Crashes to desktop, spontaneous reboots. Bad RAM.

[Daedalus78]

RAM Guy,

 

Here are my specs:

 

Asus A7n8x-E Deluxe, BIOS 1013

AMD Mobile Athlon XP-M 2500+ Barton

Antec TruePower 380 watt PS

BFG Tech GeForce 6800

 

My RAM info:

Corsair TwinX (2 x 512MB)

CMX512-3200LLPT

XMS3205 v1.1

0315107

2226T1

 

I run the CPU at 200 FSB x 11.0.

CPU voltage at 1.65v

DDR voltage at 2.70v

All other settings (RAM timings, etc.) are default.

 

I've run memtest86+ for 8 hours without any problems. However, Half Life 2 either crashes to the desktop with a memory error ("...memory at location 0xADDRESS could not be read...") or Windows ends up rebooting. HL2 does this with relative consistancy (say, about once an hour). If I clock the FSB down to 190MHz, the problem goes away entirely. Any other memory tweaks have been ineffective. Similar behavior occurs with other games I have (Doom 3, Command & Conquer: Generals).

 

I would like an RMA. Does Corsair have an advance-replacement policy?

 

Thanks in advance,

 

-Mike

[Wired]

Test your memory on a true 400 Mhz FSB CPU. Also, they do not have an advanced-replacement program as of yet.

[Daedalus78]

Test your memory on a true 400 Mhz FSB CPU. Also, they do not have an advanced-replacement program as of yet.

 

I have, actually. I loaned the RAM to a friend with an Asus P4 board and a CPU with a native 200 MHz FSB (I forget the specifics of the processor at the moment. A 2.8GHz I think?). He experienced similar results. (memtest86+ passed, but HL2 would crash).

 

Too bad about the lack of an advance-replacement program. I'm still interested in getting an RMA though.

[RAM GUY]

With ASUS P4 MB's you would need to disable legacy USB when running any memory test or you may get errors that are not from the memory.

And I would try and set the CPU multiplier to 9 or 10 and up the CPU VCore a few tenths of a volt and set the Dim Voltage to 2.8 Volts and see if that helps. In addition, with over clocking and your system configuration the PSU you have may not be enough. Also not getting errors in memtest but having problems with a Game that is CPU and graphics intensive might also suggest a power problem as well.

[Daedalus78]

I would try and set the CPU multiplier to 9 or 10 and up the CPU VCore a few tenths of a volt and set the Dim Voltage to 2.8 Volts and see if that helps. In addition, with over clocking and your system configuration the PSU you have may not be enough. Also not getting errors in memtest but having problems with a Game that is CPU and graphics intensive might also suggest a power problem as well.

 

I performed all these steps before my initial post. Believe me when I say I don't like wasting anyones time. I lowered the multiplier to 9.5 (10 and 10.5 don't work, a known issue apperently), upped the CPU vCore to 1.7v (that's as far as I'm willing to go) and upped vDIMM to 2.8v. None of it made any perceptible difference.

 

Please consider the fact that when I swapped RAM with my friend with the P4, I stopped having issues. The RAM he loaned me was non-Corsair 512MB x 2 (matched), 433MHz FSB with slower timings. All of this having been said, I really doubt it's a power issue.

 

If you have any other suggestions, I will be willing to try them. Otherwise, I would like an RMA.

[RAM GUY]

Please follow the link in my signature “I think I have a bad part!” and we will be happy to replace them or it!