F2-8500CL5D-2GBPK on Asus P5Q Pro

[Emp123]

Hi, I have an Asus P5Q motherboard and two sets of F2-8500CL5D-2GBPK for a total of 4 gigs of ram. When I first built this computer I only had 2 gigs of the F2-8500CL5D but several months later I decided to buy another pack of the F2-8500CL5D-2GBPK. I had no problems running Windows 7 with just the original 2gigs of ram, but when I added the new pair I would get random blue screens.

I dont know if the ram is bad (I dont think it is, I had this problem when I first upgraded to Windows 7 x64 RC but it eventually went away) or if Im having some other hardware issue (I dont think I am, I am currently running Windows 7 Pro x64 and there have been no hardware changes since adding the extra F2-8500CL5D-2GBPK, but like I said, the bsod stopped after a while).

I pulled the new sticks out just to see if it had an effect, and I havent had a blue screen since. Any idea on whats causing this/how to fix it?

[genetix]

Lets start from the begin. It's like monopoly you know always go through to the start except fridays.

1. Take out the new set and leave the old setup there > reboot > go to BIOS and set all values to 'Auto'
2. Now, add the old 2 stick set to slots 2 and 4 and add the new stick set to slots 1 and 3.
3. This will be 800Mhz. Now run an MemTest with this set. (F8 on windows start up > press 'esc' > press 'Tab' > and run the memory test.)

If this fails there's issue on the RAM hardware (probably).

We'll continue from here to tweak the sticks up on BIOS when we know it's not the sticks faulting.

[Emp123]

I actually started running the memtest right after I posted, and while I left all four sticks in, I used the extended test (it took FOREVER) and it didnt find any errors.

I'll run the test with only the new RAM in tomorrow morning.

[Emp123]

Ran the memtest on just the two new sticks, no errors found.

[genetix]

Well, the Windows has known issues on voltage in that case. for example usually while my 1.90v sure is memtest stable that would mean I need 1.98v for windows minimum. Just as an example also in this the NB voltages are very very huge stress and those are also ones causing like 99% of problems on windows side usually.

[Emp123]

So I should up the voltage on my ram if its under 1.98v?

[G.SKILL]

while running with 4 sticks, the loading of memory controller is much heavy
so, please increase FSB voltage to 1.4v to improve stability
and we only guarantee 2 dimms would reach our rated spec, not 4
thanks


G.S

[Emp123]

So, to clarify, while each dimm in each F2-8500CL5D-2GBPK is guaranteed to work together, there is no guarantee that 2 packs of F2-8500CL5D-2GBPK will work together?

I know I purchased the same pack of RAM because 1) I checked the stats on each 2) compared their model numbers, 3) used the link on my order history to find the second pack I purchased (order history has links to each item I purchase) but, despite being the same RAM (essentially) they may not work together?

EDIT: Alright, looking at my BIOS I have no idea what Im supposed to change.
DRAM Voltage (it says standard is 1.8, with a minimum of 1.8v and a maximum of 3.08v)? FSB Termination Voltage (min 1.2v max 1.9v with the standard being 1.2v)? CPU Voltage (min .85v max 2.1v with the standard changing per CPU)?

[Tradesman]

FSB 1.4, RAM 2.0, base timings 5-5-5-15, Command Rate to 2T, Speed at 1066 - set all timing manually, and check tRFC will prob want around 70 with 4 sticks