Is this a sign of bad memory?

[smirk]

Hi guys,

I just upgraded my home server from 2 GB to 8 GB of RAM. The mobo only has two slots so the old sticks were replaced by the new ones. Anyway, I installed the RAM, booted up into Memtest86+, and within 1 second, several characters on the screen went black and Memtest froze. By "went black" I mean that some characters suddenly became black squares (the space character, I guess).

When I booted with only one stick inserted to isolate the problem, the computer locked up before I could enter the BIOS. It didn't matter which stick was in which slot, I couldn't get into the BIOS unless both sticks were present.

I've never seen behavior like this. Could this be a sign of really faulty memory, or could some BIOS memory settings be out of whack? This is a server, so it's never been overclocked; most memory-related settings are at "Auto". Oh, and the RAM voltage is set to 1.5v, which is what this memory wants.

Could really use some advice before RMA'ing the memory and all that. The motherboard is a Gigabyte GA-H55M-S2H, rev. 1.0 (http://www.gigabyte.us/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3310) and the memory is Patriot Viper 2x4GB kit, PV38G160C9K (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820220685).

Thank you!

 

[Cerb]

With the old memory installed, force the speed to 1066, for testing purposes.

If it works at the slower speed, it may just need to be run at a lower speed, like 1333, instead of its rated 1600, in your system.

Yes, it could be bad RAM. Most RAM is not packaged in a way that protects it too well, and may get ESD or physical damage in transit. It could also be incompatible RAM, but without someone else using the same RAM in the same mobo with the same results, that would be hard to say (it is also less likely than just bad RAM, since that mobo has several 4GB sticks listed, and the 1156 CPUs can generally handle any 4GB sticks).

 

[mikeymikec]

Have you tested both new memory modules? Is the new memory listed as being compatible with the board? Have you tested the board with the old memory modules again?

 

[smirk]

With the old memory installed, force the speed to 1066, for testing purposes.

That's a great idea -- I'll try that tonight. Incidentally, let's say that it does work at 1333 -- does that mean the RAM isn't performing as sold (and I should replace it) or could it just be an incompatibility between motherboard and memory, with no one at fault?

Have you tested both new memory modules? Is the new memory listed as being compatible with the board? Have you tested the board with the old memory modules again?

I tested both memory modules independently and together, nothing works. The original memory still works great! The new memory is not listed as being compatible with the board, but you know how incomplete those lists are.

Basically, shouldn't any memory of the right type work with any motherboard, at least at standard speeds? I mean, the server doesn't need crazy-tight timings, but I would expect that whatever stock values come up in the BIOS would work.

Thanks!

 

[Elixer]

If the BIOS reads the SPD info on each DIMM, then it is possible it don't support that well enough, and you must enter the correct values manually.
That means, it depends on if the BIOS has the feature of setting up the memory timing info manually.

So, no, not any memory will work correctly for all motherboards.
I would call Patriot, and ask them for correct timings for your mobo, they are pretty good about that (at least were, haven't used them in a long time)

 

[mikeymikec]

Basically, shouldn't any memory of the right type work with any motherboard, at least at standard speeds? I mean, the server doesn't need crazy-tight timings, but I would expect that whatever stock values come up in the BIOS would work.

In theory, but through my work I've decided that it's better to buy memory that is listed as working with the board in question (I normally stick with Kingston or Crucial as I've had far higher rates of success with them than other brands - some people say Samsung is as good as, though I rarely see Samsung memory in the UK for some reason when looking in the usual price brackets).

 

[coffeejunkee]

Either the memory is faulty or it's trying to run at 1600Mhz by default, which most Lynnfield/Clarkdale cpu's don't natively support.

 

[bryanl]

Basically, shouldn't any memory of the right type work with any motherboard, at least at standard speeds?

The catch is, most memory isn't the right type, and its standard speeds are XMP or otherwise 'optimistic.' Samsung memory is still available and approximately the same price as that Patriot, and Crucial 1.5V is another quality alternative.

 

[smirk]

I just wanted to thank everyone for their info and advice. My RAM issues are still ongoing.

I talked to a Patriot Support rep, and after a lot of emails back and forth he decided that the RAM was bad, so I returned it and got some Crucial Ballistix. Running at the stock 1333 speed at auto timings and also 9-9-9-24 timings, I'm getting random blue-screens with this memory installed. What's interesting is that Memtest ran overnight with no errors, and Prime95 ran all day with no errors.

This could be unrelated, but I did find some forum posts about Gigabyte's EasyTune utility causing blue-screens; I use EasyTune not for overclocking but merely for fan control. The computer did blue-screen when I launched EasyTune and went to the Memory tab, and it also blue-screened when I ran CPU-Z and brought up the memory tab. (It also blue-screened when just sitting at the Windows desktop, so who knows if it's coincidence?) I uninstalled EasyTune and also manually deleted the gdrv.sys driver that it appears to install in the Windows directory. When I deleted that file, Windows blue-screened a split second after I hit enter on the delete. Strange.

Anyway, a Crucial rep verified that this RAM should work, so tonight I will try one stick at a time and we'll see what happens. Maybe I just got bad luck twice in a row.

Thanks again for everyone's help. I learned a lot about memory and timings as a result of all this.

 

[bryanl]

I talked to a Patriot Support rep, and after a lot of emails back and forth he decided that the RAM was bad, so I returned it and got some Crucial Ballistix. Running at the stock 1333 speed at auto timings and also 9-9-9-24 timings, I'm getting random blue-screens with this memory installed. What's interesting is that Memtest ran overnight with no errors, and Prime95 ran all day with no errors.

Ballistix Crucial is the only Crucial to have ever given me trouble. Apparently Samsung is still available and would be the safest choice.

 

[mikeymikec]

Ballistix Crucial is the only Crucial to have ever given me trouble.

Admittedly, ditto Odd, I would have thought that the Ballistix modules would be better quality stuff. I tend to use standard Crucial memory or Kingston ValueRAM. I normally check with Crucial's "pick your board" system as well if I'm not already 100% sure of what I need, as well as the board manufacturer's information.

 

[smirk]

Thank you.

Hey, the Crucial Support guy is telling me that a setting needs to change on my motherboard when changing chip-counts with my RAM. I'm going from single rank sticks to double rank (chips on both sides) sticks. However, he won't tell me what the setting is for liability reasons, and wants me to contact Gigabyte. Gigabyte is super slow at responding.

I don't suppose anyone knows what he's referring to. I mean, the voltage looks right, the speed is fine, the timings are stock 9-9-9-24 timings... what other setting could there be?

 

[Cerb]

Is there a command rate setting? Generally 1T or 2T. If so, and set to 1, try 2.

You may need to hit CTRL+F1, just after getting into the BIOS, to see such options (do it before going to the tweaking section).

 

[smirk]

Is there a command rate setting? Generally 1T or 2T. If so, and set to 1, try 2.

You know, the memory is rated at 2T, but I see now that it's setting itself to 1T. I manually adjusted it, but it still doesn't work. I'm thinking there's something wrong with the motherboard -- I've tried four different manufacturers' RAM in there now (including one on the "this will work for sure with this board" list) and nothing works. The computer blue-screens within 5-10 minutes.

I also tried manually setting the timings and even boosting the voltage a little, but no dice. It's just so strange that it's stable with 2x1GB but fails so easily with 2x4GB. I think I am going to have to scrap it and rebuild the system with a new motherboard if I want to go higher than 2 GB of memory.

Thanks again for everyone's help and input.

 

[smirk]

Hey, it's been a while but I wanted to comment on the crazy RAM issue I was having. It turns out that the RAM was fine (probably all were fine except the sticks that prevented the computer from posting). The problem was with my OS! Something must have gotten corrupt in it, I'm not really sure at this point. All I know is that other OSes are running fine on the same hardware, it's only my original OS that kept bluescreening with more than 2 GB of memory installed. I've since loaded Ubuntu, Windows 7, and then ESXi + Windows Home Server, and everything has ran flawlessly.

So thanks for all the ideas, but it looks like fortunately it wasn't a hardware problem at all.