F2-8500CL5D-4GBPKx2 GA-EP45-UD3P issues...

[bigfoot2716]

Wow I have been not having good luck with G-skill....
I had a bad stick with my f2-6400cl4d-4gbpi-b and had to RMA. The set you sent was perfect but didn't OC at all so I spent 120 bucks and bought 2 of the f2-8500CL5D-4gbPK kits and ran them under spec (at ddr28000) to stay synced with my fsb and it worked great....til tonight.
I have been getting an error here and there for the past couple of days but nothing I did not attribute to the buggy game I have been playing (Fallout 3).
Well I was surfing the web and my computer hard locked and I had to press the reset button to get it to turn off. I then blue screen before windows could load. I go into the bios, set stock speeds and drop the memory to ddr26400 speeds...still blue screened. I ran a repair and it found some file corruption but when it was fixed it still blue screened.
I then ran vista's mem diag and it found errors within 3% of starting.
This is at ddr26400 speeds!!
I then ran memtest and it started erroring almost immediately.
I replaced the f2-8500cl5d-4gbpk kits with the old f2-6400cl4d-4gbpi-b sticks...and booted right up. No errors.

It is RMA time again isn't it?

[G.SKILL]

would you like to test with one pair, not 4 sticks?
running with 4 sticks is not guaranteed by us, especially with 1:1
if there is still problem with one pair or one stick, please fill out the RMA form on our website and return the form to us
we'll issue you a RMA number and tell you the RMA procedure
thanks


G.S

[bigfoot2716]

I tried this morning...1,2,3 sticks didn't make a difference.
With one stick it took a few more seconds to produce errors is all.
And you do realize that I was running it UNDER it's specified speed with 1:1 right? (1000mhz instead of 1066).
I guess I have extremely bad luck to have 4 sticks fail within 3 weeks......
I will send the RMA form.
Hopefully it will be like my first RMA and go smoothly.

[G.SKILL]

we knew it's under DDR2 1066
the difficulty is 1:1 ratio and 4 sticks
thanks


G.S

[bigfoot2716]

Well here is an update:
Got my RMA'd Ram pretty quick so that was great!
I have been testing all weekend and am about to give up.

The old sticks ran for awhile before they crapped out on me.
These new ones will not even run at 800mhz without errors in memtest, vista's memdiag, and the other memtest you guys have reccomended in the past on these forums.
I have been running my cpu at stock speeds and using dividers so it is not the "1:1" issue you mentioned above.
I am setting up a spare P35 motherboard with a e4300 to see if my ep45-ud3p just does not like your ram or if there are issues with the sticks.

Here is the crazy part though: It loves your ddr2 6400 stuff (f2-6400cl4d-4gbpi-b) that I bought before these ddr2 8500 sticks. Runs those just fine.
Runs my corsair dom's (4x1gb sticks) ddr2 6400 sticks just fine, no errors.
Runs my Corsair dom's ddr2 8500 sticks (2x1) just fine.
Is it possible I got bad sticks? Or is there a compatibility issue?
Will post back with my findings from the old P35 board...

[bigfoot2716]

Update!!!
I set up my spare mobo (P35) on my test bed and tested each stick by itself.
After running memtest for each stick I have found the culprit.
One stick is bad. And I mean bad by that it errors within seconds of memtest starting.
The other sticks went through 4 passes with no problems.
RMA time......again.

[G.SKILL]

could you provide the serial numbers on the faulty sticks?
thanks


G.S

[bigfoot2716]

No problem. I will post them when I get home from work tonight.

[bigfoot2716]

Sorry had a screaming kid to deal with last night.
Here is the serial #s:
9031030107473 and the bad stick 9031030107474

[G.SKILL]

and could you tell us the motherboard version?
we'll contact with Gigabyte to check if there is unknown issue with this combination
thanks


G.S

[bigfoot2716]

It is version 1.0...

That is the only thing I can think of. The corsair ram I have lying around works without issue so it might be the IC having problems with the memory controller....
But that is only a guess lol.

Let me know what you find out...

[G.SKILL]

there is a new bios on 2/19
would you like to update to it and try again first?
thanks


G.S

[bigfoot2716]

Ok I will try it out tonight. The last bios upgrade (the one before this one, F7) hosed my raid setup so hopefully that won't happen again.
I am not sure what good it will do though:
"Beta BIOS
Fix abnormal messages from EasyTune 6 and DES in Vista"

Doesn't sound mem related and is a beta bios.
But again, I will try it and hold off on mailing my RMA back (got the RMA # yesterday).

[G.SKILL]

thanks


G.S

[bigfoot2716]

Ok, beta bios f8a hosed my raid setup and the stick still comes up with errors...so no go.
So looks like I do have to RMA.
Unless you have any other ideas.