Faulty OCZ Reaper HPC 1066MHz sticks?

[Rainmaker]

Hi guys,

I bought 2x 2GB OCZ Reaper HPC RAM from OcUK (very) recently, to go in my rig. Full specs in sig. The ram is running at 2.19v in the BIOS and the timings are currently default (5,5,5,15). I was previously running them slack at 6,6,6,18 but it made no difference to my problem.

I'm getting a ton of crashes in Windows XP Pro x64. Firefox, Thunderbird and Media Player Classic HomeCinema (amongst others) randomly crash out and close. A good example of my problems:

I have a file in a folder, and RAR up the folder (latest Winrar), telling Winrar to include a recovery record. I then try to extract that RAR file to my Desktop. The extraction errors out, because the CRC check fails. So, I make some PAR files for the original media file inside the folder, then RAR the whole thing up WITHOUT telling Winrar to make a recovery record.

When I extract the file to the Desktop this time, QuickPar tells me the original file is damaged and needs a repair. The original file, pre-Winrar, was perfect. So somewhere during the compression and decompression process, just locally on my own hdd, the file was damaged

I downloaded the AMIDIAG trial and it fails the memory test in seconds, saying the memory parity test fails

The BIOS is set to 2.19v for RAM, 10T, 5,5,5,15 and "configuration 2" (this is a Biostar thing afaik - I've also tried configuration 4 with no change/help). The memory divider is 1:1 which means the FSB is 420 (DDR2 840). The RAM is rated at 1066 so it's running quite a way under spec = not overclocked at all. My overclock is currently 10x420 and passed 8 hours of prime small ffts.

FWIW, my previous Reapers (the 800MHz version) worked perfectly on this rig. This new 'faster' set should be even better, but they can't even run Windows Does this sound like the ram is faulty, or could it be my CPU/overclock/anything else?

Thanks in advance, I'm off to install Vista x64 now to rule out it being an XP x64 issue. I'll be back later to check for replies

 

[Cob]

Shouldn't need as much as 2.2v for those. Drop down to 2.1v to see if it makes any difference.

What do you meant by "10T"?

If you still get problems then download Memtest86+ and ru it.

 

[Rainmaker]

I'll drop the volts now before I do the Vista install, to see what it changes. 10T is a speed or performance rating of some sort, I think? The lower the number the faster the performance but less stability. It's just a setting in the RAM section of the bios with options for 12T, 11T, 10T, all the way down to 1T. I was told by a Biostar guy at XS to run at 10T or thereabouts.

 

[Cob]

Ah 10T will be Performance Level.

 

[Rainmaker]

FWIW I just dropped the RAM volts to just over 2.1v in the BIOS and checked the other settings. Once I'd backed up those settings so I could restore them again, I went back into the BIOS and upped the RAM divider to just over 1066MHz and the machine wouldn't even boot. So, new symptom - at these settings the ram won't run at default MHz.

I'll run memtest overnight once I have Vista installed. Something's not right somewhere. I'll also try going back to default settings (ie not overclocked) in the BIOS for a while and test the RAM again then to see if it still happens.

 

[Rainmaker]

Here's the RAM parity test failure under AMIDIAG btw:

CPU-Z reports the RAM is running at 2T not 10T as per BIOS. Which one is correct, and could this be the issue? Thanks again

EDIT: Sorry to go on, but I thought this might be important. I just remembered, my SuperPi time has gone down from 11 seconds (on my previous E8600 and 800 MHz reapers) to 20 seconds using this new week 22 E8600 and the 1066 MHz reapers. Surely something's badly wrong if my SuperPi time has doubled even though I'm supposedly using better versions of the same hardware, on a slightly higher overclock?

 

[Cob]

2T is a different setting to the 10T performance level setting, so it's nothing to worry about.

Run Memtest86+ to see if it fails to.