I have an older PC with a Biostar NM70I-874 motherboard/CPU and 8GB of Crucial Ballistix RAM. It's a multiboot system with Mint 17.3 (x64), Chromixium 1.5 (x64) Windows 7-64.

While using/configuring Chromixium or Mint (mostly Chrome+Thunar/Nautilus+gEdit+Terminal), the system spontaneously shuts down after anywhere between 2-10 minutes.

I suspected a RAM issue so I pulled one DIMM, then the other. Problem still occurred. No errors running Memtest - unless I try to use multi-threaded mode (F2 when it starts) - then ALL tests fail. Not sure what to make of this but I'm inclined to think it's an issue with Memtest.

To rule out hard drive errors, I booted a live distro and tried using that for a while. Same problem.

To rule out a CPU problem, I'm now running systester and it's on pass 3 at 32M Pi digits, 4 threads, 50 passes. It's been running almost 2 hours now with no failures and no system shutdowns. It's a mystery - no way I could actually use the system for that long without a crash, yet a stress testing/benchmarking tool doesn't crash the system.

Any suggestions on what to try or what the problem may be?

Output of inxi -Fxz

System: Host: TGMLoaner4 Kernel: 3.19.0-65-generic x86_64 (64 bit gcc: 4.8.4)
Desktop: Xfce 4.12.2 (Gtk 2.24.23) Distro: Linux Mint 17.3 Rosa
Machine: Mobo: TAR model: NM70I-847 v: 6.0
Bios: American Megatrends v: 4.6.5 date: 09/10/2012
CPU: Dual core Intel Celeron 847 (-MCP-) cache: 2048 KB
flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx) bmips: 4389
clock speeds: max: 1100 MHz 1: 1081 MHz 2: 1100 MHz
Graphics: Card: Intel 2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics Controller
bus-ID: 00:02.0
Display Server: X.Org 1.17.1 drivers: intel (unloaded: fbdev,vesa)
Resolution: 1920x1080@60.0hz
GLX Renderer: Mesa DRI Intel Sandybridge Mobile
GLX Version: 3.0 Mesa 10.5.9 Direct Rendering: Yes
Audio: Card Intel 7 Series/C210 Series Family High Definition Audio Controller
driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:1b.0
Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k3.19.0-65-generic
Network: Card: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller
driver: r8169 v: 2.3LK-NAPI port: e000 bus-ID: 04:00.0
IF: eth0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
Drives: HDD Total Size: 191.3GB (5.6% used)
ID-1: /dev/sda model: ST3160812AS size: 160.0GB
ID-2: USB /dev/sdb model: DataTraveler_2.0 size: 31.2GB
Partition: ID-1: / size: 19G used: 5.7G (33%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda10
ID-2: /boot size: 180M used: 86M (52%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda9
ID-3: /home size: 47G used: 581M (2%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda8
ID-4: swap-1 size: 4.09GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda7
RAID: No RAID devices: /proc/mdstat, md_mod kernel module present
Sensors: System Temperatures: cpu: 53.0C mobo: 27.8C
Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A
Info: Processes: 187 Uptime: 1 min Memory: 312.5/7877.7MB
Init: Upstart runlevel: 2 Gcc sys: 4.8.4
Client: Shell (bash 4.3.111) inxi: 2.2.28

Donny Bahama,

For what it’s worth, I had a similar problem with some 13 month old Crucial RAM on a W7 machine. To be fair it is the only time I have ever experienced a problem with Crucial RAM.

I used MemTest on my two sticks, one at a time and they were both given a clean bill of health.

I repeated the procedure with Windows Memory Diagnostic Tool and one stick was diagnosed as faulty within a very short time.

Crucial did a RMA for me.

WMDT:
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/...spotlight.aspx

Download the .exe file, create an .iso image and burn to CD.

Further info:
https://www.raymond.cc/blog/test-you...ry-diagnostic/

Also check the cpu fan & cooling, if it shuts down without any error messages.