Gutted

PMol

PMol

PMol

Associate
Joined
25 Jul 2011
Posts
166
Location
Horsham, West Sussex
My system is:

Q6600 (3Ghz)
Asus P5K
4GB Corsair DDR2 8500 (1066Mhz)
HD 4870
Velociraptor 300GB HDD

I managed to find another 4GB of the same RAM on ebay, which was really difficult and took about 4 weeks. It arrived yesterday and after fitting it, my system froze about 3 times. I ran memtest Pro and it returned about 500 errors within seconds, and crashed.
I took it back out and ran memtest overnight, which returned 0 errors and 300% coverage. I can only assume that the RAM I bought is borked, and im sending it back. I'm really gutted though, because I was hoping that boosting my system upto 8GB would squeeze a little more performance out of my aging system, and make Battlefield 3 sessions a little smoother.
Is it worth my while continuing the search for another set of this RAM, or is the performance increase not going to be great enough?
 
Running 4 sticks on that mobo you will need to up your Northbridge voltage to make it stable.
 
I didnt try the new memory on its own. I first tried old+new, it failed hard, then I tried just old, and it passed with flying colours. Perhaps I should have tried just old. It's too late now, i've already sent it back.
Just out of curiosity, could you give me a little more info on what to set the northbridge voltage too, for when I manage to find some more of this stuff.
Thanks
 
I sent the RAM back and the seller has tested it for 4 cycles with no errors. So it seems I will need to make some adjustments on the BIOS. :)

I just checked the BIOS settings and found the NB Voltage is currently set to Auto. It gives me the options of 1.25v, 1.40v, 1.55v, 1.70v. I suppose I should start with 1.40v and work my way up until it's stable? Also, is there any other things I should change?
 
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I got the RAM back, tested ok on it's own. With all 8 sticks running in 1066MHz mode, i get about 5-10% coverage before memtest starts spitting out errors... Any advice please?
 
PMol said:
I got the RAM back, tested ok on it's own. With all 8 sticks running in 1066MHz mode, i get about 5-10% coverage before memtest starts spitting out errors... Any advice please?
Click to expand...

How have you tested?

Did you test the two sticks running dual channel in all 4 slots - i.e. running the 2 sticks in the first 2 dedicated dual channel slots and then moving them to the other 2 respective slots and testing again. You need to do this to rule out the possibility of flakey DIMM slots.

If they pass in all slots then obviously the MCH (NB voltage) will need to be bumped up an increment or two when inserting all 4 sticks. What voltages have you tried so far?

Also, how have you set up your other memory settings? It's best practice to manually input the timings, frequency and voltage for your memory - especially when running 4 sticks.

Additional: The other thing that you need to consider is flashing the BIOS to the latest release as this will usually have memory compatibility/stability upgrades included within the release.
 
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I've tested both pairs, in both DIMM slots. So I know the sticks and the slots are all fine. It's running stable atm with all 4 sticks, with the NB voltage at 1.40V and the memory speed at 800MHz. When I upped the NB voltage beyond 1.40V the system wouldn't boot.
I don't know about the timings so i've manually set them at the manufacturer reccomended settings (6-5-5-18 IIRC)
 
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