bsod's with ram at 1600mHz

i don't really belong here, i've never oc'ed. but i bought a combo kit for my new system -
i7 920, rampage II gene, 6 Gb OCZ 1600 mHz pc 12800 ddr3 (not xmp, it's their 'platinum low-voltage' series - OCZ3P1600LV6GK)

from the beginning i've been getting bsod's that appear to be due to the dram (no minidumps, or minidumps with weird contents).

i have tried adjusting the bios a number of times, learning as i go. at first i had cooling issues, and used the memory at 1066 mHz until today because i was scared of overheating. i've gotten like 15 bsod's in 3 weeks - most while i wasn't doing anything demanding at all.

today i tried using the 'memory up' function in the bios to set dram at 1600 mHz. it boosted the dimm voltage to 1.8V, and the cpu went up to 1.2V. i ran memtest for an hour this way with no problems (3 copies, 1800 Mb each). but i shut down because the tech support from the store i bought it at warned me the cpu could be damaged from overvoltage. and yet when i kept memory up at 1600 mHz but set ai overclocking tuner to manual and adjusted the dram to OCZ specs like they recommende, memtest crashed the system in under a minute.

i am falling behind on my work - i'm a graphic artist and i depend on my machine. please, can anyone tell me what to do?

I think there's a risk of damage with ram above 1.65v, so don't run it higher. 1.2v is ok on the CPU as long as it is adequately cooled. The IOH voltage and QPI/DRAM are more likely to give you memory stability.

My system has a problem where I can't run the ram at 1600 even though it's rated for it. I'm usually running it at 1066MHz. It sucks, but realistically, the ram speed is pretty fast anyway at 1066.

Like Nebuchadnazzar suggested try setting the QPI/DRAM Core Voltage to 1.3 - 1.35v, manually adjust the four primary RAM timings to 7-7-7-24, and DIMM voltage to 1.65v while at a DRAM frequency of 1600 MHz. And check for RAM stability using Memtest86+ instead of Memtest...

http://www.memtest.org/

I am pretty sure i got a bad set of those myself too. Fails memtest at 1333. id say RMA them and get a new set.

There's one setting in memory timings, I forget which one, but I believe it's the last one, that Asus sets to 0. Set it to 10 and see if it helps you out. I had the Plats, and couldn't run at rated speed. Running my XMP's very near to rated speed (1532) and I'm happy with them.

unfortunately i can't rma anything - i am in mexico, and core i7 systems are still unheard of here. seriously. it was impossible for me to get the parts i wanted. so i ordered from canada through my family. the shipping was super-expensive. if i rma-ed i'd pay more in shipping than the parts are worth, and it would take at least a month.

i have sat a 6cm fan right on top of the nb - i also removed it this morning and reapplied it's thermal paste (same with sb, since i was already in the guts). i have also sat a 6 cm fan on top of the dimms. yesterday, at memory up settings, everest stability test crashed the system in 7 minutes, even without the memory test included, and the dimms were almost too hot to touch afterwards. so they get their own fan. later i ran everest again, just for half an hour because i am still researching the problem and trying things, but it ran fine (no memory test) and temps were ok - nb reached 64, though.

the nb is at 56 right now with nothing open but firefox. i'm wondering now if maybe the sensor is just screwy. it's at 1.16V, so it's not that. how can it be hot with new arctic silver tim and a fan less than 1 cm away? (because of a previous nasty experience with our xbox 360 i am an expert applier of thermal paste.)

i have also done 2 passes on each dimm in memtest86+. no errors. i know now i should do a lot more passes than that - so next step is to run it for 10 passes and see what happens. if they pass (and if they don't, i'm screwed - i may just have to live with it and learn to save every 5 min until i find a place to buy ram) i'll try taking down their voltage a step, and same with QPI, and taking down their mHz a step. but if i keep them cool, they should be okay at the higher voltage, shouldn't they? cpu is at 26 celsius right now, so it's a happy duck. it has a coolermaster hyper tx3.

i have tried adjusting the bios to ocz specs like 5 times with no success. asus defaults were running the ram at 1066mHz, 1.5V, 7-7-7-20. the adjustments i tried: 1. change just timings (to 7-7-7-24), 2. change timing and voltage (spec is 1.65V), 3. change timing, voltage, and frequency and nothing else, 4. turn ai overclock tuner to manual and change those 3 settings, 5. set memory up to 1600mHz and then set ai oc tuner to manual and change the 3 settings. NOTHING WORKED!!!!!

at asus defaults i would get bluescreens with minimal load unpredictably every couple of days. with the adjustments above, at 1066mHz it was about as stable as before, at 1600 mHz i was trying memtest within windows and it caused instantaneous crashes.

this ram is for 'enthusiasts', ocz says. which is to say, overclockers. surely it should be capable of handling a little stress. their mobo LED is green, but according to the asus manual they are running at the low end of 'high'.

MassiveOverkill - can you tell me anything more about that setting? is it definitely the last one?

I got the tip from here: http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=220678

It's Back-to-Back setting that needs to be 10. Also get BIOS 0904. But if you're going to flash, underclock everything to make sure it's stable before you do so.

Memory needs to be at 1.65 volts, if default undervolts it, set it to 1.65

the bios is up to date - july 09.

i lowered dram to 1.71V and qpi to1.33V, and am running just a light test - memtest is testing 2Gb. all temps peachy, all good after 45 min. i'm going to go ahead and try putting the ram down to 1.65V and the qpi to 1.30V, and keep the timings as they are (9-9-9-24). maybe i could lower those numbers, but no harm done if they are a little slower than they need to be, right?

while i'm in bios i'll adjust that back-to-back setting.
thanks everyone for all the input.

well, with ram at 1.65V, QPI 1.3V, 9-9-9-24, the system froze after 1 minute 18 seconds in everest stability test.

i adjusted back to what i had before that (dram 1.71V, QPI 1.325V, 9-9-9-24) and the system completed 1 hour in everest stability test. when i closed it, cpu was 59c, nb 62c, sb 49c, and the dimms were only warm. the outside face of the last dimm was a little hot, because the fan doesn't really reach there, but you could still hold your finger on it comfortably.

so, that's stable enough for me. i'm going to call this a cure and move on.

btw, i went to adjust that back-to-back timing, but decided not to at the last second. it's on auto, so it must move up and down. if i have more stability issues i'll try putting it at 10, but if i don't, i'm going to put my faith in the good engineers at asus.

thanks for helping me out. now i'm going to kick back and screw around in photoshop with the blazing fast machine this was always meant to be. banzai!

Glad it's working stable for ya.

hey, massive overkill - i read more about that b2b cas stuff -
http://www.madshrimps.be/?action=getarticle&articID=940
maybe i didn't look hard enough, but i couldn't find any information in the link you gave me before.

but wow! sounds like it's super important. i'm going to try setting it at 6 and see if this allows me to put my ram back to 1.65V. it would be nice to be able to take the fan off the dimms and put it back in the back of the case. i've been jittery about changing settings and impatient to just get stable - but your advice seems to have been the key. so much so, if it works, i'm going to start a new thread explaining how critical it was.

Yep, I remember reading that article, it was actually referenced by XtremeSystems, which may be the reason why you couldn't search it. I lowered mine back down to 4. I'll try and run some Vantage runs to see if it improves any.

The Asus reading of 0 could be false as 4 is the lowest you can manually set it at. I guess I'll have to DL the memory tweaker app that will show the actual values are when set to Auto.