Problem with OCZ PC3200 EL Platinum Rev 2

I bought 2x512mb sticks of OCZ PC3200 EL Platinum Rev. 2 at CompUSA today but they won't seem to pass memtest. I tried 2-2-2-11 to 3-4-4-11 in all sorts of combinations and various voltages offered in the BIOS (2.6-2.9v). The specifications say 2.75volts but even at 2.9v they won't pass memtest. I tried them in dual channel mode and then individually. Everything fails.

Am I doing something wrong? Are they supposed to be burned in or something? Do I need more voltage? Any help would be greatly appreciated

my computer:
AMD 2500+ XP-M at 12x200=2400mhz 1.725v
2x512mb OCZ PC3200 EL Platinum Rev. 2
Abit NF7-S Rev. 2 with newest official BIOS

i'd try them on another computer to eliminate your system as the culprit. If it is faulty on another system with a different motherboard, then I'd say it's time for RMA.

Is this a new system or just new ram?

If the system is new, then there may be a problem there and trying the sticks out on another rig could help narrow it down.

If you've just upgraded the ram on an already proven system and the new stuff won't run at rated specs, then you may very well have defective parts and facing RMA time. You didn't state this, but I'm assuming that when you first started you set your BIOS for SPD timings and that you've cleared CMOS and allowed the ram's programming to set the initial values, right? You don't want any holdover settings to be causing you all this grief.

A burn in may help (or may not) the ram overclock, but you're talking about not being able to run default speeds/timings so whether you should do a burn in is not even part of the equation.

It might sound strange, but you should definately try the "Optimized Defaults" in BIOS. This saved me many times

Wish you luck and merry chrismas! Don't spoil your time hanging in front of your PC

K4mui said:

It might sound strange, but you should definately try the "Optimized Defaults" in BIOS. This saved me many times

Wish you luck and merry chrismas! Don't spoil your time hanging in front of your PC

Click to expand...

That is good advice.

I put them into my dad's computer and ran memtest for 8 hours without any errors. The only drawback is that my dad's computer maxes out at 333mhz for fsb. Does this matter if the ram is rated for 400mhz?

It matters only in that you haven't verified that they will run 200 at the default settings and that is the minimum you would expect, otherwise they are faulty.

It's a very bad time for having problems... OCZ guys are not here, of course. Wait a few days and I'm sure you will receive some help

Maybe it is your mobo that is not willing to work properly with the modules or with 2-2-2-timings. Did you test different RAM in this mobo in order to make sure it can run @200MHz? Maybe this one is the bottleneck.

I tried my friend's ram and it worked great so i exchanged the OCZ memory at compusa and got new ones. These new ones work great so far. There's no errors whatsoever.

I have a question though. The box says it's rated for 2.75v. What does that mean? I have to run it at 2.75v to get 2-2-2 timings? It's working at 2.6v right now just fine. I'm worried that it's passing memtest right now just fine but it'll crash once I put alot of load on the Ram.

Although its rated 2.7V, it may very well run at less voltage but that is the max you should have to use to run default timings/speed. If it is crashing then it is not stable...raise the voltage.