Newly built i7 is incredibily unstable

[jsrudd]

I recently built an i7 machine (in signature) and I'm having problem with it randomly restarting. If I leave it on all night every morning I come in and find that windows 7 shut down unexpectedly. I'm not entirely sure what the problem is, but I suspect that its my ram. I have ocz gold 3x2gb rated 9-9-9-20 @1333mhz. I'm having trouble, however, even running them at 1066mhz. Prime 95 (torture test that test cpu and ram) starts to return errors in about 30 seconds, but the one that doesn't really test the ram doesn't return these errors. In my bios I've just got everything set at auto right now which my ram at 7-7-7-20 @ 1066mhz. I've tried manually setting the voltage (1.64v) and the speed to 1066mhz but it still returns errors very soon. I've run memtest 1 time a few weeks ago and the ram passed then. I'm really hoping to just get my system stable before I try and over clock it.

 

[DXRick]

On Newegg the specs are:

Timing: 8-8-8-24
Voltage: 1.65V

 

[jsrudd]

These aren't listed on newegg, you must be looking at the 1600mhz model. And a funny party of the Asus p6t is that you can't choose 1.65v. Only 1.64 or 1.66.

 

[bolweval]

Sounds like an overheating problem to me, what kinda temps you running, I use realtemp and on my 920 DO running at 3.2g is at 34 idle 51 load.

 

[jsrudd]

I've got a C0/1 and my idle temps are in the 35-38 using coretemp and under load it jumps to around 60. My graphics card idles at a really high temp though which doesn't help my overall temps.

 

[Helloworld_98]

what are your graphics card temps?

my asus 4850 hits 41C full load and 37C idle,

also your CPU temps are very good for a C0.

 

[jsrudd]

Not sure about my graphics card temps, I've not monitored it too fully (I don't play that many games). My low cpu temps are thanks to my cooler and arctic 5. I just have a stock GPU cooler though.

 

[foolycooly]

It's normal to only have 1.64 and 1.66v options. It does sound to me like it's your memory...are you absolutely sure you're able to run at 7-7-7-20? What speed is the RAM rated at? It does sound like a memory problem more so than a temperature problem. Burn a memtest86+ iso and run at least 2-3 passes:

http://www.memtest.org/#downiso

 

[jsrudd]

Yeah, I'm running at 7-7-7-20 but at only 1066mhz. Since my first post I've dropped the DRAM voltage from 1.64 to AUTO and I'm not having the same kind of problems, but as I plan to overclock it I'd really like to be able to have manual control over the RAM. Would upping the QPI voltage help with a ram problem, or does that only help to stabilize an overclock? I'll run memtest tonight I guess.

 

[foolycooly]

running memtest should be your first troubleshooting test. Just put the RAM at 1333 if that's what it's rated for.

 

[jsrudd]

If I manually specify 1333mhz then I start to run into problems even if I manually set the voltage to 1.64 and the timings to 9-9-9-24.

 

[jsrudd]

In setting my voltages does the QPI voltage effect the stability of my RAM? And should I choose 1.64v or 1.66v if my RAM wants 1.65v?

 

[foolycooly]

QPI should not affect RAM stability. Either of the voltage settings should work fine. Did you run memtest? That should really be your first priority.

 

[cjl]

Actually, with the Asus boards, the QPI/DRAM voltage is the memory controller, so upping that might help the stability. It shouldn't need much though - mine will happily run 6 DIMMS of DDR3-1600 CAS 7 with a QPI/DRAM of 1.32.

 

[foolycooly]

ah, but I was under the assumption that the QPI/DRAM signified something different...like "uncore." I never understood it myself and I feel like a n00b being an owner of a P6T.

 

[jsrudd]

Turns out the problem was 2 of my 3 dimms were bad. I finally got around to checking each one individually in memtest and sure enough I got errors. I'm now in the middle of an RMA.

 

[foolycooly]

That's an easy fix at least.