AMD fx 6300 vishera problem

[jetiger]

My friend is running a memory test and his computer will shut off in the middle of them. He is underclocking the ram to make sure it isn't an overclocking issue. Nothing is being overclocked on the build. CoreTemp is reading his CPU at 9 degrees Celcius. This is definitely not right, so I was thinking it could be an overheating problem. I don't know much about AMD processors though.

Here is the build:
AMD fx 6300 vishera
Asrock 970 Extreme3
1600 Mhz RAM (he doesnt know the brand)

Thanks in advance for any help!

 

[Mandrake4565]

Welcome Jet, the temps at idle on FX series cpu's are not accurate. We generally look at the temps at load to see if they are unsafe. My 8350 does the same at idle. As far as the memory, how many sticks is your friend using? Try using only 1 stick at a time and run the memtest. Have the timings been checked to see if they are correct?

 

[ssjwizard]

More than likely the motherboard is setting invalid timings for the RAM. There are a few options to sort this out. The first and best option is to look up the RAM timings either from the manufacturer or from CPU-z memory tab and manually set them in bios. The second option is to increase the DRAM/vDDR to help make the RAM stable.

Also sometimes upping the CPU-NB voltage 1 bump can help sort out RAM issues, but given that Vishera is the second generation of CPU to support 1866 I highly doubt that is the issue.

 

[trents]

What is he using to test the ram? Memtest86+ is a popular and useful tool for this but some versions of it were buggy. It would test the ram but not create any real stress or heat on the CPU.

What happens if he runs a 20 minute Prime95 "blend" stress test which tests memory in a different way but also strongly stresses the CPU and motherboard components?

Unfortunately, the possible answers to your question are so numerous it would be impossible to offer any kind of meaningful guidance with so little information and that which you have given is second hand. It could be anything from a bad memory module itself to a bad motherboard. It could be that although the memory is "underclocked" from a frequency standpoint it is being assigned wrong timings by the bios.

One suggestion I would offer is to have your friend take out all but one memory stick and test only one at a time and test each one in each available slot. Is he mixing brands, sizes and/or frequencies of memory?

Please ask your friend to register on the forum so we can interact with him directly. We would ask him a series of diagnostic questions and have him perform some diagnostic steps to eliminate some things and narrow the possibilities down.

 

[jetiger]

Ok cool thanks for the advice. I had him change the timings of the memory, and it seems to be working now. The weird thing is I had him do that earlier and it still crashed, but now it seems to be fine, not sure what changed. I would have him remove one stick of memory but he bought the computer pre-assembled and hes not sure if he opens the case it will void his warranty. His timings were 9-9-9-28, 1600Mhz at 1.5V, I had him run at 10-10-10-30, 1600Mhz, 1.6V. Didnt work the first time but it is now.

Trents- Ill try having him run that stress test, and Ill tell him to come here and check it out.

Edit: He ran intel burn test on max (using all his ram) and the computer shut off again.

 

[trents]

1.6v is an odd voltage amount. 1600 mhz ram products seem to break down into two voltage need categories, 1.5v and 1.65v. I wonder if he is either undervolting the ram or overvolting it. This is why we cannot help you much because we know nothing about your friend's ram make and model. If he would install and run CPU-z and look at the "SPD" tab it would tell him what the make and model of the ram is and what voltage the manufacturer recommends at 1600 mhz. And then if he would click on the "Memory" tab of CPU-z it would show him the current frequency and timings the ram is actually running at real time. Then you compare the two tabs for "what is" and "what should be".

 

[jetiger]

I tried to get him to post himself, but he doesnt want to for some reason. He has Super Talent memory with stock timings of 9-9-9-28 at 1.5V. His is running at 10-10-10-30 at 1.6 V, so it is being overvolted. He said that he thinks it is the RAM and he is going to buy some new RAM. His temperature on his CPU never gets over 50C, so I dont think it is a heating issue. I guess he's just gonna work on it tomorrow. Thanks for all the help though! Sorry I wasn't very clear and he wasnt here himself.

 

[trents]

Why is he overvolting the ram like that, especially with relaxed timings?