Memory Error

I previously had one of these kits in my Asus Formula IV.
http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=24_311_312_612&item_id=033194

I now updated to a second kit and put it in. Cpu-z shows some discrepancy about the information on the third slot. The ram seems to work fine. I've opened enough applications to get to 15ish GB.

Edit: Ok I lied, at about 13.5 GB full of tabbed out games and excel documents I get a low ram warning, and things start crashing. I don't know if that's the computer not being able to keep up anymore, or the ram starts getting bad at about half of the stick.. (not sure how the ram gets filled..) (Processor is AMD 955 @ 4.1Ghz)

Is this just a bad reading from the board...or did I get a dodgy stick? I guess I have to test the new kit separately. Gone are the days of just buying something at the store and it just working.

I would suggest running one stick at a time with Memtest to see if it produces any errors. If all work individually, try adding more stick at a time until you get back to your original configuration. It would be as simple as it not being fully seated or as bad as a faulty stick.

http://www.memtest.org/
Be sure to get the ISO, burn it to a disk and boot it.

Well I checked all ram sticks individually, and they passed two "passes" of testing.

I have a feeling it is the ram slots again. I put in all 4 sticks and it boots sometimes, sometimes it doesnt boot.

I've had horrible experience with Asus boards. I've had to return the Formula IV once, already, because of bad ram slot, and Northbridge over heating. This one seems to be the exact same regarding both issues. I just haven't used the extra slots up until now.

Is there a warranty restriction on Asus if I'm watercooling my system? I recall maybe that in the warranty terms, water cooling voids the warranty... Just so I know when I go back to the store, on what to tell them

If you aren't watercooling the motherboard, they don't care. If you are, you will need to check the warranty limitations to see if it did void it.

Edit: Ok I lied, at about 13.5 GB full of tabbed out games and excel documents I get a low ram warning, and things start crashing. I don't know if that's the computer not being able to keep up anymore, or the ram starts getting bad at about half of the stick.. (not sure how the ram gets filled..) (Processor is AMD 955 @ 4.1Ghz)

Click to expand...

Memory is filled randomly, more or less. You shouldn't be in or out of a "bad zone" depending on the capacity, although more RAM in use would increase the probability of encountering an error if one exists.

If all the sticks are passing Memtest individually, try an overnight run of all the sticks at once. That shouldn't produce any errors.

You might be able to get around the issues booting by bumping the RAM and/or NB voltage up a notch. If you're having NB overheating issues (you can spitball it by feeling the heatsink) then bumping up NB voltage might not be a great idea.

OK - Thanks for advice, however I couldn't even boot a few times with all the ram sticks in. Just black screen with flashing "ram lights" on the motherboard.

These were the exact symptoms I had when the ram slots were bad on the same board, and ram voltage was set to 1.65V which is what this kit needs...

ah well, I'll see if I can maybe trade the board in, for an am3+ And it won't be asus, thats for sure!