Corsair Memory Error and Vdroop/MCH Core Voltage Settings

[mikeynavy1976]

Well now I'm confused. I just exchanged 2 sticks of Corsair Dominator PC8500 (1066MHz) memory from Newegg because they wouldn't pass Memtest86+ at 2.1V and 5-5-5-15 2T timing. The replacements also won't pass, except I've bumped the MCH core voltage from 1.1V to 1.16V and the DDR voltage to 2.16V. In actuality, due to Vdroop the DDR2 voltage is showing 2.14V. When I made these setting changes the memory passed the 8 tests. At this point I believe it is a Vdroop issue rather than bad memory, although I don't know. What do people have their MCH Core voltage at? I'm just suspiscious I'd get two bad pairs of memory from Corsair. Please advise.

 

[XMSYellowbeard]

Can you provide your complete system specifications and include ALL BIOS settings you have made for RAM, CPU, and voltages

 

[mikeynavy1976]

Thanks for the reply. The following are the values shown with MIT and PC Health: The specs of my system are:
Motherboard - Gigabyte EP45-DS3R
CPU - Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450
Memory - Corsair Dominator DDR2 PC8500 (1066MHz)
Hard Drive - Western Digital Velociraptor 300GB
Video Card - XFX 8800GT Alpha Dog Edition
Sound Card - Creative SB XFi Extreme Sound
Power Supply - Corsair TX750

From BIOS Revision F8
RGE - Auto
CPU Clock Ratio - 8X
CPU Host Clock Control - Enabled
CPU Host Frequency - 400 (CPU is at 3.2GHz)
PCI Express (MHz) - 100
C.I.A.2 - Disabled
Advanced Clock Control - All Defaults
Performance Enhancement - Standard
Extreme Memory Profile (XMP) - Disabled
(G) MCH Frequency Latch - 400MHz
System Memory Multiplier - 2.66D
Memory Frequency - 1066MHz [1066MHz]
DRAM Timing Selectable (SPD) [Manual]
Timings are 5-5-5-15
Advanced Timing - All are at Auto except Command Rate which is at [2]
CPU VCore - 1.25V [Auto]
CPU Termination - 1.2V [Auto]
CPU PLL - 1.5V [Auto]
CPU Reference - 0.76V [Auto]
MCH/ICH
MCH Core - 1.1V [1.160V]
MCH Reference - 0.76V [Auto]
MCH/DRAM Reference - 0.9V [Auto]
ICH I/O - 1.5V [Auto}

DRAM Voltage - 1.8V [2.16V]
DRAM Termination - 0.9V [Auto]
Channel A Reference - 0.9V [Auto]
Channel B Reference - 0.9V [Auto]

From PC Health:
Vcore - 1.30V
DDR18V - 2.128V
+3.3V - 3.28V
+12V - 11.731V

I hope this is the information you need. Thanks again.

 

[XMSYellowbeard]

At a glance, your 12v voltage reading looks a bit low in the PC Health section if software readings can be trusted.

What PSU do you have? Your bios settings look correct to me. I would wait and see if a bios revision from Gigabyte will resolve this.

 

[mikeynavy1976]

My PSU is a Corsair TX750. I actually asked Corsair about the voltage and they said it was alright. You can be within +/- 5% of 12V. He also said you can't really trust software or the motherboard. Only a multi-meter can get the actual reading. HW Monitor in Vista shows it as 11.84V. I also asked about the memory voltage and he said 2.16V is fine. I couldn't get an answer on maximum safe MCH voltage from Gigabyte though.