Memtest86, need help interpreting errors

[stell4r]

Hello everyone,

I am a pretty casual gamer, and almost 2 years ago I purchased an xfx 750i SLI and e8400 proc, its been great, but for the past year or so ive been noticing stability issues in games, or even applications. Ive been using this kingston 800mhz ddr2, 4x1gb ram pretty much for the better part of 4 years(had instability issues with my last rig as well, the kingston ram was also in that as well). Lately I have been noticing games crashing, randomly... with some games that actually report details, e.g starcraft 2, it shows "memory could not be read" So a tech savy friend suggested I burn memtest and see what pops up... well after a 01:32 it freezes up with what I believe to be an error message? possibly someone here can help me interpret these results, that way I can purchase new ram or find out where to go from here.

Time:01:32 Cached: 4095m memmap:e820 rsvd mem:200k

Lowest error: 0000000003
Highest: 00000000003
Bits in error mask: ffffffff
Bits in error total: 32 min: 1 max: 32 Avg: 21
Max Contiguous Errors:
Errors per memory slot: 0:0
1:0
2:0
3:0

Also, there was a chart that looked like this

Test|Errors
____|_____
0 |0
1 |0
2 |0
3 |3

Everything else was 0's in the error column

I hope all of you pros on Toms hardware could help me out, I have faith in you, its why I'm here

 

[Twoboxer]

Yes, that's an error message:

http://www.memtest86.com/tech.html#errors

It's possible you can resolve this with an increase in memory voltage, unless you are already at the max voltage of 2.1. CPUID's CPU-Z, SPD tab, will tell you the possible specs the memory will run at. If less than 2.1V, go into BIOS and set memory voltag 0.1V higher than spec.

Rerun memtest.

Depending on how far you are below 2.1V, you may be able to try this several times.

 

[stell4r]

Currently it shows its at 1.8v so clearly it should be brought up a bit.. I'll try that, if not, new memory time?

 

[stell4r]

Yes, that's an error message:

http://www.memtest86.com/tech.html#errors

It's possible you can resolve this with an increase in memory voltage, unless you are already at the max voltage of 2.1. CPUID's CPU-Z, SPD tab, will tell you the possible specs the memory will run at. If less than 2.1V, go into BIOS and set memory voltag 0.1V higher than spec.

Rerun memtest.

Depending on how far you are below 2.1V, you may be able to try this several times.

I tried going into bios, on the right side it says to use +/- to up values, well its greyed out and it wont let me up the voltage. It will let me change the memory timings.. is that what im after? If so, the memory I have is Kingston-6400 800mhz DDR2 KTC1G-UDIMM but the voltage is definately at 1.8

 

[Twoboxer]

XFX won't let me access the motherboard manual without registering "my" mobo's serial number, so I can't help you directly.

But somewhere on that same BIOS page there is an option you need to change to "open up" the ability to change DRAM voltage. Look for it, carefully changing from "Auto" or similar settings until you see it not greyed out.

 

[stell4r]

XFX won't let me access the motherboard manual without registering "my" mobo's serial number, so I can't help you directly.

But somewhere on that same BIOS page there is an option you need to change to "open up" the ability to change DRAM voltage. Look for it, carefully changing from "Auto" or similar settings until you see it not greyed out.

Hey man, so i broke down and called Kingston, they told me the voltage doesnt need to be changed, and if memtest86 is showing an error, there is clearly a defective module, or all, so they are replacing 4 modules for me for free, sent it off today, pretty happy with the lifetime warranty. You think thats the best bet? just replace it all?

 

[Twoboxer]

LOL its a start, and nice work by Kingston. Yes, if the sent you four, replace them. these modules are assembled together in kits for a reason, so they will cooperate with each other in multi-channel configurations.

Meanwhile, you might also try to change the voltage. Wouldn't be a bad learning experience, just 0.1V at a time. Its quite possible the memory was/is defective, or out of spec enough to require a bit more voltage to reach 100% reliability.