My Most Frustrating system build.........

[trekkerxp]

The Players in this Opera:

Memory: G-Skill F3-10666CL8D-4GBRM Quantity: 2
Processor: Intel Core i7-860
Motherboard: Intel DP55KG

Processor and Motherboard purchased direct from Intel, RAM purchased from New Egg around end of November 2009. The DP55KG has the lastest BIOS update (3878) prior to building the system on December 5, 2009.

The Saga:
Built the system on Dec 5th, installed Windows 7 64bit, everything initially appeared to be fine. Began experiencing random BSOD's and random Internet Explorer lockups during the burn in period. Since I had intially had an issue of not being able to use the ATI Radeon 5750 video card to install Windows 7 64bit, I suspected it being a cause of the random reboots, the age old driver issue. Swapped out the ATI for my nVidia 9800GT that was in the system I was going to replace with this shiny new one. So now with a known working video card that never had any issues and would have built in support in Windows 7, did a fresh install again on the system. All during this time there are 4 2gb memory modules installed on the motherboard and the BIOS is still at stock settings across the board. After install, the random BSOD's continue, so move on to suspect RAM. I began testing with Memtest86+, initially ran the test with all 4 modules installed. Received errors on first pass, did a reboot, no errors on the pass, did a power off - power on and test, errors on first pass. Begin testing of only one module at a time. NO ERRORS on multiple passes and reboot scenarios on all 4 modules. (it was great timing that I had 2 weeks of vacation I had taken eh?) So as a test, only put two modules in and ran the system under Windows 7. No BSOD's or errors for many days. Swapped out the two modules for the other two modules and let them have a shot, still no errors or random reboots. So, knowing that the sum of the parts were all healthy, I once again populated all 4 dimm slots and forged ahead with various changes in the BIOS. I set the memory to 8-8-8-24, but the BSOD's continued. I underclocked the memory to 1067mhz with no change in stability of the system. Frustrated, I set the BIOS back to default with F9 and was going to start from scratch on what to do to stabilize the system. Began running Memtest86+ again and for some unknown reason, the test passed. rebooted, test, it passed again, power down, boot up and test, it passed again. This is with all four modules installed and the BIOS set to default - JUST LIKE IT WAS WHEN I STARTED THE INITIAL BUILD!! can you sense how frustrating that would be? I then set the test to run continuously and left it overnight. On Dec 28th I shut it down after running Memtest for 9 hours with zero errors. I started the system and let it boot into Windows 7 and let it run non-stop for days. I used it to surf, work in Quicken, work with my photo collection, play games, etc with ZERO stoppages. My Reliability History was finally graphing on the rise back to a 10. So on January 6th I shut it down before heading to bed. January 7th arrives and after work I power it up. What do you think starts happening? AAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!!! the dreaded BSOD was back. I rebooted and went for the BIOS reset to default to try to simulate the miracle conditions that had allowed it to run fine for a little over a week and I left it running to check on it the next day. It had rebooted (BSOD) at 1am. I will keep this thread updated with the system status. I left the system running before I came to work today and will check the error log when i get home.

My Background: My career is a System Administrator at Sage maintaining the servers running various functions from email to domain controllers to file and print servers. My passion/hobby is a system builder. I have been building systems since the days of the 386SX processor. I have built anything from XEON servers running our companies email to workstations for my family and friends. I do not classify myself as an Overclocker, so my experience in manipulating the processor and memory speeds is very limited (think more stock car racer than alcohol funny car). Be gentle with me when telling me what to change in the BIOS. If there are particular programs i need to install to get a report on what settings are in my BIOS, let me know. Writing them down by hand sounds like a lot of fun!

But whatever it takes to get this system stable with the 8gb of DDR3 ram i paid for is what I am set to do.

And from my searches and reading on these forums, it appears I have not been alone in my struggle.

Thanks

TrekkerXP

[trekkerxp]

Update to BSOD saga

no more reboots since 1 a.m. with system left on today. will continue to leave it powered up 24X7 until some sort of fix has been implemented.

Note from Intel website regarding supported RAM:

Supported DIMM Configurations

DIMM........Configuration...SDRAM.........SDRAM............................Number of
Capacity............................Density.......Organization...................SDRAM Devices
.................................................. .........Front-side/Back-side
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1024 MB--------SS-----------1 Gbit--------128 M x 8/empty-----------------8
2048 MB--------DS-----------1 Gbit--------128 M x 8/128 M x 8-----------16
2048 MB--------SS-----------2 Gbit---------256 M x 8/empty----------------8
4096 MB--------DS-----------2 Gbit---------256 M x 8/256 M x 8-----------16


?DS? refers to double-sided memory modules (containing two rows of SDRAM) and ?SS? refers to single-sided memory modules (containing one row of SDRAM).

Can anyone on the forum or a G-Skill Technical Engineer tell me if the F3-10666CL8D-4GBRM RAM module meets one of the two 2048 MB configurations.

Thanks. It may save a lot of trouble shooting time between us if it turns out the RAM is not supported on an Intel motherboard.

[frankjg]

Suggest you try www.nirsoft.net download BlueScreenView v1.05. Run it after you have a blue screen and it will tell you where the problem centeres at.

Frank

Kenmore, WA

[trekkerxp]

Thanks Frank. I have installed it and ran the program. We have multiple Memory Management, Page Fault in Non-Paged Area, a couple NTFS File System, and one Cache Manager. The Caused By Driver field alternates between NTOSKRNL.exe and NTFS.sys with the majority being Kernel since the majority of BSOD's were from Memory Management.

[frankjg]

I had the same error (NTOSKRNL.exe) swapped out memory and it went away.

Frank

[trekkerxp]

With the price of memory, I am forced to see if GSkill will respond and work with me on swapping all four modules.

Any G-Skill Tech want to comment?

[GSKILL TECH]

Have you tried enabling the XMP Profile? After installing the memory package, did you manually configure memory settings in BIOS such as memory frequency, timings, and voltage? If you continue to issues, we can definitely have them exchanged for two new sets.

Thank you
GSKILL SUPPORT

[trekkerxp]

Attempted enabling XMP profile in BIOS. Settings under that profile were as follows: Uncore Multiplier: 18; Memory Multiplier: 10DR3-1333; tCL: 7; tRCD: 7; tRP: 7; tRASmin: 23; tRFC: 56; tRRD: 4; tWR: 10; tWTR: 5; tRTP: 5; tRC: 15; tFAW: 15; Memory Voltage: 1.5v; UnCore Voltage Override: 1.1v; Command Rate: 2T

I say attempted because it never successfully booted after that. 2 attempts at boot - both resulting in BSOD.

Went to manual settings on Memory. Made changes to tCL: 8; tRCD: 8; tRP: 8; and tRASmin: 24; the rest were still the same from the XMP profile.

Same result - BSOD on boot

Went into BIOS, F9 to reset all settings to default. Made minor changes for SATA hard drive and enabled VT technology for virtuals. Booted successfully (making this entry on my system )

Any of the profile settings out of whack? Any suggestions before we graduate to an RMA?

Thanks for responding.

[GSKILL TECH]

Not sure why you tried 7-7-7-23, the memory is not rated for that.

The settings that need to be changed are:

Memory Frequency DDR3-1333
Memory Timings - tCL 8 - tRCD 8 - tRP 8 - tRAS 24 - Command Rate 2
Memory Voltage - 1.50V
IMC Voltage - 1.30V

Save and exit, let me know how that works.

Thank you
GSKILL SUPPORT

[trekkerxp]

In response to your question regarding why i tried the 7-7-7-23, you had requested I try the XMP Profile. When I chose that profile in the BIOS, those were the settings applied by the profile. As stated before, I am not an Overclocker so I have never dealt with making changes to the defaults for Processor, Memory, and voltage. In all previous builds and memory, default settings have ALWAYS worked flawlessly.

But moving on and making your recommended changes shortly. I will present another thread update to reflect my success or failure. NOTE: I am equating your IMC Voltage field with the UnCore Voltage Override. If that is incorrect, please advise.

Thanks

[trekkerxp]

1st Hurdle complete: we booted successfully after making requested changes to Memory settings in BIOS. NOTE: the only difference now from prior attempts is what Intel lists as Uncore Voltage Override and I equated that with your IMC Voltage suggestion to set to 1.3V. So we shall see. The system on BIOS default settings would run with no BSOD's as long as I never powered it off.

So the test plan for me is as follows:
1. see if the system will run without BlueScreen over the next 3 days of being powered on all the time.
2. After the 3rd day with no BSOD's, turn off the system and power it up after a span of 8 hours or more of time has elapsed. Watch the system for BSOD's over the next 2 days of constant power up
3. If the system has been stable thru 1 and 2, then power off system for another 8+ hours and then begin Memtest+ cycle and test RAM for 24 hours

IF ALL of that checks out without any random BSOD's, we may finally have hit paydirt.

Stay Tuned.

[trekkerxp]

So is the memory supposed to pass tests with Memtest86+? This system has me nervous as a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs.

so I powered off the system this morning at 9am. It had been powered up and running Windows 7 for 3 days with no BSOD's. I powered on the system tonight at 9pm giving the system the 8 plus hours gap to see if stability held. The system did boot into Windows 7, but I noticed some oddities on the Intel Desktop Control Center panel regarding Core Voltage. That led me to run the Memory/CPU test contained in Intel Desktop Control Center. NOTE: i ran this test a couple times during the 3 day run just completed and it passed each time. This time, the Memory test failed.

This led me to go ahead and move on to running Memtest86+. 1st Pass resulted in massive errors, i didn't even let it complete the full pass.

Checked the BIOS to make sure the G-Skill suggested settings were still there. Nothing had changed, it was still the way I had set it with the 8-8-8-24, 2T and the 1.3v Voltage Override.

Tried soft boot and run the pass again, same result, massive errors

Tried to power it off, wait for a couple minutes, powered on, ran test, result massive errors

Tried soft boot, entered BIOS, set BIOS to default and then made the G-Skill suggested settings to try to get it back. Ran Memtest86+ and the result is massive errors.

What Now G-Skill?

sigh.............................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .......................

[GSKILL TECH]

Try testing each set seperately or each stick individually to determine whether one may be defective. That may be the cause of your issues, otherwise if the memory checks out fine, everything should be fine with the proper settings.

Thank you
GSKILL SUPPORT

[trekkerxp]

I know my initial post was lengthy, but I was trying to provide as much information as possible to assist the process. I don't know if you have an Intel DP55KG motherboard sitting in your test lab, but I am REALLY hoping you do. Here is a excerpt from my FIRST posting:

Begin testing of only one module at a time. NO ERRORS on multiple passes and reboot scenarios on all 4 modules. (it was great timing that I had 2 weeks of vacation I had taken eh?) So as a test, only put two modules in and ran the system under Windows 7. No BSOD's or errors for many days. Swapped out the two modules for the other two modules and let them have a shot, still no errors or random reboots. So, knowing that the sum of the parts were all healthy, I once again populated all 4 dimm slots and forged ahead with various changes in the BIOS. I set the memory to 8-8-8-24, but the BSOD's continued. I underclocked the memory to 1067mhz with no change in stability of the system. Frustrated, I set the BIOS back to default with F9 and was going to start from scratch on what to do to stabilize the system. Began running Memtest86+ again and for some unknown reason, the test passed. rebooted, test, it passed again, power down, boot up and test, it passed again. This is with all four modules installed and the BIOS set to default - JUST LIKE IT WAS WHEN I STARTED THE INITIAL BUILD!! can you sense how frustrating that would be? I then set the test to run continuously and left it overnight. On Dec 28th I shut it down after running Memtest for 9 hours with zero errors.

So, now what? I have done what you have asked back in December, tested each module and also test 2 modules at a time, AND I have tested all four modules. At straight Default BIOS settings they test fine, BUT I cannot power off my system. If I do, the next session introduces BSOD's in the OS.

With the BIOS set to your recommendations I can't get the RAM to test successfully using Memtest86+.

Now what?

[trekkerxp]

Today is January 24th and no update or murmur from G-Skill. The optimist in me says they are quiet because they are hard at work testing the ram on an Intel DP55KG motherboard. Remember G-Skill, these issues appear when 4 modules are used and I am definitely not alone with that issue. Other motherboards, CPU's and memory modules are also experiencing various issues when using 4 our your modules.

I was reading other posts, and in one you told someone to shut off the Turbo Boost for Intel CPU. So this time around, I have entered your suggested settings along with shutting off Turbo Boost. This won't be a good week for me to run tests so I will be leaving my system powered up 24X7 for the week and wait for a BSOD to appear.

I have a link to some CPU-Z screenshots of my system today:
http://cid-9fc79fdd7f2c89f9.skydrive...dnkEcvXxeLA%24

let me know if you cannot view them.

Thanks