alfa_man Posted January 26, 2013 Share Posted January 26, 2013 Hi there, I purchased a pair of 2X4GB DDR2 8500 in July 2010 from a company called Scan in the UK. However, ever since I have randomly got strange goings on with blue screens of death relating to IRQ errors, bad pool headers etc. Originally it started out only on the odd occasion but it got a little more regular. They are running in pair with an EXACT set of Corsair 8500's but in 2x1GB config but as the board (an Asus P5Q) supports dual channel at different capacities, this should never be an issue. I did a bit of testing with my machine as I was starting to get sick of bizarre goings on (it wasn't just BSD's, it was also explorer crashing etc etc despite a fresh install of Windows). I removed the original modules (the 2x1GB's) and the problems still happened. So I swapped the 2X4GB's into the slots that the 2x1GB's were in to isolate a board issue and the same issues happened. I therefore removed the 2x2GB's and put the 2X1GB's back in ON THEIR OWN and the system has been working fine now for 2 months. I therefore strongly suspect there is some strange memory issue with the 2X4GB's although obviously they work to a degree as the machine detects them and runs OK but it doesn't run very stable! I hear they have a 5 year warranty - can anyone confirm this please and if so how do I go about returning them? Thanks in advance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators Technobeard Posted January 27, 2013 Administrators Share Posted January 27, 2013 Hi alfa, they have a lifetime warranty through us. We can't recommend mixing memory as it's not tested or guaranteed. To be safe I'd recommend testing one stick at a time in the same slot using Memtest86+ v4.20 (free at memtest.org). Please fill out an RMA request: http://www.corsair.com/helpdesk/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alfa_man Posted January 29, 2013 Author Share Posted January 29, 2013 Thanks Technobeard. I thought mixing memory of the same make and model was fine? I thought its when you go about mixing memory of different speed and makes does it all go a bit scew wiff?! I will run the test as you say and if needs be create an RMA. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peanutz94 Posted February 1, 2013 Share Posted February 1, 2013 Thanks Technobeard. I thought mixing memory of the same make and model was fine? I thought its when you go about mixing memory of different speed and makes does it all go a bit scew wiff?! I will run the test as you say and if needs be create an RMA. No, there is no way to tell if any two random kits will work together or not(even if they are the same exact part number) This is why Corsair takes the time to test and package memory into matched sets. It's a practice that started a long time ago when it really didn't mater much , but when they moved the memory controller from the MB to the CPU the need for matched memory became increasingly important. Not only that despite the same exact part numbers the modules themselves could be made from completely different IC's. So this is also another reason why using two sets could cause issues. Since this is a practice that is industry wide it would be the same with all memory manufacturers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alfa_man Posted February 17, 2013 Author Share Posted February 17, 2013 Wow OK thanks for the explanation! I've worked in IT for years and bizarrely I've never come across this but now I have learnt something useful! What I would say though is both sets were purchased as pairs. Does what you have said to me still apply if you buy two seperate pairs running in two seperate banks because I understood the Chipsets fed memory instructions to the banks independantly, i.e you could have a matched pair in channel 1 (or A) and another matched pair in channel 2 (or B). On a seperate note, I have just run the test and on one of the pairs of 2x2gb's (that I suspected was faulty) is actually faulty - its riddled with faults. The other one is fine though. I will arrange a return with the link you have sent me but given what you have just told me, do I have to send them back as a pair of just send the faulty one back? If I get a replacement surely I will need the pair tested together? Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corsair Employee RAM GUY Posted February 19, 2013 Corsair Employee Share Posted February 19, 2013 Yes the only way we can guarantee to sets will work together is is to test them as one set. And the reason we have 4 and 6 module sets. It is not that you cannot mix two set just there is no way to be sure they will work together and I would suspect that 50% of the time it may be no problem especially on lower frequency parts bellow DDR800 but as the frequency raises the margin is less and less chance to mix memory. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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