Seems like I killed my GeIL with OC!

Okay here is my little story (again)

I upgraded my rig in the sign with another 2.4C that does 3.5-3.6 on air, a ThermalRight SP-94 (with a Zalman 92mm fan and AS5), and an Enermax Noisetaker 470W PSU.

After spending a few days with testing I got it up to an FSB of 285 with 5:4, that means 3.42GHz and 228MHz for the RAM, with timings of 2-3-3-6 and GAT set to AAADD. I noticed that my GeILs love voltage, because they needed 3.05V to do this stable. It's a 2×512Mb Kit of Ultra Platinum PC3500. Factory specifications said voltage supported up to 2.95V, so I though 3.05 won't be a problem, and nobody killed their modules even with 3.3V (searched for corresponding threads here).

I tried to go higher but at 290 FSB I got lots of memory errors, and at 3.10V it got even worse, so I figure the modules doesn't like voltage above 3.05.

At 285 I was mostly stable, but Prime failed on me after about an hour and I experienced occassional drop-back-to-desktop's in games. I realized that I occassionally left the VCore at 1.575V from my prev. chip. Set it to 1.55V (1.52-1.53 real!) and guess what? Prime ran over 12 hours, WOW:



The day before I started to play with memory timings and noticed that even at 285/228 2-2-2-5 it only does a few errors in memtest86. Raising voltage did not help as I said, but that was before I lowered my VCore that made the machine totally prime stable, so I gave it a try again.

Set it to 2-2-2-5 and started memtest86, but I noticed errors. Different errors, not the same that I saw yesterday with the same settings. Only 1-2 location fails but the count is increasing, and the error-bits is always the same. It was suspicious.

Then the game started: swapping modules, DIMM 2-4 -> 1-3, relaxing timings, GAT settings, etc. The most funny thing is that it ran dual primes overnight, and now I get memory errors even at lower FSBs. Of course, now Prime95 fails immediately at the settings it was stable for 12 hours before.

Tried only one stick at a time and realized that one of the modules making the errors, even at stock speed (DDR433).

Here are some memtest pics, the failing adress changes as I played with the slots and swapped the modules, but notice the error bits:






So, latest investigations: module1 does errors, module2 does not. Did I kill one of them? The overnight Prime at 3.05V stressed them so much and trying to tighten timings was the last step to make one module fail?

I haven't heard about anybody who killed his/her modules even with higher voltages... Why is this happening to me?

The modules under full load was quite hot when running at 285/228 3.05V, but I think it was still OK, about 40-45°C on the heat spreaders. And it was stable.

Any opinions would be greatly appreciated, now I'm going to test the modules in another board.... and then (I think) start the RMA process....

im thinking rma time.
ive never let prime run 12 hours with 3+ volts.
its just to hard and too much heat.prime is designed to heavily stress ram,much more than any normal program could.

this is just me tho,i would let prime run 1-2 hours with 3+vdimm no more.and test mainley with memtest as it normaly tells me just how stable they are before prime does.
stuff that passes prime sometimes wont pass memtest.

sorry bud but ya got some toasted ram.
also if the past holds true change an info on rma'ing this in the above thread before everyone jumps on your back for rmaing something you broke.

I see everyone running Prime for at least 8 hours regardless of voltages, but ok...

And I still don't understand why did it fail on me at 3.05V as the factory specs say it's upto 2.95V and others running their modules with 3.2V for months without problems.

Yeah, and I know that overclocking voids my warranty

even in the best of circumstances components fail. throw in 3.05v,
overclock the component, and a failure can happen, especially if one of the components in the stick are borderline. another consideration is static electricit,y when handling memory modules.very rarely does it completely disable a component. rather it causes a weakening of the comonent making it susceptible to failure when stressed.

flapperhead said:

even in the best of circumstances components fail. throw in 3.05v,
overclock the component, and a failure can happen, especially if one of the components in the stick are borderline. another consideration is static electricit,y when handling memory modules.very rarely does it completely disable a component. rather it causes a weakening of the comonent making it susceptible to failure when stressed.

Click to expand...

You are right. But everything is failing here since I'm very unlucky

Another question is what to get because seems like the vendor I got them from has no PC3500 Kit in stock.

And not much to choose from to this rig because of the high FSB

Csybe said:

You are right. But everything is failing here since I'm very unlucky

Another question is what to get because seems like the vendor I got them from has no PC3500 Kit in stock.

And not much to choose from to this rig because of the high FSB

Click to expand...

YOU ARE NOT ALONE!,(LOL) my 308fsb 2.4c doesnt want to run 308. i been looking for 300+ memory for 6 months (only found 1) not to mention the time and headace it took to totally mod out my ic7.and i still have issues with my vtt mod. when u get to the speeds we seek sh*t happens.... lol

Yeah...well.... hard times again

keep up the good, work b4 u know youll have it fixed

I don't know how. It even has a very few errors at the rated speed, so it will be even hard to make the shop replace it.

And I haven't seen my girlfriend for too long time again... even her phone is off for a day now because she is currently abroad offtopic hehe, lol

uh, oh- deadly testosterone build up.. why dont u email geil and see if they will replace it...

Because I am in Hungary and I have to go to the local reseller.

that sux, if he is a reputible dealer he should at least try to help.
dont feel bad i just got done testing my beloved 2.4c that used to run 300+ at 1.75v now i cant get it stable at 300 at 1.85v WAAAAAAAA

hehe I think that will happen to me as well...

btw, seems like my 120G HDD is going to die... I'm not kidding!

What's going on???

seems like everything has to die at once, cause if only 1 thing breaks ur arent punished enuff by the good of overclocking-i may have to make another offering to him.. hehe

I don't think you should have a problem RMA'ing the Geil ram. It's spec'd on their site to run from 2.6-3.1v. Doesn't look like you went above that so you shouldn't have a problem.

I have the exact same issue with my Geil ram and AI7 though. I ordered mine from Newegg and just haven't RMA'd it yet. One of these days I'll get around to that
As of right now though, my Geil Ultra-Plat PC4000 isn't even stable at 220fsb 1:1 (specs say it should do 250 1:1 @ 2.5-4-4-7).

PC3500 is spec'd 2.95V... not much difference though.

And I wouldn't say you have the exact same issue as me