GA-G33M-DS2R Crashes / Fails Memory Test - But....

[gerhardub]

I've got a GA-G22M-DS2R that had been running fine until last week.

I replaced the RAM with Crucial Balistix PC8500 RAM, just to see if it made a difference.

(It didn't, the OCZ stuff I have is the same...)

Anyway, the machine, not overclocked(!), started crashing... freezing.

I ran MemTest86+ v3.4 and noticed a ton of memory errors.

After swapping the RAM I decided that I probably had a motherboard problem. (...that the memory controller was bad.)

I ordered a replacement motherboard and put it in... AND THE COMPUTER FAILS EXACTLY THE SAME WAY! The memtest86 failure is precisely the same!!

At this point I've swapped out the RAM and the video cards with what should be good ones.

I've removed the add in cards (a single 3Ware RAID controller).

The only thing left is the E6850 CPU...

What could be causing this problem? What am I missing??

Any help would be appricated.

Gerhard

 

[BlueAcolyte]

You could try putting in another CPU. If everything works, it's probably your CPU.

 

[gerhardub]

Ok, so now I'm totally confused:

MemTest86+ fails, but Microsoft's "Windows Memory Diagnostic" seems to be working fine.

MSWMD, no, not Microsoft Weapons of Mass Destruction, seems to not be able to completely check the 4GB of memory... but it does seem to be checking at least 3GB.

Since the DIMMs are interleaved, the means it' basically checking everything.

Why am I getting a failure with MemTest86 and the G33 based system?!?!

This is really odd. Especially sicne other people have used MemTest86 without issues...

Thoughts?

Gerhard

 

[gerhardub]

Originally posted by: BlueAcolyte
You could try putting in another CPU. If everything works, it's probably your CPU.

That was my thought too... but it's so odd.

Are there any CPU checkers out there??

 

[VirtualLarry]

Use Memtest86+ version 1.7. Don't use the original Memtest.

 

[gerhardub]

That was indeed the issue:

You've got to use MemTest86+...

I ran that for a day on the system, and it appears that the Crucial Balistix PC8500 (or whatever the 1066MHz high end gamer RAM is) was bad.

I also ran Windows Memory Diag and the same thing happened.

So at the end of the day, it was a VERY difficult to trace RAM issue.

It only happen with 4 DIMMS.

If I did one bank, and then the other bank (2 dimms at a time) it wouldn't happen.

Humph.

 

[VirtualLarry]

You could try increasing the GMCH voltage a notch, if you have instability from having all 4 ram slots filled.

 

[Zap]

Are you running memory at rated voltage? Boards normally run at 1.8v while some enthusiast DDR2 needs as much as 2.2v.

 

[gerhardub]

Yeah, I was running at 2.2v, as that's what the board can do...