F3-10666CL8D-4GBHK x4 (8GB total) + ASUS P5K3 Deluxe MB

[Henry7]

Help!

Memory: F3-10666CL8D-4GBHK x4 (8GB total)
Motherboard: ASUS P5K3 Deluxe, BIOS version 1206
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E8500

I replaced my old memory sticks (two 1GB sticks of "DDR3-1375") with four of these G.Skill ones to get a total of 8GB. I am trying to install Windows 7 64-bit.

Well, Win7 behaved bad and eventually blue-screened. The trouble-shooter suggested to run the memory tests and sure enough, the tests failed.

So I ended up in BIOS tweaking hell. I am not an overclocker/tweaker. I am just looking for a stable system. Most of the settings in the BIOS are greek to me.

First I tried manually setting the parameters according to the specs of the RAM (8-8-8-21 1.5V), but that just made it worse.

After many adjustments, reboots, memtests, etc, I got down to DDR3-1066 @ 9-9-9-28 which passed the "standard" memory test of Win7. Things seemed to work for a while but then I got another blue screen. This time I ran the extended memory test and got failures.

Finally I removed two of the sticks (down to 4GB total) at the same DDR3-1066 settings and all the memtests passed. I thought maybe one of the two sticks I removed might be bad so I swapped them with the two working ones, but they also passed all the memtests.

So it looks like this MB has trouble handling 4x2GB? I asked over on the ASUS forums and so far got only one reply suggesting to set the "northbridge voltage" manually. I will follow up to get more details.

Meanwhile I am wondering if anyone here can help me with some suggestions specific to this memory part?

[Tradesman]

Will probably have to raise the tRFC to either 195ish (in NS) or aroud 86 in regular clicks - also ensure command rate at 2T or 2N depending on how BIOS shows it.

[Henry7]

The BIOS allows me to change DRAM clocks for tRFC. I have now set it to 90 clocks.
I have also forced the Command Rate to 2N.

With these settings it is stable using two sticks of RAM (4GB total).
I will soon add the other two sticks to go up to 8GB again and see how it works.
As suggested in the ASUS forum I will try to raise the North Bridge voltage one notch.

[LotsaBS]

I have been having the same problem after upgrading from 4GB (2 x 2GB) to 8GB (4 X 2GB) with a Gigabyte MA-790FXT board. It ran fine at DDR3 1333 with only 4GB but is terribly unstable with 4 sticks of ram at 8GB. Like you, I pass memtests. I have experimented with raised voltages and very loose ram settings but continue to get the same unstable results as long as I have 4 sticks installed. With only 2 sticks-4GB everything is fine.

I am finally running a stable system with 8GB by dropping the ram speed down to 1066. Voltages are no longer having to be increased and are set at auto. I noted that the timings are much tighter at 1066 as well.

Apparently, when you load up all 4 memory slots, either the ram isnt playing well with the memory controller or visa-versa.

I have spent the last several days searching other forums and see that this is a fairly widespread problem to those of us running 4 sticks of ram. There are some folks that apparently have gotten lucky and were able to make things work with loose timings and increased voltages, but they are the minority.

I think the most ridiculous thing I saw was that Gigabyte tech supposedly replied to another poster in another forum saying that currently the memory controller can't always handle 4 sticks of ram and suggested purchasing 2 X 4GB modules. Very funny...as far as I can determine, such a thing currently doesnt exist.

I sure hope the mobo and ram manufacturers can get together and iron out the problem soon. I did my research before purchasing and purchased Gigabyte-approved memory modules. I'm ticked that I paid for 1333 ram and cant't run it at those speeds without constant BSODs...

[GSKILL TECH]

NB Voltage has to be raised to 1.40V. What is your tRFC value? Post up the timings so we can see if anything is set incorrectly.

LotsaBS, you have a different setup so the issues don't really relate.

Thank you
GSKILL SUPPORT

[Henry7]

Thanks. I now have the full 8GB installed.
It passed one run of the memory test but I plan to re-run with extended tests.

Currently my timings are:
[HTML]
FSB Strap to North Bridge 333MHz
FSB Frequency 333
PCIE Frequency 100
DRAM Frequency DDR3-1066MHz
DRAM Command Rate 2N
DRAM Timing Control Manual
Timing Information : 9-9-9-28-6-90-12-6-6
CAS# Latency [tCL] 9 clocks
RAS# to CAS# Delay [tRCD] 9 clocks
RAS# PRE Time [tRP] 9 clocks
RAS# ACT Time [tRAS] 28 clocks
RAS# to RAS# Delay [tRRD] 6 clocks
REF Cycle Time [tRFC] 90 clocks
WRITE Recovery Time [tWR] 12 clocks
WRITE to READ Delay [tWTR] 6 clocks
READ to PRE Time [tRTP] 6 clocks
DRAM Static Read Control Auto (Enabled)
DRAM Dynamic Write Control Auto (Enabled)

Transaction Booster Auto (Disabled)

DRAM Voltage 1.60V
NB Voltage 1.40V
[/HTML]

[Henry7]

It failed the extended memory test.
This is very frustrating.

[G.SKILL]

the bottleneck is memory controller
running with 4 sticks makes the loading much heavier than running with 2 sticks
so, it's much more difficult to run with 4 sticks than with 2
that's why we only gurantee for 2 dimms in dual channel could run at our rated spec(exclude some 4-stick packed items)
increasing FSB or northbridge voltage may improve the stability while running 4 sticks, but it's not effective every time
if it still can't work with 4 sticks at rated spec, please try to downgrade the frequency a little or set the CAS Latency higher
thanks


G.S

[Henry7]

I appear to have stability with tCL = 10 clocks.
Thanks.

[Henry7]

Nope, my system now blue-screens randomly.

I am thinking of replacing the motherboard. Any recommendations for a MB that supports four of these memory sticks + Intel E8500 CPU?

[Henry7]

Now I can no longer get even two sticks to work.
The only way to pass all memory tests is one stick at DDR3-800 MHz.
If I put in two sticks at DDR3-800 MHz then it fails POST.
I up the freq to DDR3-1066 and it boots but fails memtest.

This is not working for me.

What are my options?

[GSKILL TECH]

Load Optimum BIOS defaults, then enter these settings:

FSB Strap to North Bridge AUTO
FSB Frequency 400
PCIE Frequency 100
DRAM Frequency DDR3-1333MHz
DRAM Command Rate 2N
DRAM Timing Control Manual

CAS# Latency [tCL] 8 clocks
RAS# to CAS# Delay [tRCD] 8 clocks
RAS# PRE Time [tRP] 8 clocks
RAS# ACT Time [tRAS] 21 clocks
RAS# to RAS# Delay [tRRD] 6 clocks
REF Cycle Time [tRFC] 90 clocks
WRITE Recovery Time [tWR] 10 clocks
WRITE to READ Delay [tWTR] 6 clocks
READ to PRE Time [tRTP] 6 clocks
DRAM Static Read Control Auto (Enabled)
DRAM Dynamic Write Control Auto (Enabled)

Transaction Booster Auto (Disabled)

DRAM Voltage 1.60V
NB Voltage 1.20V

Make sure 2 sticks are installed in the correct slots. Let me know how it goes. If you continue to have issues, sumply test them individually with these settings to make sure each stick is good.

Thank you
GSKILL SUPPORT