1-2 sticks = fine. 4 sticks = memtest errors

So I bought the new Gears of War this week and was excited to start the campaign. I get 10 minutes into the game and it just freezes completely. ctrl-alt-del to close it.
This happens every time I try to play the game, and I think I've narrowed it down to my RAM.
Im using 16GB Teamgroup Xtreem DDR3 2400Mhz (4 x 4GB sticks)
My motherboard is an Asrock Z97 Extreme4

Running Memtest86 shows that each stick of RAM individually seems to work fine, but if I test all 4 sticks at once, I get errors on test 7.

Anyone have any ideas whats going on here?

Well assuming you tested all sticks in every slot without error then ......
4 sticks is a much higher drain on the memory controller and its causing errors

lurkio said:

Well assuming you tested all sticks in every slot without error then ......
4 sticks is a much higher drain on the memory controller and its causing errors

Click to expand...

yes I tested all 4 slots separately.

So what do I need to change in the bios the fix the higher drain on the memory controller?

Loque said:

yes I tested all 4 slots separately.

So what do I need to change in the bios the fix the higher drain on the memory controller?

Click to expand...

You could always bump the voltage up on the IMC.

so apparently there is no way to adjust the IMC voltage on my board. So it looks like I'm going to have to buy new memory. Thanks anyway.

What about underclocking the RAM? Can you do that?

Loque said:

so apparently there is no way to adjust the IMC voltage on my board. So it looks like I'm going to have to buy new memory. Thanks anyway.

Click to expand...

Viewing page 104 of the user manual for your mobo you have access to relevant voltage.

Ref this image with that page.





The above image is from der8auer Overclocking site (pro-overclocker/CPU binner @ caseking.de), link to his Haswell / Devil's Canyon guide.

I see nothing on page 104 that talks about voltages?

Edit:. Never mind. I see the options in the bios now.

So the recommended SA voltage is 1.1v and by default it should be 0.85v? So I should set SA voltage offset to +0.250v correct?

If your SA voltage is shown in bios monitoring or HWiNFO as 0.850V then yes adding an offset of +0.250V will achieve 1.100V .

Ok so HWiNFO reports my CPU Digital and Analog IO voltages are 1.168v and SA voltage is 1.080v I'll do some testing tonight and see if I get anymore freezes

I've had 2 differing i5 4690K in my mobo and the vcore/vcring differed between them, as I was new to the platform I did not take note of the other voltage at that time (~1yr ago). I would not be surprised if the other voltages differ between CPUs. Use the stock column in the image above as guide not as the absolute what stock voltage maybe, same with the OC voltages, on OCN I've seen some people go above those.

Another thing I noted on my Asus board when OC'ing was if vcring was "auto" and I upped cache ratio it would up it (vcring automatically). So basically what I did was boot mobo with defaults, note voltages and set manually. This way when I adjusted CPU or cache ratio, etc things were not getting increased as per what Asus had set in UEFI for "auto".

I have not had an Asrock mobo ever, I have not built a pc for anyone with one, so can not tell you how it may behave in the way I've seen other boards. So you will need to get to know it , happy to share anything I can from what my OC exploits have taught me .

Are you using 1.65v vdram?

whyscotty said:

Are you using 1.65v vdram?

Click to expand...

I was, yes.

So I did some testing with the increased voltages, and it apparently made no difference. Gears 4 still freezes after about 10 minutes.

Removed 2 sticks of memory, and I've been enjoying the campaign today for about 4 hours.
I've went ahead and ordered a 16GB kit to replace these 4 sticks, which i'll most like sell on the MM sometime soon.