How did my ram die

[brandondiep]

So i bought 2 ddr2 800mhz 2gbs sticks about 2 months ago, it was running good. Then a couple of days ago one of them dies out of nowhere. I have a msi 785gtm-e45 phenom 9850 oc'd to 2.88 and a evga 460 gtx sc( bottlenecked by whole system lol). So i mostly played call of duty black ops, some school work and internet browsing. My motherboard isnt the greatest( cheap deal) and it does not even display the current dram voltage... in health system check. I tried every single program trying to find the dram voltage ( speedfan, hwmonitor, everest, amd overdrive etc..) but no luck. But i can change the dram voltage in bios, its been at auto and i am starting to think that the auto setting was too high causing the death of my stick. The ram is rated at 1.8V but when i manually change the volts to 1.8v i bsod, but its good with auto/1.85. When i press the + key it goes to 1.8 but when i press - key it goes to 2.4 when it was set at auto. So should i leave it auto or 1.85, i cant afford another ram death ( saving for a new cpu/mobo/ram). Thank You for reading.

 

[jaquith]

The AMD Phenom 9850 runs 2.50 GHz so a 2.88 GHz is nothing.
ref MSI 785GTM-E45 http://us.msi.com/index.php?func=proddesc&maincat_no=1&prod_no=1875
DDR2 667/800/1066

Grrr...I cannot verify your CPU with your MOBO; BIOS required or Support.

Q - How are you OC the CPU? Meaning what BIOS settings are you using? Your CPU is unlocked so all you need to do is raise the Adjust CPU Ratio value.

If you are messing with any other voltages other than the DRAM Voltage I would Load Defaults. To adjust the DRAM Voltage just change that value, to adjust the RAM Frequency the FSB/DRAM Ratio. Use only Matched Sets of RAM; most RAM today carries a Lifetime Warranty!!!

 

[brandondiep]

Msi has this little oc switch (dumbest idea ever), so i use that. I dont think i can oc in bios but i never tried. I was just wondering if my ram died because of the auto voltage was too high or was it just pure bad luck. Most of the time, rma departments are in the states so it costs 20+bucks to send them back plus 2-3 weeks. Rather pay 15 bucks and save the time. Yeah, just wondering if leaving it at 1.85 V will be safe if it was rated at 1.8 since 1.8 bsods

 

[jaquith]

RAM typically has a tolerance of ±0.2~±0.3v, therefore if your RAM is failing Memtest then raise the voltage. In your case if the RAM is 1.80v using 1.85~1.9v won't harm it and the errors might disappear all together. Most 1.80v RAM I've see is running 1.90~2.0v at rated speed. Use the BIOS settings that I've outlined above, and retest your RAM.

Good Luck!

 

[brandondiep]

Voltage at 1.85 and did a hour of memtest and no errors.

 

[jaquith]

There you go!