F3-10666CL9D-4GBNQ + Gigabyte GA-MA770T-UD3P + AMD Athlon II X3 435

[atixgskill]

Disclaimer I have gskil in my username but I am not affiliated with gskill.

Operating system :
Windows 7 Home Prenium 64 bits.

System specs :
Gigabyte GA-MA770T-UD3P ATX AM3 DDR3 AMD770 rev1.0
AMD Athlon II X3 435 Triple Core Processor Socket AM3
G.SKILL F3-10666CL9D-4GBNQ PC3-10666
Gigabyte Radeon HD 5770 1GB
Coolermaster Centurion 534
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB
Corsair VX550W 550W ATX 12V 41A 24PIN ATX Power Supply

Problem :
Unstable system. System crashing to grey/colored screen with thin vertical bars.

The problem will happen more often after a coldboot if I haven't powered on the computer after a dozen or more hours.

After a coldboot, I will be watching a movie in full screen in VLC media player and (randomly it seem) the screen will turn grey with thin vertical bars. The sound will continue to play but the system is unresponsive. I have to shutdown my system by holding the power button.

When the system boot back, it will be very unstable, I might be surfing in firefox and the same thing will happen just browsing the web. Sometime the system will give a pale blue screen with thin vertical bar after logging in to windows, when the system is supposed to show the desktop. Sometime I will get a windows explorer has stopped working (as a programmer, I know you can achive the same kind of error by referencing a pointer that has been given a NULL value).

Sometime the system, after a few crash like this will just not boot to windows at all, it will crash before I can log on. When this happenned, I tried removing one DIMM from the mobo and my system will then boot no problem, If I switch for the other DIMM again there is no error and if I then put back in the system again, will boot with no error.

Then the system might stay stable for 1,2,3 or even up to 7 days without a itch and then one day, out of the blue, it will decide that after a coldboot it does not want to play nice again.

I've run memtest for a good 10 hours with no errors detected on the RAM.
I have the latest BIOS for my MOBO
I have the latest drivers for all my system hardware.
I've run 3dmark without a itch, and can play crysis at high settings for hours without a crash.
I've chkdsk my HD several time and no problem detected either.


I've ruled out my GPU being defective because it handle high 3d load with no problem.

I've read several thread and made here and tried tweaking some BIOS settings, sometime it will help and run nice for a few days but always, in the end, I experience the same problem with gray/colored screen with vertical bars.

I am asking for help here. GSKILL TECH seem to be very active and give good tips on tweaking so please help me out. I am including screenshot of my BIOS config screen so you can tell me what to change.

My CPU supported Mobo list :
http://products.amd.com/en-us/Recomm...6=&f7=&f8=95+W

My Mobo supported RAM :
http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/FileList/...a770t-ud3p.pdf
(this show F3-10666CL8D-4GBHK as being compatible but not F3-10666CL9D-4GBNQ, hopefully it's just a revision and both are compatible)

SS of my Bios :

[GSKILL TECH]

Installed in incorrect slots, you'll want to try 1 and 2 or 3 and 4.

Thank you
GSKILL SUPPORT

[atixgskill]

Wow really I feel dumb . I read my motherboard manual and I must have not understood the instructions correctly. I know you are not a Gigabyte Tech but I'm asking anyway.

Here are where my stick are installed :


I understand they should be installed here instead then :


I am not at home right now but I will try this as soon as I get back home and will update the thread.

[Rawrfail]

k you realize you use ddr3 1 and ddr3 2 OR ddr3 3 and ddr3 4 if you use ddr3 1 and ddr3 3 or ddr3 2 and ddr3 4 your using the same channels this is a duel channel KIT use the same color dimms to install your ram both in the white or blue dimms

[atixgskill]

MY DIMM are both in the blue slots and it show up as the screen shot of bios show ...

DIMM2 and DIMM4

This didn't help. I am nore more confused

[stravy]

atixgskill...you have put your ram in the right slots...something is screwy with gigabyte's board...mine says the same thing in the bios.

i have the 785gmt-ud2h and the manual says when running dual channel ram, to occupy slots 1 and 2 or 3 and 4. However the bios says different.

BTW - putting them in slots 1 and 3 doesnt do anything different...already tried.

[atixgskill]

Looking into my manual it seem the RAM are installed in the correct slots :



Initially RAM was installed in the slot closest to the CPU (DDR3_1 & DDR3_2) but same problem is happenning.

In that case, can you help me with correct settings GSKILL TECH ?

[atixgskill]

Alright so after 4 weeks of digging and trying multiple fix ...

ATI finally admit the problem is caused by their software/drivers :

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/ATI...5870,9549.html

AMD has confirmed that a previously reported issue of grey lines or screens with certain Radeon HD 5000 GPUs affects both the 5700 and 5800 series.

Earlier this week, it emerged that many 5000 series users were experiencing problems with crashing and grey or colored lines appearing on his or her display. The grey screens and hangups were occurring while users were gaming, watching movies or in some cases, when the computer was just sitting idle.

When users contacted customer service they were told the issue was caused by a Windows 7 update. ATI recommended a clean install of the graphics card driver as a possible fix, stating this had solved some users problems. The ATI Catalyst 10.1 release notes (published Wednesday) note the problem as a known issue; however, it's described as a problem affecting users of all versions of Windows and not just Windows 7.

Today Dave Erskine, an AMD spokesperson, informed us that, "only a small number of ATI Radeon HD 5800 series and ATI Radeon HD 5700 series cards are exhibiting the behavior," and that the team is closing in on a fix for the apparently software related issue.

"The team is testing a driver hotfix and initial tests indicate that it resolves the issue," Mr Erskine said. "We need to test it further but we expect to make the hotfix available shortly."

[GSKILL TECH]

Yep, figured, did not sound like memory issue.

Thank you
GSKILL SUPPORT