Lockups.

[coverfire]

Specs:

Gigabyte X48-DS5 F7bios
G.Skill 2x2gb Ripjaws DDR2 1200 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231283 6-6-6-18
Q9550 2.83ghz
WD 640gb hdrive
Sapphire ATI 4870 512mb DDR5
750watt corsair psupply

My issue, I just bought the G.Skill DDR2 1200 memory. set in the bios the settings manually for the memory timings 6-6-6-18 left everything else auto except the voltage which I added +.1 to be 1.9volts. Set PCI express to 100mhz. CPU frequency to 375 and the memory multiplier to 3.20B which sets it to 1200 (recommended settings from g.skills site). Unfortunately I loose a few mhz because there is no ratio to keep my CPU at 2.83 ghz (not a bid deal it runs at 2.81ghz)

Anywho when in games the PC will freeze anywhere from immediately to 30-45 minutes into a game. Occasionally windows with freeze as well randomly. I had issues with this when I had DDR2 800 in my system. The only way I could keep things stable was to set everything in the bios to auto. Which meant my DDR2 memory ran at slower CAS latencies. If I tried to overclock or make any simple change the PC would exhibit the same freeze issues.

I have tried different memory and brands
I have tried different CPUs
I even ran Crossfire for awhile and tried each video card in turn thinking perhaps it was a video card issue. Both cards no matter what slot they were in, if I made changes the PC would lock.

Kind of at my wits end because I can't run this memory without making the changes above to get it to run at the appropriate DDR2 1200 speeds.

Here is the kicker. When I had an nvidia card I could overclock without any issues. ever since I've been running ATI I've had problems if I make any modifications to CPU speed or RAM speeds in the bios.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. its pissing me off.

 

[roonj]

From your usefull link I saw 1.9-2.0v, have you tried 2.0v yet. While I doubt thats the only problem it could help. Now you need someone talented with your bios settings for overclocking as I have a deficiency in Intel system. Out of the loop too long. I'm wondering if someone is going to suggest bumping the memory controller by about 0.1v.

 

[coverfire]

I have tried 2.0 and it still locks. Interestingly to note. I ram memtest at DDR1200 specs 2.0v and even increased the voltage to the controller by .5. It locked up before even before the first pass within memtest. No errors just the whole thing froze. I then just set the memory to 1066 at 2.0v with the increased controller voltage and let the system choose the latency (it set it at 5-7-7-20) No lockups what-so-ever. So I set the latency to 6-6-6-18 at 1066 and so far no lockups but I still need to figure out how to get this sucker running at the proper settings of DDR1200. May have to just call g.skill tech support and figure out what the heck.

 

[roonj]

I don't currently have an intel system but I'm pretty sure 6-6-6-18 at 2.0v no lockups is the right setting. The rest is overclock.

 

[coverfire]

Okie so I now have the memory running at around DDR1100 at 1.9V with the FSB at 354 or something like that so my CPU is now clocked at 3ghz. Also increased the CPU core voltage up .5 volts. Everything is running stable finally. Next test will be to up the FSB to DDR2 1200 speeds and see if I can make this puppy stable. At that point though I will need to fiddle with the DRAM settings to get it to work without overclocking the CPU too much.

Kept the timings at 6-6-6-18
really only changed the FSB and CPU core voltage this time around.