Long string of problems with a new system

Ok so im going to go though the process of an RMA to sort the ram out and right now it may be suprestition or nonsense but im thinking i want to go back to using corsair RAM as it worked wonderfuly in my previous machine

im wanting to build a gaming machine so if anyone could make any suggestions they would be well recieved

the plan for the new machine so far is thus
build.jpg


i was thinking of one of these
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-196-CS&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=1517
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-195-CS&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=1517
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-203-CS&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=1517


now the subtle differences in timings between the first two are lost on me so if anyone could point me in the right direction with any of those 3 or indeed recomend something more suited that would be great
 
Ok so the new PSU and HDD arrived this morning so i thought i would start a fresh

with
Case: antec 900
Mobo: MSI P55-GD65
CPU: Intel Core i5 750 2.66Ghz (Lynnfield)
Video card: saphire radeon hd4890
RAM: OCZ Obsidian 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9
HDD: Seagate barracuda 7200.12 250GB
PSU: corsair tx750W

the 1st thing i notice is that the video card is stil heating up
tohot.jpg


these 3 points are reaching temps over 45 degrees and thats just from trying to install win XP, im really worried what will happen if i try to load up and play any game

Should i be concerned about my card and if so what is the problem here



next problem im encountering is when i try and install win XP when i get past the point where i enter the serial key time date keyboard settings etc and get a time remaining left to install i come to a blue screen

Does this sound like a RAM problem or is this something else as well

thanks once again for any feedback
 
Ok so after mist recent batch of errors my mind is swinging to the solution that the ram is most certainly faulty
I had read that doing the memtest and getting errors could possily be a compatibility issue but that together with failed tests using windows memory diagnostic as well as the WoW dev team saying error 8 during installation is usualy cuased by a RAM issue not to mention
ramram.jpg

seems to clinch it

So i called up ocuk and they provided me with an rma number to send them back and hopefuly when they test them my suspicions will be proved correct.

meanwhile in the 10 days up to that point which i was told it could take i will be going back to corsair which was what i had in my previous machine
and i went with
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-196-CS
 
A bit hard to follow your thoughts here. It looks like you're throwing money at the problem rather than working out what it is.

The ram is unable to run stably at 1.5V. Since this is what you're asking of it errors are likely, before rma'ing the ram you need to set it to 1.65V (or 1.66, or 1.651) in the bios then run memtest again. If it still errors, at all, it's faulty and must be returned. Even a single error in memtest means faulty, and this could very easily explain all the issues you'd been having before. Things not installing, rebooting etc.

The corsair 450W would probably have been fine with the 4890. 33A at 12V should be enough, though it's borderline according to conventional wisdom. Replacing it with a 750W was ludicrously excessive however, unless you want to put another 4890 in the machine. Is it possible to return this on the basis that you made a mistake buying it?

By all means change to corsair ram, but be aware that if you run 1.65V rated corsair at 1.5V you'll get the same issue you did with the ocz. It may or may not set this by default.
 
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JonJ678 said:
A bit hard to follow your thoughts here. It looks like you're throwing money at the problem rather than working out what it is.

The ram is unable to run stably at 1.5V. Since this is what you're asking of it errors are likely, before rma'ing the ram you need to set it to 1.65V (or 1.66, or 1.651) in the bios then run memtest again. If it still errors, at all, it's faulty and must be returned. Even a single error in memtest means faulty, and this could very easily explain all the issues you'd been having before. Things not installing, rebooting etc.

By all means change to corsair ram, but be aware that if you run 1.65V rated corsair at 1.5V you'll get the same issue you did with the ocz. It may or may not set this by default.
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When sr4470 1st asked about the voltage i went a had a look and discovering it wasnt 1.65 i changed it and bios did set it to 1.651
after this memtest still reported over 2000 errors on the 1st pass on one stick and 6000 on the other


JonJ678 said:
The corsair 450W would probably have been fine with the 4890. 33A at 12V should be enough, though it's borderline according to conventional wisdom. Replacing it with a 750W was ludicrously excessive however, unless you want to put another 4890 in the machine. Is it possible to return this on the basis that you made a mistake buying it?
Click to expand...

Somthing i should have looked at a lot more closely was the minimum recomended hardware for the machine ati even say 500W minimum (600 recomended) and the guide i used from the forums had a 500 in the basket list and i thought i could stretch it a little, yes for this getting the 750 was probably like throwing money at the problem but in future i am intending to set up a 2nd 4890 when needs be, i picked it out from the list of certifieds from ati with the idea that i could install a 2nd in future without concern.
 
If it threw errors at 1.65V then that was the problem all along, ocz are very good at rma's so replacement ram will be with you shortly. This will make the corsair a fairly poor investment, but I daresay you can sell the ocz on easily enough.

500W minimum is stated because some people will try to run them on £15 power supplies which can't output even close to their rated wattage. That corsair will kick out 450W 24/7 quite happily. As such it is far more capable than many 500W power supplies on the market. In short there is a lot more to a power supply than the number of watts scribbled on the side.

Still, having bought the 750 it'll idle along quite happily for years and years under this load, and if you move to two cards it'll be fine. I can't judge you too much for that, I'm running an 860W psu with a much slower card.

I think your problems will be over shortly. Good luck
 
Like i posted before im happier with the corsair ram (provided its not faulty :P )
maybe purely because its one of those things people like to stick with what they are used to
i was a bit reluctant to get the ocz in the 1st place and i know this is not a fair indication of OCZ as a whole but i think ill just go to what im used to seeing as i had corsair in my 1st build.

If when ocuk test it the ram does indeed turn out to ne faulty (would be extreemly suprised and gobsmacked if it doesnt) then ill be getting a refund anyway so not a straight swap over, quite decent of them to acquiesce to my request

JonJ678 said:
I think your problems will be over shortly. Good luck
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please excuse the language but i bloody well hope so, 3 days with what is essentialy a rather expensive cuboid :rolleyes:
 
Harlon said:
please excuse the language but i bloody well hope so, 3 days with what is essentialy a rather expensive cuboid :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

It's a decent storage box though :D

Yeah, I'm definitely of the same mind as everyone else here. Everyone gets a PSU that is far more than they need, but that offers peace of mind, which is priceless.

RAM is most definitely faulty here, unless its not supported by your motherboard. In modern times, I have *never* seen a board not support RAM and cause this kind of problem. Even if its not listed as supported, thats probably because of the huge numbers of possible RAMs. I'm sure you'll have no problems after this.


As a side note, I had a very similar problem originally, though not as extreme as yours. In my system I have 4GB OCZ gold edition, 1333MHz. Running it at 1333 caused many BSODs and other failures, but thats because it was running at 1.5v (Auto). Checking the OCZ website listed it as 1.95v EVP, so thats what its at, and i've had no problems since!

1.95v is excessive for DDR3, no? I thought that originally, but its been working fine for months. It was quite cheap as far as DDR3 goes, so if it fails because of this voltage (more volts means less life) then I can still replace it under warranty.
 
Well the new RAM arrived this morning 1st thing i did was stick in the windows memory diagnostic cd and to my delight no failed reports from that on either stick, just to make sure im running memtest as well so far 3 passes with no errors
 
install windows 7 this time, the reason you were only showing 1.99Gb earlier was because xp can only address that much RAM as it's a 32 bit OS. Installing the 64bit windows 7 will fix that.
 
Yeah i eventualy figured it out and i installed XP x64 instead right now windows 7 can wait until i have saved up enough cash to get a new home network as there are no drivers that support win7 for
either the
netgear wg111v3 wireless adapter
or
netgear dg834g wireless router
 
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