CPU Crashing with more than 2GB of RAM

MikeyMouse

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Nov 13, 2013
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10,510
I bought my current PC a few years ago. I bought the Motherboard, CPU, cooler, RAM and everything separate and assembled them myself.
I bought it with 4gb of DDR3 RAM, but soon noticed it crashed when I put all of it in. By crashed I mean you start it up, browse the web, start a game, just look around the Windows explorer and the screen freezes and whatever sound is playing stretches out, until you Ctrl Alt Del or hit the power button. The time it takes is pretty random, sometimes a few minutes after starting up, sometimes an hour.

At first I thought the RAM chip was faulty so I brought it back to the shop and exchanged it for a single 4 gb chip. That caused the same crashing. So I brought that back, got my money back and went to a different store and bought 2 two GB sticks.

The machine has worked fine over the last few years with 2gb of ram, while I have 2 more 2 GB chips gathering dust on the machine.
I have an SSD disk, so I figure having little RAM isn't holding back things too much.

But just the other day I dusted off those RAM chips and inserted one of them. Same thing, after 20 minutes it crashed.

Has anyone experienced this kind of thing before? I've googled around a good bit, but haven't found any solution?

Thanks for any help with this

 
Solution
Here is how to check the BIOS version, the newer is 0802.
http://www.wikihow.com/Check-BIOS-Version
BIOS http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/M4A78LTM/#support
Here is from ASUA BIOS 0802 description: "1.Improve system stability. 2.Improve memory stability."
You should update the BIOS first.

From the screen shots;
1) You should disable the ECC mode (2nd screen shot), because your CPU is desktop, which use the non-ECC RAM.
2) In the memory over voltage section, you can change to 1.55V ( also you can up by 0.01 V and so on) from auto, check the manual.
3) In the 4th screen shot, TCL=9, TRCD=9, TRP=9, tRTP=1 or 2, TRAS=27.

MikeyMouse

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Nov 13, 2013
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10,510


I've posted up some details of the Mainboard, thanks again for any help
 
When I look at those screen shots, you should install the RAM into the slots with same color ( either blue or black).
You can try the 2x 2GB RAM first, install in the slot1 and 2 ( black), go to the bios RAM section, also set the timing like 9-9-9-26. And boot the PC and to see the PC can run stable or not.
Here is some info. Memory: Basics, Tweaking & Overclocking
http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=257741

Also can you post what CPU do you use? and do you oc the cpu or not? Because sometime the PC will not run stable under the Ocing.
 

MikeyMouse

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Nov 13, 2013
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Cool, thanks for the info. I'll try this this evening. I had no idea you had to match the colour on RAM slots. Thanks for that tip.
It'd be cool to get it to run with 4GB, 6 would be a total bonus.

I'll post up a shot of the CPU, I'm pretty certain it isn't overclocked unless it came outta the box that way.
 

MikeyMouse

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Nov 13, 2013
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10,510


Ok, I inserted the two identical memory sticks into the first two black slots.
I started it up like that and it crashed after a few minutes. I went back into the BIOS and it had loads more than 9-9-9-26. I tried to set the ones that corresponded with those numbers, but am not sure I go them all right. I set the Memory speed to 670, but it crashed... bummer.
I'll read through that link you sent on tomorrow

Here's the CPU
http://snag.gy/CzgPk.jpg

Oh and Windows does start a memory diagnostic after the crash, but it's done it a few times and it doesn't seem to do any good.
 

MikeyMouse

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Nov 13, 2013
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10,510
I'm pretty sure it's not the RAM chips themselves. I even took back the original ones I go when I bought the parts and got a single 4gb chip, which crashed it too. I took that back too and got the three singles I have now.
Any of the singles works fine on it's own, just putting more than one in at a time causes the crashes.

This annoying program (http://biosagentplus.com/) is suggesting I sign up, is saying my BIOS is out of date... do you think updating my BIOS could help?
 

MikeyMouse

Honorable
Nov 13, 2013
9
0
10,510
Here is how to check the BIOS version, the newer is 0802.
http://www.wikihow.com/Check-BIOS-Version
BIOS http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/M4A78LTM/#support
Here is from ASUA BIOS 0802 description: "1.Improve system stability. 2.Improve memory stability."
You should update the BIOS first.

From the screen shots;
1) You should disable the ECC mode (2nd screen shot), because your CPU is desktop, which use the non-ECC RAM.
2) In the memory over voltage section, you can change to 1.55V ( also you can up by 0.01 V and so on) from auto, check the manual.
3) In the 4th screen shot, TCL=9, TRCD=9, TRP=9, tRTP=1 or 2, TRAS=27.
 
Solution

MikeyMouse

Honorable
Nov 13, 2013
9
0
10,510
That's it dude, I'm not sure which of your changes it was. Yesterday I checked the BIOS, it was the new version.
I turned off the ECC mode. I set the RAM Voltage to 1.5, which turned red.
It crashed again, and seemed to reset all the BIOS settings, and turned back on the "Press 4 to unlock cores". I left that on, set the voltage to 1V (or around there, it was the minimum) which made it green and set all the TCL/TRCD settings liek you suggested (Except tTRP, the min was 4, so i set it to that)....
and it hasn't crashed since.
This was with 4 GB, so I'm tempted to try all 6, but don't wanna jinx it... either way, it was stable all evening. so I'd say it's fixed.

Your Memory Master and CPU Authority are well deserved. Thank you so much for all your help and patience with this!