kalenz Posted January 10, 2008 Share Posted January 10, 2008 Hello, I am facing a challenge with 2 2gb TWIN2X2048-8500C5 kits on a new computer I am building. They were both ordered and arrived at the same time in the same shipment, but one kit is labeled "ver1.2" and the other "ver1.3". I mention the versions because I don't know if that info is important to my question or not. I am doing no overclocking and the motherboard is properly identifying and setting up the memory as 1066, 5-5-5-15, and 2.2v via the auto settings and the SPD. The machine will POST fine and seems to run, but it fails memtest86 1.7 every time with all 4gb installed (400-500 errors per pass). Either pair will post and pass memtest through 6-8 passes when installed alone, in either memory channel, but fail memtest when all four are installed. Since each pair seems to work alone, I have not bothered to try each stick singly. I have also tried these tests with exactly the same results in another box (same model of motherboard). Do you have any ideas why this might be happening and how I might go about fixing it? My Configuration: Gigabyte GA-X38-DQ6 Motherboard (latest bios) EVGA 8600GTS 512 Video Card PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750 Power Supply Thank you in advance for any help, Kalen Z. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corsair Employees RAM GUY Posted January 11, 2008 Corsair Employees Share Posted January 11, 2008 With 4 modules on that MB you may have to set the memory frequency at DDR677 or DDR800 depending on the CPU speed. Have you tested the modules one at a time with http://www.memtest.org? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kalenz Posted January 11, 2008 Author Share Posted January 11, 2008 Thank you for your response. I tested them with memtest in pairs and they tested with no errors, but I have not tested the sticks individually. I would be happy to do so tonight and let you know the results. I have not tried all four with the memory frequency set to DDR800 though. I will also try that tonight. Thanks again for the help, I will let you know how it turns out tomorrow, Kalen Z. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corsair Employees RAM GUY Posted January 11, 2008 Corsair Employees Share Posted January 11, 2008 If they pass one set at a time they are fine. And you can try and set the NB/MCH Voltage to +.05 Volts and see if that helps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kalenz Posted January 11, 2008 Author Share Posted January 11, 2008 Alright. I set the memory speed down to 800mhz. The motherboard wanted to lower the memory voltage also, but I manually set the memory voltage back up to +0.35v (for a total of 2.16v as measured by the motherboard). I still have everything else set to auto the spd set the memory timings to 5-5-5-18. I didn't adjust the NB voltage from normal. With these settings and the entire 4 sticks installed (4gb total), everything now passes memtest through 4-6 entire passes :biggrin: (at which point I shut down). So, THANK YOU for your help!! This does raise three questions for me though, if you have time to answer: 1: Is the memory voltage set ok at 2.16v (+0.35v), or should I go to (+0.40v) which would probably run it at 2.21v? Or should I lower it some and see if it still runs fine? 2: Since memtest is now showing all is ok, do you still think I should turn up the NB voltage for any reason? .............and lastly (the $10,000 question) 3: Am I better off in terms of general system speed running the system with 2gb RAM at 1066mhz than I am running 4gb at 800mhz. (I will be running Win XP Pro on this system and I am aware that I am actually only able to utilize approx 3gb under windows xp 32)? I will be using this workstation to process audio and video files inside video editing software, if that makes any difference. Thank you again for all of your help! Kalen Z. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corsair Employees RAM GUY Posted January 11, 2008 Corsair Employees Share Posted January 11, 2008 1: Is the memory voltage set ok at 2.16v (+0.35v), or should I go to (+0.40v) which would probably run it at 2.21v? Or should I lower it some and see if it still runs fine? 2: Since memtest is now showing all is ok, do you still think I should turn up the NB voltage for any reason? .............and lastly (the $10,000 question) 3: Am I better off in terms of general system speed running the system with 2gb RAM at 1066mhz than I am running 4gb at 800mhz. (I will be running Win XP Pro on this system and I am aware that I am actually only able to utilize approx 3gb under windows xp 32)? I will be using this workstation to process audio and video files inside video editing software, if that makes any difference. 1. Memory voltage is fine at 2.16v. 2. No reason to adjust NB voltage if the system is stable at 800MHz, however if you were to try to get the system running at 1066MHz with four modules then tweaking the NB voltage might help, however this is technically overclocking the motherboard and must be done at your own will. 3. It all depends on how much memory the system is utilizing. If you are multitasking or using large audio video files, then you may very well be using more than 2GB of memory and having the 4GB would probably benefit you. However most users will rarely be doing anything that would use more than 2GB. The next time you are stressing the system by running a lot of memory intensive software, hit CTRL+ALT+DEL and see how much memory is actually being used! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kalenz Posted January 11, 2008 Author Share Posted January 11, 2008 Thank you very much! You have been a huge help! Kalen Z. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corsair Employees RAM GUY Posted January 11, 2008 Corsair Employees Share Posted January 11, 2008 No problem, let us know if you have anymore questions! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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