Need help diagnosing 'two sticks of RAM BSOD' issue

[dannybeckett]

Hi guys.

My new PC:

Rig:
i7 2600K
ASUS P8Z68-V
2x4GB Corsair Vengeance 1866 MHz (Well, not quite...)
GTX 560Ti
Creative Audigy 2 ZS
Win7 64 bit

Cooling:
EK-Supreme HF
MCP655 Pump
Phobya Balancer 150 Silver Nickel Reservoir
Custom 2x120mm Radiator + Shroud
mCubed BigNG Fan Controller


The rig gear is completely new and everything works OK, apart from the RAM.

I cannot install two sticks of 4GB RAM without the computer crashing as soon as the logon screen appears, after the windows logo with the black background. I set my computer to load only the essential drivers and software (diagnostics mode in msconfig) and test my RAM as much as I could. I used memtest to test the RAM

I numbered each stick, 1 and 2. My findings are as follows:

Slot 1 with Stick 1, boots OK memtest passes 100%
Slot 3 with Stick 2, boots OK and memtest passes 100%

Slot 1 with Stick 1 and Slot 3 with Stick 2, BSOD at login screen
Slot 1 with Stick 2 and Slot 3 with Stick 1, BSOD at login screen
Slot 2 with Stick 1 and Slot 4 with Stick 2, BSOD at login screen
Slot 2 with Stick 2 and Slot 4 with Stick 1, BSOD at login screen

And finally to force dual channel mode off;

Slot 1 with Stick 1 and Slot 2 with Stick 2, BSOD at login screen

I literally have no idea what the problem is, since the RAM sticks work independantly of eachother! Is this a RAM issue? Mobo? CPU?

Any help is massively appreciated.

 

[Kenmitch]

Are you running stock speed or are you overclocking your cpu?
Put ram in correct slots for 2 stick configuration. Double check but I think it's 2,4th from cpu.
Using XMP profile for ram? If so try setting it up manually
Did you try a slight voltage bump for the ram? If 1.50v specs maybe try 1.53v's

 

[dannybeckett]

Hi there. I am overclocking my CPU; the CPU clocks are stable but I also tried the tests with the CPU at stock setting.

The ram was at stock speed for all tests, 1866.

I am using the XMP profile and I have tried booting with the RAM voltages at 1.6V to no avail. I checked the DRAM Configuration BIOS page after the XMP profile was set and the timings match that of the XMP profile perfectly (9,10,9,27).

I have tried all permutations of the two sticks of RAM in dual channel mode, ram stick 1 in slot 1, ram stick 2 in slot 3, then I swapped the ram sticks around when that BSOD'd. I then tried ram1 in slot 2 and ram2 in slot 4, then swapped when that didn't work as I said in my original post.

Im really stuck here!

 

[Kenmitch]

Try running it in slot 2 and 4 with the ram at DDR-1600 voltage on auto and see what happens. Sometimes some MB memory combos just won't run with the memory at the stated spec.

Another thing you might wanna look at in the memory settings is the dram command mode. My Asus boards sets my memory to 1t which runs fine even tho spec is 2t. It's possible it's doing the same on yours which might not work at 1866mhz speeds. Drop it to 2t if it's at 1t

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Try running it in slot 2 and 4 with the ram at DDR-1600 voltage on auto and see what happens. Sometimes some MB memory combos just won't run with the memory at the stated spec.

Another thing you might wanna look at in the memory settings is the dram command mode. My Asus boards sets my memory to 1t which runs fine even tho spec is 2t. It's possible it's doing the same on yours which might not work at 1866mhz speeds. Drop it to 2t if it's at 1t

This. According to your manual (you did read the manual, right?) for two sticks of ram, they should be in slots A2 and B2 or, 2 and 4.

Congrats! Your memory is on the QVL so, we know it works with your MB. However, you may need to set the speed manually in the BIOS. Do you have the latest BIOS?

 

[Harvey]

Download Memtest86+ to test your RAM. If it doesn't pass, return it for RAM that does.

 

[dannybeckett]

Yeah I read the manual. As I stated in my first post, I've tried every combination of dual-channel memory configuration:

Slot 1 with Stick 1 and Slot 3 with Stick 2, BSOD at login screen
Slot 1 with Stick 2 and Slot 3 with Stick 1, BSOD at login screen
Slot 2 with Stick 1 and Slot 4 with Stick 2, BSOD at login screen
Slot 2 with Stick 2 and Slot 4 with Stick 1, BSOD at login screen

I tried running the MemOK! thing that Asus have crafted, it ran fine, set some timings and voltages for my RAM and said it was stable. It then proceeded to BSOD. I then slacked off every primary timing and set the speed to 1333MHz and it STILL BSOD'd. The timings were 10, 10, 10, 30, 2T. The voltage was set to 1.5V

This part is interesting though... I put both sticks of RAM in, set the BIOS to my standard OC profile (RAM set to 1925 MHz @ 1.5V, 9,10,9,27,2T) and then ran Windows Memory Diagnostic (the F8 bootup option) and the thing completed without a hitch... wtf?

I've also noticed that the system crashes at EXACTLY the same point every time. JUST when the login screen appears.

Software related??

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Yeah I read the manual. As I stated in my first post, I've tried every combination of dual-channel memory configuration:

Slot 1 with Stick 1 and Slot 3 with Stick 2, BSOD at login screen
Slot 1 with Stick 2 and Slot 3 with Stick 1, BSOD at login screen
Slot 2 with Stick 1 and Slot 4 with Stick 2, BSOD at login screen
Slot 2 with Stick 2 and Slot 4 with Stick 1, BSOD at login screen

I tried running the MemOK! thing that Asus have crafted, it ran fine, set some timings and voltages for my RAM and said it was stable. It then proceeded to BSOD. I then slacked off every primary timing and set the speed to 1333MHz and it STILL BSOD'd. The timings were 10, 10, 10, 30, 2T. The voltage was set to 1.5V

This part is interesting though... I put both sticks of RAM in, set the BIOS to my standard OC profile (RAM set to 1925 MHz @ 1.5V, 9,10,9,27,2T) and then ran Windows Memory Diagnostic (the F8 bootup option) and the thing completed without a hitch... wtf?

I've also noticed that the system crashes at EXACTLY the same point every time. JUST when the login screen appears.

Software related??

The windows memory diagnostic checks different things than memtest86+ does as Harvey recommended. Have you dl'd it? It should run multiple passes, preferably overnight. I thought that memory was speced to run at 1.65 v. Do you have the latest BIOS?

 

[dannybeckett]

I have memtest86+, I will run it after this essay I am writing. The memories' default voltage is 1.5V. I installed the latest BIOS as soon as I got this machine running. I just can't believe windows memory diagnostic ran utterly perfectly and the crashes happen at exactly the same point, every boot. Something is to be deduced from this, I am sure. As soon as I've run memtest I'll post the results.

 

[Kenmitch]

What is your overclock? What voltages/settings have you changed in bios?

 

[dannybeckett]

Im going to create a bootable Win7 USB stick and see if that boots! And im going to run memtest, I will post the results back here.

Additional Comment:

OK, heres an update (and I apologise for the lenght of the reply, I just want to be accurate):

I tried installing W7 on a seperate hard drive which failed (BSOD). That rules out SSD and software problems. I ran memtest with both sticks in for 25 minuites and not one error came up. I know you are meant to run memtest for much longer than that, however, because of the solidarity of the BSODs (same time in the boot, every time. BSOD error is the same too: 0x0000007E) I am convinced such a glaring error would show up in memtest in no time.

At the time of running memtest with both sticks installed, I left my standard overclock profile settings in BIOS active. The memory clock was 963 MHz (which is DDR3 - 1927 MHz). This is from a 3 MHz increase in BCLK frequency. The ram sticks were running at 1.55V and using their XMPs.

My CPU standard overclock is 4852 MHz @ 1.456 - 1.472V (positive offset mode, 0.09V). Full load temps dont reach over 70 degrees. This problem has been occuring since the day I put the PC together and when I was testing the RAM in my original post, and all the tests in my first post were done at stock speeds and XMP settings.

Having both of them installed causes windows to BSOD like hell but they do not cause any errors whist being tested by memtest (whilst overclocked a bit) and completely pass windows mem diagnostic! What could cause this behaviour!?

I think software, power supply, and mass storage devices can be completely ruled out. I was having problems with my power supply - had to buy a new one because my first one was dodgy, it's possible this could all be related, heres a link to the power supply problems I was having:

http://forums.extrem...ad.php?t=359721

I don't think the two are related however, because the P/S problems started to occur AFTER the RAM problems. I'm beginning to think there's a fluke error in either the RAM, MOBO or CPU thats causing this really bizzare error! I might try disabling every single thing I can in BIOS, disconnecting every device bar the screen and trying again. Any more suggestions are very welcome.

 

[dannybeckett]

Progress: Turning everything off in BIOS and setting IDE mode has enabled me to boot to windows with both sticks installed using their XMP profiles...

 

[dannybeckett]

Nailed - The asmedia usb3 controller is causing the BSODs! hmmm

 

[dannybeckett]

Update - updating the ASM1042 chipset drivers did not help.

 

[Dfube]

Don't mean to bump an older thread but have you figured the issue with your setup? I have the same issue and can not for the life of me figure it out.

Dfube