DDR3 1333 10666 4gb modules crash

[flyerofcows]

Last year I was running a system with an

MSI AM3 motherboard,
AMD Phenom II X2,
2GB Corsair DDR3-1333,
EVGA 9800GTX+,
550Watt OCZ Power Supply,
running Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit.

I upgraded the RAM in that system last summer to a GSKILL Ripjaw F3-10666CL9S-4GBRL DDR3 1333 4GB (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231310).

The jump from 2 to 4 GB greatly improved the speed of my system and everything was great. About 4 months ago my computer began freezing randomly and sporadically so I thought the motherboard or cpu were failing. I upgraded last month to an ASUS M5A97 AM3+ motherboard and an AMD FX8150 cpu but the problem still persisted. I then put back in my old Corsair 2gb stick of ram and the freezing stopped. This is when I thought maybe my GSKILL 4gb ram was faulty. I then purchased the exact same RAM but in an 8GB (2 x 4GB) kit (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231311) and hoped that would fix my problem. Those sticks both fail no matter if they are combined for 8GB, or if I only use 1 stick at a time. I'm pretty sure the odds of having 3 bad sticks of RAM are very slim, but I can not figure out why they are crashing.

I ran memtest v4 and all sticks passed. I tried to increase DRAM voltage and that did not work. It crashes on clean installs of Windows 7 64bit and Windows 8 Release Preview 64bit so I'm sure it's not a driver or virus problem. The freezing happens randomly but the only way I can duplicate it 100% of the time is to open maybe 50 tabs in chrome and close them all at once. My 2gb corsair stick handles this fine but each GSKILL stick crashes whenever this is attempted. The only pieces of hardware I haven't swapped out are my graphics card and PSU, but I don't think they could be the problem since the 2GB stick is fine. I have tried another hard drive and even a solid state drive. I read about manually adjusting the voltages and timings in the BIOS and have tried without success. There were many options I had no idea about though so maybe they need to be adjusted.

The system began crashing with nothing overclocked or overvolted so that should not be a problem either. (I currently have nothing overclocked or overvolted and it still crashes)

My mobo and gpu drivers are all up date, I'm not sure the versions numbers as I am currently away from my pc but if you need them I can get them for you. (Even though I don't think they are the problems because they worked fine with the 2gb stick.)

I also have a Rosewill wireless card so if you think that may be the issue I'll try running without it.

If you need any memory or error dumps I can probably get them up by tomorrow night so let me know!

If anyone has any idea about what settings to adjust I would be more than happy to try them.

Thanks!
-flyerofcows

[Tradesman]

Try raising the CPU/NB voltage about .07 - .075 and see if that helps.

[UnskilledG]

For whatever it's worth, I'm having similar problems with 16 GB worth of basically the same RAM, using exactly the same motherboard. My G.Skill RAM is model F3-10666CL9D-8GBRL, which is really just a matched pair (consecutive serial numbers, to guarantee they'll run in dual-channel mode I suppose) of the same RAM modules you're using. That is, I have two matched pairs, or four sticks total.

At no time since I bought the RAM in late May have I actually been able to use all 16 GB. Initially, I had one pair of modules that were preventing resume from sleep (S3 power state). Those were replaced under warranty.

Now I have the second of the original two pairs seemingly causing bluescreens/failures to boot. I'm still trying some tweaks, e.g. raising DRAM voltage slightly (although I thought you weren't supposed to have to do that unless you were overclocking!). But it's beginning to look like I'll have to RMA half my RAM once again.

This has been far more complicated and frustrating than I ever expected. I don't overclock either; all the DRAM settings in BIOS were at default values when I started having problems.

Am I being unreasonable in expecting four perfectly ordinary DDR3 1333 MHz RAM modules to work at default settings? I never had anything remotely like this happen on previous builds, where I used only a pair of sticks (for 4 GB or 8 GB total). I wasn't overclocking or fiddling with DRAM timings on those machines either.

[Tradesman]

For the most part AMD CPUs are targeted at 2 sticks (even the latest FX CPUs talk about UP TO 1866 WITH 1 DIMM PER CHANNEL - or 2 sticks) they have a much weaker MC than their Intel counterparts. There's also other things here and there, like running 1600 and above - I normally suggest a min of a 965 Rev C for 1600 sticks. Even running a matched set (tested to work together) of 4 sticks can require a lot of tweaking. Mixing sets makes things worse, even of the same model, there's no guarantee they will play together (though generally fairly easy on Intel up through 1866)....If it was like the old days with slow DDR and even DDR2 the manufacturers could just sell single stick packages and let folks buy as many as they want, but DDR3 is a major change and why the makers sell sets of 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 12, 16, 24, 32, and 64 GB sets, that way you can buy what you want need and get sticks tested to all play nice. To be honest, while I work with and on AMD systems, I quit building them a few years and DRAM was a major reason.

[flyerofcows]

almost but not quite

Thanks for the quick response Tradesman. I put in the 8 GB (2 x 4GB) kit just be sure it was compatible and manually raised the cpu/nb voltage by .075 (mobo wouldn't let me do .07) It worked pretty well for a day or so but it began crashing again. When I open a ton of tabs in chrome and close them all at once it doesn't crash immediately like it did before, but it crashes within 10 seconds.

Also, my Bios recognizes my RAM running at 1066 instead of 1333. I manually set it to run at 1333. Could that indicate an issue with the RAM though that my mobo detects it at the wrong speed? Could me manually changing it to 1333 cause problems?

Should I adjust any other voltages or timings?

Thank you very much!

[Tradesman]

Could you post your bios settings and a shot of CPU-Z (the memory tab)?

[flyerofcows]

http://s1049.photobucket.com/albums/...yerofcows/RAM/

Hopefully those pics are what you need. Lots of settings are on Auto so if you need their exact numbers I can set them to Manual and reupload. If there is anything else that you need just let me know and I will find it and upload it.

Also, the mobo now seems to recognize the RAM at 1333 for whatever reason.

Thanks!

[Tradesman]

Ok looks like it's good at 1333, if any problems, (BSOD, freeze, etc) they raising DRAM voltage to 1.55, think you'll be fine

[flyerofcows]

I adjusted the CPU/NB and DRAM voltages as you instructed and it still blue screens and crashes quickly I'm beginning to think that speed or model of RAM just isn't playing nice with my setup. Do you know if there is a way to RMA the sticks back to GSKILL and you guys can send me back different, possibly stronger/more performance based sticks? I'd be more than happy to pay an upgrade fee or whatever would be necessary. I just don't think that model will work seeing as how I tried a 4gb and an 8gb (2 x 4gb) kit and had no success even with troubleshooting. If you have any info about the possibly of an upgrade/RMA please let me know or PM me.

PS: If you have any other troubleshooting tips I'd be more than happy to try them before an RMA.

Thanks!

[Tradesman]

Have you run Memtest on each stick individually to see if one went bad? Other than that, you'll have to check with GSkill on RMAs, (I.m not GSkill, I'm a member like you are), since you're in the US will want to contact rma@gskillusa.com

[flyerofcows]

Well Tradesman,

Before I started the RMA process I wanted to try every single option so I started taking out everything unnecessary like flash drives, usb hubs, and using a different keyboard. The first thing I did was take out my PCI Wifi adapter and the computer worked immediately. Everything is running smoothly and I even overclocked it from 3.6 to 4.2GHz and everything is still stable.

I have been having connection issues for a while but I figured since the 2gb stick worked it couldn't be the wfi card. I hooked it up to a wired connection and ordered a usb wifi adapter and I'm sure that will work. I'm sorry for wasting your time but thank you for all your help and speedy responses! At least I learned a lesson: If a cheap Rosewill wifi card is giving you issues, it's probably the cause of your BSOD's.

Thanks again!

[Tradesman]

That can be true, sadly with most any other component, and if not the component, then possibly the driver for it, Troubleshooting can be very exasperating. Glad you found the problem though, and keep in touch.