8GB (4 sticks) problem

Up to this point I had been running 8GB (4 sticks) of GSKILL PC8000 (DDR2-1000). I had to RMA one of them because it was giving me errors. I have now tested them all individually (including the new one) and none of them are giving errors in Memtest86+.

However, all of a sudden the machine has become really unstable whenever I try running all 4 together. I am running the RAM at all stock settings. If I run only 4GB (2x2GB) then all is fine no matter which sticks I use. I have also tried raising the NB voltage from auto up to 1.55V to no avail.

Anyone got any clues what could be the problem? This POS system is driving me nuts.

GTengineer said:

Up to this point I had been running 8GB (4 sticks) of GSKILL PC8000 (DDR2-1000). I had to RMA one of them because it was giving me errors. I have now tested them all individually (including the new one) and none of them are giving errors in Memtest86+.

However, all of a sudden the machine has become really unstable whenever I try running all 4 together. I am running the RAM at all stock settings. If I run only 4GB (2x2GB) then all is fine no matter which sticks I use. I have also tried raising the NB voltage from auto up to 1.55V to no avail.

Anyone got any clues what could be the problem? This POS system is driving me nuts.

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Have you tried reformatting?

Happened to me too.
I had 1 bad stick and RMAd it.
Now im back to 4gb.

Have you checked the psu with a DMM? You just mentioned you're running the ram at stock speed.

Also try underclocking the ran to DDR2-800 speeds and see what happens.

Dapman02 said:

Have you tried reformatting?

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It is not an OS problem. The system runs rock stable on 4GB only. But in any case I did do a completely clean install of my Linux OS (dual boot) and the problem persists (with 4 sticks) no matter what OS I am running.

Nebulous said:

Have you checked the psu with a DMM? You just mentioned you're running the ram at stock speed.

Also try underclocking the ran to DDR2-800 speeds and see what happens.

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PSU is new, just got it 2 weeks ago but didn't solve much. I will check with a DMM this weekend but I am fairly certain this is not the problem since I have had problems with 2 different PSUs.

I ran the RAM at DDR2-800 and DDR2-960 speeds and still the same problem to a lesser degree. But this memory was running DDR2-1000 up to a few weeks ago so I know it can do DDR2-1000 (per spec) just fine. I ran Memtest86+ on each stick at DDR2-1000 without errors.

Is it possible for one of the memory slots on the mobo to go kaput? I've never heard of such a thing

It's something in the motherboard or BIOS settings. The memory itself isn't the problem as you've already determined. Even though the northbridge takes most of the stress, the CPU will also get stressed from 4 sticks of memory. Have you tried bumping the CPU voltage just a little?

What voltage are you using for the memory. I have 4 of the same sticks and mine all run great at 1.925v up to 1000MHz.

Blkout said:

It's something in the motherboard or BIOS settings. The memory itself isn't the problem as you've already determined. Even though the northbridge takes most of the stress, the CPU will also get stressed from 4 sticks of memory. Have you tried bumping the CPU voltage just a little?

What voltage are you using for the memory. I have 4 of the same sticks and mine all run great at 1.925v up to 1000MHz.

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I am using 2.0V on the memory (up to DDR2-1000). I also suspect it is a problem with the mobo or BIOS. However I have been running this system with the same hardware and identical BIOS settings for 1+ years without this problem.

Hmm, try each single stick in each slot solo. This will eliminate which slot it is and double checks the ram. Could very well be one of the ramslots on the board could be going bad.

GTengineer said:

I am using 2.0V on the memory (up to DDR2-1000). I also suspect it is a problem with the mobo or BIOS. However I have been running this system with the same hardware and identical BIOS settings for 1+ years without this problem.

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Try bumping the CPU voltage slightly and see if that helps, maybe .025v. If that doesn't help, try lowering the memory voltage some, I know that sounds crazy but these sticks don't really respond well to more voltage and even 2.0 is the max that these should probably need.