GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC6400C4 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Problems

Bassetts

Bassetts

Bassetts

Associate
Joined
2 Feb 2007
Posts
5
This question comes about as I suspect a problem with the memory in my system due to some system instability when it's under stress.

I've been doing some stress testing with Orthos Prime95 @ stock speeds. The Small FFT (Stress CPU) test runs happily for 8+ hours, however the Blend test (Stress CPU & RAM) will fail after a very short time 20min - 1 hour

Background Info:

The memory is GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC6400C4 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB6400UDC) which was given to me as a xmas present

The specifications are listed as being as follows

PC2-6400 DDR2-800MHz
CAS 4-4-4-12
Working Voltage: 1.8v ~ 2.3v

The memory is being used with a ABIT AW9D-Max Motherboard & Core 2 Duo E6600.

The system is setup as follows.

266Mhz CPU Clock
x9 Multiplier
RAM Clock Ratio 2:3 (Effective RAM Clock 400Mhz)
Default VMem was 1.8v but this has been raised in accordance with the memory specs to 2.1v

The memory timings in the Bios have been set as per the memory specification (4-4-4-12-16)

I have run memtest86+ around 5 times for on average 5 hours a time. Persistently it flags up an error in one specific memory location, and intermittently it will flag up errors in 2 or 3 locations in close proximity to the location that persistently generates errors.

I'm a bit reserved about RMA'ing the memory as I have no other DDR2 Memory around as backup, however as time goes on this does look like my only option.
 
IMO you've done everything right and the settings look good. Mine work perfectly with similar settings.

You could set your RAM as 4-4-4-12 and leave the 16 set to Auto in the BIOS (if possible). Also up the voltage to 2.2V or 2.3V to see if the errors go away.

However the RAM is not performing as stated on the box so if you can't remedy it you should RMA them.

cheers
 
I think you have done enough to figure out you have a bad stick of memory, if Memtest86+ gives an error at the rated settings the memory is faulty.

That is confirmed by the errors in Prime's Blend test.

I know it's annoying you can't use the computer until you have a replacement it is hardly worth running with faulty memory, when my old Ballistix was dead I got a replacement within a week, maybe GEIL is just as fast?
 
Okay,

Well I raised an RMA yesterday and was all ready to send the memory back this morning

Last night as a last ditch attempt I thought i'd try playing around with VMem. The sticker on my memory states the recommended VMem is 2.1v so all my testing to this point has been with VMem set to 2.1v.

Initially I raised VMem from 2.1v to 2.2v which according to the spec is well within the rated VMem bracket for this memory.

With VMem set to 2.2v Memtest86+ 1.7 produced about 15,000 errors in about 5 seconds, so obviously it seems to object profusely about VMem being set to 2.2v, I then went the other way and dropped VMem to 2.0v and ran memtest. With VMem at 2.0v memtest ran happily overnight for 8hours with no errors.

I'm now currently running Orthos Prime on Blend(Strees Ram & CPU) and so far it's been running for 1.5 hours, which is longer that ever before.

I'm going to leave it running for the rest of the morning and report back later.
 
The memory timings in the Bios have been set as per the memory specification (4-4-4-12-16)

try
Refresh Cycle Time (tRFC) = 40 or 42 instead of 16

so it should read 4-4-4-12-42

the aw9d max needs the trfc tobe in the 40s
 
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