Problem with Asus Striker II Extreme

[Belarion]

Motherboard: Asus Striker II Extreme. Bios version 1301
Memory: F3-12800CL7D-2GBHZ 7-7-7-18 (2 sticks)
CPU: Intel Core 2 duo E8500

I have crashes when watching videos, playing games and when editing videos with adobe premiere. When all memory settings in the bios are "auto", the bios sets the memory settings to 1067Mhz 8-8-8-20 and 1T and with those settings the computer totally freezes every 1-2 hours. If I set the memory timings to 9-9-9-24 and 2T it is more stable and only freezes maybe once a day. Is there any way to make this computer stable? I have not touched any voltage settings (1.6V) or raised frequency above 1067Mhz even though memory should be able to run at higher speed.

[Tradesman]

Specs for these sticks call for 1.9 volts instead of 1.6. Would also suggest putting in the timings manually instead of using auto (7-7-7-18, command rate 2T). You should be able to run them at 1600 or 1333 with the correct voltage. If there are problems, may want to boost NB by .05 to .1....Biggie is prob teh DRAM voltage being 1.6 is way to low, even trying to run at 1066/7

[Belarion]

I thought that 1.9V is only the maximum voltage that the sticks can handle and it only needs to be that high if you overclock them?

[Tradesman]

1.9 is just the standard voltage for the sticks, at the rated speed, depending on the mobo and BIOS you might be able to go up to about .1 or .15 lower (possibly a bit lower, and generally you can safely go up to about .1 above the rated voltage.

Generally it's a fairly good idea to set up at whatever the max spec voltage shown is and then work your way down while maintaining stability.

[GSKILL TECH]

The settings we list are the operating specifications. For example, your memory package can operate DDR3-1600 with 7-7-7-21 timings with 1.90V. Anything better than these specifications may require more voltage (overclocking).

Thank you
GSKILL SUPPORT

[Belarion]

I changed to 1600Mhz 7-7-7-18 and T2. I also increased memory voltage to 1.9V and I increased NB voltage 1.3V -> 1.36V. I have been testing the stability during past 2 weeks. I am not sure if freezing has gotten better but I have started getting blue screens in vista that I never got before and these can happen when computer is idle and no programs are running. When the blue screen happens it gives error Bad_Pool_Caller. It doesn't happen every day. It has happened 5 times since I changed those memory settings. Any advice?

[GSKILL TECH]

Post up pictures of your BIOS and we can see what may be set incorrectly.

Thank you
GSKILL SUPPORT

[Belarion]

Here are some bios pictures.

[Belarion]

[GSKILL TECH]

Remove Memory Level Up. Set Ai Overclock Tuner to Manual. Set FSB (QDR) to 1600. You can try memory clock mode both linked or unliked. Once this is complete, everything should run just fine.

Thank you
GSKILL SUPPORT

[Belarion]

Are you sure about that? I thought that E8500 is 1333Mhz FSB cpu?

[GSKILL TECH]

Yes, so by upping CPU Host Frequency to 400 for 1600MHz CPU FSB, that will allow you to run DDR3-1600.

Thank you
GSKILL SUPPORT

[Belarion]

Ok. I will try it. Did I understand correctly that it won't be stable unless you use 1:1 FSB - memory ratio and I'm going to have to overclock cpu to 3.2Ghz with multiplier of 8?

[GSKILL TECH]

Technically 2:1

FSB 1600MHz / DRAM 800MHz

800MHz x 2 (Double Data Rate) = DDR3-1600

Thank you
GSKILL SUPPORT