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Errors in Memtest

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TheMatrixHasYou

Member
Joined
Jul 22, 2003
Location
NJ
I'm trying to find the limits of my Mushkin RAM in my sig, and I can't get it to run at PC3200 speeds. I've tried upping the vDimm to 2.8, relaxed the timings to 2-3-2-7, tried going down to 195 FSB, and I keep on getting errors in test 5 of Memtest. What can I do to go higher? Should I up the Chipset Voltage? Up the vDimm to 2.9? Relax timings to 2-3-3?
 
CAS 2.5 and 2.9vcore for sure, 2.9 is nothing to memory. What timings is the mem rated for at PC3200 speeds? It may be 2.5 3 3 6
 
I recommend dropping the multiplier to 5, and run memtest at the default timings and FSB. That will take the CPU out of the equation and determine if your memory can run properly at defautl speeds. Once that is determined, leave the multi at 5 and up the FSB/timings until you hit your errors. Then up the vdimm, etc.
 
The memory is rated to run at PC3200 with 2-3-2 timings, at 2.75. My multiplier is 5. I can run 180 MHz no problem, but even at 185, I get a few errors in memtest. Not many, but I get about 1-2 per pass. I'll up the voltage to 2.9 to see if that helps, already upped the chipset voltage to 1.7 (the highest on my board). If that doesn't work, I'll relax the timings to 2-3-3, then 2.5-3-3 and see what I get. If I'm still getting errors, I'll run one stick at a time and see if I've got a bad one.

Update: Upped the voltage to 2.9 and relaxed timings to 2.5-3-3, and can now run at 185 MHz with no errors. If I try to go 2-3-3, I still get errors in the 5th test. I'm going to see how high I can go at 2.5-3-3, then test individual sticks. I suspect that one of them is bad.
 
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Well, now I'm able to get the mem to run at 200 MHz, but only by using 2.5-3-3 timings, not the 2-3-2 that this RAM is rated at. I guess I'll be testing each stick individually this weekend, to see if one or the other is bad.
 
Hmm... It seems that this RAM hates CAS 2. I tried running at 200 MHz, timings 2.5-2-2, and it worked fine. Try lowering the CAS to 2, though, and I get errors. I can run up to 211 MHz at 2.5-2-2, so thats not bad. Are any timings more important than the others? How does 2.5-2-2 compare to 2-3-2? Better? Worse? About the same?
 
More bad news: After I started getting Prime95 errors, someone said it seemed like a memory problem. I realized that when I selected all tests in memtest and then tried to start over from test 0, it reverted to standard mode. So, I found that my memory was still getting errors in test 8. So, dropped the memory to 205 MHz, and ran all tests on memtest while I was out today. Came back, no errors. So, I try to go up to 208, get errors at test 8. Go down to 207 errors, go down to 206, errors. So I go back to 205, and am still getting occasional errors in test 8. Go back to 200, and still getting errors. So, it looks like I'll be testing each stick individually now.
 
memtest seems to be the true test like prime95 of complete memory stability. I was having errors with prime95 so I used memtest to check my corsair 3200 ram to see if it was a problem and indeed it was. I had them rma'd and received a new pair of sticks that run perfectly at 200mhz fsb but fail some tests at 205mhz.
 
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