Is this RAM just junk or are we really unlucky?

[TemjinGold]

My bro and I each bought a 4gb kit of PDC24G6400ELK about a year ago. This is Patriot ram rated at PC6400 5-5-5-12 2.0 volts. We are both using Gigabyte motherboards (P35-DS3L for me, P35-DS3R for him.) The problem is, we haven't even tried OCing the ram: It would not run stable on rated settings at rated volts. We even tried dropping back to 667 and 5-5-5-18 with 2 volts and it's STILL not stable (crashed SP2004 in less than 5 mins.) The only way he had it stable on his was because his computer (Q6600) for some reason was running at 1.6Ghz and that ram was running at something like 300 mhz. At that ultra low speed, there were no problems. Did we just BOTH get bad ram (we both ordered , is Patriot total crap, or is there some other explanation I'm not seeing? We both got in on the Ballistix deal from Fry's a week ago so I'm debating whether it's worth it to RMA our patriot sticks and use them in another machine.


Edit: Whoops, had the wrong forum open. Meant to post in "Computer Help." Sorry! Mods, please move this.

Moved to Memory & Storage
Anandtech Moderator
Gillbot

 

[Zap]

Did you get your Ballistix yet? If the Ballistix works fine then either the Patriot is faulty or has an incompatibility with your motherboards. Have you tried the latest BIOS?

 

[eternalone]

I Read the reviews on New Egg and every one seems to be happy with them some people gave the average bad review but for the most part the rating is 5 and excellent maybe you got a bad pair, I will report on these because I bought a pair of these same ram modules but haven't had time to put them in yet , if I have any trouble with them I will report back to you with the news. But overall in the past I have had good luck with patriot. Try raising the voltage to 2.25V some guy suggest in his comments. Some memory modules just hate certain motherboards. Also to rule out the motherboard try them on another brand or model motherboard. I had the same issue with corsair and Gigabyte in the past wouldnt even boot.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Wierd. I have two 4GB kits of Patriot 5-5-5-12 2.0v ram in both of my OCed C2D rigs, running at DDR2-800 5-5-5-15 1.8v. Yes, I undervolted from spec, and they run just fine in my machines.

Edit: My mobos are both GA-P35-DS3R v1.0, running bios F9.

 

[TemjinGold]

Thanks for the replies. That's odd. Like I said, I can understand one bad pair but BOTH my bro and I bought the same ram and ended up with the same problems. Since VirtualLarry has the same board as us (we're rev 2.0 tho), that might rule out "ram hates mobo."

Zap: My bro got his Ballistix and it runs fine 4-4-4-12 @1.8v. He ran double SP2004 for ~12 hours with no problems. I believe we do have the latest bios as well, as Gigabyte hasn't put one out in a long time.

I just realized in my original post I didn't finish one of my phrases. Meant to say we both ordered from Newegg at the same time (maybe they got a bad batch?)

 

[Denithor]

Have you tested single sticks yet? Might be a case of one bad stick in each pair. If so, combine the two good sticks and RMA one kit.

 

[TemjinGold]

Unfortunately, I have. Both my sticks have the same problem when tried one at a time (though one seemed worse.)

 

[VirtualLarry]

If they fail at factory-suggested settings, then I would probably RMA them. Both sets.
I don't know why you are having the problems that you are, but it doesn't sound normal to me.

 

[Denithor]

Do you happen to have another computer you could test them in?

Either way, if they test defective in both computers at stock settings -- back they go!

 

[eternalone]

Just tested this ram and exact model on my computer and they run flawless I think you got a bad pair, in fact they run really well even better than my old pair. Go figure.

 

[Blain]

Always remember the Memtest86 disclaimer...

"<a target=_blank class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="http://www.memtest86.com/tech.html#trouble">Please be aware that not all errors reported by Memtest86 are due to bad memory.

The test implicitly tests the CPU, L1 and L2 caches as well as the motherboard. It is impossible for the test to determine what causes the failure to occur. However, most failures will be due to a problem with memory module.</a>

When it is not, the only option is to replace parts until the failure is corrected."

 

[TemjinGold]

Interesting... My bro and I think it's actually a bad mobo because he has a 2nd DS3L and his Patriot sticks work fine on it. Looks like it might be time to look for a new mobo...