Bluescreens on 64 bit, crashes on 32 bit / memory?

[Stern]

Hi all,

have following setup:

Motherboard: MSI X58 Pro-E (stock settings)
CPU: i7 930 / 2.8 GHz (stock speeds / cooler)
RAM: Corsair XMS3 - Memory - 6 GB : 3 x 2 GB - DIMM 240-pin - DDR3 - 1333 MHz / PC3-10600 - CL9 - 1.5

Windows: 7 32-bit and 7 64-bit (on 2 separate HDDs).

On Windows 7 64-bit it uses the 6 GB of RAM but Blue Screens.
On Windows 7 32-bit it doesn't blue screen but runs slowly and various games crash

I've run Memtest in following configurations (A,B,C refer to the 3 sticks of 2 GB each)

A B C = Error
A B = Clean
A C = Clean first run (6 passes), but on a second try later it showed Error straight away.
B C = Error
C = Clean

So I would guess this points at stick C being dodgy, but on it's own it shows no issues.

The CPU runs at about 65 idle which I know is high (getting a new cooler this week) but not dangerous.

My question:

With my combination of motherboard / CPU / RAM - should I be setting specific settings in the BIOS to allow it to run smoother? I had similar issues on my other PC where I had to up the DRAM voltage and change some other settings - but someone else on these forums advised me what to set and I have no clue when it comes to these things.

Any help is much appreciated - I know it looks like pretty much a simple RAM issues but I really don't have a lot to spare right now if just a configuration change would help.

 

[Ketchup]

Are all the RAM sticks running 1333? What you describe is almost what I would expect to see when there is one stick trying to run at the speed set by a higher-rated stick. Run by itself, it would run it's default speed.

I would try downclocking the RAM a bit and see what happens. With more than two sticks, a little extra voltage wouldn't hurt either.

 

[Stern]

They are all identical - CMX6GX3M3A1333C9 / 1333Mhz 6GB (3x2GB) 9-9-9-24 1.50V ver2.3 is written on all of them.

I'm getting errors with just 2 sticks too, not only 3 - would that also be the voltage?

I'm not sure how to see or change the DRAM voltage on this motherboard. The option in the BIOS is greyed out and set to [Auto].

In the BIOS they all show as 1333 9-9-9-24. If you need screenshots I can post, just not really very familiar with these sort of settings.

 

[Ketchup]

Gotcha. Your timings appear to be set to stock. A voltage change would require turning off auto. 1.5 is probably auto. Bumping them up to 1.6 won't hurt anything.

 

[Stern]

My overclocking settings are like below:

I can set the general voltage higher but not sure if I should also set the individual voltages higher?

 

[Ketchup]

I have never messed with those individual settings personally. If it's not stable with a little bump in the DDR setting, it is probably time for some new RAM, at least on stick C.

 

[Stern]

Ok I tried fiddling with the voltage settings but I still get errors on 1.6V (found out how to change it in the bios and not on the desktop app).

I did notice something strange on memtest - it is showing the wrong clock and timings:

The real clock and timings should be:

1333 MHz 9-9-9-24.

I double-checked the bios and the desktop app and they both show the correct settings, but memtest shows the wrong ones. Is this just a memtest bug or could it show an issue with the motherboard?

Thanks for all your help so far!

 

[Ketchup]

Hmm, stange. As a test, run CPU-Z and see what it says your timings in Windows are.

 

[denis280]

Hmm, stange. As a test, run CPU-Z and see what it says your timings in Windows are.

I agree with Michael.so far it's showing running 1066.

 

[Stern]

CPU-Z (booting on 32-bit Win7, 4GB available) shows:

So Memtest and CPU-Z both show 8-8-8-19, but the BIOS shows 9-9-9-24.

Wha?? Is this a faulty motherboard/BIOS?


Chipset
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Northbridge Intel X58 rev. 13
Southbridge Intel 82801JR (ICH10R) rev. 00
Graphic Interface PCI-Express
PCI-E Link Width x16
PCI-E Max Link Width x16
Memory Type DDR3
Memory Size 4 GBytes
Channels Dual
Memory Frequency 534.4 MHz (2:8)
CAS# latency (CL) 8.0
RAS# to CAS# delay (tRCD) 8
RAS# Precharge (tRP) 8
Cycle Time (tRAS) 19
Row Refresh Cycle Time (tRFC) 59
Command Rate (CR) 1T
Uncore Frequency 2138.6 MHz

Memory SPD
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

DIMM # 1
SMBus address 0x50
Memory type DDR3
Module format UDIMM
Manufacturer (ID) Corsair (7F7F9E0000000000)
Size 2048 MBytes
Max bandwidth PC3-10700H (667 MHz)
Part number CMX6GX3M3A1333C9
Number of banks 8
Nominal Voltage 1.50 Volts
EPP no
XMP no
AMP no
JEDEC timings table CL-tRCD-tRP-tRAS-tRC @ frequency
JEDEC #1 6.0-6-6-16-23 @ 444 MHz
JEDEC #2 7.0-7-7-19-27 @ 518 MHz
JEDEC #3 8.0-8-8-22-30 @ 592 MHz
JEDEC #4 9.0-9-9-24-34 @ 666 MHz

DIMM # 2
SMBus address 0x52
Memory type DDR3
Module format UDIMM
Manufacturer (ID) Corsair (7F7F9E0000000000)
Size 2048 MBytes
Max bandwidth PC3-10700H (667 MHz)
Part number CMX6GX3M3A1333C9
Number of banks 8
Nominal Voltage 1.50 Volts
EPP no
XMP no
AMP no
JEDEC timings table CL-tRCD-tRP-tRAS-tRC @ frequency
JEDEC #1 6.0-6-6-16-23 @ 444 MHz
JEDEC #2 7.0-7-7-19-27 @ 518 MHz
JEDEC #3 8.0-8-8-22-30 @ 592 MHz
JEDEC #4 9.0-9-9-24-34 @ 666 MHz

Edit: added screenie from the BIOS showing 9-9-9-24...

 

[denis280]

Command Rate (CR) 1T change it to 2t

 

[Stern]

I've changed it to 2T in the BIOS. CPU-Z reflects this, but still shows 8-8-8-19 timings.

Just want to say thanks for all the help so far! Any further ideas are very welcome - I have no idea why this is happening, I've never messed with the settings before nor OC'd this CPU/MoBo/Memory.

 

[Steltek]

How old is your motherboard? I wonder if your CMOS battery may be dying, causing the motherboard to loose BIOS settings.

 

[Stern]

It's about 2 - 2.5 years old.

If I set the timings in RAM manually to 9-9-9-24 it shows correctly in Memtest and CPU-Z, but haven't had time to let Memtest chew on it a bit for errors.

Reinstalled Windows and that is still blue screening though.

 

[Stern]

Would anyone else have an idea of what the cause could be?

Short summary:

On Win7 32-bit it runs "sluggishly" and games regularly crash (like once every 3 hours or so)
On Win7 64-bit it runs better but blue screens

Memory: CMX6GX3M3A1333C9 / 1333Mhz 6GB (3x2GB) 9-9-9-24 1.50V ver2.3

On stock settings motherboard shows 9-9-9-24 (667Mhz)
On Memtest 86+ and CPU-Z it shows 8-8-8-19 (534.4Mhz)

Memtest 86+ has shown:

A B C = Error
A B = Clean
A C = Clean first run (6 passes), but on a second try later it showed Error straight away.
B C = Error
C = Clean

But sometimes I run all 3 (in same config) without error overnight. So it doesn't seem to be consistant.

If I set my BIOS settings to 9-9-9-24 manually it shows correctly in Memtest 86+ and CPU-Z but PC still blue screens.

Is there some other test I can run or hardware I can try changing?