Cyde Weys wrote:

> Bob Day wrote:
>
>>"Cyde Weys" <cydeweys@gmail.com> wrote in message news:1129410518.445581.164210@g49g2000cwa.googlegr oups.com...
>>
>>>So my computer's running fine, and BAM, it suddenly becomes
>>>nonfunctional. It repeatedly insta-reboots from inside Windows.
>>>Windows will start successfully, but try using it for a minute or two
>>>and the insta-reboot occurs. I figured maybe it's a problem with
>>>Windows, so I tried my Gentoo Linux LiveCD ... not working either. The
>>>computer boots fine and even sometimes gets the kernel booted, but it
>>>quickly freezes after that.
>>>
>>>So I'm thinking it may be a hardware problem. I try memtest86 from
>>>within the Gentoo Linux LiveCD. I get millions of errors. At this
>>>point I should probably mention that my memory consists of 2X Crucial
>>>512MB DDR 333Mhz CL2.5 and my motherboard is an Asus A7N8X-X. So I
>>>think one of my memory modules may be bad, so I try running with just
>>>one. I get the errors in memtest. I try running it with just the
>>>other memory module installed. I get the same errors in memtest:
>>>specifically, the Err-Bits seem always to be 00ff0000.
>>>
>>>Is it possible for two memory modules to both go bad simultaneously and
>>>in the same fashion? I think it may be *possible*, but it's not
>>>exactly probable. So what could be the problem then? Is my
>>>motherboard borked?
>>
>>Bad slot maybe. Possibly, power supply voltage not within
>>tolerance.
>
>
> I get the same memory errors no matter which memory module I use or
> which slot I put it in. I guess something is wrong with the memory
> pathway in general? And this would be a mobo issue (and presumably the
> CPU is fine)?
>
> The power supply voltages seems to be in bounds as follows:
>
> VCORE 1.61V
> +3.3V 3.23V
> +5V 4.83V
> +12V 12.22V
>

It could be anything, including the CPU. After all, memory can't be read
without the CPU being involved.

But with persistent global errors of that type I'd tend to guess a BIOS
setting before hardware failure. Try 'safe' defaults and, in particular,
the slowest memory speed settings.