DDR3 Upgrade Issue

[grievecr]

I purchased a dell xps 8300 and it came with 8 gig ddr3 10600. I installed 16gig pny ddr3 10666 and now have stability problems.
I read somewhere that these are the same thing, is this not true? I'm getting memory management bsod's and software instability.
Are the tweeks I have to do to the bios?
Please Help!

 

[jaquith]

Welcome to Tom's Forum!

What exact PNY DDR3-1333 4x4GB kit? ; please provide a link.

Some PNY RAM is ECC and won't work otherwise in a 4x4GB kit one stick might be 'bad'.

Test (1) stick at a time in the 2nd DIMM slot closet to the CPU and boot, swap again using (1) stick. That's the simplest way to detect a 'bad' stick.

 

[grievecr]

Here's the link... they were individual and not bought in a kit.
I did run mem test and there wasn't any errors.

http://www3.pny.com/4GB-PC3-10666-1333-MHz-DDR3-Desktop-DIMM-P2947C368.aspx

Thanks for the help!

 

[price_th]

I have not heard a lot of good things about PNY RAM. Difference between 10600 and 10666 is the CAS timing. Normally that shouldn't be an issue. Try running your system with just the new RAM installed. If it runs stable, you may have a compatiblilty issue. If not, RMA the crap and buy another brand.

 

[jaquith]

If you're not getting errors running Memtest, then I'd start looking at either the OS/Apps or other hardware. To properly test with Memtest you need at least 4 passes and with 16GB that takes quite a while. I would recommend that you run MSCONFIG and select Diagnostic and 'test' the system to reproduce the 'stability' problems.

On OEM MOBO's the BIOS is very limited and I doubt there's any settings to adjust your RAM.

Look at the Event Manager [+] Critical errors or the (.dmp) file(s).

 

[grievecr]

Thanks, I'll give it a go.

 

[grievecr]

Tested the individual dims with memtest and found that one of them was bad.
Thanks for all the help!

 

[jaquith]

Glad to see Mystery Solved!

 

[grievecr]

Best answer selected by grievecr.

 

[nikorr]

This topic has been closed by Nikorr