE 4.2RC1 on my 32bit Arch install, but I wouldn't have thought this problem was related to KDE.

Thanks.

Devastator · 2009-01-26 13:22:24

What graphics card do you have?

If nvidia, then perhaps it is this issue?: http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=63281

Last edited by Devastator (2009-01-26 13:25:16)

Stunix · 2009-01-26 13:24:41

Hey dyscoria,

Have you checked any of the log files? I would suggest looking in /var/log/messages first to see if there are any related entries. If you suspect it to be a hardware issue I would suggest looking for /var/log/mcelog as that should be present and contain details of errors related to hardware. To further troubleshoot the issue I would suggest running your machine in runlevel 3 (console) for a period of time to see if the issue appears. I suspect it could be a graphics driver or X11 issue. Do you run compiz or some other form of desktop effects?

pyther · 2009-01-26 14:06:26

Check /var/log/messages, along with dmesg.

To test the ram you can download memtest. It runs of off a bootable cd. Let it run for a good 24 hours, unless if you detect a lot of errors in the first few passes. I had let mine run for about 36hours to detect errors in the ram.

Hopefully you'll logs will give you some type of hint.

dyscoria · 2009-01-26 21:12:29

Thanks for the responses.

@Devastator: I have an Nvidia 8400M GS card yes, but i dont think it's the same problem as in that thread.

@Stunix and pyther: Scoured /var/log and logs indicate no related error messages unfortunately. I run kwin in KDE4 with desktop effects enabled.

I will try running memtest86 overnight. I only let it run through once when I tried it. If that doesn't turn up anything useful, i guess i'll somehow try and stresstest the system in runlevel 3.

I'm skeptical though at how an Nvidia or general graphics problem could cause a hard freeze such as the ones im getting though, but then again what do i know. Hopefully a long stretch of memtest will pick something up, otherwise i'm a little stumped. I'll see if downgrading the nvidia-driver will change my luck.

Last edited by dyscoria (2009-01-26 21:12:49)

Arch Linux

#1 2009-01-26 13:03:03

Possibly corrupt RAM?

#2 2009-01-26 13:22:24

Re: Possibly corrupt RAM?

#3 2009-01-26 13:24:41

Re: Possibly corrupt RAM?

#4 2009-01-26 14:06:26

Re: Possibly corrupt RAM?

#5 2009-01-26 21:12:29

Re: Possibly corrupt RAM?

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