Extremely weird PC problem, please help me solve it :S

[maverick7]

Ok first off here are my components which i bought a few days before Christmas

Coolermaster Stacker 830 EVO
Asus Maximus Formula Motherboard
EVGA 8800 gts 512MB
Corsair XMS2 TWIN2X2048-6400C4 2GB 2X1GB PC2-6400 DDR2-800 CL 4-4-4-12 240PIN Dual Channel Memory
Intel Q6600 with thermalright ultra 120 extreme with arctic silver 5 thermal paste
24" LG LCD MVA panel L245Wp-BN
700 watt ocz power supply
2x Western Digital 500 gig hard drives
Dual boot windows xp professional and windows vista ultimate


ok so anyways this is the problem

I put together the pc and installed the os, got 9 viruses and then had to wipe the hard drive... After that i installed the os again and didnt make the same mistake at downloading shady anti spyware programs. But on to the main problem, i ran memtest and boom i got tons of errors right away. So i fell to the processes of elimination and found the faulty stick of ram. I returned it and got a new package of ram. I tested this ram and again i got errors... the chances of that happening are astronomical but not impossible. So i then brought my entire pc into the store where i bought my parts. The tech guy there opened 2 new packages of ram, 4 in total after the ones i tested. One stick would always work in every single slot, the other stick would always fail in every single slot. This makes absolutely no sense at all... Why would one stick work in every slot and the other stick always fail.. How could it be the motherboard then? and how could it be the ram because 4 packages all failing is near impossible

so whats your take on it??

*if i have left any information out just let me know

 

[o1die]

You could try returning the board, but a different brand of memory might work better. I adjust my timings manually, and my old asrock runs fine with all 4 slots filled.

 

[Hellboy]

Motherboard sounds a bit suss to me.

Just to make sure, reset the bios to defaults and see how we go from there.

 

[maverick7]

i dont think u quite understood me, i have only 2 sticks of ram 2x1 gb. One stick would work in every slot by itself (meaning only 1gb was installed), then i would take that stick out and put the other one that came with the package in by itself again. That one would fail, meaning the problem lies with the ram. However the same problem happened with 4 packages of ram. One stick would work in every slot and the other stick would fail in every slot.

*i have updated the bios btw

and i did adjust my timings manually along with the voltage to exactly what the ram specification are being 2.1 volts and 4-4-4-12

*edit- btw that was in response to o1die

*edit- in response to Hellboy, the problem occurs with the bios that came with the motherboard and when i updated it as well

 

[mechstan]

Get a new or different motherboard... Most likely the Motherboard is faulty

 

[maverick7]

but how can that be when one stick works and the other doesnt. always 4 packages and 1 stick out of each package would always work by itself in every slot and the other stick would then fail by itself in every slot.. that makes no sense at all escpecially when it happens with 4 packages

 

[Shadow703793]

up the RAM voltage

 

[oldgreyhead]

Maybe the M/Bs haunted. Theres a tortured spirit trapped in there. Call in an excorcist.

 

[badge]

Ok first off here are my components which i bought a few days before Christmas

Coolermaster Stacker 830 EVO
Asus Maximus Formula Motherboard
EVGA 8800 gts 512MB
Corsair XMS2 TWIN2X2048-6400C4 2GB 2X1GB PC2-6400 DDR2-800 CL 4-4-4-12 240PIN Dual Channel Memory
Intel Q6600 with thermalright ultra 120 extreme with arctic silver 5 thermal paste
24" LG LCD MVA panel L245Wp-BN
700 watt ocz power supply
2x Western Digital 500 gig hard drives
Dual boot windows xp professional and windows vista ultimate


ok so anyways this is the problem

I put together the pc and installed the os, got 9 viruses and then had to wipe the hard drive... After that i installed the os again and didnt make the same mistake at downloading shady anti spyware programs. But on to the main problem, i ran memtest and boom i got tons of errors right away. So i fell to the processes of elimination and found the faulty stick of ram. I returned it and got a new package of ram. I tested this ram and again i got errors... the chances of that happening are astronomical but not impossible. So i then brought my entire pc into the store where i bought my parts. The tech guy there opened 2 new packages of ram, 4 in total after the ones i tested. One stick would always work in every single slot, the other stick would always fail in every single slot. This makes absolutely no sense at all... Why would one stick work in every slot and the other stick always fail.. How could it be the motherboard then? and how could it be the ram because 4 packages all failing is near impossible

so whats your take on it??

*if i have left any information out just let me know

All this dialogue is from the ASUS Maximus Formula X38 product page Forum. I'll highlight some things then give my take at the end. I will say right off the bat ASUS Maximus has a new American trends BIOS design and if you have not used ASUS in the past it can take a while to learn to properly tweak this new BIOS.

From the product page forum. I highlighted some points in BOLD:

http://vip.asus.com/forum/topic.aspx?elitepost=0&SLanguage=en-us&board_id=1&model=Maximus%20Formula&page_size=10&page=2&count=395


Hey guys, I just brought my self the Maximus Formula board and 2gb of Crucial Ballistic DDR2 PC2-8500C5 RAM. Crucial say the memory is compatible, Asus say their board supports a native speed of 1066, but I just can't do it!

I'm also running the Q6600 G0 stepping for informations sake. The memory auto boots at 800Mhz, but that's not what I paid for lol!

I've been reading forums for hours and trying all sorts of settings. I flashed my bios to 907 out of desperation and still nothing. If I manually set my RAM settings to their specifications I get "Det Mem" error and the computer won't boot. I'm not new to system building, but I am to over clocking, so all help is welcomed!

Anyone offer a hand?

Thanks in advance.

Answer:

Make sure you have the Ram in A1 & B1 slots.

If it wont boot at 2.14v try 2.2v.

If still No Go, try those voltages with 888 Frequency. (Note: this what I would do first of all)

If still No Go Run Memtest and look for Errors indicating the Ram is Bad.


tried with the new volts, same problem. When I changed the Mhz to 887 it worked. I'm using a 510 power supply, waiting on my 800w to be replaced, it was DOA. Would that make a difference? to the point where it wouldnt even boot?

I'll try using one stick next!



Hi guys

Got problem with memory...in tests memtest86+ 1.70 and memtest86 3.4a got so many errors...
Memory Corsiar Twin2X 6400C4 all was tested at my another mb ASUS P5B-Deluxe and dont have any errors !And now on this new Maximus Formula i got errors, tried few bios 0802 and 0907
How i can solve this problem any idias ?

A word of warning.
After having loads of trouble getting 4x 1GB Crucial Ballistix sticks to work I bought 4x 1GB Corsair XMS 6400C4 sticks. Two sticks work okay (a few initial glitches but stable now with 907 BIOS running at 800MHz). Four sticks just refuse to work at any setting and with any BIOS revision. I've tried everything I can think off. Voltages, timings, BIOS, etc. No joy. The Maximus just doesn't seem to like 4x 1GB sticks. I'm Now thinking of swapping the 1GB sticks out for 2GB sticks so I can get 4GB using just two sticks.
Curiously the Maximus also doesn't read the timings correctly from the Corsair RAM and sets it at 5-5-5-18 rather than 4-4-4-12. Stability if you set to 4-4-4-12 is also poor so I leave mine at 5-5-5-18. Low latency timings are not really an issue with the new Intel processors anyway but thought I'd mention it.

Here I am...Well, from all this, and this is just a small, random sample concerning RAM problems, many people have had trouble tring to use Corsair PC6400 800mhz. RAM in the board. So, first off you might try some other brand (G. Skill in my sig works flawlessly and booted with 8 GB at 2.06v.)

Next, I would ask if you are familiar with ASUS American Megatrends BIOS? Is the guy at the store familiar with ASUS AM BIOS? The Maximus Formula introduces some improvement adding a lot of ennthusiasts tweaking capability with this board.

1. Jumper Free Config: The board natively supports PC8500 or 1066 mhz RAM speed. You are using PC6400 800mhz (the board supports PC6400), but have you configured the RAM speed in BIOS and set it to 800 mhz? I would do this configuration first of all.

2. Bump up the voltage to 2.2v if 2.1 won't crank the Corsiar 6400.

3. Increase the NB voltage. You may have to research the proper level of overvolt, but this can most definately be your problem. I did not have to overvolt my system's NB, but I'm not a big overclocker. I have overvolted the NB on other boards to get some high strung RAM to run. In fact, it was OCZ tech support who told me to overvolt the NB to make their high quaity stuff even run in many instances.

4. It could be a bad board. before I RMA'd the board, I would try some other brand of RAM and see if the same problem perststs. My system runs perfect and is the most efficient system I have built to date. HTH GL.

 

[badge]

This article may help and give some pointers to help get the system running properly.

http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=3149&p=10

 

[orangegator]

Did you try to mix and match the working sticks from each package and see if they worked together?

 

[endyen]

Did you try to mix and match the working sticks from each package and see if they worked together?

Now that makes sense. It sounds like somehow corsair made up pairs of one good stick and one bad stick, for the batch that shop got.
I'd go back to the shop, and give them the option of giving me a better brand that works, giving me a matched pair that works (no matter how many packages they had to open) or give me a discount, and a mismatched pair that worked.

 

[maverick7]

Wow thanks a ton for the post Badge very helpful m8 ill try and tweak the thing to see if i can get it to work

 

[notherdude]

So it goes like this?:

1. Take a single stick, say stick 'a' from package '1' and put it in any slot, say slot 1, and the system works.

2. Take out stick a from pkg 1 and put in stick b from pkg 1 in same slot and no go.

3. Repeat for any number of packages?

Perhaps upon failing the BIOS resets to some safe RAM setting and then the next stick works but upon working the BIOS decides to run next time at a setting specified by the SPD module which does not work, again fail and then a reset to default safe setting, then next time works.

iIt's a crazy guess I know but that's the only scenario I can dream up.

Will the working stick boot on two successive runs?

In any event set the RAM settings manually to a very safe timing and mfg voltage and try a different brand