Memory Problems

Eagle-Eye · 26 Mar 2011 at 09:02

Hi all, yesterday I built a new computer for my parents to go in their office, it's just an i3 office work computer to do emails, word processing and the lot. Everything installed fine and works very smoothly, but I keep on getting instant shutdowns like the system is loosing power or protecting itself from something.

I checked all my temps and all of them are below 40c, so I ran a memory test (windows mem test and memtest) they both showed up errors with the RAM. Is this causing the unexpected shutdowns? I can't see what else is to be honest, I will be returning the memory (ocz gold dual channel 4gb low voltage 1333) on monday but I just want to make sure.

Is there anything else that could be causing the unexpected shutdowns? They are very sporadic and random.

Thanks

Surveyor · 26 Mar 2011 at 11:17

Looks like the memory is causing your problems.

That memory runs at 1.55-1.65V.

You could try setting the memory voltage manually in the BIOS. Perhaps at default settings your motherboard sets the voltage too low.

Eagle-Eye · 26 Mar 2011 at 11:34

Surveyor said:
Looks like the memory is causing your problems.

That memory runs at 1.55-1.65V.

You could try setting the memory voltage manually in the BIOS. Perhaps at default settings your motherboard sets the voltage too low.

Is there a voltage you would recommend? And thanks

Edit: My motherboard said it was running at 1.50v? Could this be the problem? It's running too low? I have now set it to 1.60v and running memtest86...

Surveyor · 26 Mar 2011 at 11:39

Eagle-Eye said:
Is there a voltage you would recommend? And thanks

Perhaps start with 1.6 and see where you go from there.

Ideally it should be as low as possible without causing instability.

If 1.6 works then you could try reducing it a bit.

If 1.6 doesn't cure the problem then work your way up to 1.65 in 0.01 increments.

If you get to 1.65 and still have problems then the memory is probably faulty.

Eagle-Eye · 26 Mar 2011 at 11:56

Thanks

Yeah got some errors at 1.60v, my mobo only allows me to increment it by 0.20?

Surveyor · 26 Mar 2011 at 12:00

Eagle-Eye said:
Thanks Yeah got some errors at 1.60v, my mobo only allows me to increment it by 0.20?

I assume you mean .02?

Go for 1.62 then 1.64.

Eagle-Eye · 26 Mar 2011 at 12:03

Thanks a lot sorry i'm a bit of a noob at this xD

Yeah that's what I meant sorry. Every one gets errors, looks like it will be going back then.

Surveyor · 26 Mar 2011 at 12:50

Eagle-Eye said:
Every one gets errors, looks like it will be going back then.

I suggest you get a refund and get some memory from Corsair, G.Skill or Geil.

There seem to be far less issues with these makes.

Eagle-Eye · 26 Mar 2011 at 15:07

Surveyor said:
I suggest you get a refund and get some memory from Corsair, G.Skill or Geil.

There seem to be far less issues with these makes.

Yeah, my system has corsair memory. This was meant to be a quick simple office standard build