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Ram Issues

J

JS17

Junior Member
It seems I'm having some issues with my RAM right now, any help or ideas would be much appreciated. Anyways starting off with some specs:

Intel E6600
Asus P5W DH deluxe
4x 1GB sticks of Crucial DDR2-800 RAM @ 4-4-4-12 and 2.0V

Fore note: About a year ago, I had to RMA the ram as one stick had become defective, but after that my new ram was working perfectly for the last year.

Now a week ago: I start to get strange errors in applications, such as unable to load a specific file etc, I dismissed them as something random and checked for any viruses etc. But after another day of this, I figured it was probably hardware related, and having had a similar experience before, I looked at the RAM.

I decided to run a mem test on each stick alone, and I got no mem test errors, all seemed fine. I put the ram back in, and everything worked fine for a week. Fast forward to today and my computer starts acting up again. Figuring the ram was fine, as i tested it a week ago, I reinstalled win 7 hoping it was some OS issue, but during installation I had a ram related error, I went back to the mem test disk and gathered the following:

Stick 1 in ram slot 1: works fine
Sticks 1+2 in ram slots 1+2: works fine
Sticks 1+2+3 in ram slots 1+2+3: works fine
Sticks 1+2+3+4 in ram slots 1+2+3+4: almost instant mem test crash, computer reboots

So, I figure it is stick 4 or socket 4 that is bad, to make sure I run stick 4 in slot 4 by itself, but I get to mem test errors.

I try all the sticks in each slot: crash again.
I try all the sticks in each slot, but switch mem stick 3 and 4 around: crash again.
I try mem sticks 1/2 in their respective slots, and then mem stick 4 in slot 3: all fine.
I try mem sticks 1/2 in their repsective slots, and then mem stick 3 in slot 4: all fine.

Now being confused, I tried using all the mem sticks and upping the voltage a bit, still errors, then I tried to lower the timings to 5-5-5-15, still errors.

Suffice it to say, I have no idea what could be the problem here.
And right now i'm writing this using 3 sticks of ram, and keeping the 4th out.

Any ideas?
Could this be a motherboard issue?

-Thanks

Cliffs:
Programs start crashing
Guess memory is at fault
Test memory, but can't fine a bad stick / slot
When testing all 4gb at once, mem test crashes
No idea what the problem could be, help?

Also, yes, I'm a longtime lurker 🙂
 
It could be the memory or it could be the motherboard. The more sticks you insert, the more likely you'll have memory timing issues. Either the memory or the motherboard could have drifted with age, resulting in memory errors.

You could try the timing settings for Crucial's "standard" DDR2 modules: 6-6-6-18 at 400MHz. Or RMA the memory again.

Unlike their standard memory, Crucial Ballistix modules (I'm assuming that's what you have), even the 2.0 V version, were never known for their reliability.
 
Yeah, they are the Ballistix modules. I'll try coming up with some other ram and hopefully figuring out if it is the ram again, or if it is the motherboard.
 
JS17 said:
It seems I'm having some issues with my RAM right now, any help or ideas would be much appreciated. Anyways starting off with some specs:

Intel E6600
Asus P5W DH deluxe
4x 1GB sticks of Crucial DDR2-800 RAM @ 4-4-4-12 and 2.0V

Fore note: About a year ago, I had to RMA the ram as one stick had become defective, but after that my new ram was working perfectly for the last year.

Now a week ago: I start to get strange errors in applications, such as unable to load a specific file etc, I dismissed them as something random and checked for any viruses etc. But after another day of this, I figured it was probably hardware related, and having had a similar experience before, I looked at the RAM.

I decided to run a mem test on each stick alone, and I got no mem test errors, all seemed fine. I put the ram back in, and everything worked fine for a week. Fast forward to today and my computer starts acting up again. Figuring the ram was fine, as i tested it a week ago, I reinstalled win 7 hoping it was some OS issue, but during installation I had a ram related error, I went back to the mem test disk and gathered the following:

Stick 1 in ram slot 1: works fine
Sticks 1+2 in ram slots 1+2: works fine
Sticks 1+2+3 in ram slots 1+2+3: works fine
Sticks 1+2+3+4 in ram slots 1+2+3+4: almost instant mem test crash, computer reboots

So, I figure it is stick 4 or socket 4 that is bad, to make sure I run stick 4 in slot 4 by itself, but I get to mem test errors.

I try all the sticks in each slot: crash again.
I try all the sticks in each slot, but switch mem stick 3 and 4 around: crash again.
I try mem sticks 1/2 in their respective slots, and then mem stick 4 in slot 3: all fine.
I try mem sticks 1/2 in their repsective slots, and then mem stick 3 in slot 4: all fine.

Now being confused, I tried using all the mem sticks and upping the voltage a bit, still errors, then I tried to lower the timings to 5-5-5-15, still errors.

Suffice it to say, I have no idea what could be the problem here.
And right now i'm writing this using 3 sticks of ram, and keeping the 4th out.

Any ideas?
Could this be a motherboard issue?

-Thanks

Cliffs:
Programs start crashing
Guess memory is at fault
Test memory, but can't fine a bad stick / slot
When testing all 4gb at once, mem test crashes
No idea what the problem could be, help?

Also, yes, I'm a longtime lurker 🙂
Click to expand...
Buy a ram fan.
 
1. RMA those Ballistix sticks. Crucial has replaced plenty of them... PLENTY.
2. Buy some Corsair, G.Skill or Mushkin to replace the Ballistix.
3. When the new Ballistix arrives... Don't even open the package, post them for sale as "New and unopened"
 
Last edited:
Very likely the RAM is crapping out, especially considering the horrible lack of reliability they are known for.

I'd bump up NB voltage a notch or two to be sure, as 4 DIMMs often needs a bit more due to additional stress on the board (vs. 2 DIMMs, etc.).

You might want to try HCI Memtest in Windows for testing as Memtest86 can miss things.
http://hcidesign.com/memtest/
 
Yeah, no overclock, stock timings/speed/voltage on my entire system right now. I tried to up the NB voltage a notch, didn't seem to have an effect on memtest. (Memtest still crashes/reboots the computer whenever 4 sticks are in, however windows/applications seem to be running without any major issues as of now).

I'll see what HCI memtest says when later today, and I just may end up RMA'ing the memory again if it is grim.

Almost tempted to use this as a time to upgrade ti i5 / i7, but I just don't have any need for more processing power right now.

Thanks for all the replies.
 
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