F2-9600 & Asus Maximus II Formula LGA775 P45

[val]

Having a lot of problems related to (I believe) memory

My memory, MB and OS setup are:

G.Skill F2-9600CL5D-4GBPI PC2-9600 2x2GB DDR2-1200 CL5-5-5-15

Asus Maximus II Formula LGA775 P45 Motherboard

Running Vista Ultimate 64bit.

Have a geforce 8800 gts video card, but the rest is standard stuff that came with the MB. FSP Fortron 800 watt power supply as well in case that matters.

Memtest86+ runs into significant errors with all 8gb installed (waaaay less errors with 4gb). I have tried testing single chips, through the various slots (mixing the dimm slots up to try to see if it was a particular stick of ram or slot on the MB) and tests all pass (multiple passes) on single sticks, regardless of dimm slot.

I get a BSOD at least once a day. Sometimes under load, sometimes when the system is idle with no active programs (aside from TSRs). The BSODs usually list BAD_POOL_HEADER as the culprit. This is beyond frustrating.

I have had some stability increases when messing with the voltage but nothing 'rock solid' by any means and I don't want to really guess with voltage too much in case I fry something =). I do have the ram running at 1200 mhz (had to manually set)

I guess what I'd like (hopefully you can provide) is the ideal 'sweet spot' voltages for this setup. I'd like to use all 8gb (which was the reason I got 64 bit vista and spent $700+ on the ram alone)

I have looked around on the forums a bit here but am not sure what I should be setting voltage to as I've not seen much in the way of the F2-9600 1200mhz for posts.

Thanks in advance for any help you may offer!

[G.SKILL]

it's too difficult to run 4 sticks DDR2 1200 on any motherboard
that's why we only have 2 dimms pack
running 2 sticks with DDR2 1200 is already hard enough
you can try to install only one set of DDR2 1200 or downgrade to run DDR2 1066


G.S

[val]

Yer kidding me....

So I spent $400 that I didn't have to? I wanted to get more performance by increasing the amount of faster memory and you're saying I can't? F2-8500 Gskill memory that's 4gb pair (1066 mhz) is *$200 LESS* than the memory I bought (that's todays prices, I bought this ram a couple of months ago). So double that and you are saying I spent $400 over my ram that I didn't need to?! That angers me.

Motherboard specifications say

Memory : 4 x240-pin DIMM, Max. 16 GB, DDR2 1200/1066/800/667 Non-ECC,Un-buffered Memory

Why would they say that if it's "Too Difficult"?

Also, at the time of purchase I didn't see *any vendor* with any speed of ram in sets of more than 2 dimms. The vast majority of users out there probably don't go over 4GB of ram due to 32bit OS ram limitation so would a vendor limit their sales by offering 4dimm sets when a customer can just buy 2x of the sets if they want to go to that number?

I figured your memory was so new that the qualified vendor list (which didn't include any 1200 mhz ram even though the board said it did 1200 mhz ram) simply wasn't up to date.

Looks like I'm going to have to get rid of this ram that nobody can use...<sigh>

Ok... with 8 gb of F2-8500 is there a guide as to what the voltages should be?

[G.SKILL]

We don't think anyone could get 4 dimms DDR2 1200 stable working...at least for now

and if you could downgrade to DDR2 1066, it should work at 2.0v
thanks


G.S

[izenkov]

8Gb &amp; 1200

@val

Thank you for saving my $, as I am not going to get it for myself.

May be this forum can help: http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=190812

@GSKILL
It is kind of poinless to have 2X2 kit if one can't run 8Gb. Don't you think?

[G.SKILL]

generally, more sticks of memory get more difficult to overclock
and 4 sticks of 2GB DDR2 1200 is too difficult to reach now
they might pass some test, but not stable for normal use
thanks


G.S

[izenkov]

2 x f2-9600cl5d-4gbpi

I do understand your point.

It is just not clear who is your target customer. One can get 1GbX4 of DDR2 1200 for less money and run it with the rated speed. I guess I can think about a motherboard with 2 memory slots, but they are not OC boards anyway. Also Intel or NVidia can in the feature produce a chipset capable of running DDR2 2GBX4 at 1200, but it is rather unlikely.

Just curious why would anyone spend a top dollar just to run 8Gb under 1066 if they can get F2-8800CL5Q-8GBPI and run it @ 1100? Am I missing something?

I am asking questions because I really wanted to get F2-9600, but I just can't justify a purchase in any way. Perhaps some disclaimer would be helpful to better manage customer's expectations.

BTW: F2-9600CL5D-4GBPI is a top rated memory in the OC community, but nobody runs 4 sticks as far as I know.

[val]

What pisses me off about the whole thing is that I spent a lot of money trying to get more performance without overclocking at all (I'm not that savvy on the hardware level to have any desire to want to OC).

The motherboard says support for up to 16gb of 1200 mhz ram and this is 1200mhz ram - so I thought I was covered. But it turns out the technical reason is that it's 'too difficult'. Bah.

Just so I'm clear here - when you say "downgrade to 1066" are you talking about replacing the ram with 1066 mhz ram or just reducing the ram speed in the bios? If the later, do I have to tweak any other settings?

[G.SKILL]

DDR2 1200 2GB module is really an extreme spec for recent market and it's also very difficult to reach
hope you guys could understand this
the spec of motherboard said it supports to DDR2 1200 and 16GB totally, but we don't think they mean they can match both, at least for now

downgrade to 1066 means reducing the dram frequency manually
you can keep the other settings except for dram frequency
and you can still use them to run DDR2 1200 when only one set is installed
thanks


G.S

[izenkov]

@val
I am not an expert in any way, but I want to help you. I am running this board and I got myself familiar with the BIOS a bit. First thing I think you need to change your BIOS to the latest stable release. At this point it is 1307 for me. If you got your board a few months back most likely you have got the old one. In the second step you want to get only two sticks stable @ 1200 (Asus recommends two blue slots). From your original post it looks like you can't get even 4Gb stable with Memtest86+. GSKILL will help you there because they claim it should work. After that make sure that the second 4Gb set will work for you.

Don't try to run 8Gb unless you make each set stable, again GSKILL should help you there because if it does not GSKILL will look bad. GSKILL is a good company and I think they will try to help you. This is very important; you have to make sure that you have a good memory to begin with. One more thing, GSKILL would need to know your CPU because it is kind of important.

@GSKILL
Let's help val to run his sets stable separately. Looks like he is having a problem with 4Gb. He is trying to run 400MHz FSB @ 2:3, it should not be a problem. Obviously trying to reach 600MHz FSB @ 1:1 would be difficult, but he is not asking for it.

[G.SKILL]

running at DDR2 1200 with 400 FSB, you'll need to add FSB and NB voltage
try to add them both to 1.4v and memory voltage to 2.1v
and please install the 2 sticks into slot 2 and 4, then try one pair at one time to see if it works without problem


G.S

[val]

No joy.

I have removed 2 of the 4 sticks of ram. I am running in the blue dimm slots. I tried running at 1200 mhz with the settings you suggested as and had a BSOD before boot up completed (BSOD right before the login prompt, after the vista logo).

I then clocked back the RAM to 1066 (still using 400 fsb and the voltages you provided.

System seems a little more responsive (which I found odd with 1/2 the ram) but the BSOD's are still present (uptime was around 12-16 hrs before system BSOD'd while idle (MEMORY_MANAGEMENT was the bsod component) and boot time is slower now.

I am running an Intel Q9450 Quadcore at 2.66Ghz. With the FSB settings provided it actually runs a little over 3.1ghz.

I am not familiar with all the OC'ing and benchmarks tools that folks here use, but if you need me to run any to get any additional informaiton...

Just a note : I'm not after OC'ing this machine. I just want a stable unit and that's where my frustration with all of this is arising. If I have to run the memory at 1066 mhz then I will, but it seems that's still not working?

[G.SKILL]

try to install the 2 sticks to slot 2 and 4(the white ones)
and try to run DDR2 1200 with FSB 300(i know it is lower than the default value) if check if it is memory's issue
thanks


G.S