Hey everyone,

You know the feeling when you upgrade your computer and nothing turns out how you want it to? I do. Before I ask soem advice, here is the story.

I had an old out-of-the-box computer for 5 years wich was a pain to play games ones. So I decided to upgrade (Pc not shutting down had to do with it). So this is what happend:

1. My computer wouldn't shut down, so I decided to upgrade the pc as it was outdated. First I bought a new MoBo (fixing the no-shutdown problem), CPU (to match the mobo) and RAM. As I wanted it to keep it low budget, I got myself a G31M-S from Asrock, Intel Dual Core E5200 and 1x DDR2 RAM. Working smooth, finally I can game! .. Wrong. Continuous BSOD about memory management. Next step: Checking hardware. Checked all, what seemed? The CPU holder had twisted pins, could this be the cause? After some research I found that this could cause the CPU to behave abnormal and give errors.

2. Okay, I fucked up my own MoBo, fair enough, Ill get a new one. Now I've got myself a G41M-ES2L with the rest the same. I install the new MoBo, boot up and what happens? My ******* Power supply blows up! A few months old and was giving more smoke than I've ever seen from a PC. Great, now what?

3. So, installed my old PSU (wich actually still worked, wonderfull) and booted the PC. A few hick ups because of the new mobo, did some driver updates and great, it worked! So now I've got a working computer but being a little paranoid, I did a CPU stress test. Results? 99 degrees celsius at full load, 65 - 70 degrees celcius at idle! Issue? CPU fan not close enough to CPU. Made it fit better and now running temps of 45 degrees when running a few apps. 49 when playing World of warcraft.

Now, the above is merely a big frustration of unfortunate events wich are probaly caused by myself. The actual question where I need some advice: Running memtest gave multiple errors. I am unsure what to do now. Buy new RAM or did something more blow up than my PSU? Checked everything, all looked fine..

That said, my frustation is out and I'm hoping for some insight on this. And for the people who read this wall of text, you've got some patience!

Are you able to provide the actual errors returned from Memtest? I've never used it before, but it might be able to clear up some things if you provided the exact error messages.

Things to consider:
1. Power "blowing up" could have caused damage to mobo. Could have discharged into mobo.
2. RAM could be bad. (fairly common)
3. RAM pins could be damaged. (if installed incorrectly or forcefully)
4. Possible damage from overheated CPU. A CPU getting too hot can cause serious damage. Infact, if you remove the fan and cooling features entirely the CPU can get hot enough to melt a hole and itself right through the mobo and case. I dont know what sort of damage 99 degrees can do, but I'm worried about the effects on the pins and the mobo at that temperature.

These are just things to consider as possible issues, I'm not saying any of this has actually happened, I'm just thinking off the top of my head. More likely than not, your computer would indicate to you in error messages at startup or during use if any of this was happening.

Thanks for actually reading and the input. As far as the reply goes on your post:

1. Was thinking of that, yet it seems this wasn't the case as it runs perfect now. There could be some hidden errors though
2. Had that before with my old DDR. Bought new ones and was solved. Now with this DDR2 I have the same (IS OCZ 1066MHz, cheaper version)
3. Did this very cautious, as I am paranoid about breaking hardware, even more now
4. Looked up the effects on the net and checked after the extreme heat. Not even a slight colour change beneath the CPU, at the CPU or anything around it, so I'm hoping it was a false reading due to air heating up quickly.

And the error messages, just random write errors when using the RAM in memtest. The BSODs i received were MEMORY_MANAGEMENT (RAM related it seems) and PFN_LIST_CORRUPT (again RAM related). This seems to be solved after the new MoBo. Still doubting if I should get new RAM or wait how the system performs. As of now, with heavy usage, it didn't pass the 59C.

My choice would be to just let it sit and see what happens. If you do eventually get a system error, it will be MUCH more specific to the problem. Being as cheap as I am, I wouldnt want to buy new RAM if I wasnt 100% sure it was the fault of the RAM.