Help with F3-14900CL9D-8GBXL

[perryMD90]

I just recently (last week) built my first computer, and everything ran fine for the first 5 or so days, but now I'm getting constant BSOD's, usually saying the reason is Memory Management. At least 50% of the time I try to run any games they will just crash and my system BSOD's.

I hadn't overclocked the memory but the reason i decided to get this particular model was for possibly doing so in the future, so i had only tried setting the target DRAM speed to 1333 and 1600 MHz, both of which had the same issues, as well as having my BIOS simply load the optimized defaults for my hardware.

I ran the Windows Memory Diagnostic and it says there is an issue with the hardware, as well as ran Memtest86+, which, after only just a couple hours had well over 1 million errors.

At this point, I can't figure out if the memory is defective and will need to be replaced or if I can do anything about it and maybe just have it set up incorrectly.

For reference, my CPU is an Intel Sandy Bridge i5 2500k @ 3.3 GHz and my Mobo is an ASUS P8Z77-V LK.

On a note about my mobo, I've noticed a lot of people stating that when setting up certain memory sticks, the CPU-NB voltage will need to be tweaked slightly, as well as the CPU bus, but I've looked through my entire BIOS and cannot for the life of me find where to change ether of these settings, unless it would be called something else?

Any help would be greatly appreciated, and if I forgot to mention anything I apologize, I will reply with any information I might be missing

[Tradesman]

Good reason for not finding the CPU/NB - that's on AMD systems, you are running Intel...best bet check that you have the latest BIOS, if not, go ahead and flash to the latest. Then clear the CMOS (it's in your mobo manual), install all sticks in the slots according to the manual, boot into BIOS, enable XMP, select the 1866 profile and should be good to go. Problems you are currently having may well be from having it on auto, is prob setting the sticks up for 1333 or 1600 with timings like 10-10-10-30 or even 11-11-11-3x something when these at say 1600 should be at about 8-8-8-24 or soi

[perryMD90]

Thanks for the response Tradesman.

I cleared the CMOS after making sure I am running the latest BIOS and set the profile to XMP at the 1866 setting. Seemed fine at first, I decided to run the memory diagnostic again to see if it said there were still issues. Before the program could restart my computer, I got another BSOD.

I didn't see what the reason for this one was, but I can attach the minidump file if that would help (I tried installing the debugger on the computer that's having issues but it tells me that a file is corrupt and cannot install).

Both my BIOS and Windows read that I have 8GB of RAM, so it's seemingly not an issue of not being able to read the memory or not having enough, and now I'm at a loss of what to do.

[Tradesman]

With Asus, and a few others, the BIOS doesn't always set things correctly, go to the BIOS and check to make sure XMP set the base timings to 9-10-9-28, if not go ahead and change them manually, then raise the DRAM voltage to 1.55 and see how that goes, also make sure the Turbo seting for the CPU is enabled

[perryMD90]

Alright, I'll give that a try and reply with how it works out.

I also have another question, if the memory does manage to start working correctly will Windows Memory Diagnostic report that in a test? If that's unclear, what i mean specifically is instead of saying there is a hardware issue, will it revert back to telling me it is working fine or would it continue giving me an error message? Or would the test need to run a full pass to determine it is working then would say so on a second test run?

[perryMD90]

The Windows Memory Diagnostic is still saying there are hardware problems detected after changing the settings. I'll try running them on 1333 and, if that works, I will test on 1600. Will also try running memtest for awhile and see if the amount of errors has increased/dropped.

[Tradesman]

To really check the sticks, will be best to run Memtest on each stick by itself, prob don't need to do a full run, say 4-5 passes on each should tell if either has a problem, best to run at rated speed and timings

[perryMD90]

I'm running each stick individually, and running each stick twice, one time in each of the two slots I had them both in. I ran both sticks in the A2 slot and got a lot of errors for both, then started to run one in the B2 slot, and noticed when memtest started, it listed the timings as 6-6-6-20 instead of 9-10-9-28. I cut the test short to test that with the other stick as well, and same problem with the timings. I booted back to the BIOS, which reads that while in the B2 slot, both sticks are set to 9-10-9-28. I'm going to finish running each stick in the B2 slot and see what the results say.

[Tradesman]

Sounds like may have a problem with the slot, might try A1 and B1 and see if any problems, it's not unusual for them to get the primary sockets reversed - another thing to check would be CPU and socket, thermal compound on bottom of CPU, bent pins in socket, etc....if problems persist in slots 1-2 and CPU/socket both look good prob want to exchange w/ vendor or RMA

[perryMD90]

I'll give it a try, thanks for all the responses Tradesman.

[Tradesman]

No problem, I'll be in and out this evening

[Catscratch]

Ahem. Just to test something.

Set the XMP profile and check in bios if it set the advertised voltages and timings right. Set VCCIO voltage to 1.1v.

Now. Save Settings and Exit but when you see Asus logo turn the computer off. Cut the power to PSU. Press power button to unload remaning power off motherboard. Wait 20 seconds then power PSU and run computer. Test with Memtest or just boot into windows and immediately try to launch IE. If memory is still unstable, IE should crash. Or go to youtube which triggers hardware acceleration. Usually ATI or Nvidia control panel should crash on launch too.

If it doesn't crash. Typical unstable Asus motherboard like mine.

[perryMD90]

Do you know where the VCCIO setting would be located? I can't seem to find it anywhere in my BIOS.

[perryMD90]

other than altering the voltage (since I couldn't find it) I otherwise did everything you suggested, booted up windows, opened IE, and it seemed fine. I closed IE and went to open the control panel and got a BSOD with memory management as the issue. Restarted, booted windows again, opened IE and went to youtube and nothing crashed. Does that mean it's a mobo issue and not the memory then?

[Tradesman]

On your mobo there is no VCCIO setting (sort of like the CPU/NB mentioned earlier, thats the MC (Memory Controller voltage on AMD, VCCIO is the MC voltage on P67, H67, some Z68s, you have the Z77 chipset so will want to look for the VTTCPU or CPUVTT voltage, may even be just VTT (isn't this fun, don't know why they can't just call it MC Voltage?????), on other mobos it might be QPI/VTT.