2nd memory failure within a year

[lastrhino]

I built a system based around the ECS K7S5a budget board about 4 years ago. One of the DDR slots on the board didn't work new out of the box, but return shipping would have cost more than the board, so I kept it. It ran great with 1 stick of 512 MB PC2100 Kingston ValueRam for 3 years with both the CPU (AMD Athlong XP1700) and memory running at 133Mhz. The RAM went bad about 9 months ago, and Kingston replaced it without hassle. This weekend, the same symptons cropped up (BSOD page fault errors on boot), and switching out the memory with a 128MB spare fixed the problem immediatly.

I'll get the memory replaced again for sure but the two failures have me wondering if my MB is eating RAM. CPU and case fans are running fine. About a year ago, shortly before the first failure I replaced the CDRW with a DVDRW and replaced my two 40GB drives with a single 160GB. Nothing else has changed.

Any thoughts? Thanks!

 

[lastrhino]

Quick update, After 2 days of good running on the spare RAM, the computer completely died, now there's no POST at all, only spinning fans. Clearing the CMOS didn't help, neither did removing all unnecessary components, and replacing the AGP card with a PCI one. I did notice something new though...


bulging capacitors! UGH

So, I guess it's time to look for a new board. =P

 

[wpshooter]

You get what you pay for. Buy yourself a good ASUS board.

 

[amdskip]

Not necessarily wpshooter. I've had great luck with ECS K7S5a boards. I've seen MSI, Asus and Epox motherboards all with bad capacitors and it wasn't their fault, its the capacitor manufacturer's fault IIRC.