Random restarts: What should I RMA?

[kisk]

Just built this new system:

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
ASUS P7P55D-E LGA 1156 Intel P55
Intel Core i5-750 Lynnfield 2.66GHz 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1156 95W Quad-Core
OCZ Gold 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
SAPPHIRE Vapor-X 100283VXL Radeon HD 5770 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16
4x Western Digital Caviar Blue WD5000AAKS 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s
-- 1x in SATA (OS), 3x in On-Board Raid-0
LITE-ON Black 24X DVD+R 24X DVD-R SATA
Antec EarthWatts EA750 750W


BIOS & all drivers are up to date.


Once a day I am getting random restarts. Restarts have never happened while I'm at the computer and they don't produce a memory dump. Admin event log shows "Kernel-Power" [EventID=41, Task Category=63].

Been trying to rule out what it could be before I start the RMA processes.

Memtest86+ shows no errors with single/double sticks in each slots. The ram does however make me wonder because the newegg specs show 8-8-8-24 @ 1.9v but when I installed it defaulted to 7-7-7-20 @ 1.5. [Question: A] Would that cause my system to do this?

My hard drive config is 1x [of above (500mb)] for my OS and I'm using the other 3 in Raid-0 config. [Question: B] Should I try to disable the Raid completely? Would a faulty raid controller give a random restart?


What kills me is the lack of of BSOD (yes, I said it). Out of the 6 days I've had this system running, I've experienced 5 random restarts [1-per-day] and only 1 reported BSOD (not set to overwrite). The one BSOD reported the error came from ntoskrnl.exe.

I'm thinking of RMA'ing a certain item but I wanted to hear everyone elses opinion first.

Thanks,
kisk

 

[builderbobftw]

Everything. That will fix it.

 

[shortstuff_mt]

Everything. That will fix it.

Any monkey can randomly replace parts until they accidentally "solve" the problem. It actually takes a little thought to troubleshoot the problem.

I would start off by ruling out RAM as the problem. It often is the cause of problems like this. The first thing to do is manually set the RAM speed/timings/voltage to the correct settings in the BIOS. Memtest86+ is good at detecting faulty RAM, but will not usually tell you if you don't have the settings set correctly.

 

[kisk]

Went ahead and bumped my bios to 8-8-8-24 @ 1.9v N2, however all my spec apps in Win7 still show the ram running at 533MHz & 1.5v (with the exception of ASUS's TurboV -- it shows 1.9v).

Is it common for spec apps to report just the stock speed when OC'd?

My quad CPU is running at the default 2.66GHz, is this the problem? Hoping to not have a random restart while I'm sleeping...

 

[shortstuff_mt]

Wait! The max RAM voltage supported by the Intel i5 & i7 chips is 1.65v. Anything above that can damage the on-board RAM controller. Which of these kits do you have?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&Description=OCZ+Gold+4GB+ddr3+1600&x=0&y=0

If it's the first one, you have a problem and should return the RAM for a kit that runs at or below 1.65v.

 

[kisk]

Thanks for the heads up. I saw your post maybe 10 mins after bumping it up to 1.9v. Dropped it down to 1.6v just to be safe.

I've started the RMA process for this ram and have some new Mushkin on its way which is rated to run at 1.65v.

Hopefully this will fix my problem? The system locked up again last night while sleeping