GA-P55A-UD3 Cold Boot Memory Problems

[marnold]

I've managed to narrow down the problems I've been having with my new box. When it's booted cold, I'll have all kinds of programs segfault (I use Linux). Sometimes it's Firefox. Sometimes it's X itself. One time I even had a kernel panic. Once the system is warmed up, it becomes stable and works well. I've got an i5-750 with two sticks of 2GB Corsair value RAM. I've updated the BIOS to F5.

I tried boosting the QPI voltage to 1.25 and disabling the extra CPU stuff, but that didn't help. Here's what I did. Last night after a cold boot I ran Memtest86+ 4.00. After two passes, I got ~9 errors in the upper part of memory. I removed the stick from slot 3 and ran Memtest. Two passes, zero errors. So I put the other stick in slot 0. Two passes, zero errors. So I put there other stick back in (that meant that they were in the opposite slot they started out in). Two passes, zero errors. Figuring it might have warmed up enough to be stable, I powered down.

This morning I ran Memtest first thing with the memory in the same configuration that had given no errors. This morning, it's throwing a ton of errors, once again in the upper part of memory. Same general addresses. I'm on my fifth pass and it's gotten over 180 errors, most of them on test #7, but also a couple on test #5.

If anyone can make heads or tails of this, I'd appreciate it. I bought the system from CyberpowerPC and am awaiting a return call from a tech.

[warren300]

Re: GA-P55A-UD3 Cold Boot Memory Problems

i would rma for a different brand or batch if its giving errors,it should work from cold or hot

[marnold]

Re: GA-P55A-UD3 Cold Boot Memory Problems

Do you know how the chipset/bios assigns memory addresses? The reason I ask is because if it gives the first 2Gb of addresses to the DIMM in slot 0 and the next 2Gb to the DIMM in slot 3, it wouldn't seem to be a memory problem since I swapped slots. However, if it assigns the addresses across the two slots then that's definitely a possibility. I'm not sure how the dual channel stuff works. The box is warm now and running well. I should run Memtest again and see if it throws the errors.

[marnold]

Re: GA-P55A-UD3 Cold Boot Memory Problems

Well, Memtest went through two passes without any errors. I know two passes aren't many, but when it's throwing errors, it's throwing them every last time. While I was doing this, the guy from Cyberpower called back. He thought it was a motherboard problem. Now I just have to decide if I want to send back the mobo and the video card for RMA and install it all myself or send back the whole box to have them do it themselves.

[marnold]

Re: GA-P55A-UD3 Cold Boot Memory Problems

Just an update, I ended up getting some Kingston memory (KVR1333D3N9K2) that was recommended here in another thread by someone who had had similar problems. I've tried cold booting twice and it has worked fine each time. I'm going to try it once more tomorrow morning. If it passes, the original memory will be RMA'd. I'm kind of happy about it because it's much easier to swap out memory than the motherboard.

[warren300]

Re: GA-P55A-UD3 Cold Boot Memory Problems

it looks promising now

[marnold]

Re: GA-P55A-UD3 Cold Boot Memory Problems

FWIW, I RMA'd the memory and they sent back some V-Color TD2G16C9-Z8. I can't say that I'd ever heard of them before. Nevertheless, this memory passes all Memtests and seems to be working just fine. Unlike the original Corsair memory and the Kingston stuff I got, this memory has heat spreaders on it. Not sure how big a deal that is because I'm not overclocking. I'm just happy it works.

[Lsdmeasap]

Re: GA-P55A-UD3 Cold Boot Memory Problems

Nice to see you have it working now either way!

Heat spreaders help when overclocking, to keep temps at a minimal, but memory doesn't get all to hot anyway unless you really push the volts into it. I bet you may be able to overclock this kit a little since it has a heat spreader, you'll have to try it out when you have time.

Enjoy your system, and post back anytime!