Crucial Ballistix problem

4ndy89 · 1 May 2007 at 23:33

Hi guys, am I right in guessing the ram i brought today from OCUK is faulty?

Have been playing with Orthos and have found that the CPU test is fine, but the ram test fails after 9 seconds or so with the following error :

Orthos said:
Type: Large, in-place FFTs - stress some RAM Min: 128 Max: 1024 InPlace: Yes Mem: 8 Time: 15
CPU: 3000MHz FSB: 375MHz [375MHz x 8.0 est.]
CPU: 3000MHz FSB: 375MHz [375MHz x 8.0 est.]
01/05/2007 11:34
Launching 2 threads...
Using CPU #0
Beginning a continuous self-test to check your computer.
Press Stop to end this test.
Test 1, 4000 Lucas-Lehmer iterations of M19922945 using 1024K FFT length.
Torture Test ran 0 minutes 9 seconds - 0 errors, 0 warnings.
Execution halted.

I havent overclocked the ram at all, any ideas?

4ndy89 · 1 May 2007 at 23:35

Ok it seems that error isnt very helpful, im going to run memtest and see what it says tonight.

Cupra · 1 May 2007 at 23:40

just run it for 20 mins see what happens also what timings and volts do you have it set at

RaiderX · 1 May 2007 at 23:49

check your memory is at 2.1v which is balistix stock, if its at the mobos stock of 1.8 then you wont get near the memorys stock speed with the stock timings

4ndy89 · 1 May 2007 at 23:55

Right, well for the test i set everything to default bios settings, got 482 errors about 10-15 mins in, is there something i have to set up in the bios that im missing,

my specs are :
P5N-E SLI
E6420
BFG 8800 320mb
2gb crucial ballistix 6400 - 4-4-4-12

RaiderX · 1 May 2007 at 23:57

change voltages to manual
set DDR2 voltage to +3 so its at 2.1v

4ndy89 · 1 May 2007 at 23:57

will give it a go at setting 2.1, thanks buddy

4ndy89 · 2 May 2007 at 00:08

Ok, gave it a go but memtest failed from the word go, the with 2.1 on memory ir gave me a BSOD straight away on xp, fixed that buy changing the mem speed back to default.

netby · 2 May 2007 at 00:15

I mate

run memtest with ram at default 400mhz ( DDR2 800) timmings at 12-4-4-4 at 2.2 Vdimm

if you get errors then at least one of the dimm´s is faulty
then ran the memtest again ,with one module at a time,to find wich one is faulty

in any case , if memtest shows errors, it´s RMA time.

PS- and if the memtest is giving lot´s of errors like that, then very soon you will notice strange things happening in Windows ,like BSOD, reebots of the pc ,etc.

WJA96 · 2 May 2007 at 05:55

Are you in the yellow or the black slots?

WJA96 · 2 May 2007 at 05:57

RaiderX said:
check your memory is at 2.1v which is balistix stock, if its at the mobos stock of 1.8 then you wont get near the memorys stock speed with the stock timings

Ballistix is 2.2V RAM, but I don't think that's the problem.

4ndy89 · 2 May 2007 at 09:45

Im in the yellow

WJA96 · 2 May 2007 at 11:33

Try the black. The yellow slots are notoriously dodgy.

4ndy89 · 2 May 2007 at 18:24

Right, ive tried the black slots, all is working fine now, but what if i choose to upgrade to 4GB in the future, will i have to buy a new motherboard?

bilston · 2 May 2007 at 18:38

You might have to sell the Ballistix at that point, and buy a 2x2gb set.

4ndy89 · 2 May 2007 at 18:40

ah, rightyho

Thanks everyone.

WJA96 · 2 May 2007 at 18:42

4ndy89 said:
Right, ive tried the black slots, all is working fine now, but what if i choose to upgrade to 4GB in the future, will i have to buy a new motherboard?

Errr..... It's not an unknown problem. It's first mentioned on Page 1 of the Official P5N-E SLi thread in Motherboards so if you'd done any research you would have spotted this issue.

This isn't the first motherboard that won't run with all it's RAM slots filled and it almost certainly won't be the last.

If it is an issue then you need to RMA the board and get something else. Or swap your RAM for 2 2Gb sticks.