Blue Screens in Vista with 2 sticks of RAM

[Gothgar]

Hey guys, lets see what you think on this one.

Have an e8400 with a gigabyte dsl3 p35 MB, running Vista

Also using Corsair DDR2800 Twin 2 gig chips.

Few weeks back a chip goes bad, do warranty with it and get (presumably) new chip.

Put it in PC, it now boots and all 4 gigs are showing up, good times.

Then I start getting random blue screens, and random shut downs in gaming.

So I try taking out the new chip, everything works fine. Try moving around the slots in which the memory is installed on the board, same problem.

Try switching the chips (old one that has been working with the new one) and still the same problems, unless I take the second chip out.

So, it seems my PC only want to run smoothly with one stick of RAM in there. I checked my BIOS, everything as far as RAM is concerned is set to auto or default.

So, is something wrong with my board? Is it a heat issue?

It almost seems like a heat issue, so I was going to check my HSF tonight, maybe reapply some AS5, just cause that is an easy fix.

 

[Matan Eldan]

Run scan with MEMTEST to check your memory sticks / slots.

I also recommend for checking your Bios version.
Check out if there's any Bios update that could maybe be relevant to your problem.

 

[pcgeek11]

Check to make sure the RAM Voltage is set properly. You may need to do it manually.

 

[Gothgar]

well....

memtest freezes with both sticks in after a little while

I tried changing the voltages up to, to no avail...

bad stick?

 

[pcgeek11]

memtest freezes with both sticks in after a little while. bad stick?

If memtest is failing: Confidence is very high that the memory is defective.

 

[rivethead]

If memtest is failing: Confidence is very high that the memory is defective.

As long as everything is set correctly in the BIOS I would agree with that. But if not, not necessarily.

I would also run the Windows Diagnostic Tool as well.

With my DDR3 memory and BIOS settings on "auto", I was getting memtest errors. I went into the BIOS and manually set my memory settings to 9-9-9-24 1T (as per the recommended settings for my memory) and the memtest errors disappeared (ran for 4 hours).

However, I was still getting random blue screens/reboots. I used BlueScreenViewer and found out the cause of the random boots was still memory. I ran Windows Diagnostic Tool on Basic - no errors. I ran it again on Standard - hardware errors detected.

I removed the RAM and then reseated them. Now I get no errors in memtest or Windows Diagnostic Tool and no random blue screens (unless I overclock the CPU and underclock the memory....but that's another story).

Conclusion: Becareful of over-reacting to memtest errors. Use Windows Memory Diagnostic Tool as an additional check.