Blue screen of death after memory install

[TylerRed]

Hello

First off, I have a Gateway FX6800-01e with the I7 chipset. It comes with 3G of DDR3 memory. I just purchased and installed 3 2Gig chips from OCZ and it seems to run fine until I try to either play a game with a lot of graphics or while trying to perform a function in Revit. I suddenly get the blue screen of death. This happens quite frequently now. I have already tried to remove the 3 1Gig chips that came with it thinking it was a compatability problem with the types of memory, but with the 3 2gig chips installed, I still get the blue screen of death. The 2Gig memory sticks are DDR3 tri-channel memory supposedly made for the I7 chip. Please help. Thank you.

Tyler

 

[amdchuck]

Are you manually confirming all of the various memory timing settings in your BIOS match the chips?

 

[o1die]

Try setting the voltage manually to 1.65 and the timings to the higher of the two sets of ram. The higher numbers run slightly slower, but this may stop the bluescreens.

 

[Mulder19]

What is the exact name of the new RAM kit you bought?

 

[TylerRed]

The actual name of the RAM kit is: OCZ Gold Tri Channel 6GB PC12800 DDR3 Memory - 1600MHz, 6144MB (3 x 2048). The model number is: OCZ3G1600LV6GK. I think I may have read a post saying that you can't modify the BIOS on my machine, but that seems ridiculous. The original 1G sticks are 3072MB DDR3 1066MHz Three Channel Memory (3-1024MB modules). But even if you can't, shouldn't it just adjust to the speed that it can read? I am getting the blue screen of death. That is not adjusting, that is just failing. Thank you for your help.

Tyler

 

[amdchuck]

ummm, your logic is a bit flawed, without being overly specific the bsod can be generated by anything including hardware being run over spec. Just like a car, you can red-line it for a bit, but one second too long and bang....critical failure...

Assuming the BIOS is going to manually configure new memory correctly is a pretty big assumption, one I would not make.

o1die's post is pretty helpful..........

 

[Mulder19]

Well looking into your bios is pretty important. Even on limited machines some bios tweaking is generally permitted. Just get in there and look around to see what you can do. If you can, confirm whether or not your BIOS is setting the RAM according to the specs listed on this site.

http://www.ocztechnology.com/products/memory/ocz_ddr3_pc3_12800_gold_low_voltage_triple_channel

Remember even if memory settings cannot be directly changed, you could still lower your ram to a more stable clock by lowering you FSB and increasing your CPU multiplier. This would lower the speed of your RAM (which would not be a huge drop in performance) and preserve your CPU clock. For example, if your Bus speed is 400mhz and your CPU is 2.8ghz, your CPU multiplier is 7. At the same bus speed, 1600mhz ram would have a RAM multiplier of 4. Lowering your Bus speed to 350mhz and raising your CPU multiplier to 8 would give you a CPU clock of 2.8 and a RAM clock of 1400mhz. However, make sure you are comfortable resetting the BIOS before tweaking these settings, as they could lead to boot failure.

If tweaking is not permitted there might be a some software tweaking programs that could get stable settings in windows. Also, some BIOS have an advanced mode which unlocks new settings. Check for this too.

@ amdchuck: You are right in theory, but the coincidence here does say a lot. To OP, Use Real Temp to keep an eye on the CPU temp, just in case the is issue really there.

 

[TylerRed]

Hey,

Thank you very much everyone for your help on this stressful problem. I have found a lot of answers to my problem. First of all, because my machine is a mass produced Gateway, there actually isn't any way to change the memory speeds or anything, really, in the BIOS. I would have to build a computer to be able to do the fun stuff. I found out from trial and error, that I had a bad stick of memory. It happens. I took the memory kit back to CompUSA and replaced all three at the same time. No Blue Screen of death so far. I downloaded a stress tester called Prime95 and did some tests. Everything seems to be ok. All is good right now, but I do believe I will be building my next graphics computer. I hate being limited. Thank you all again for your help.

Tyler Evans

 

[amdchuck]

Glad you were able to resolve your problem. Sometimes you can do all the research in the world but the best experience is just that, experience. Learning through trial and error....hopefully inexpensive errors

 

[ekoostik]

A good way to test that the sticks do not have any inherent problems is to run memtest86+. Put it on a bootable CD and let it run overnight. http://www.memtest.org/

Once that passes, as you found out Prime95 is a good way to test the system under load.

 

[vasaitis]

The actual name of the RAM kit is: OCZ Gold Tri Channel 6GB PC12800 DDR3 Memory - 1600MHz, 6144MB (3 x 2048). The model number is: OCZ3G1600LV6GK. I think I may have read a post saying that you can't modify the BIOS on my machine, but that seems ridiculous. The original 1G sticks are 3072MB DDR3 1066MHz Three Channel Memory (3-1024MB modules). But even if you can't, shouldn't it just adjust to the speed that it can read? I am getting the blue screen of death. That is not adjusting, that is just failing. Thank you for your help.

Tyler

I have the same computer as you, and I also installed OCZ memory upgrade (3 x 2Gb). I also got the blue screen of death, many times. I went back to the store (Tiger Direct) and asked them to put in new OCZ modules. They did. Result was blue screen of death. I then asked for a different make of memory - Corsair xms3 DDR3 (6Gb = 3 x 2Gb). Worked fine, and is still working fine. Problem solved. (Although the Corsair modules cost about $40 more.)