Memory Problems?

I "upgraded" to Windows 7 64 bit in the beginning of December. Everything was rolling along smoothly until 1 week ago, started getting BSOD's & spontaneous reboot. I did not install any new hardware or software, this just started happening out of the blue.

System Specs:

Asus M3A78-T MB
AMD Phenom II X4 940
Corsair Dominator 4 GB (2x2GB) 240 pin DDR2 SDRAM 1066 (PC2 8500)
Corsair 750W Power Supply
SAPPHIRE 100259-1GL Radeon HD 4870 1GB 256-bit GDDR5
WD 6400AAKS 640GB 7200 RPM
Creative SB X-FI Xtreme Music

I dont have anything over clocked, my memory is set to manufacturers specs..5-5-5-15-2T 1066.

On one of the crashes, Windows 7 said I had problems with my memory & suggested to run the memory tester in Win 7. I did that & it said I had errors. So I tried to narrow it down to which stick was bad & removed one & ran the test again...no errors..must be the other stick. Installed the other stick & ran test again no errors. So I put both back in & ran it once again & no errors.

System was still occasionally BSOD'ing so I decided to test my memory with a more reputable source Memtest 86 v 4.00.

I burned the ISO to a CD Rebooted my PC with both sticks in & at the 3 minute mark of the test I got errors, I let it run for about 20 minutes & it kept finding errors with each new test. When I stopped it I had accumulated over 2000 errors.

So again, I tried to narrow it down to which stick was bad. Ran it over night with one stick, woke up 7 hours later 0 errors. Changed sticks went to work came home to 0 errors. Put both sticks in again & ran for 3 hours...0 errors.

The only thing that changed is the memory is in the opposite slots they were when I initially ran memtest. However they are back to their original slots as they were when I was running WinXP (they got switched when I tested the memory using the Win7 tool).

Another thing I noticed is that in Memtest it says my memory is running at 8-5-5-15. In the BIOS & on CPUID it says its at 5-5-5-15. Also it says that ECC is disabled when it is enabled in the BIOS.

Any ideas what could be causing the inconsistency in the test results? Intermittent faulty Dimm Slots?

I know my way around a PC but am no genius any help would be appreciated.

TIA

ECC should be DISABLED. You dont have ECC ram I dont think.

Well that makes sense

I disabled that setting in BIOS. Am still stumped at the inconsistency of the tests & why memtest says speeds are 8-5-5-15 when in BIOS & CPUID is set to manufacturer reqs 5-5-5-15.

When Memtest or any other memory tester for that matter fails, that doesn't necessarily mean the RAM or DIMM slot(s) are bad. Memtest can fail for any number of reasons, including insufficient DRAM voltage, excessive or insufficient Vcc, insufficient vNB / vMCH / vSPP, incorrectly set DRAM sub-timing(s), etc. With both sticks installed there's more stress on the IMC, which may require increased vNB or looser sub-timings for example. And make sure you're running the latest v4.0 of Memtest86+, instead of Memtest...

http://www.memtest.org/

Thanks for the reply. I am using the latest version of memtest.

Another 4 hours & no errors :S

Forgot to mention DRAM voltage is set to 2.1v which is manufacturers spec.

Are there manufacturer specs for the Vcc, vNB, vMCH, vSPP & sub timings? Or is that a trial & error type of thing? Google keeps bringing me back to this thread when I serch those terms I believe those are all set to default in my BIOS.

Quite a few AMD CPUs get flaky at 1066. If your instabilities continue, try running the memory at DDR800 for a couple of days and see if it helps.

Yellowbeard XMS said:

Quite a few AMD CPUs get flaky at 1066. If your instabilities continue, try running the memory at DDR800 for a couple of days and see if it helps.

Click to expand...

YB,

On a side note, your presence here assisting our members is very much appreciated and it does wonders for your Corsair, Inc. product line and public relations.

RollingThunder said:

YB,

On a side note, your presence here assisting our members is very much appreciated and it does wonders for your Corsair, Inc. product line and public relations.

Click to expand...

Thanks RT!

Thanks for the replies.

No crashes since before I ran memtest. I havent changed anything. ECC was always disabled till I ran memtest the first time, I have disabled it since then.

If this problem pops us again, Ill try running at DDR800 & see how it goes.

Thanks again for the replies.

I have a similar problem.

I own an ASUS M3A78-PRO (780G/SB700) Mobo which is great to play with for OCing but it has many limitations on voltage regulations. I'm currently running on the latest BIOS (v1404) and I have two catastrophic limitations:

(1) CPU volts [up to 1.3V]
(2) RAM volts [from 1.9 to 2.3V]

About point (1):
My CPU (AMD 940BE is rated for 1.35V for normal operation, so from BIOS if I choose manual setting I can only underclock and not even get to par!! Measuring with CPU-Z and AMD Overdrive I actually always read 0.025V less than what is set in the BIOS but that is a fixed offset so I just take it into consideration and always add 0.025V to what I want to set. If I use AMD OD to push the volts up then it raises at will.
Is there a way I can "unlock" the BIOS to go higher than 1.3V? Have I got something wrong here? What's up with my BIOS/Mobo? Any ideas?

About point (2):
If on BIOS I set my RAM to manual 1.9V, or any other value for that matter, I get an AMD OD reading of 1.8V. Another strange thing is if I set the lowest value on AMD OD (0.8V) my system is still happy and stable; which probably mean that I have no control over RAM voltage. This is hindering my overclocks badly! If I set the RAM to 1066MHz I can't even boot probably because of the low voltage (1.8V standard).


Any ideas?


-----------------------------------------------------
[CPU] Phenom II 940BE 3GHz
[RAM] Corsair 8GB 4*2GB DDR2-1066 Dominator 8500C5D 5-5-5-15
[Mobo] ASUS M3A78-PRO
[GFX] nVidia GTX285 1GB DDR3
[PSU] Corsair TX850W APFC
-----------------------------------------------------
Component overclocking abilities (stable Prime@30min):
[stock cooking and C&Q disabled]
FSB [200 - 270]MHz
CPU [3000 - 3350][email protected]
RAM [400 - 447][email protected]
NB/HT [1800 - 2200][email protected]

AndreaACME said:

I have a similar problem.

I own an ASUS M3A78-PRO (780G/SB700) Mobo which is great to play with for OCing but it has many limitations on voltage regulations. I'm currently running on the latest BIOS (v1404) and I have two catastrophic limitations:

(1) CPU volts [up to 1.3V]
(2) RAM volts [from 1.9 to 2.3V]

About point (1):
My CPU (AMD 940BE is rated for 1.35V for normal operation, so from BIOS if I choose manual setting I can only underclock and not even get to par!! Measuring with CPU-Z and AMD Overdrive I actually always read 0.025V less than what is set in the BIOS but that is a fixed offset so I just take it into consideration and always add 0.025V to what I want to set. If I use AMD OD to push the volts up then it raises at will.
Is there a way I can "unlock" the BIOS to go higher than 1.3V? Have I got something wrong here? What's up with my BIOS/Mobo? Any ideas?

About point (2):
If on BIOS I set my RAM to manual 1.9V, or any other value for that matter, I get an AMD OD reading of 1.8V. Another strange thing is if I set the lowest value on AMD OD (0.8V) my system is still happy and stable; which probably mean that I have no control over RAM voltage. This is hindering my overclocks badly! If I set the RAM to 1066MHz I can't even boot probably because of the low voltage (1.8V standard).


Any ideas?


-----------------------------------------------------
[CPU] Phenom II 940BE 3GHz
[RAM] Corsair 8GB 4*2GB DDR2-1066 Dominator 8500C5D 5-5-5-15
[Mobo] ASUS M3A78-PRO
[GFX] nVidia GTX285 1GB DDR3
[PSU] Corsair TX850W APFC
-----------------------------------------------------
Component overclocking abilities (stable Prime@30min):
[stock cooking and C&Q disabled]
FSB [200 - 270]MHz
CPU [3000 - 3350][email protected]
RAM [400 - 447][email protected]
NB/HT [1800 - 2200][email protected]

Click to expand...

You might want to start your own thread since you don't have the same board as the OP. You also have different questions and issues.

Re-posted in a new thread. You can delete my message on this one.

Thanks.

I have this problem too!, My pc keeps restarting randomly.. temps are normall... So i assumed its the ram.. but ive swapped the sticks and everything.. but it still restarts :|.. Any help?

cogman said:

I have this problem too!, My pc keeps restarting randomly.. temps are normall... So i assumed its the ram.. but ive swapped the sticks and everything.. but it still restarts :|.. Any help?

Click to expand...

Check out the thread I opened (http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showpost.php?p=6392476&postcount=1), I have discovered something interesting about RAM and now I have no more doubts that my RAM is just fine; problem is on the MCH integrated in my Phenom II. Anyway, I'm off topic here so go check the thread and see if you find anything there.


Regards.

BuD1369 said:

Thanks for the replies.

No crashes since before I ran memtest. I havent changed anything. ECC was always disabled till I ran memtest the first time, I have disabled it since then.

If this problem pops us again, Ill try running at DDR800 & see how it goes.

Thanks again for the replies.

Click to expand...

Solved or not? If so, what was the solution? If not, what's the news? Any more clues/details for us to crunch?

Same O, still no crashes since before I ran Memtest 86+ v4.0.

The only thing I did was swap locations of my memory sticks, which ironically are back in their original slots. The only thing I can think of is maybe a spec of dust was in the right place to give me all the problems...I dunno, other than that it cured itself...so far

Could very well be, it happened to me once and I found that for contact cleansing there is nothing better than a clean rubber (pencil eraser) scrubbed directly on both sides where the copper contacts are. That removes most of the hand grease (if you touched the contacts by mistake) and also dust and impurities.

Ok, I think I may have found the problem.

I bought an Ipod over the weekend & had it plugged in to one of my front USB ports on my case. My PC started crashing again. Then it hit me, I used to have my headphones plugged in to the front USB port & I had moved them to one of the rear ports. Since I moved my Ipod to one of the rear ports it hasnt crashed since.

Ill have to check the wiring from the case USB port to my MB...

BuD1369 said:

Ok, I think I may have found the problem.

I bought an Ipod over the weekend & had it plugged in to one of my front USB ports on my case. My PC started crashing again. Then it hit me, I used to have my headphones plugged in to the front USB port & I had moved them to one of the rear ports. Since I moved my Ipod to one of the rear ports it hasnt crashed since.

Ill have to check the wiring from the case USB port to my MB...

Click to expand...

I would also suggest checking:

- BIOS settings (if any) about legacy USB devices/compatibility

- Windows patches which could affect USB ports (like SP3 on XP is known to give probs with some kind of HW)

- Microsoft bluescreens dump files: MINIDUMP files!

If you want you can post/send me your last three Windows Minidumps (C:\windows\minidump\mini__*.dmp) and I will try reviving my debugging skills.


Regards.

@BuD1369

I looked at the 3 dumpfiles you sent me and here is what I noticed:

- Reported evident BSOD errors were: NTFS_FILE_SYSTEM, IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL, MEMORY_MANAGEMENT
- Errors were caused by: Ntfs.sys+213d8(linked to ntoskrnl.exe+4bd4ca), ntoskrnl.exe+ef6a2, ntoskrnl.exe+c8a63

In other words, the evidence in the stack is clearly pointing to ntoskrnl.exe (the kernel) hence low level problems (OS or HW). The modules to which the kernel was linked to at the time of the crashes are: the filesystem, the memory, the memory. This is typical sign of RAM giving out random numbers; the causes of this can be several, for example: RAM HW problem, RAM BIOS settings problem, OS module corruption.

I know that you have already presumedly found the cause (iPod USB) but just to check if anything else is going wrong .... try to rule them our one by one:
- If you find other stable values which work 24/7 then you have ruled out OS corruption
- If you restore BIOS defaults and set very loose timings and low frequency (using dividers) and find a way to run 24/7 stable then you can rule out wrong BIOS settings
- If you make sure that succeed with 2 or more passes of Memtest486+ on two sticks of RAM at the time (if you have 4) then I guess you can rule out most of the HW problems

Let us know if you find anything new.

Regards.