the_mayor Posted October 17, 2007 Share Posted October 17, 2007 I built a new PC in July of this year. I am using a dual channel set of 1 GB PC-6400 XMS2 sticks of RAM. The RAM has worked perfectly (as far as I can tell) since I first booted the PC. This past weekend, I started to notice very weird errors in Windows XP. The PC was locking up and restarting in an inconsistent manner. I first assumed that it might be a Windows problem, so I did a restore from a week ago. The restore was successful, but the same errors existed. I then started seeing errors in many programs, like Anti-Virus updates. I then assumed that Windows must have some major issues, so I decided to do a fresh reinstall. I have had Windows Vista Business edition laying around for a while, so I decided to finally updated to the new OS. I did a reformat of my hard drive and began to do the install, but during the process, after the first reboot, Vista brought an error screen relating to hardware. It was kind of like a BSOD (but black and white) for startup. I ran the memory test provided in Vista and it found many errors in the memory. At this point, I was very sure that it was a memory issue. I removed the memory stick in slot 2 and restarted the Vista installation process. This time, there were no errors and Vista installed properly. After the install was complete, I added the second RAM stick back to the PC and upon reboot, the PC froze. I then removed the first RAM stick and placed the suspected RAM stick in the successful slot. Upon reboot, the PC froze again. I then researched Cosair's website and located the Memory Tester program. I ran the test on each stick individually. I first ran the test on the working stick, well the stick that allowed Vista to install properly. After 24 minutes of testing, 2048 errors were reported. I then tested the second stick (the suspected bad one), and over 300,000 errors were reported in 13 minutes! It appears that both memory sticks have issues, but that the second stick is definitely faulty. Are there any other tests or modifications I should try or is a replacement the best course? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corsair Employees RAM GUY Posted October 17, 2007 Corsair Employees Share Posted October 17, 2007 Please make sure that you have the latest BIOS for your motherboard and then load optimized defaults and set the Memory Voltage to 2.0 volts and then set the timings to 5-5-5-12 (CAS-tRCD-tRP-tRAS) and then test the modules one at a time with http://www.memtest.org! Please allow memtest to run 2-3 passes on each module. If you still get errors, we will be happy to replace them! However, if you get errors with both modules that would suggest some other problem and I would test them in another system or MB to be sure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the_mayor Posted October 17, 2007 Author Share Posted October 17, 2007 I upgraded my motherboard BIOS to the latest version and loaded optimized defaults. After loading the defaults, I set the voltage to 2.0 and the timings to 5-5-5-12. After a 35 minute test with the "good" stick, 253 errors had been reported and all were from test #5. I retested the "bad" stick and 406,528 errors were reported. It appears that the first stick is working properly, or at least closely to, but the second stick is still having lots of trouble. I did purchase these two sticks together in a dual channel kit, but would it be possibly to replace them one at a time? The "good" stick is not causing any issues in my system, as I have not had any BSOD or weird errors with that stick only, and I really need a running system. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the_mayor Posted October 17, 2007 Author Share Posted October 17, 2007 I upgraded my motherboard BIOS to the latest version and loaded optimized defaults. After loading the defaults, I set the voltage to 2.0 and the timings to 5-5-5-12. After a 35 minute test with the "good" stick, 253 errors had been reported and all were from test #5. I retested the "bad" stick and 406,528 errors were reported. It appears that the first stick is working properly, or at least closely to, but the second stick is still having lots of trouble. I did purchase these two sticks together in a dual channel kit, but would it be possibly to replace them one at a time? The "good" stick is not causing any issues in my system, as I have not had any BSOD or weird errors with that stick only, and I really need a running system. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corsair Employees RAM GUY Posted October 17, 2007 Corsair Employees Share Posted October 17, 2007 Let's get them or it replaced. Please follow the link in my signature “I think I have a bad part! Or “Tech Support Express” and we will be happy to replace them or it, please note that you are posting from the forum! Please contact our customer service at 888-222-4346 and dial "0", (510) 657-8747 or email rmaservice@corsairmemory.com for possible options regarding your RMA. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corsair Employees RAM GUY Posted October 17, 2007 Corsair Employees Share Posted October 17, 2007 Let's get them or it replaced. Please follow the link in my signature “I think I have a bad part! Or “Tech Support Express” and we will be happy to replace them or it, please note that you are posting from the forum! Please contact our customer service at 888-222-4346 and dial "0", (510) 657-8747 or email rmaservice@corsairmemory.com for possible options regarding your RMA. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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