Can memtest errors be caused by the NB

How about it. When memtest is getting errors with brand new OCZ ram at all kinds of frequencies and timings, could it be the NB at fault?

Brand new P5WDT2 and OCZ DDR2 800 gold errors at 750, and even 666 with stock timings and voltage.

Could this be the NB causing this? Hard to imagine the memory wouldn't work at slower speeds even. Could I really have gotten memory that is that defective?

How can I test my NB to see if all is well inside there?

Shane

obody knows the answer to this one? What would be some symptoms of a failing NB if memtest errors isn't one?


Thanks!
Shane

Yes yes it can. Memtest tests the entire Memory Subsystem. Which can mean the CPU in the case of the A64.

The RAM, NB and even sometimes the Caches on the CPUs can cause errors because they are part of the memory subsystem.

What steps should I take to ensure that the problem is or is not the memory, or in fact the NB, etc.

So far I am testing one of the two sticks at 800mhz and rated timings and after 20 hours no errors. This makes me think the CPU and NB are okay...right? I mean, if one of them were at fault I would expect that the errors would still be happening.
Thanks tebore!

Shane

Yeah, what you're doing is right. Test each stick at a time...if one spits out errors at rated speeds and timings and the other one doesn't, it's clearly a faulty stick. If they only cause errors together, look to the NB or CPU memory controller.

Errors caused by the memory controller (whether on-die or in the NB) are fairly rare, especially at stock. Not impossible, but you usually don't run into many.

If you want to see if it's the NB holding you back give it some more juice if that's possible or increasing the cooling to the NB.

For example on my NF7 at 230 it would start to error at 1.6v on the NB at 1.7v it cleared up so at 1.6v it was the NB.

Well...I isolated the error to one stick. It memtested for 17 hours in dual channel though, then errored. Then the bad stoick (I got 24 solid hours from the other one) errored by itself after 3.5 hours. I switched slots, and the same stick errored in about 20 minutes.

I replaced the RAM (RMA at newegg, advance replacement) and the replacement got through 24 hours in dual channel mode.

I guess it WAS the ram after all. Not my first thought since it was brand new OCZ Gold DDR2 800 ram, but I guess it slipped through. What's funny, three days ago i just RMA'd a pair of Plat Rev.2 DDR. It did 275 at relaxed timings 3-4-4-8, but wouldn't do the rated 2-2-2-5 at DDR400 no matter what. the replacement works great! (Thanks OCZ)

Shane