My idea of a bad day...

[DocGreen]

My idea of a bad day? Having to put your own server on the bench...

Went to print something earlier and my Laserjet showed as offline (USB printer attached to server). That's odd... it's sitting right in front of me, and is turned on.

Try to RDP into the server (it's just a box... no monitor, kbd, mouse)... Connection failed. Huh. Well, that's happened before I guess.

Connect monitor, kbd, & mouse... screen won't come on. Crap. Now I'm getting a little worried.

Power-cycle the box... BSOD. *screams out in rage*

Run Dell built-in diagnostics... "Memory Integrity Test Failed" (err 0123)

So here I am... running memory diagnostics on my own friggin' server. It's not a "real" server, mind you. It's a business-grade Dell Optiplex with Server 2k8. More than enough for my needs. All I have it do is share my printers and act as a file server. I really need to rebuild this thing... the memory is really finicky. For example:
The server started out with Sticks A, B, and C in DIMMs 1, 2, and 3 respectively. When I ran the first diagnostic without changing anything... it gave me the error code 0123 and indicated it was on DIMM 2 (stick B). I took all the RAM out, and put stick B into DIMM 1... wouldn't power on. Put it in DIMM 3... wouldn't power on. Put it in DIMM 2 (original location)... Powers on, and so far hasn't given any errors in the memory diagnostic (already long past where the errors originally occurred.)

I suppose I'll fire up Memtest and see if it gives a different result.

 

[DocGreen]

Interesting development...

Won't boot with Stick A in DIMMs 1, 2, 4
Boots with Stick A in DIMM 3, 3 passes in Memtest w/ no errors.

Here's where it gets intersting...

Booted just fine with Stick B in DIMM 1. Running through Memtest now.


Stick A and Stick B are identical sticks of RAM. WTF? Is stick A bad? If so, why did it work just fine in DIMM 3?

I may end up moving this the hardware section, lol.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Optiplex memory.....you prolly have tons of sticks of various desktop RAM sitting around in a box. Or at least...in the interest of saving time, hit up www.crucial.com and overnight a kit

 

[DocGreen]

Optiplex memory.....you prolly have tons of sticks of various desktop RAM sitting around in a box. Or at least...in the interest of saving time, hit up www.crucial.com and overnight a kit

(this is nuts...)

Actually it wasn't using stock memory. That doesn't necessarily mean that the memory I had in it was any better, lol.

Here's what I had in the box...

Stick A- 2G SuperTalent DDR2 PC2-6400 (T8UB2GC5) (5-5-5-15)
Stick B- 2G SuperTalent DDR2 PC2-6400 (T8UB2GC5) (5-5-5-15)
Stick C- 2G Hynix DDR2 PC2-6400 (HYMP125U64CP8-S6) (6-6-6-18)
(I did have a 4th stick to match C, but it was sacrificed for another machine)

DIMMs are dual-channel - 1&2... 3&4

Test results...

Stick: A x x x: No POST. LED error code 3/4
DIMM: 1 3 2 4:

x A x x: Boots. Passes Memtest (3 pass, 0 errors)
1 3 2 4:

x x A x: No POST. LED error 3/4
1 3 2 4:

x x x A: No POST. LED error 3/4 (also error beeps)
1 3 2 4:
------------------------------------------------------
B x x x: Boots. Passes Memtest
1 3 2 4:

x B x x: Boots. Passes Memtest
1 3 2 4:

x x B x: No POST. LED error 3/4 (also error beeps)
1 3 2 4:

x x x B: Boots. Passes Memtest
1 3 2 4:
-------------------------------------------------------
C x x x: Boots. (3-pass Memtest running now)
1 3 2 4:

x C x x: Boots. (1-pass Memtest pending...)
1 3 2 4:

x x C x: Boots. (1-pass Memtest pending...)
1 3 2 4:

x x x C: Boots. (1-pass Memtest pending...)
1 3 2 4:
--------------------------------------------------


SO... at this point I'm thinking... SuperTalent sucks... and I potentially have a bad DIMM. Or maybe not. I'll test DIMM 2 with some more RAM that's just laying around and see if it keeps popping up bad, or if it's just the SuperTalent RAM.

Annoying part is, I was just bragging about how my Dell desktop has ran pretty much 24/7/365 for the past 4ish years without any issues... lol.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

(
SO... at this point I'm thinking... SuperTalent sucks... and I potentially have a bad DIMM. Or maybe not. I'll test DIMM 2 with some more RAM that's just laying around and see if it keeps popping up bad, or if it's just the SuperTalent RAM.

Yeah...soon as I read "Supertalent"....and I cringed. Down there with kingston and other cheapo RAM brands. I might sneak that stuff in my competitors servers...that's about all I'd install it in.

 

[nlinecomputers]

I work from home so I was at my main system last night surfing the net. Nothing work related and I stood up to go to bed. Not sure what the frak I snagged on my clothing but the external HDD dock I have for duping or imaging drives went flying off the desk smashed down onto the UPS, bounced and hit the floor. It started the trip in one piece. It ended it on the floor in about 20 pieces. #FML

 

[ComputerRepairTech]

(this is nuts...)

Actually it wasn't using stock memory. That doesn't necessarily mean that the memory I had in it was any better, lol.

Here's what I had in the box...

Stick A- 2G SuperTalent DDR2 PC2-6400 (T8UB2GC5) (5-5-5-15)
Stick B- 2G SuperTalent DDR2 PC2-6400 (T8UB2GC5) (5-5-5-15)
Stick C- 2G Hynix DDR2 PC2-6400 (HYMP125U64CP8-S6) (6-6-6-18)
(I did have a 4th stick to match C, but it was sacrificed for another machine)

DIMMs are dual-channel - 1&2... 3&4

Test results...

Stick: A x x x: No POST. LED error code 3/4
DIMM: 1 3 2 4:

x A x x: Boots. Passes Memtest (3 pass, 0 errors)
1 3 2 4:

x x A x: No POST. LED error 3/4
1 3 2 4:

x x x A: No POST. LED error 3/4 (also error beeps)
1 3 2 4:
------------------------------------------------------
B x x x: Boots. Passes Memtest
1 3 2 4:

x B x x: Boots. Passes Memtest
1 3 2 4:

x x B x: No POST. LED error 3/4 (also error beeps)
1 3 2 4:

x x x B: Boots. Passes Memtest
1 3 2 4:
-------------------------------------------------------
C x x x: Boots. (3-pass Memtest running now)
1 3 2 4:

x C x x: Boots. (1-pass Memtest pending...)
1 3 2 4:

x x C x: Boots. (1-pass Memtest pending...)
1 3 2 4:

x x x C: Boots. (1-pass Memtest pending...)
1 3 2 4:
--------------------------------------------------


SO... at this point I'm thinking... SuperTalent sucks... and I potentially have a bad DIMM. Or maybe not. I'll test DIMM 2 with some more RAM that's just laying around and see if it keeps popping up bad, or if it's just the SuperTalent RAM.

Annoying part is, I was just bragging about how my Dell desktop has ran pretty much 24/7/365 for the past 4ish years without any issues... lol.

Thats how they are labeled on the board?

ram slot 1
ram slot 3

ram slot 2
ram slot 4?

Also you had the faster ram in the first slot? Perhaps something changed in the past few years and I missed it but wouldnt jedec be overclocking the slower ram if you did that? does dell allow manual memory timings to be adjusted? what about the voltage of the memory is it the same? as for the ram banks I couldnt say at this time. I feel best course of action at this time is to test the ram in a different computer.

 

[Blue]

Annoying part is, I was just bragging about how my Dell desktop has ran pretty much 24/7/365 for the past 4ish years without any issues... lol.

Ah, Karma must've heard you.

Second the BLAAARRGHHHH on SuperTalent memory. FWIW, my Dell PowerEdge 2850 servers were more picky about RAM than any other machines in my labs. Not sure why, but damn, it was annoying. Even when all modules had identical amounts, speeds, and timings, it'd have problems.

 

[angry_geek]

Believe it or not, in some of the old Dells, Kingston was about the only thing I could get to run reliably. Nowadays, I stick with crucial for just about everything.

 

[nlinecomputers]

People bash Kingston but I've never had a bad stick from them. Can't say that with Crucial. To be fair the bad one came out of a system that blew a PSU.

I wouldn't put Kingston in a server but never had problems with most WS.

 

[Rob_NNCC]

I agree on ditching the supertalent RAM.

Also, you could use this as an excuse to get an entry level server with IPMI as you are running it headless.

I have had 2 crucial ram modules die on me in the last 2 years. Both ones that I installed in client computers

 

[DocGreen]

Yeah... I picked up this system and the parts from my school when I first started my business over a year ago. I was working there on a Federal Work Study program in the IT dept. We updated the PC's in one of the labs and my boss let me take like 5 of the old ones home with me... grabbed up as much RAM & vid cards as I could, so I guess beggars can't be choosers, lol.


As for the slot labels, yes... they're marked 1, 3, 2, 4 (because of the dual channels... 1 & 2 are black, 3 & 4 are white). It threw me off at first too. I originally had the slower SuperTalent RAM in channel 1 (slots 1 & 2) so the faster RAM should have run slower instead of the other way around. (I honestly didn't know it made a difference which slot they were in... I thought the bios would default to the speed of the slowest stick)

I'm pretty sure there's no manual adjustment for the memory timing on this board... I'll double check when I go back upstairs.

To the best of my Googling ability, it looks like the voltage is the same between the two different types of RAM... I'll confirm that the next time I swap the sticks.


Unfortunately I'm fresh out of 2gb sticks of DDR2... got a mountain of 512's and some DDR3 that aren't doing me any good, lol.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Ah I've thrown out (or thrown across a room to see if it would stick in a ceiling tile) tons of Kingston sticks. 'course I usually see those in cheaper home cloner built systems with 19 dollar motherboards......so who knows what was actually wrong....not worth the time to even spend a minute figuring out.

 

[DocGreen]

...19 dollar motherboards...

LOL






random filler text

 

[ComputerRepairTech]

(I honestly didn't know it made a difference which slot they were in... I thought the bios would default to the speed of the slowest stick)

I do not know if auto memory timings are now going by slowest memory (which does make a whole lot more sense) I only know that many years ago in my tests it was based on the first ram slot. Since then I have never put a faster ram into the first bank to test it again.

 

[DocGreen]

I do not know if auto memory timings are now going by slowest memory (which does make a whole lot more sense) I only know that many years ago in my tests it was based on the first ram slot. Since then I have never put a faster ram into the first bank to test it again.

Better safe than sorry!


So the Hynix RAM tested out fine in all DIMM slots. Going to test the SuperTalent RAM in another machine, and test the server with all the DIMMs populated.