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Strange memory error disappears if I reseat them

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cyberfish

Member
Joined
May 23, 2008
Location
London, England
I am facing some very strange memory error and could use some help here :).

GA-EP35-DS3L (latest BIOS)
E6300 @ 450x7 = 3150mhz

2x1GB OCZ Reaper Hpc Edition PC2-9200 2GB 2X1GB DDR2-1150 CL5-5-5-18
http://www.ncix.com/products/index....502GK&manufacture=OCZ Technology&promoid=1074

in slots #2 and #4

2x1GB Crucial Ballistix DDR2-800 CAS4 (new edition from RMA, 2.0V)

in slots #1 and #3

Running in dual-channel.

Memory runs at 450mhz (1:1), 5-6-6-21, 1.8V (tried upping to 2.0V, exact same error)

It has been running fine for a few months, and about 2 months ago, I got a few crashes, so I decided to run Orthos. Small FFT was good (stopped after a few hours), and blend failed within 10 minutes. So then I ran memtest86, and I got about 20 errors after a few minutes, all at address 1944.1MB. Judging from the output, it's the same bit, too.

And then, I tried to isolate which stick is bad, by removing 2 sticks at a time. They all passed. And then, I put all 4 sticks back in, and it passed, too!

I didn't change any settings, and ran memtest86 and blend over 2 nights, and no errors were reported. So I thought it was just a memory seating thing.

Until today.

Things started crashing, and I ran memtest86, a bunch of errors popped up, at the exact same address!

I don't want to try removing sticks because I fear the errors will disappear (strange fear, I know).

I don't think it's motherboard/memory controller problem because it always fail at the same address. Do you agree?

Is there a tool that will tell me which stick my "1944.1MB" is on?

What do you suggest I do?

Many thanks!

*edit* Upping MCH voltage doesn't help. */edit*
 
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on some boards if you are o/c ing and get to where one stick isnt quite stable it will drop out and not show up in bios. if that isnt the case you can try the pencil eraser trick on the contacts of the stick
 
Thanks.

The sticks are always detected.

I've tried lowering the FSB to 400 (memory at 800), no diff.

I tried taking out the OCZ sticks, the error persisted. Then, trying to isolate the problem to the sticks or the motherboard, I swapped the 2 Ballistix sticks. And the error persisted! At the same location, too (even though I swapped them), so I guess it's a motherboard problem...

The thing is, it has disappeared again. I'm not sure what to do now... they probably won't take it for RMA (anyone has experience with Gigabyte RMA?) since it's working fine now, but I think it will break some time again...
 
Did you test the ram with memtest86+? Yeah, those intermittent problems are buggers.
 
Yeah I used memtest to test the RAM.

I've tried upping both the MCH and FSB voltage, and they didn't help.

But the problem disappeared now...
 
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