Memtest + RAM issues

ChrissyT88

ChrissyT88

ChrissyT88

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9 Mar 2008
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Hi,

I have been having some stability problems with my PC recently, and have narrowed it down to the memory. I am currently running 2x2gb sticks of corsair pc-8500 RAM in an ASUS P5Q-Dlx motherboard. I have been having some random crashes, but have only today had some proper time to investigate. I am fairly confident that the instability is not caused by the CPU - it has passed a 7.5 hour prime stress test. The RAM has been running at 1104 Mhz (the closest to the rated speed i can get using any strap) at its rated timings and volts in the bios (2.1V in BIOS - although i am told by reliable people that the p5q boards overvolt the memory by up to 0.08v, so have kept this value fairly low).

I have run lots of memtest passes today, and cannot get the RAM to complete three passes successfully. I have upped the memory voltage by 0.04V and increased the NB voltage, but memtest still fails. The passes seem to only give a single error on either test 4,6 or 7, and i have a feeling that this could be causing instability. Interestingly, the RAM passed windows built in memory tester fine - no errors were reported. Can anyone sugggest some steps that could be taken to help eliminate these errors?

Thanks, any help would be appreciated.
 
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What problems have you been having?
What timings have you got them set at? Try relaxing them by 2 or 3 and test using memtest, see if they run error free.

You should also be able to run them at their designed 1066mhz speed as the asus boards give you plenty option for them

Testing within windows means it can only test the available ram, any ram used up by the OS won't get tested, memtest86 is the best option
 
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Are you testing all 4 sticks at once?

If so then test each stick on its own.
 
Cheers Sweeny. I have mostly been having problems with the folding@home software. I have had a few BSODs whilst running it, and a couple were reported by windows as being caused by Kaspersky antivirus, alhtough i do not believe this is the case. There does not seem to be a pattern - the gaps between the BSODs can be days or weeks, but when running the more memory and cpu intensive client, i get either a failure of the software or a windows BSOD. For example, i am typing this on the same machine the blue screened a few minutes ago (in between posts!).

I will try relaxing the timings (although i would be disappointed if the RAM could not cope with a meager 40Mhz overclock at stock settings!). I am also considering re-running initial stress testing software to try and find problems. As for the speeds, i am given the option of running at either 1104/1101 or 978 (it passes three passes of memtest at 978Mhz) - these are the closest speeds i can obtain on any FSB strap (i am running a rather strange value of FSB to obtain a 3.3 GHz clock speed). I will also update the BIOS soon to see if that improves things.

EDIT: sorry cob, didnt see your post. Its just two sticks of RAM - maybe i didnt make that clear, but there are 4gb in total. I have not tried removing them and testing individually, and will do this a last resort - i am not well set up at uni to remove bits and pieces!
 
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Ah yes, ASUS auto labels to match whatever fsb you are using. In practice i always run slightly underclocked if i can't use stock values rather than overclocked when these things occur (makes it easier to identify he culprit). I'd set the ram to the 978 speed and run memtest overnight or something (i always aim for 12 passes or more)

As you say, the ram should take that meager overclock but more than likely it can't, or at least at the set timings
 
Cheers Sweeny - unofrtunately i have the displeasure of sleeping in the same room as the thing, so an overnight run is out of the question, but tomorrow i will aim to do ome good run throughs. I was also going to try and reset the OC, and see if that makes a difference - thanks for the advice!
 
Well you could always set everything stock, the bios should allow you to choose 1066 for the ram. Then setup the ram voltage properly and run memtest, that way you can at least see if its running at its proper speeds and settings.
 
That was the plan - would be nice to know, and is probably something i should have checked to start with, but tbh i was more concerned about getting the whole system up and running. Live and learn.
 
Thread resurrection - i have had a bit more time to test and fiddle around with the inside of the PC. On the plus side, it still seems to work! Downside, however, is that no matter what stick i use or what slot is put the stick in, i still get memtest errors in either the first or second pass. I have tried resetting the BIOS options (including running everything on auto), increasing and decreasing the voltages, running at slower than rated speeds and i get the same result. Im not really sure what to do next, and i cannot really be without the PC (no second PC).

As far as i can make out, this means one of two things:
1. Both RAM sticks are faulty
2. The motherboard is faulty

I would be inclined to say (and indeed i hope it is) the first of those options. I only seem to get problems when using RAM intensive apps (F@H, lots of apps running at once etc). I would have thought that if the mobo was broken, i would not be able to use windows etc for long periods of time without something going wrong. Anyone have any opions on this? Im not really sure how to tell if its the fault of the RAM or mobo - i guess i would need to try some newer RAM?

If i need to get some new RAM, i still have a few options. The first would be to buy a cheap RAM kit to test the mobo. Secondly, i could buy a 2x1gb set of dominators, then when the RMAd sticks come back, i could fill all slots and have 6gb of memory. Thirdly, i could get a set of g-skill pc-8000 memory - its competitively priced compared to the corsair. What would you do in this situation?

Thanks, any help would be appreciated.
 
I would vouch for the ram being faulty, if it was me i'd go for the 6gb plan but i never think things through enough ;) so if you dont mind the expense and (potential) problems of using 4dimms then go for it!

Only way you will find out if motherboard is faulty is if you can try the ram in another motherboard or try various kits in your own
 
Cheers Sweeny - 6gb could be a plus. Just done some reading around and some people have problems mixing the revsions of corsair dominator memory. I think i'll give OCuK a call and see if they can confirm the memory type. Sorry to have posted quite a bit, but im a bit of a novice when it comes to pc building, and i dont want to do the wrong thing!
 
I've had similar problems with the same memory on an Asus P5Q-E.

I finally managed to sort it out by using a modified 1402 bios. Though Asus may of sorted it in their own bios by now.
 
Im having a similar problem with my pc at the moment. Bought another 2x1 gb sticks of ram and still the same problem. Can play games for hours no problem, then maybe 2 back to desktop crashes in an hour. Only way i can get it to do the crash to desktop when i want it to (to try and get a log of it) is by loading windows movie maker up and loading a few things into the time line. event veiwer shows up nothing. Guessing bad mb?
 
Ram can be so frustrating sadly, ive noticed over the years 2gig modules are just so erradict and a lot of mobos even the best can buckle on them.

Sometimes a lot safer/easier to get 1gig modules even :)

Id try testing one module at a time and try even putting it in a different slot/for some reason different slots work better and more reliable. And then of course try memtest again, ive been using pc checks ram diagnostic, which is more advanced test the actual module and sticks and all... seems a good test.
 
Thanks for the replies. I bit the bullet and bought some new G.Skill sticks - they should be here on wednesday. I decided against the extra corsair sticks - some people have said there are compatibility issues with different revisions, and thats not something else i want to contend with.

@BlackAle - sorry i didnt reply sooner. I have tried all the current ASUS BIOSes - 1406 is supposed to be pretty decent and solve a lot of compatibility issues, but still errored on memtest. I must admit im not into using modded BIOSes - just in case!

I tried using both sticks in all slots on the mobo at stock settings, and still got errors on memtest within the first few passes. Hopefully this is a pretty good indication that the RAM is knackered (strange thing to be saying!). Its a bizarre problem - i havent had a crash since the original post - it really does seem to only be things that really push the RAM hard that cause it to slip up. I have downloaded a new (newest) version of memtest as well in case something is wrong there. Hopefully i can get it sorted. Thanks for your contributions guys.
 
You really do need to chuck the memory sticks into another DDR2 rig and run Memtest+ again to confirm that the memory is indeed faulty and not just having issues with that perticular mobo/rig setup!!
 
In an ideal world i would - however, i dont have another PC at hand (at uni - butchering flat mates computers would be frowned upon!). Annoyingly i recently sold off parts for a pc that would have been perfect to use as a test bed. A shame really. The combination of RAM/mobo/CPU seems pretty solid - there are loads of people on XS running the same parts, partly the reason why they were chosen. Similarly, lots of people are using the G.Skill ram, so i figured this is possibly the best way to varify if the mobo is faulty.
 
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