Memtest86+ errors where to go next?

[SleazyC]

Hey all, first time poster here that just put together an i7 build three days ago and am in the midst of stability testing at stock settings before tackling some overclocking.

I have run into a bit of a problem when testing RAM (always seems to be RAM for me) and was wondering if I could get some opinions on where to go next. Motherboard is Gigabyte EX58 UD5 using F9M bios with a i7 920 c0 at stock speeds and 6GB of Corsair Dominator 1600mhz DD3 RAM (TR3X6G1600C8D).

My initial testing was done using Prime95's blend test with all settings at stock, my memory was running at 1066mhz and I was able to get through a night of testing (9 or so hours) without any problems. I went into the bios and enable XMP which bumped my RAM up to 1600mhz and booted up a copy of Memtest86+ 4.00. Leaving this running over night I woke to find a slew of errors. I dropped the RAM back down to 1066mhz and ran one of the tests that caused a lot of errors (#7) which caused the same set of errors to crop up.

At 1066mhz at the desktop or playing games (Fallout 3, Torchlight, World of Warcraft, Left 4 Dead 2) I experienced no stability problems. At 1600mhz I played some World of Warcraft last night and experienced no stability issues. The time played was on the scale of only a couple hours so I would be hesitant to say that my system feels stable. So now I am wondering if I should bother playing around with voltages and manual timings or going ahead and testing one stick at a time to see if I can isolate the problematic memory.

[wazza300]

Re: Memtest86+ errors where to go next?

disable xmp as its not as reliable as setting the ram yourself,all you have to do is select quick timings and enter your rams spec timings,then select mem multiplier and up it to 1600mhz,then set dram voltage to your rams spec usually 1.64-1.66 in the bios,also i would manually set cpu voltage to normal setting as auto will always overvolt and set qpi voltage to 1.30000....then test with memtest

[SleazyC]

Re: Memtest86+ errors where to go next?

Went into the bios and set timings as 8-8-8-24 2T. Set DRAM voltage at 1.64 and CPU voltage at Normal, QPI voltage at 1.31.

Fired up test #7 in memtest86+ and I had errors within 8 minutes.

Bumped up the DRAM voltage to 1.65 and the test made it to 18 minutes and failed. Should I bother with bumping up the QPI or touch anything else or would it be a better idea to start testing each stick by itself?

[wazza300]

Re: Memtest86+ errors where to go next?

with a c0 chip you might need more qpi try with 1.350000 your safe to go upto 1.50000 no higher tho,you might need anything from 1.30000-1.400000 just keep testing and raise a few clicks and test untill theres no errors,also you should be able to set ram command rate to 1t not 2t

[Chike]

Re: Memtest86+ errors where to go next?

What address you get the errors? Is it always the same?
Try each stick individually, maybe one of them is faulty.

[SleazyC]

Re: Memtest86+ errors where to go next?

What address you get the errors? Is it always the same?
Try each stick individually, maybe one of them is faulty.

Always the same address (2 of them) and the same Error Bit if that makes any difference. I plan to test individual sticks if I get the error after bumping my QPI voltage all the way up to 1.4 in increments.

[wazza300]

Re: Memtest86+ errors where to go next?

try with memtest 4 aswell as it might be software related,just to see if you get the same errors with memtest4

[SleazyC]

Re: Memtest86+ errors where to go next?

With DRAM voltage at 1.66 and QPI voltage at ~ 1.33 I just completed one pass of test #7 that was generating errors before. I am crossing my fingers and hope that this QPI voltage will do it for me but want to let it run through a couple more passes before I feel good about it.

I should be ok with 1.66V DRAM correct? I thought I read that Intel recommends not going over 1.65V.

[wazza300]

Re: Memtest86+ errors where to go next?

With DRAM voltage at 1.66 and QPI voltage at ~ 1.33 I just completed one pass of test #7 that was generating errors before. I am crossing my fingers and hope that this QPI voltage will do it for me but want to let it run through a couple more passes before I feel good about it.

I should be ok with 1.66V DRAM correct? I thought I read that Intel recommends not going over 1.65V.

yes if you look in easytune it only uses 1.64 but im set at 1.66 in the bios so its safe to use,there isnt an option for 1.65 in bios anyway,and yeah being a c0 chip youll need slightly more qpi than a d0 no big deal...hope it works for you

[SleazyC]

Re: Memtest86+ errors where to go next?

With my QPI at 1.335V and my DRAM at 1.64V I was able to complete 5 passes of the memtest86+ test that was generating errors fine. I boot into Windows and now I get random restarts. Any ideas as to what could be causing this? I looked at my temperatures and I was idling at 34C - 35C so it doesn't seem to be heat causing it.

[wazza300]

Re: Memtest86+ errors where to go next?

try with cpu voltage on auto

[SleazyC]

Re: Memtest86+ errors where to go next?

Set on auto, booted into Windows and it seems as I open up a web browser (Google Chrome) the computer automatically restarts.

[wazza300]

Re: Memtest86+ errors where to go next?

the only other thing to try is set system performance enhance to standard as this might cause it to restart,you shouldnt be having any problems at stock clocks i dont know why its restarting

[SleazyC]

Re: Memtest86+ errors where to go next?

Setting Performance to Standard seems to do it. Although I am not 100% sure because every reset I would pretty much do the following things

1.) Start CPU-Z
2.) Start RealTemp
3.) Start Chrome

As soon as I started Chrome the computer would restart. After setting Performance to Standard I did all of the above except I skipped the RealTemp step and I haven't restarted yet. Setting System Performance to Standard means that if I want to overclock I'll probably have to bump up the voltage more no? Oh well, never figured that getting RAM to run at stock speeds would be such a problem. I can only imaging how "fun" overclocking is going to be.

EDIT - And..... I spoke to soon. Computer restarted again. I'm not sure what it is, I have a feeling that the QPI voltage is causing the problem. I loaded Optimized Defaults and have my RAM sitting at 1066MHz now and everything looks to be stable. At this point I'm beginning to think that something is wrong with my RAM.

[wazza300]

Re: Memtest86+ errors where to go next?

Setting Performance to Standard seems to do it. Although I am not 100% sure because every reset I would pretty much do the following things

1.) Start CPU-Z
2.) Start RealTemp
3.) Start Chrome

As soon as I started Chrome the computer would restart. After setting Performance to Standard I did all of the above except I skipped the RealTemp step and I haven't restarted yet. Setting System Performance to Standard means that if I want to overclock I'll probably have to bump up the voltage more no? Oh well, never figured that getting RAM to run at stock speeds would be such a problem. I can only imaging how "fun" overclocking is going to be.

EDIT - And..... I spoke to soon. Computer restarted again. I'm not sure what it is, I have a feeling that the QPI voltage is causing the problem. I loaded Optimized Defaults and have my RAM sitting at 1066MHz now and everything looks to be stable. At this point I'm beginning to think that something is wrong with my RAM.

you could have a faulty stick because you shouldnt need to raise qpi to run your ram at 1600mhz with stock clocks only when you overclock the cpu,theres a lifetime warranty with the ram its worth considering an rma?? its up to you