Memory Errors - What could the cause be?

[Deadalus]

Hi all, I hope you can help me get to the bottom of a problem I am having...

I'll start by giving a bit of history about my self-built system:

About 2 years ago, I started out with an ASUS A8N-SLI Premium, an Athlon FX-55 and 1GB (2x 512MB) of Crucial Ballistix DDR PC4000 RAM. When I first built the system, I ran Memtest throughly and everything was fine.

A year later I added another 1GB (2x 512MB) of the same RAM. This gave me a total of 2GB and meant that all 4 DIMM slots were used. I never bothered doing a memory test at the time as everything was working OK.

I have since sold the FX-55 and installed an X2 4600+


Now on to the present-day problem:

I recently installed Vista and had a couple of blue-screens, so I ran the Windows Memory Diagnostic. It reported that "Hardware errors were found", so I ran Memtest86+ and I had numerous failures!

I then proceeded to test each RAM stick individually. 2 passed the Windows Memory Diagnostic, 1 failed and 1 stick failed to boot at all.

Fine I thought - Crucial Ballistix has a lifetime warranty, so it's not a problem.

I then installed the 2 "good" sticks and ran another Windows Memory Diagnostic - to my surprise and horror it failed!! I then ran Memtest86+ to confirm, and it too had failures.

I have tried changing timings from Auto to Manual:

The RAM is rated at 2, 3, 3, 8 - so I tried it at that and also at 2.5, 4, 4, 10. The memory tests still failed. I have the voltage set to the recommended 2.8v.

Is it the memory that is faulty or could it be a problem with my motherboard?

Thanks for all your help and sorry for the long post!

 

[btcomm1]

It could be either one, might want to try another stick of ram and if it still gets errors then might just be your mobo.

 

[Deadalus]

Thanks.

I've RMAed 2 of the RAM sticks back to Crucial, since the postage was minimal and they won't charge me for testing them... it should tell me whether it is the RAM or the Mobo.

 

[Deadalus]

OK, so I got 2 replacement RAM sticks from Crucial (great customer service!!) and they are passing all the checks fine! So I will now return the other 2 for replacement.

So glad it wasn't my motherboard!

Thanks for the help.

 

[Ultralight]

Crucial was having serious problems with their Ballistix RAM from a couple of years ago, especially the PC 4000 and the PC3200 to a lessor extent. I am glad it worked out for you. I like Crucial and their RAM and they do right by their customers.