F3-12800CL9-2GBNQ Problem

[mmhabig]

Hey guys,

I just recently bought 8 gigs of your F3-12800CL9-2GBNQ ram (4 sticks) and have installed them on my computer. I set the clock like this forum suggested at 9, 9, 9, 24 and the MHZ at 800 on the option for "Both". Everything seems to run great, had a few BSOD's first but then I tried each stick one by one, found them all to be good, reinstalled, put BIOS to default settings, and then re-edited the settings and it appeared to work fine. No BSOD's since.

My problem is, when I check out CPU-Z it says it's not running at said 800MHZ, in fact it says the max bandwidth is 667MHZ, which it's not running at either.

Here's a screenshot:


Did I not input the right settings?

My motherboard is an Asus M4A785TD-V EVO and my CPU is an AMD Phenom II X4 955.

Thanks in advance for the help!

[mmhabig]

Spoke too soon... Getting BSOD's quite frequently now if I try to load a game or anything that seems to put load on the system.

Put all the BIOS settings back to auto and it seems to be stable for now.

Edit: Spoke too soon again. Even with all auto settings on the BIOS still getting random MEMORY_MANAGEMENT BSOD's when putting the system under load... It worked great when I only used 2 sticks, this has only started happening when I put in all 4 sticks.

[GSKILL TECH]

With your original DDR3-1600 settings, increase NB Voltage to 1.40V and HT Voltage 1.20V.

For actual memory settings, look under the Memory tab, not SPD. SPD tab values are simply suggested values.

Let me know how that goes.

Thank you
GSKILL SUPPORT

[mmhabig]

Put those voltages in, seems to be stable. Also put the timing settings back and CPU-Z under Memory tab say it's running at 803.5 MHZ with the 9-9-9-24 timing. Seems to be all good! I'll keep updating this if anything happens.

[GSKILL TECH]

Sounds good, I'll be right here waiting to solve any problems. =)

Thank you
GSKILL SUPPORT

[mmhabig]

System has been running really stable after startup but this morning I got 2 sequential BSOD's on cold boot. This seems to be a persistent Asus + G.Skill problem. Is there anything I can do to help alleviate this?

[mmhabig]

Back to consistent BSOD's under load. Settings stayed the same.

Built my girlfriends computer with all the same parts as mine, hit the power button, no post... no beep nothing. Re-seat everything, no post. I pull one of the 2 sticks (same ram as mine but 2 not 4 sticks) and it posted and loaded up just fine... I seem to be losing confidence with this brand every day...

[Tradesman]

Try raising the DRAM voltage .05 (1.55 and yes it's safe)....also check tRFC should be 127 for 2 sticks, 195 for for 4......and may want to loosen timings slightly to 9-9-9-27. Keep checking ASUS web site, they 'supposedly' are working a BIOS update to correct the Command Rate problem on the EVOs

[mmhabig]

So is this an Asus problem or a G.Skill problem that's hitting me?

I'm at work currently, the second I get home I'll try those settings, thanks for the info!

[Tradesman]

There have been problems w/ the EVO since they released it, numerous BIOS updates, Command Rate not available in the BIOS (which is a no-no), trouble with RAM (especially 1333 and higher, in part do to the quasi lock on the command rate at 1N........and it's for AMD CPUs, which aren't well known for having a decent memory controller. I put out alot of boxes a year but maybe only 1 in 18-20 is an AMD rig...in large part because of the RAM issues, I've advocated the 64 bit OS's for a few years, with 4-12 GB of RAM, but it's really been catching on since the Win7 64 OS dropped in on the public in beta (the pre-public betas were strong also)

[mmhabig]

I'm usually a huge fan of AMD but I had no idea of all these problems. The Asus boards too have always worked flawlessly for me so it's pretty upsetting to hear about these issues.

[Tradesman]

Are you OCing at all? the 1600 RAM (by spec for the EVO) is rated for OCing....a possibility you could try would be to drop speed to 1333 and tighten timings to CL8 or possibly a loose CL7...like I told another member today, I may pick up one of these EVOs and either a 955 or 965 just to play with and see more of the issues.

If you look through the AMD stable of CPUs, their big thing is price, and to achieve that, they (in my opinion) skimp on the R&D, in particular w/ the MC, going back through their line (a few of the major glitches) for a while their CPUs couldn't run 1066 or better at all, then a number of them could go 1066+ but only a single DIMM per channel (and God help you if you threw 4GB DIMMs in), now the newer ones are advertised as good for 4 DIMMS, but depending on the speed you really need to kick up voltages and OC the things

[mmhabig]

I dropped it to 1333 to get some stability going, it seems to run a lot better (it can handle load at least) but that's about it. I haven't OC'd it at all, I worried about OCing it with having stability issues while still on OEM speeds.

I'm still new to this so, specifically, which timings would work? 8-8-8-? or something?

Thanks for the help!

[Tradesman]

@1333 I'd start w/ 8-8-8-24 ..... leave the DRAM Voltage and tRFC as is, if unstable go to 8-8-8-26...else if stable, could try 7-8-8-24, which may be pushing it if your not OCing.

Thing to do would be get stable, then OC a bit (which will help the MC) then you can experiment a bit more as time allows......big thing is stability first so you can use the box (+ if it's a new build, will want to allow 5-6 days anyway for your thermal compound on the CPU/HS to cure before any real OCing)

[mmhabig]

It is a new build, around a week old or so. Arctic Silver recommends 500 hours but I figured that'd be a bit long. I'll try those timings. Leave the voltage at 1.500 or go to 1.55 like you had previously recommended?