This drove me NUTS.

[Keysplayr]

Was torn between memory and storage forum, or the gaming forum, but this boiled down to a problem with memory.

My son inherited my Phenom II system. System as follows:

PhenomII X3 720BE
Gigabyte MA70GP-UD4H
4GB (2x2GB) G.Skill DDR2 1066
GeForce 8800GTS 512

My son loves UT3 and I play LAN matches with him. I setup the new PC for him and rarely had a few minutes of play at at time without the rig BlueScreening. I tried everything. Reinstalled the OS (XP), Updated mobo chipset and onboard audio drivers. Patched UT3 to the latest update 5. Nothing worked.

I went over the parts list on my invoice from newegg out of desperation and contemplating a RMA of some kind. Then out of sheer luck, I checked out the specs for the G.Skill memory. Says 2.0v. I hit the BIOS and the DDR2 Voltage was set to AUTO. I change it to manual, and find out it's running 1.8v to the DDR2. For the hell of it, I change it to 2.0v and boot the OS.

System is now rock stable and UT3 crashes no more. I was amazed that such a small inconspicuous detail could cause so much aggravation. This took 3 days for me to find.

This might be old news to some, but I had no idea that undervolting (unintentionally) the memory could result in such instability. The system is completely stock, no overclocking.
Also, I wonder why when the DDR2 voltage was set to AUTO, it only fed 1.8v to it instead of 2.0v. BIOS bug? Latest BIOS updated on the board.

Anyway, just wanted to share.

Keys

 

[soccerballtux]

Keysplayr is a n00b, lol. Jk. Silly mistakes get even the best of us at times...

That 2.0V ram should run fine at 1.8v and stock speed with 5-5-5-18. My 2.0V 4-4-4-12 DDR2-800 Crucial Ballistix ran at 1.8v fine. What were the latencies? My guess would be BIOS was detecting the latencies but not the voltage.

 

[Elixer]

I thought SOP on BSODs was to run memtest first (overnight), to make sure your stable in that area, then OCCT/prime95 for the CPU, and finally, OCCT/prime95+3dmark overnight to make sure the rest of the system is OK?

I have run into, undervolting the RAM, which produced tons of RAM errors, and IIRC, the RAM was Crucial. I think the SPD was programmed wrong though.

 

[reallyscrued]

You're a CPU Mod?

I thought it was common knowledge that any DDR2 RAM above 800 mhz is officially out of spec, and requires out-of-spec voltage.

It's not a BIOS bug, 2.0 volts is dangerous to some memory, but now because of people who don't read their packages of RAM, companies like Gigabyte are beginning to overvolt their RAM slots by default, causing the people who want lower voltages lots of grief.

READ THE MANUAL PEOPLE!

And research the hardware you are buying.

But I'm glad you got your problem solved.

 

[Idontcare]

keys I'm glad to hear of your success in debugging this. Sometimes its the darndest things that turn out to be the root-cause of the symptom plaguing our rigs.

 

[Keysplayr]

Originally posted by: reallyscrued
You're a CPU Mod?

I thought it was common knowledge that any DDR2 RAM above 800 mhz is officially out of spec, and requires out-of-spec voltage.

It's not a BIOS bug, 2.0 volts is dangerous to some memory, but now because of people who don't read their packages of RAM, companies like Gigabyte are beginning to overvolt their RAM slots by default, causing the people who want lower voltages lots of grief.

READ THE MANUAL PEOPLE!

And research the hardware you are buying.

But I'm glad you got your problem solved.

Well, in my defense, it's the first time in my life I have ever had to manually adjust voltage to get a system stable.

Did read the manual. All it did was caution me about adjusting voltages for any component in the system.

And ultimately, I did research the hardware. I made sure the mobo supported the memory before I bought it. Just never considered that I would have to manually change voltage. Usually the "AUTO" setting takes care of it, but not this time.

I'm glad it's solved to!! UT3 wouldn't run for more than a minute or two. Now it runs indefinitely.

@ Elixer: Running Memtest was actually on the roster just before I changed voltage.

@ Idontcare: Yup, the DDR2 voltage wasn't even on my radar. It was just by accident that I noted the 2.0v spec for this memory. But I was sure (incorrectly) that the AUTO setting would accomodate the 2.0v delivery to the RAM.

 

[taltamir]

Originally posted by: Keysplayr
Was torn between memory and storage forum, or the gaming forum, but this boiled down to a problem with memory.

My son inherited my Phenom II system. System as follows:

PhenomII X3 720BE
Gigabyte MA70GP-UD4H
4GB (2x2GB) G.Skill DDR2 1066
GeForce 8800GTS 512

My son loves UT3 and I play LAN matches with him. I setup the new PC for him and rarely had a few minutes of play at at time without the rig BlueScreening. I tried everything. Reinstalled the OS (XP), Updated mobo chipset and onboard audio drivers. Patched UT3 to the latest update 5. Nothing worked.

I went over the parts list on my invoice from newegg out of desperation and contemplating a RMA of some kind. Then out of sheer luck, I checked out the specs for the G.Skill memory. Says 2.0v. I hit the BIOS and the DDR2 Voltage was set to AUTO. I change it to manual, and find out it's running 1.8v to the DDR2. For the hell of it, I change it to 2.0v and boot the OS.

System is now rock stable and UT3 crashes no more. I was amazed that such a small inconspicuous detail could cause so much aggravation. This took 3 days for me to find.

This might be old news to some, but I had no idea that undervolting (unintentionally) the memory could result in such instability. The system is completely stock, no overclocking.
Also, I wonder why when the DDR2 voltage was set to AUTO, it only fed 1.8v to it instead of 2.0v. BIOS bug? Latest BIOS updated on the board.

Anyway, just wanted to share.

Keys

Mobos practically never adjust voltage based on reported data from ram, and instead always assume default voltage and auto assign your timing only...

That being said, the memory normally auto assigns worse timings than advertised on the box and require you to manually improve them (assuming beyond jedec voltages that is)... that is, normally a 4-4-4-15 @ 2v module will automatically run at 5-5-5-18 @1.8volts, and you have to manually adjust the voltage AND timing. I would say bios bug or design error in ram (in regards to automatic values reported)

This is why I NEVER EVER buy ram that requires more voltage that jedec standard to reach advertised speeds. If I wanted to id overclock it myself thank you very much, and I like knowing it always works when just put into a board.