lee-vivendi Posted January 3, 2007 Share Posted January 3, 2007 Hi, I've recently built a system with an Asus M2N32 SLI WS Pro motherboard instead of the usual M2N32 SLI Deluxe boards I tend to use. Spec: Asus M2N32 SLI WS Pro (BIOS - 0903) AMD Athlon FX 62 Corsair CM2X1024-6400C3D 2 x 1gb matched pair Nvidia 8800 GTX Seagate 500gb SATA Sony DVD ROM Tagan 900w PSU The installation of Windows XP Pro went fine as did the installation of any apps I wanted to install. After a day or so it started to become unstable and things would randomly lockup and crash, but not to the extent of a BSOD. It's running the latest Nforce drivers for chips and video card as well as the latest Creative drivers for the sound card. Anyway, I thought I'd run a few tests using Sissoft Sandra to put it through it's paces and as before all seemed fine, as it did with looping 3DMark 06. But after using it for normal things for a while it started to become flaky again so I decided to run memtest on it. The first pass was clear, but on the second pass test 7 it showed one error. I left it running over night and came back to plenty of errors. Today I've had a play around with using different slots on the motherboard with the same results. I've also tried running one stick at a time and with both sticks no errors have been found. Memory timings in the BIOS are all set to default and no components are overclocked. I've tried it with both SLI compatible memory enabled and disabled in the BIOS. Before I RMA the RAM are there any known issues with this motherboard and this RAM or this configuration? Is there something I need to be playing with or fine tuning in the BIOS? I get the feeling it's not actually the RAM that's at fault here. I also tried a couple of sticks of Corsair TwinX DDR2 8500 and found it all to be fine. Then I tried a second pair of the TwinX DDR2 8500 and the machine wouldn't post, so removed one stick and all was well, so I swapped the two and it didn't post. Obviously it looks like one stick out of that pair is faulty, which is rare with Corsair (and I've bought lots of the stuff), especially as that's the second pair in as many months where one stick has been so dead the machine has given out the RAM error beeps. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Lee Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DerekT Posted January 3, 2007 Share Posted January 3, 2007 You need to test the individual parts and Sandra is useless for this. Download Memtest from http://www.memtest.org Remove any and all overclocks. Set your system to stock and your DRAM to 800MHz with the timings manually set to 4 -4 - 4 - 12 and set the Vdimm (DRAM Voltage) to 2.1v. Burn the image to a CD. Remove all but one stick of Corsair CM2X1024-6400C3D. Boot from that image CD and allow for one pass of all tests for DRAM stability and 3+ more passes to test your system's thermal radiation of the DRAM. Repeat with the second stick of Corsair CM2X1024-6400C3D. If it also passes, install 2 sticks of Corsair CM2X1024-6400C3D and retest. What is the result. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lee-vivendi Posted January 3, 2007 Author Share Posted January 3, 2007 I ran the tests on the two sticks individually with memtest booted from CD previously. Both were fine when run on their own. No components were overclocked in the first place. I'll try setting the timings and voltage manually and leave it running memtest over night again. The problem only occurs when running both sticks which makes me think it's more likely to be a mobo quirkie or something I need to toy with in the BIOS. Thanks, Lee Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corsair Employees RAM GUY Posted January 3, 2007 Corsair Employees Share Posted January 3, 2007 Can you tell me bios settings you have set for both CPU and memory and any performance settings that you may have set? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lee-vivendi Posted January 4, 2007 Author Share Posted January 4, 2007 As DerekT suggested I manually set the speeds to 800mhz and 4 -4 - 4 - 12 and the Vdimm (DRAM Voltage) to 2.1v. This was with both sticks installed. Overnight it ran 23 passes of Memtest without one error. Thanks for your help guys, much appreciated. Now to make sure the dead stick of TwinX DDR2 8500 is really dead and get that RMA'd. Thanks again, Lee *edit* I've just shut the machine down and upon restarting I'm getting the memory error beep. If I remove one stick it's fine. Nothing has changed from the setup last night yet now it will only boot with one of the sticks present. I'm going to swap the mobo and see how it gets on, this one is being far too inconsistent for my liking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DerekT Posted January 4, 2007 Share Posted January 4, 2007 I'm going to swap the mobo and see how it gets on, this one is being far too inconsistent for my liking. That would be my next move as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yoxxy Posted January 4, 2007 Share Posted January 4, 2007 I think you should put voltage to 2.4v as that is what these sticks actaully take. Then try to run tests with 3-4-3-9 @ 800 mhz. The sticks are not rated for 4-4-4-12-800 mhz @ 2.1v. Some sets of memory will not work without being fed high voltages as that is what the IC's are screened for. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DerekT Posted January 4, 2007 Share Posted January 4, 2007 I think you should put voltage to 2.4v as that is what these sticks actaully take. Then try to run tests with 3-4-3-9 @ 800 mhz. The sticks are not rated for 4-4-4-12-800 mhz @ 2.1v. Some sets of memory will not work without being fed high voltages as that is what the IC's are screened for. Corsair CM2X1024-6400C3D 2 x 1gb matched pair We were at that time, working on the 64000C3D's and 8500C5's are rated for 2.2v not 2.4v. http://www.corsairmemory.com/corsair/products/specs/TWIN2X2048-8500C5.pdf Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lee-vivendi Posted January 11, 2007 Author Share Posted January 11, 2007 They have been running in the same system only with a new and motherboard fine for the last week now. I swapped the motherboard for an Asus M2N 32 SLI Deluxe. Thanks for the help. Lee Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corsair Employees RAM GUY Posted January 12, 2007 Corsair Employees Share Posted January 12, 2007 NP Thank you for letting us know! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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