m4a79xtd + f3-10666cl9d-8gbxl = bsod + unhappy wife

[daneyuleb]

Hi,

My lovely wife's Asus m4a79xtd MB with 965 Phenom II has just been the recipient of 2
F3-12800CL9D-4GBNQ dimms. Sadly, after a few hours she experienced a blue screen. A couple of days later, another. Then another the next day, and another that same day--now they come quite often.

Putting back the previous ram (4 F3-12800CL9D-4GBRL) things were back to normal. But I need that ram elsewhere...

I ran the F3-12800CL9D-4GBNQ at 9-9-9-24. 1.5 v. at 1333 (then down to 1066). No change.

Should I up the voltage, change the timings? RMA the RAM?

Is it possible, in the RMA process, to get different, perhaps more stable-with-this-motherboard ram?

Thanks for helping!

-Daniel

[GSKILL TECH]

Test one at a time to see if one is bad. Should you need to RMA, we can send the RL kit instead of this NQ.

Thank you
GSKILL TECH

[daneyuleb]

OK, is the RL better with this motherboard?

Also...should I put the voltage to 1.6?

[daneyuleb]

Set the voltage to 1.6 and NB voltage to 1.2. Crashes seemed to go away, prime 95 ran 3 hours with no prob.

Memtest86 though, showed a single test 5 and 8 error on first pass.

Upped the voltage to 1.62.

Memtest66 went through 3 hours of no errors...but...leaving it on all night, this morning had a screen of bunch of sigma (sideways W) characters in the status area (though it was still running, and still adding more of those weird characters). Restarted and left it running again - I'll have to see where it's at when I get home.

So...

1.62 volts good? Bad? Dangerous?

Go higher? What's the limit? I'd like to get a system that ran memtest86 indefinitely with no error, but if I have to go to 1.64 or 1.66 volts to do it, am I frying my RAM or memory controller in the long run? Does the sheer fact that I have to go above 1.5 mean there's likely a RAM problem anyway? Or is that considered normal even though the chips are supposedly rated 1.5?

[NemesisChild]

Run CPU-Z and tell us if your 965 is Revision/Stepping C2 or C3.

[daneyuleb]

It's a C3 for sure. Confirmed when bought a few months ago.

[GSKILL TECH]

1.62V will be fine.

Thank you
GSKILL TECH

[daneyuleb]

Argh. Came home to tons of mem86 errors.

Back it goes.

Though it seems pretty evident the ram is indeed faulty-- is there a more compatible pair of 4 gig, 1333 capable dimms for this motherboard recommended I could ask for in the RMA?

[GSKILL TECH]

You said the RL kit worked right? Try that instead.

Thank you
GSKILL TECH