Random BSOD Problem With GSkill Ripjaws X 4x4 GB 1866 MHz

[supertramp]

Hello everyone,

First of all here is my system:

Intel i7 4770K @ Stock speed + cm hyper evo 212 cooler
MSI z87 GD65 Gaming motherboard
4x4 GB G.Skill RipjawsX 1866 MHz ram (2 kits of F3-14900CL9D-8GBXL)
Sapphire AMD Radeon 7870 O.C 2GB gpu
120 GB Samsung SSD + 1TB WD Caviar Black + 1TB Samsung Spinpoint HDD
750W Thermaltake Toughpower PSU
Corsair Carbide 400R case + couple of system fans
Windows 8.1 pro

And here is my problem:

I've upgraded to this system at December 2013, but first bought 2X4 GB G.Skill RipjawsX 1866 MHz ram due to my limited budget. I was using the system without any hiccups until the middle of March.

Then a few weeks ago after I got my salary and fixed my budget I've bought another pair of G.Skill 2x4 GB RipjawsX 1866. Exact same model number, timings and voltage.

But after that I start having some random BSODs even while idling on desktop or surfing on the net. It is just random. Sometimes 3-4 days without any issue but then a BSOD after 30 mins or a few hours after starting my computer.

I was using Windows 7 then upgraded to Win 8.1 Pro. But continue getting those BSODs.

I haven't made anyother hardware change or a single driver change. My first BSOD was 2 days after I bought the new pair of RAM.

So I start thinking that the two pairs have a slight and a random compatibility issue. The pairs working fine alone but not together it seems.

The part number for both pair is F3-14900CL9D-8GBXL. Timings for XMP profile is 9-10-9-28 2T @ 1866 MHz @ 1.5v

I tried increasing the voltage to 1.65v, since G.Skill tech support told me that it's the safe maximum voltage. Few days without any issue but then my PC just froze randomly. Didn't get a blue screen though. Just resetted the PC and continue using like that few more days without an issue.

Then I decided to decrease the voltage to 1.60v to see if it works stable. 4-5 days of no BSOD, but then tonight I got another BSOD while playing a game.

So what should I do here?

Right now I raised the voltage back to 1.65v, XMP disabled and timings are 9-10-9-28 2T @ 1866 MHz. I'll keep it like that for few a week to see if I have another BSOD.

So does that voltage really safe and won't harm my rams in the long run? (my case has proper cooling and a decent airflow btw)

And also what else do you suggest? What should I do if I got another BSOD with these settings? What settings should I use?

[GSKILL TECH]

Make sure each kit is installed in the same color slots. Hopefully the two kits can work together and it is only a problem with settings.

With two separate kits, you can not use XMP, so always manually input settings in BIOS.

Your current method and settings should be the proper way to set up BIOS, so if you have problems, you may need to lower frequency or raise timings to see if you can get the system to be completely stable.

Thank you
GSKILL TECH

[supertramp]

Thanks for the answer.



So I should manually set the timings and frequency of XMP profile. What about the voltage? Should I keep it around 1.50-1.55v and raise it to 1.65 if I have further stability issues?

If even that won't work I will just try 1600mhz with same timings, which I haven't tried yet.


To be honest I've been using the xmp profile but raising the voltage manually. Why I cannot use the xmp profile for two seperate kits? Their profile values, timings etc.. are exact the same.

[GSKILL TECH]

1.550V should be sufficient, you can raise more if it improves stability.

You can try XMP, but if it is stable, you will need to try manual settings.

The main values may appear the same, but some advanced timings change with XMP enabled. Each kit and the XMP profile is only designed for itself, not paired with other RAM.

With manual settings, as long as you input the basic DRAM values, the advanced timings will change and adjust as the BIOS sees fit.

Thank you
GSKILL TECH

[supertramp]

OK. Thanks for the suggestions.

I'll test thorougly and keep you updated on the issue.

Best

[supertramp]

It's been almost 10 days and stable so far @ 1600mhz 9-9-9-24 1T @ 1.53v

I couldnt make them work @1866mhz 9-10-9-28 2T @ 1.65v though. And haven't tried 10-10-10-30 timings. I think i should accept this as a trade off of using 2 different kits.

Thanks again.

[GSKILL TECH]

Sounds good, it should be plenty fast with 16GB!

Thank you
GSKILL TECH

[supertramp]

Hi again

I've been asking my questions at this post http://www.gskill.us/forum/showthread.php?t=13161

But to prevent confusions I decided to come back to my own post. I know that hijacking someone else's post is a bad thing but I have the same mobo with that guy and somehow I stuck at that thread )

So here's my issue & questions:

Been using my 2 kits of F3-14900CL9D-8GBXL at 1600 mhz since I had stability issues under 1866mhz as can be seen on above posts. But recently I read somewhere that increasing tRFC might stable things, since usually 4x factory matched kits have more tRFC than 2x kits. So I realize that my 4x modules are running at 2x tRFC settings since my 2 kits are not factory matched.

At this post http://www.gskill.us/forum/showthread.php?t=13161 I shared screenshots of how my timings look like while xmp 1 profile is active. And a GSkill Tech told me that raising tRFC to 280 might help.

I manually resembled the xmp profile timings, raised the voltage to 1.60v and tRFC to 280.

Well... it really helped at start. I was having a guaranteed BSOD within the day while xmp on. But with tRFC at 280 no BSODs for 5-6 days. It was a great progress. But in the end I still have the BSOD.

I tried raising tRFC to 300. But it didn't help either. Today I got another BSOD. Roughly 5-6 days again.

Looks like some other timing setting might need to be balanced for 4x kit as it might be low for a 2x kit.

I'm suspecting tRRD and tFAW.

Right now the default timings are

tRRD- 6
tFAW- 29

while the xmp timings are

tRRD- 5
tFAW- 24

I set the tRFC to 280 again (since no difference at 300) but raised the tRRD to 7.

But I'm wondering what are the exact xmp timings for a factory matched Haswell ready 4x4GB F3-14900CL9D kit. (I know that Haswell needs some loose values for certain timings)

Thanks a lot so far as I'm getting a great support here. I really don't want a RMA or something since I need my PC (it's my life as i'm kinda stuck at home :/). But also I really want to solve this issue and I know that with a few tweaks it can be done.

Looking forward to hear from you

[GSKILL TECH]

The problem is because you used two separate kits, so they aren't matching well enough to work at typical XMP settings. With looser timings it can work fine, or keep your 1600 settings, that's the typical way to get two separate kits to work flawlessly. But instead of 9-9-9-24, try 8-8-8-24 1.50V or 7-8-8-24 1.60V.