16gb Ram causes "display driver stopped working" and BSODs

Gandeh · 2 Jan 2012 at 02:01

So I've got a 990FX Sabertooth mobo and a GTX 580 Phantom (3gb mem onboard). I've been running 8gb of ram for a while this is because everytime I put my other two sticks in and boot up I get the screen going black every so often and the error message in the bottom right popping up saying "display driver stopped working..."

This is clearly some kind of issue between my ram and gfx card. I'm using the latest drivers the ram is Corsair 1600mhz but is auto recognised by the motherboard as 1333mhz for some reason.

I know I don't NEED 16gbs of ram but I'm curious to know if there is a fix for this or at least why it is happening. For the mean time I'll have to take the extra sticks out.

TNGL · 2 Jan 2012 at 02:19

Maybe you need to select the XMP profile (if there is one) to be used. Is it the XMS3 RAM? Also, try and clear your BIOS once you've put the 16gb RAM in.

Gandeh · 2 Jan 2012 at 04:24

No luck. I've also followed several guides regarding setting the voltage and other memory settings just right. But nothing seems to resolve the issue. No matter what I do, after a while of use the screen will flick black then back to normal and i'll get that display driver error. And if I try to game heavily I will get BSODs. But if I take the 2 extra sticks out, it works fine.

Azrael1 · 2 Jan 2012 at 08:28

I used to get this when I filled up all 4 banks on my old motherboard. It seemed it could'nt handle the strain of controlling 4 banks. In the end I sold the memory and brought 2 sticks instead of 2 x 4 Gigs and it was fine

Nightglow · 2 Jan 2012 at 08:47

Don't know which bios your using, but the latest bios Ver 0901, dated 14.12.2011, is for Improve memory compatibility & Improve system stability.

TNGL · 2 Jan 2012 at 10:37

Have you tried running with just the 2 new sticks? Perhaps they could be faulty; try running a memtest and see if any errors come up.

wazza300 · 2 Jan 2012 at 13:14

might need one or two clicks more qpi/vtt or imc voltage with 16gb,not much more though on sb

Gandeh · 2 Jan 2012 at 16:18

The sticks are okay I've tested them in various combos. My bios is fully updated and I manually set the Dram voltage to 1.50 hmmz :\

Gandeh · 2 Jan 2012 at 16:19

wazza300 said:
might need one or two clicks more qpi/vtt or imc voltage with 16gb,not much more though on sb

I'm not entirely clear on what you're proposing could you be a bit more clear?

biuro74 · 6 Jan 2012 at 16:54

QVL doesn't contain 16 GB tested Corsair sticks. Some Asus mobos doesn't support properly 4 RAM sticks populated in all slots. But it might be a BIOS issue - maybe they need to update it :/
Try to separate those 2 problems: video driver hangup and proper memory usage by motherboard & BIOS as Tingle said: try to boot MemTest (from bootable linux CD, for example) and check 2-3 full loops. If this won't help, you may raise some voltages a bit (look at BIOS settings) like memory voltage, memory termination voltage, bus voltage etc - get advice first how much you can raise it

traineespark · 7 Jan 2012 at 15:12

Hi, Im new here, having the same problem, memtest shows errors when i run 16gb and if i test with 12gb i get a clear run, prime95 shows clear after 8+hours, but still get bsod. Brand new sandybridge rig too...