New build hell

Chris_83

Chris_83

Chris_83

Associate
Joined
6 Apr 2007
Posts
305
Location
Hull, UK
All,

Having some trouble with my new build and in need of some advise.
New system is:

I5 750
EVGA P55 SLI
2 x OCZ Gold 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 Low-Voltage Dual Channel
XFX ATI 4890

Built it on the bench and managed to post and check temps in BIOS (after finding out the EVGA boards have some weird start/stop/start/boot sequence, confirmed this from the EVGA forums).

Next put it all in my case, added a hard drive and sata dvd-rw. However I couldn't boot the Windows 7 retail disc beyond the screen where you select custom install for BSOD's.

Started testing the memory with memtest and with all 4 sticks in it ran into errrors. Then started testing sticks one by one, found one stick that refused to even POST so hopefully that set will get RMA'd this week. Run multiple memtests with the 2 good sticks and all appears fine. Manually had to set voltages and timings in BIOS.

Still failing to install windows 7 though. I've tried 2 different hard drives, different combinations of SATA ports and cables. I've re-seated the cpu, even swpped out the gfx card as someone said EVGA's sometimes have problems with ATI cards.
I've even tried 2 different versions of the windows 7 disc incase it was a media issue.

Anyone any idea's? Only thing I can think of now is the mainboard, cpu or a faulty sata dvd-rw drive as they are the only things I havn't changed...yet!

Cheers for any help
 
Turns out it was a memory problem after all.

Memory was OCZ3G1333LV4GK, I'd set it to the timings 9-9-9-20 and voltage as 1.65volts as per specification. This is when memtest failed 1 pair and passed the other pair, however I couldn't install windows at all.

I never had another SATA drive to test with, only different media / cables.

Ended up ordering a new motherboard (Asus P7P55D) and installed the "good pair" of memory. It still would BSOD on installing windows, got alittle bit further than the EVGA board though. Swapped the SATA DVD-RW with an IDE DVD-RW and still the same tests. In the end I tested all the memory again. The pair I suspected bad, again never worked, and this time 1 of the "good pair" failed memtest aswell.

Installed just the 1 good stick of memory and windows installed fine, passed Intelburn test and a 3 hour loop of 3DMark 06.

Ordered some Geil (this week only) that came today and I now have 4gb of stable working memory. Hopefully OCUK will allow me to pay the extra and swap the RMA'd bad pair for some Geil to make it 8gb. I'll write the other pair of OCZ as a bad job. Also have a spare M/B now aswell :).

This build has taught me a lot. I must have built 15+ computers over the past 10 years and never had any problems with stability or memory before. I'd never worried about timings and voltages, PC133, DDR1 and DDR2 always just seemed to work on auto.
 
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