[iain]

Nice one 

[tomtom]

Piss flaps. Something seems to have gone wrong.. blue screen of death (with a variety of errors) at seemingly random crash times.. tried re-installs (of XP and W7) and no difference. Bugger. I suspect this may be a hardware issue. Any thoughts?

[slackline]

Check the RAM modules by taking all but one out, one at a time.

Get a Live Linux disc (e.g. Linux Mint and boot from that after you've checked each module and see how stable that is.  There are tools for checking hardware, not sure which ones they are or where you'll find them off the top of my head, will check later.

[tomtom]

Check the RAM modules by taking all but one out, one at a time.

Get a Live Linux disc (e.g. Linux Mint and boot from that after you've checked each module and see how stable that is.  There are tools for checking hardware, not sure which ones they are or where you'll find them off the top of my head, will check later.

As in taking one out trying it, then the other replaceing the first etc.. (process of elimination to see if one of the RAM's is faulty?)

[iain]

As in taking one out trying it, then the other replaceing the first etc.. (process of elimination to see if one of the RAM's is faulty?)

Yup.

I'll let slack--line t recommend an app that can test PC components, I've not really had cause to use many, although you may find the motherboard has it's own diagnostics you can run which is worth doing.

It's also worth trying this to see if any of the bits are running hot. AMD cores shouldn't go over 62c under load apparently, and the cpu fan shouldn't be running too fast either, (a quick google suggests 3-4k rpm at idle)

[Jim]

defo hardware issue, try the ram first and also run speedfan as iain suggested.
I'm not sure how installing linux would help tho?

[tomtom]

Yes, its a bit of a funny one.. first time I set it up and installed the OS (on an old HDD) it worked fine for 4-5 hours on close to full tilt (70-80% load on all 6 cores)... then when I re-booted it all went tits up. I suspected the HDD (it was old and well used) so replaced that today and same grief. It 'seems' to happen more when under load, but has also happened a few times when its not doing much - or installing W7 etc..

I did have a prod on the RAM and one of them wasnt quite seated properly.. didnt seem to make much difference.. I may take them both out & in again to seat them properly.. (it came pre-assembled motherboard/cpu combo). Anyway, its at work so will have to wait until tomorrow.

Thanks for the advice Jim, Iain and Slackers - sounds like I should go up the Hardware route rather than faff with BIOS updates et c.. (which was tomorrows next port of call..)..

[Jim]

I would defo strip the whole motherboard and re-seat everything then run something like OCCT to test stability of cpu

[slackline]

defo hardware issue, try the ram first and also run speedfan as iain suggested.
I'm not sure how installing linux would help tho?

I wasn't suggesting installing Linux, but running from a live DVD (which all sits in RAM if it checks out ok in the first step) to see if hardware fails there too, you sometimes get more information from kernel debugging than a blue screen of death provides.

I'm sure there are probably hardware diagnostic tools on M$ install discs that can be run in a similar manner, but I'm not familiar with them so its not that surprising that I haven't suggested things I don't know about. (the ambiguity in my previous post was because I didn't know exactly what is included in Linux Mint, and is why I've included details of how to install if its not on the disc and an alternative).

@tomtom : Inquisitor looks like a comprehensive tool, if its not already on the Live CD that you've booted from you should be able to install it by firing up a terminal and typing...

Code: [Select]

sudo apt-get install inquisitor

...then see the documentation for various tests (or you could try one of their live CDs).

[iain]

it came pre-assembled motherboard/cpu combo

In that case if the RAM doesn't make any difference then I'd suggest going back to the supplier. There will be nothing more you can do anyway without (probably) invalidating the warranty.

[Jim]

slackers, there's a program called memtest that doesn't need an OS to boot into
http://www.memtest.org/

[slackline]

slackers, there's a program called memtest that doesn't need an OS to boot into
http://www.memtest.org/

Yes I've used that before under GNU/Linux (its available in most suites, but as you say also as a stand alone bootable ISO).  memtest+ is included in Linux Mint, but the functionality is covered by Inquisitor which will check more than just memory.

[tomtom]

Back from work now. Tanks for all the help it seems like one of the memory modules was at fault. When it's removed it's been up and running at 80% for a few hours
Thank you all again
Tt

[tomtom]

Slackers you're right..
I've seen / read things on using CUDA to program GPU...  From what I've heard its pretty hard to get stuff into CUDA - thuogh there are other ways now.. but I do all my stuff in c#.. I know there is a set of c# libraries/extensions that do GPU under the name of brahma, but its not (at all) clear how all this works etc..
I'm fairly savvy about structuring code/variables to work OK in a parallell environment - but not so sure about the whole GPU thing... and CUDA's less than user friendly operation. But GPU is seductive.. £100 sheets or so can buy a graphics card with 32 procs on it....

An update for anyone interested...

I went on a 2 day Cuda training course in late November, which tipped my confidence over the edge to have a try - and it became my xmas break coding project #sadfucker

I've managed to get GPU working via NVIDA CUDA 4.0 within C# using a set of wrappers (???) going by the name of cudafy.net. It was a bit of buggering about, but much simpler in the end than going down the dark path of engaging with writing cuda code in native c++...

Its a bit of a YYFY.. as I've managed to get a 5x speed up compared to a multicore version (an i5 quad core) and a 12x speed up compared to a single cpu on the i5. The work is speeding up a flow model, using a laptop with a lowish end GPU (Nvidia GT555m) which is a fair bit (2-5x) slower than what I can get in a desktop.. Happy days Curry and a beer now.