I5 + p55 + OCZ DDR3 Unknown instability

[Damorian]

Hi Everyone,

My system is currently wierdly instable.
I build a new system, the parts are as posted in this topic: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/278447-13-gaming-system-upgrade-hows-selection

After I put it all together I first had some wierd boot errors.
After memtest86+ I found out one of my OCZ platinum sticks was bad.
Topic about the mem problem can be found here: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/269086-12-platinium-volt

After installing a back-up set of OCZ Gold I still had boot problems which resolved itself after I reinstalled the OS.
(I Guess that with installing the OS using bad memory also the install of the OS got messed up?)
Anyways ofter reinstalling the OS with good memory I finally stopped getting BSOD's.

So now I havent had a BSOD yet but my system is running far from stable.
Memtest86+ has ran for 24hours without an error.

Prime95 stops after minuts with the following errors:
[Thu Jan 28 18:05:06 2010]
FATAL ERROR: Rounding was 0.5, expected less than 0.4
Hardware failure detected, consult stress.txt file.
FATAL ERROR: Rounding was 0.5, expected less than 0.4
Hardware failure detected, consult stress.txt file.
FATAL ERROR: Rounding was 0.5, expected less than 0.4
Hardware failure detected, consult stress.txt file.
[Thu Jan 28 18:13:55 2010]
FATAL ERROR: Rounding was 0.5, expected less than 0.4
Hardware failure detected, consult stress.txt file.

Coretemp give my cores at
67C
56C
67C
52C

3dMark doesnt wanne run atall due to an " Unknown error"

and my WindowsExperienceIndex doesnt want to complete due to the error that reads:
" The windows experience index for your computer could not be computed.
Cannot complete assesment.
The assessment or the other operation did not complete seccesfully. This is due to an error being reported from the operating system, driver, or other component."

When I try to play any game that came out in the last 2 years my computer just lags up, the screen freezes or hickups and the game becomes unresponsive.

Also multitasking isnt fast atall, opening programs takes allot of time and lagsup a bit.

CPU-z shows my
CPU
corespeed varying from 1000 to 3000 MHz
Core voltage at 0,8 volt
Bus speed at 133 MHz

MEMORY
Type DDR3
Size: 4gig
Channel: DUal
NB Freq: 2100 MHz
DRAM freq: 532MHz
FSBRAM 2:8
7, 7, 7, 20, 60, 1T

I have updated all my chipset, mobo, graphics drivers also.

I am completely lost and I have no clue whats going on, I havent OC'ed and I havent tinkered with my cpu voltage.

Any tips would be very much appreciated.

Thanks in advance,
Damorian.

 

[shortstuff_mt]

Are the temps you listed idle or load temps? If they're idle temps, then they are too high and your problems are probably related to the system overheating.

 

[envolva]

Check your core voltage, its way too low even for stock speed.
You need a Core Voltage of 1,2V to start playing with your system and test for stability at stock. Did you change anything in the bios?

But your temperatures are really high for 0,8V. Something is seriously busted with your settings or your data.

 

[Damorian]

I fiddled a bit with my Bios but just the memory settings.
Havent changed any CPU settings.

The cpu temps listed are peak-temps during prime95 stresstest.
Idle temps are around 30-35-40c

 

[Damorian]

update: I just tried to run the advanced edition of 3dmark vantage and I cant run any of the benchmarks.

The error it gives me is the following:

"System info scan failed. Can't run benchmark."

More info isnt showed just that it cant test.

 

[ekoostik]

Have you updated your BIOS to the latest and greatest? There have been a number of BIOS updates for things like increased PCIe stability and memory compatibility, you know, the important stuff.

 

[Damorian]

No I havent done that yet actually.
I have researched a bit about it and I heard that you shouldnt use the windows-based kind to flash the bios.
Also my bios wont recognise any usb stick.

I'll burn it to cd and investigate further into flashing it that way.

Besides updaing my bios, anyone got any advice?

 

[ekoostik]

BIOS won't recognize any USB stick? Do you have the GA-P55M-UD2? How did you test USB sticks in BIOS?

 

[Damorian]

Hi,

I couldnt figure out how to make the bios recognise my usb stick.
The q-flash option in the bios will only work with floppy drives for some reason.

If I try to boot from my USB stick it only gives the option to boot from usb-zip, usb-hdd, usb-cdrom and not ' just usb'.

However that is not important anymore since I used the @BIOS program from the gigabyte website and I have flashed the bios trough the OS. (Even though I read that that is dangerous and should be prevented as much as possible)

Anyways I sucessfully flashed my BIOS and it did solve some problems like you suggested, so thanks.

However it didnt solve all problems.

My WEI succeeded this time and gave me proper scores:
Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i5 CPU 750 @ 2.67GHz 7,3
Memory (RAM) 4,00 GB 7,4
Graphics ATI Radeon HD 5700 Series 7,4
Gaming graphics 2813 MB Total available graphics memory 7,4
Primary hard disk 237GB Free (298GB Total) 5,5

However when I ran Prime95, 3 out of 4 workers stopped within the first minute:
FATAL ERROR: Rounding was 0.5, expected less than 0.4
Hardware failure detected, consult stress.txt file.
FATAL ERROR: Rounding was 0.5, expected less than 0.4
Hardware failure detected, consult stress.txt file.
FATAL ERROR: Rounding was 0.5, expected less than 0.4
Hardware failure detected, consult stress.txt file.

I ran CoreTemp also during the Prime95 test and it gave me max results of
67C
53C
67C
57C

When I ran 3dmarkvantage I got the following scores:
3dmark score: p9232
GPU score: 8434 (Which should be about 40.000 I guess)
CPU score: 12890 (Which should be about 30.000 I guess)

The coretemps during the 3dmark test where:
67C
61C
64C
61C

All these tests where done with all the latest drivers installed including the latest BIOS-flash. (And Bios-settings on automated)

So I am totally lost,

 

[Damorian]

I hate bumping my own topics but does no-one have a clue about this?

 

[Damorian]

*Sob*

 

[ekoostik]

Go into BIOS and Load Optimized Settings. Once that is done re-test your system. If you still have problems describe the problem again and the situation in which you encounter it. Also list all the components of your build.

 

[Damorian]

Thank you for your response Ekoostik.

I changed my Bios to Optimized Settings.

Devices and Drivers
These are my devices with my corresponding drivers:

3D MarkVantage
3DMark Score: p9191
GPU score 8410
CPU Score 12740

Prime 95
[Fri Feb 05 19:27:05 2010] (Dutch time)
FATAL ERROR: Rounding was 0.5, expected less than 0.4
Hardware failure detected, consult stress.txt file.
FATAL ERROR: Rounding was 0.5, expected less than 0.4
Hardware failure detected, consult stress.txt file.
FATAL ERROR: Rounding was 0.5, expected less than 0.4
Hardware failure detected, consult stress.txt file.

CoreTemp
62C
57C
59C
62C

WEI
Processor: 7,3
Memory: 7,4
Graphics: 7,4
Gaming Graphics: 7,4
Primairy Hard Disk: 5,5

 

[ekoostik]

goedenavond!

Please provide a link to the RAM you are using. I'm wondering if setting V there, or bumping it elsewhere might help. But I'd like to see what you're running with now, given the problems you had earlier I'm not sure what model RAM you have installed.

 

[Damorian]

lol weird to read dutch all of a sudden

Its OCZ 2x2GB DDR3 PC8500 CL7.0 Gold Edition

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227346&Tpk=OCZ%202GB%20DDR3%20PC8500%20Gold%20Edition

 

[ekoostik]

I spent a year working in The Netherlands, a few years back now. I wish I could say I knew more Dutch, but a dozen words is probably the extent of it.

So you're getting the problems when you did 'load optimized settings'. I'm wondering if setting the RAM V or timings by hand would help. What does BIOS report the RAM is running at currently? And what is the memory multiplier (SPD)? Your RAM says 1.5-1.6V, so you may need to manually set it at 1.6V. If that doesn't work, try 1.64V.

 

[Damorian]

Ah yes, the great thing about the netherlands is that everyone speaks english, the bad thing is: everyone speaks english so you'll never learn dutch

Anyways I adjusted the memory voltage to 1,6 and prime95 ran suprisingly well, however not well enough.

Bios-Settings
Dram Timing Selectable (SPD): Auto
Profile DDR voltage: 1,5v
Profile QPI voltage: 1,1v
Channel Interleaving: 6
Rank INterleaving: 4
Performance Enhance: Turbo
System memory Multiplier (SPD): Auto
Memory Frequency (Mhz): 1066, 1066
Timings:
CAS: 7
TRCD: 7
TRP: 7
TRAS: 16
TRC: 16
TRRD: 4
TWTR: 4
TWR: 8
TWTP: 19
TWL: 7
TRFC: 60
TRTP: 4
TFAW: 16
Command Rate: 1
B2B CAS Delay: -
Round Trip Latency: 46

Prime95
[Sat Feb 06 12:35:08 2010]
FATAL ERROR: Rounding was 0.5, expected less than 0.4
Hardware failure detected, consult stress.txt file.
[Sat Feb 06 12:43:47 2010]
Self-test 1024K passed!
Self-test 1024K passed!
Self-test 1024K passed!
[Sat Feb 06 12:59:30 2010]
Self-test 8K passed!
Self-test 8K passed!
Self-test 8K passed!
[Sat Feb 06 13:14:50 2010]
Self-test 10K passed!
Self-test 10K passed!
Self-test 10K passed!
[Sat Feb 06 13:30:51 2010]
Self-test 896K passed!
Self-test 896K passed!
Self-test 896K passed!
[Sat Feb 06 13:44:53 2010]
FATAL ERROR: Rounding was 0.5, expected less than 0.4
Hardware failure detected, consult stress.txt file.
Self-test 768K passed!
FATAL ERROR: Rounding was 0.4967041016, expected less than 0.4
Hardware failure detected, consult stress.txt file.

Coretemp after prime95
71C
68C
70C
69C

3DMarkVantage
3Dmark score: P9255
GPU Score: 8489
CPU Score: 12688

CoreTemp after 3Dmark:
68C
61C
65C
63C

Step by step we're getting there, prime95 has become a bit better but 3dmark is still horrible (I believe it should be way better with this rig, right?)

 

[ekoostik]

Yep, every time I misspoke people immediately spotted me as a foreigner and switched to English. Made learning the language very difficult. That and I could've tried harder.

So you got closer when you set the RAM at 1.6 V. Have you tried setting it at 1.64V? The next thing to try would be bumping up the QPI/Vtt to 1.15 or 1.17 or slightly more. The limit I believe is 1.21, although you should test incremental steps at a time and report back your findings. Hopefully you will find a small change that works, or someone who can speak with more certainty will step in with their resolution.

 

[Damorian]

I'll get crack'n at it and will report back here when I am lost again

Thanks for the help sofar.

 

[ekoostik]

Thought of something else you should try. In BIOS, under MB Intelligent Tweaker - Advanced Memory Settings - try changing "Performance Enhance" to Standard.