E6300/Gigabyte DS3 Unstable

[wolfman140]

Heya
So here I've been for hours trying to find out what the hell is wrong with my system. Nothing is overclocked, yet nothing is stable. I can't successfully run Super PI, nor Prime 95. Must be the memory right?

-But no, I tested it 4 times over (I'll run it longer tonight) with no errors on MemTest86+.
-I ran CPU-Burn In for an hour on both cores successfully with a stable 39C temp under full load.
-My voltages all look good.
-If I up the DIMM voltage by .1v, I can more successfully run Super PI (1Mb) in 25 sec.
-I ran 3dmark06 to see if the Video Card is good, no problems there.
*Edit - I have all up to date drivers and BIOS.

So...I have temps that are nice and low, good voltages, supposedly good memory...But no stability with Prime95 and limited with Super PI. Again, upping the voltage helps...But I shouldn't have to with no OC.

If the RAM is buggy, I think I read that switching to a different DIMM slot might help? Please help me, I wanted to OC this baby but I'm not even stable at NO OC!

-E6300
-Gigabye 965-DS3
-Corsair XMS 800 Mhz

 

[lcandy]

Have you got a bios update or checked to see if one is available? It might be that the motherboard is setting the wrong values automaticaly, and you are just correcting them? I dont know, does everything else work fine?

 

[wolfman140]

Yeah I should've put that in last post, I'll edit it now. I have all the latest BIOS and drivers. With the upped DIMM voltage (+.1v) it seems a lot better and I'm getting deeper into the Prime95 test, but I'll have to wait till tonight to let it go long.

The first sign that things were wrong were BF2 crashing to Windows...so then I looked into stability tests and found out about Super PI and Prime95. Maybe its possible the DIMM slots I have the RAM in are bad and not getting enough voltage to the RAM/giving it wrong timings? Maybe I'll switch slots tonight and look for a difference.

 

[subtle]

I posted this elsewhere but seems better to keep it here. These are the issues I had hope it helps.

Well I have built a system today around the ds3 and c2d 6300, initially I had uber problems but now it seems fine.

I bought G.Skill 2GB DDR2 NR PC2-6400 (2x1GB) CAS5 Dual Channel Kit (F2-6400PHU2-2GBNR) and the board wouldnt post.

This seems to be a compatability issue (or bios problem) Im on fc3 btw. After buying a cheap piece of Kingston DDR2 I was able to enter post, and set the vdimm 0.5 v higher than the default. I put the G Skill back in and everything is ok. According to easy tune this meant the ram is running at 2.3v.

Overclocking is good tho. Have set fsb to 372 so cpu is running at 2600mhz so all is good. Dont really want to push it any higher at the moment. Ran a dew loops of super pi, and 3d mark 05 and appears stable.

One thing I found tho which is really strange. If I ran the board with all 3 dimms in, Kingston in dimm 1 and G Skill in 2 and 4 the board booted up fine with no need for vdimm adjustments.

And another thing even with the Kingston in on its own with no vdimm adjustments easy tune says the default vdimm is 2.1 even tho an increase of 0.5 v only shows on easy tune as 2.3. WTF?

Well anyway i'm quite happy with the system at the moment, but may RMA the ram for something which runs at more reasonable voltages. Not sure if I can be bothered waiting for a bios update.

Anyway, anybody have an explantion to the above other than the bios is fugged