Torture Test Error

I have just run P95 on my computer for the first time ever as I recently bought WoW. I had several installation issues and read the FAQ's on the Blizzard site and they said to try a manual install, which also failed.

The next step they suggested was to run P95 and see what happens.

Here are my results:

[Wed Oct 11 14:36:21 2006]
Self-test 1024K passed!
[Wed Oct 11 14:51:22 2006]
Self-test 8K passed!
[Wed Oct 11 14:59:44 2006]
FATAL ERROR: Final result was 18719402, expected: 9FF8F462.
Hardware failure detected, consult stress.txt file.

This doesn't mean much to me - so could anyone advise? My hardware is as follows:

- Intel Pentium 4 processor w/ HT Technology @ 3.2GHz (FSB 800MHz)
- 2GB Corsair DDR2 667MHz ValueSelect RAM (4 x 512MB Modules)
- ATI X1800XT Radeon 512MB GDDR3 Card
- Seagate Barracuda 250GB 7200rpm Main Drive

Thanks in advance for your assistance.

- krypton_ls

[victor]

Try memtest86 to check your memory ;)

Hello victor, and thanks for your reply.

I downloaded the memtest86 program and coppied it to floppy disk. It ran happily for the past 2hrs, 23 mins and 50 seconds until I hit the Escape key!

It went through 4 complete tests and reported no errors at all. Here is the information the program gave me whilst in operation:

Wall Time: 2:23:50
Cached: 2048M<
RsvdMem: 276M
MemMap: e820-Std
Cache: On
ECC: Off
Test: Std
Pass: 4
Errors: 0

Can anyone advise on what else I could do? Thanks in advance ;)

[paulunderwood]

Check your temperatures in BIOS (accessed through pressing the "del" key (or on some computers "F1") as your computer boots -- just after the keyboard lights flash -- or when you are prompted to do so by the BIOS.)

Report your temperature readings here.

Check for dust accumulation around your CPU's heatsink and fan...

The idle temperature of my CPU stays at exactly 44 degrees centigrade whether under load or not. Even if I play an intensive game of FEAR for a few hours it will rarely budge over 45-46 degrees.

The heatsink I have it not the standard Intel one - I recently bought a fancy Zalman one which is much quieter and does the same job.

Regarding overclocking - nothing has ever been overclocked in my system - EVER! :)

The machine was made by myself and all using new quality components from various Internet sites, here in the UK.

Any more suggestions at all? Thanks for your reply. ;)

[paulunderwood]

I suggest you enter BIOS and set it to "failsafe" and retest with prime95.

Also try running prime95 in "safe mode" (accessible by pressing [F8] at start of Windoze boot.)

Perhaps someone else can comment on temperature software which can read temperature when the computer is under load.

Do you have plenty of system fans?

PS: What Power Supply Unit are you using?

You mention failsafe - where abouts is this setting?

I will also try running P95 in Safe Mode - I didn't think of that! :)

As for temperature's in Windows, I use a free program called SensorsView which checks the CPU, Motherboard, CPU Fan and two internal hard drives.

As for system fans, I have my Zalman CPU cooler, one drawing in air at the front and two out at the back. Not forgetting the two inbuilt to my main PSU and the one for the graphics card!

The PSU was a cheap one when purchased and is 500W with a connector for the graphics card. The total number of devices that use it are as follows:

- DVD-RW Drive
- DVD-ROM Drive
- 1 x 250GB SATA and 1 x 160GB IDE Hard Drive
- Graphics Card
- Floppy Drive
- Fan Controller
- 4 x 80mm blue LED fans

Also, I am using an ECS PF88 Extreme Hybrid motherboard.

One further point to add, is that when I ran the other memory checker program, memtest86, during the 2 hours + it ran for, the power supply was feeling hotter than usual, is what I noticed when I felt through the case and also the air that came out of it. Do you think I may need a more powerful PSU for my system?

Also, just so that you are all completely filled in on my situation: The vast majority of games I try to play, (Half Life 2, Doom 3, Quake 4, FEAR and FEAR Combat, GTA Vice City, Command & Conquer Generals/Zero Hour, Age of Empires II/III, Hitman Blood Money, Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion, Battlefield 2/Special Forces and postal 2) ALL crash during loading or during the first few minutes of gameplay.

FEAR generally runs well either on or offline and the same with The Elder Scrolls. The others - I've given up on for now! ^_^

There is definitely something wrong with my computer - be it RAM, (potentially) PSU or Graphics Card. And when Windows generates the error for the game crashing, it is always the main game .exe that crashes.

Any further advice, and I would be most grateful. ;)

[victor]

Originally Posted by krypton_ls

Also, just so that you are all completely filled in on my situation: The vast majority of games I try to play, (Half Life 2, Doom 3, Quake 4, FEAR and FEAR Combat, GTA Vice City, Command & Conquer Generals/Zero Hour, Age of Empires II/III, Hitman Blood Money, Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion, Battlefield 2/Special Forces and postal 2) ALL crash during loading or during the first few minutes of gameplay.

I was precisely going to ask if your system was stable
I don't have any solution, but at least we're sure P95 isn't the problem -- if that helps

-What windows do you got?

-- Paul told you about 'failsafe' : it's an option you can choose in the boot-menu, right before windows loads. You should hit F8 to get to this menu, hit it either during the POST of your BIOS, or right after

I am running a fully legal copy of Windows XP Professional SP2.

So failsafe is just another term for booting in safe mode?

[paulunderwood]

Don't confuse "safemode" with "failsafe". Safemode is a Windoze thing that is accessible by pressing [f8] when windows boots. "failsafe" is a motherboard thing...

As computer boots, press "del" repeatedly and go into BIOS and set the board to "load fail-safe defaults". Try prime95 again...

Ah right - now I see what you mean.

I'll give it a go in the morning and post back with how I get on.

Thanks for all your advice so far. ;)