Memtest fails with no oc... help.

[Joe42]

I was having another go at overclocking my opty 175 today, so i got it up to 2.5 quite happliy with 1.42v. Primed for half an hour ok so i went for 2.6. Wouldn't prime at all, even with a voltage bump.
I had the memory on a divider, although the divider on the A8n 32 is a little wierd, so the memory was at 217 or some fairly mild oc.
I guessed it was the memory so i put a bigger divider on it but still couldn't get it to prime.
I ran memtest, and it failed, so i ran memtest with the memory and the cpu below stock and it still failed, always at about the same point. I raised the command rate to 2t, still no luck. The cas setting is at the specified rating for this memory, although i can raise it if you think its worth a try...

Basically, this system is failing memtest at stock and below stock (although not prime), does this mean faulty memory?

I've never run memtest before on this system so it could have been faulty all along and it only shows up in prime when its overclocked.

The memory is OCZ ddr1 2gb platinum 3200

 

[Joe42]

I bumped it up to 2.65 from 2.6 but no luck. As mentioned, its under warranty up to 2.8v (and how would they know if i had taken it higher). The warranty is lifetime (presumably mine).

As it happens i do have another very similar system in which to test it, so i suppose thats the next step. The system works fine tho, and i would expect to have had problems with it before now if the memory is faulty.

Getting it out might be a bit tricky, i think one stick is under the edge of the heatsink...

I think i'll try relaxing the timings just in case.

 

[Joe42]

Are they rev1 or rev 2? Rev 2s need 2.75v according to OCZ

Rev 1's i believe. I'll check tho just in case.

Interesting. This is the third set I've heard of failing memtest.

I bought a set, and one stick would only do cas 2.5, so I RMA'd it and got another set, which was good, but not as good as the set of G.Skill I purchased in the meantime, to returned the OCZ for a refund.

I know someone else was having problems with their 2GB OCZ @ cas 2 in memtest too.

Thats very reasurring to hear, suggests they are quite likely to be faulty. The fact that theres a rev 2 that seems to have been designed to replace the rev1 rather than being a different product also suggests that a lot of rev1 versions are faulty and as a result have been redesigned.

If i manage to get an rma and get a refund, what should i buy to replace them do you think?

I'm looking for something in the £200 range, 2gb, with the lowest latencies possible and the best speeds i can get.

Edit: The one ocuk are currently selling seems to be the rev1, and thats what i bought. They may be selling the rev2 now but haven't updated the product description. I'm going to try raising the latency a bit and see if it still fails.

 

[Joe42]

I've just tested it with every cas setting to the maximum (slowest) and it still fails at the same point in memtest. Raising all the cas settings clearly had an effect because reported memory speed in memtest went down a lot. So its rma time.

 

[Joe42]

I've contacted ocz and ocuk.
Is there any posibility at all that memtest errors could be cause by something other than memory?

Is there any way i could eliminate the memory controller or the memory so that only one is being tested?

Edit: Just wondering... why haven't i had problems because of this before? I've had the memory since december and never had any memory related problems at all.

And another thing, this memory is rated for 2-3-2-5 but it says 2.5-3-2-5 in the spd...

 

[Joe42]

Did your faulty set do what mine is doing?
i.e show up in memtest but otherwise work fine.

I'll definately look into the Gskill, although i think i might be tempted by the ocz evp thing which allows me to overvolt without loosing my warranty.

Regarding the spd, it says on the specs its supposed to be able to do 2, is this likely regardless of the spd? If not, its not doing as advertised...

 

[Joe42]

You see mine fails memtest whatever the cas settings, yet never causes any problems in windows.

Its impossible to tell if mine will do 2 or 2.5 because it fails whatever i do.

I'm beginning to wonder if it might be worth putting them in another machine after all...

 

[Joe42]

I've got an rma with ocuk. Does anyone know if this will be for a refund or a replacement?
If its for a refund i want to get some new ram to replace this before i send it off.

And do they charge a testing fee if its found not to be faulty?

 

[Joe42]

I've removed the modules and put them in another machine for testing. So far it seems like they are passing memtest.

The machine is a winchester on an A8n Sli Deluxe. It seems to be setting the memory speed to 333 rather than 400, is this normal?
This could be why its passing this time.

If it also passes when the memory is run at 400, meaning the memory is fine, what else could be causing memtest to fail on the original system?

Edit: Ok, i've managed to fit one of the 512mb sticks from the winchester system in the opteron system which was failing with the ocz sticks. This stick has passed memtest in the winchester system, so if it fails in the opteron system then its not the memory thats causing the problem...

 

[Joe42]

Right, i've finished memtesting, heres the results:

In the Winchester + A8n sli deluxe system:
OCZ 2gb kit passes
Corsair 1gb kit passes

In the Opteron + A8n32 Sli deluxe system:
Ocz 2gb kit fails
Corsair 512mb stick fails


Help
Memtest is failing, and its not the memory...

 

[Joe42]

Well theres very little on the board really, just connections to the cpu.

I've found a different memory testing program, as i'm increasingly suspicious of memtest...

I could swap cpu's between the two systems but thats would be several hours work so thats a last resort.
If it was the memory controller i would expect it to give different results or not fail at all as i change speeds and timings, but that had no effect.

Thanks for your help.

 

[Joe42]

Good god i'm having a bad day...

As well as this seemingly unfathomable problem, the winchester system has decided to reboot randomly, i've got a floppy disk drive thats started randomly not working, and a third pc thats been crashing and locking up and dropping out of the wireless network randomly, although at least with that i know why (netgear wireless card).

I need some alternatives to memtest. I've just tried Docmemory, and it crashes and won't do anything. Are there any others i can try?

 

[Joe42]

At the end of test 6 in memtest it says 'Unexpected Interrupt - halting'.
It gets 718 errors in test 6 and none in any other tests.
Any idea what this might mean?

I need to work out if it is the board or the cpu so than i can replace the one thats causing this. Is there any way to work out which it is?

Thanks

Edit: When i go into advanced options it says chipset not supported. Is this normal, is it still able to accurately test the memory?
Its also failing test #7.

 

[Joe42]

Some Asus mobos need you to increase your DDR volts a little even when your not clocking. Just something I read when I was trying to sort an unstable overclock one day.

The ocz lets me go up to 2.8 without voiding the warranty, so i'll try that.

I've tried it at 2.65 and that didn't seem to affect it tho.

Thanks for your help anyway.

If that doesn't work i'll just have to start emailing some retailers and see what they say, and perhaps send the cpu and board back. I'm just worried that they will etst them and find them both to be fine.

 

[Joe42]

Check your temps and voltages to make sure they are stable and within tolerances, as it might give some clues as to the problem. Make sure all of the power cables are properly connected to the motherboard too. I'm not sure how many your motherboard is supposd to have, so you'll have to refer to your manual for that.

If you haven't already, you could try running the memory in the other memory slots and you could try flashing the bios (provided you comfortable with that).

If you still have no luck after that, I'd start looking at the CPU which would mean swapping the Opteron for the Winchester.

Good luck with it and I hope you get it sorted

Dan

I've checked all cables, flashed the bios and tried moving the memory around in every combination possible.
One thing i did find is memtest passes test 6 when i limited it to the first 1024mb, so one stick, however removing the second apparently faulty stick, which should have had the same effect, didn't. It failed again.
I could try an older bios but i'm not sure if that would have any effect.

As you say, i've got to change the cpu next i think.