Ram problems?????

[yeeeeew]

ok, this isnt so much as a problem, but more lookin for an answer.......

I just built a new system
Specs:
Mobo: Gigabyte Ma78g-ds3h
CPU: Amd X2 6000 3.1ghz
Graphics: Sapphire Hd 2400pro 512mb
Case: Silverstone Precision Series PS01
PSU: iON 2+ 450 watts
Optical Drive: Sony Sata OEM 20x dvd
Ram: (Please dont point it out. i know i cocked up by buying this) OEM 2x 2gb ddr800

After installing XP after 7 attemps (Each had a different issue when installing, turned out to be my disk) i got my pc up and running. everything ram fine for about 2 days. i got gta 4 and mercenaries 2 installed and happily spent a whole night playing each. the following day when i went to play gta 4 i was continuously comfronted with errors.

The game would freeze, and i would have to reboot, the game would cause the system to reboot, the game would cause a bsod and a whole bunch of other things. after thinkin it must have been a dogdy install or something i decided to go and play mercs 2. the same problems occured there. By that point i was pretty pissed off so thought i'd listen to some music and just stuff around on ebay. same problem there. the pc wouldnt freeze, but would bsod or reboot.

After having gone through those problems i consulted one of my fellow pc power users. they suggested either ram or psu. i began with ram, as it was easier to test. i tested both sticks with memtest 86 and found HUNDREDS of errors. i should probably mention at this time that i ran memtest as soon as the xp installation was done and found no errors. After testing both sticks for about half hour i gave up, and removed one stick, tested that and found heaps of errors. same scenario with the other stick.

At this point i was really confused and so i did what anyone else would do. took to the internet forums. after searching and searching i came to the conclusion that it had to be my ram. this was on a friday afternoon and it was a long weekend so i had to wait till tuesday to return the ram. so i fiddled. i tryed everything. i even tryed different paths. perhaps the ram was overheating, not failying? i used systemfan and pc wizard 2008. both showed the ram to be running at a fine temp. (although they did show me that my mainboard is running at 90 degrees Celsius. i still dunno why that is, but its all running fine now and its still at 90 degrees).

At this point i was about ready to cry. i didnt no wat to do and my pc wasn't staying on for anymore than about 10 min before rebooting. (this was by saturday arvo) after getting on my rather slow laptop and searching more forums i discovered that even though ddr2 only needs 1.8, it can sometimes be unstable at that voltage, so i decided to up it to 2.0v. that didnt help at all, so i went back into bios to lower it and saw the rams speed settings (mhz) i thought, why not lower it to 667mhz. it cant make things worse. i rebooted after changing and saving that, and to my delight i had my beautifully fast machine back. it didnt mysteriously reboot every 10 min, it didnt crash at the slightest use of a program and, i could start my games up. one thing with the games though, they dont seem to work properly anymore. mercs 2 crashes after about 5 min of play (comes up with a 'mercenaries 2.exe had to close sorry for any inconvenience crap message) and gta 4 freezes everytime i walk out romans door just as i start to play. when that happens i have to manually reboot.

I even ran memtest over night and it found 0 errors. stemming from all this i have two questions,
1. Why have all my problems mysteriously vanished just by lowering the ddr2800 compatible ram to 667 mhz,
and 2; why arent my games working??


Any and all help will be appreciated thanks, please give help fast though. i am happy to have a working system, but still miss my games. lol.

 

[jfurterer]

I'm not an expert on this but I have read that some mobos North Bridge chip set can require an increase in voltage to utilize higher clocked RAM. you may want to try upping the North Bridge voltage. However it sounds to me like your problem is not with your ram and rather your mobo. I can't believe it's running that hot. Often times when a machine bsod and reboots it's because it over heated and the mobo shut down to prevent damage.

As for GTA4 it is a poorly optimized game to begin with and a very buggy port to PC. I've had issues with it myself. I couldn't tell you why it's failing so consistently however I'd try a reinstall, back up your saved games, and make sure the fresh install has all it's options set to lowest to start. Then scale it up until the game becomes unstable.

 

[yeeeeew]

I couldnt believe it was running that hot either, i thought system fan had just stuffed up. thats when i downloaded pc wizard 2008 and that said the same thing?? odd.
so should i up the north bridge voltage now even though its running stable again, and yea ill reinstall gta n let ya know how it goes.

 

[cliffro]

A little digging reveals that the 780G just plain runs hot! Personally I would consider acquiring a small fan to mount on your heatsink. That's before you consider raising the voltage.

As for one of your other questions......

Lowering it to 667mhz and it being stable outside of games, probably means you may have some bad ram, I.E. not stable at advertised speeds. I recommend an RMA of the ram. IF you do, I would recommend trying to upgrade to better memory(if they will let you that is)

 

[cliffro]

I found this in the comments on an Article here on TH, about the 780G. Seems your not the only one having memory errors.
[citation][nom]kingsize566[/nom]I have a GA780...DS3H rev1.0 (ATX) and the northbridge heatsink is large but made of some cheap light zinc alloy - waste of time IMHO, 70+ degrees and memory errors - but only when using a PCIex16 graphics card. The problem eased when I added a 40mm fan on top of the rubbish heatsink. I wrote to gigabyte about the issue, who said - tampering with the heatsink invalidates your warranty. Sounds like they're burying their head in the sand over the issue. According to some posts on SPCR, and here, the thermaltake HR05 replacement fits.I would question the QA process of a mobo manufacturer who offers not only a poor heatsink design, but a 4 phase mosfet unable to cope with the TDP of some of the higher power phenoms (see Tomshardware and Anandtech). The 780 board by XFX has a heatpipe solution on the mosfets and northbridge which looks like a better design, and similar price (cheaper if you count having to replace the deficient heatsink by Gigabyte). The Asus M3A78 possibly has a better heatsink on the northbridge.[/citation]


This guy also had issues as well atleast with Temps.

[citation][nom]gerro1977rm[/nom]Deleted Profile 06/23/2008 7;12 AM,Unfortunately, I'm using the rev 1.0 board. I fitted it with an HR05 heatsink from thermalright and its now just warm to the touch not hot. I'm using everest to monitor my temps. Aux now registers at 37 C, though I'm not really sure if its the NB temp. You can also use riva tuner among others.[/citation]

 

[yeeeeew]

well that interesting. you would think they'd put a better heatsink on it. im tryin return the memroy, but they will only replace it with identical ram, but the did say they would thoroughly test it before mailing it out to me. i will however try mounting a fan to the nb heatsink first. thanks for the help, greatly appreciated. =]

 

[bonanzaguy]

I definitely would not increase your NB voltage because that is only going to increase the temperature.

 

[yeeeeew]

ok, still no luck returning memory yet. i have reinstalled gta and it reboots system as soon as i load my game now, havent tried mercs yet. and i rang gigabyte about the heatsink and they said that it isnt there board, its my case cooling and that i i replace the heatsink that thee warranty will be voided.

 

[dallasjoh]

ok, still no luck returning memory yet. i have reinstalled gta and it reboots system as soon as i load my game now, havent tried mercs yet. and i rang gigabyte about the heatsink and they said that it isnt there board, its my case cooling and that i i replace the heatsink that thee warranty will be voided.

Try using an Antec Spot Cool Fan to help cool the NB so that you don't void your warranty by replacing the HS.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835209017

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8013339&type=product&id=1156203596895

 

[scrumhalf]

Have you reinstalled your video drivers since getting the RAM issues under control? You might even want to wipe everything and go with a fresh Windows installation. When the RAM was unstable, any number of problems could have been created. The only way to eliminate the cause being software is to start fresh now that the memory is stable.

 

[yeeeeew]

i will definatly get one of those fans, only problem is im in Australia, so im trying to find one on an aussie site, and i shouldnt have to reinstall xp, because the ram was tested over night, running at 800mhz with memtest just after the xp install and found no errors.

 

[yeeeeew]

ok. almost a month on and have only just fixed problem. i couldnt find one of those fans suggested so i bought a deepcool archery tower heatsink and fan which should arrive tomorro for the NB and the ram, i sent it back, only to discover after the store testing it 3 time( or so they say) and they found no errors, so we both aggreed it had to be imcompatible. so i bit the bullet, got a refund on the cheap ram ($31 per 2gb stick), and spent $100 on ebay for 4gb of kingston hyperx high performance gaming ram. ram problems gone, and hopefully tomorro heat problem will be solved to. thankyou to those who contributed, for your help. =]