GA-EP45-DS3 freeze issue with 4x1GB Ram

[GringoDeLobo]

Hi guys and gals,

I hope I can get some advice, as I am pulling my hairs on this one. I will post my complete specs, settings and a Hardware-Monitor screenshot bellow, but first the general story:

I have a GA-EP45-DS3 Rev.1 board and always had issues with RAM in Dual-Channel OR exceeding 3GB, namely using my 2x2GB MDT DDR2 800mhz DIMMs. Back than I elected to ignore it and made it work with one 2GB and one 1GB DIMM.

I found myself with some free time on my hands and the growing need for more RAM and gave it another shot. Thought before buying 8GB Ram, I try 4x1GB Samsung 667mhz DIMMS I had around. Conservative, fail-safe RAM vendor, known for compatibility all round. What could go wrong?

Well, the system froze while Win7 was still loading. I fiddled alot since than, and got it to the point where I can boot without problem, but the system will freeze under load (prime95, memtest86 freeze after just seconds, games go a few minutes) or even in idle at some point.
And I really mean freeze. No Blusescreen or reboot, it just halts (fyi: no sound loop, as I have seen before on system freezes). Also memtest86+ will show no error but just freeze aswell, but the little + after the name will still blink. thought that was odd, so I mentioned it. ;-)


What really seemed to have helped with getting it to even boot is cranking up the cooling (4 build in case-fans), which is odd, because the system is very cool anyway.
I also raised the DDR2 volts a bit and that seemed to have a positive effect. Raised it from 1.8 to 1.84 now, had 1.9 before but that wouldn't last as long in idle, or so it seems at least. Raised MCH Core from 1.1 to 1.16 and 1.2 before that.


My System
Case: Antec 900
Board: Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3 with F10e Bios
CPU: Intel E8400 @ 3ghz (no OC, altho I would love to change that..)
RAM: 4 x 1GB Samsung PC2-5300 5-5-5-13 (M3 78T2653CZ3-CE6) @667mhz
Graphic: HIS HD 4850 IceQ4 @625mhz GPU and 993mhz Mem, downclocked in 2D to 160/993
PSU: Corsair 450W

Bios Changes:
DDR2 Voltage from 1.8 to 1.84
MCH Core from 1.1 to 1.14

Well, thx in advance for any input... Will take some time tomorrow evening after work to go through any instructions I might receive till than

Cheers,

beloved patriot

 

[GringoDeLobo]

strangely i am not allowed to edit my post, so I'll add it here:

Mouse and Keyboard are the only USB devices currently connected, I unplugged everything else just to be sure.

 

[BerylLee]

could be cpu support issue ..
the latest bios might remove older cpuid to add newer ones.
so you can flash backward to f4 reported to support your e8400 and try again.

 

[GringoDeLobo]

could be cpu support issue ..
the latest bios might remove older cpuid to add newer ones.
so you can flash backward to f4 reported to support your e8400 and try again.

OK, seems hard to imagine they would remove support a CPU as popular as good ole`wolfedale, but I am game ;-) will test that

 

[GringoDeLobo]

I flashed F4 and thought was about to come here and praise you, when my PC froze again.

It did last longer in memtest and prime95 than before, but maybe that was just dumb luck? In memtest86+ it just reached its usual ~6% before freezing.

I now flasehd F7 and get an occasional "modification of system code" blue screen...

Any other advice?

 

[BerylLee]

what is the error code in bsod?

 

[GringoDeLobo]

Now that I finally have Internet in the new flat, I can happily report that I solved the issue.

I just did the exact opposite of what the gigabyte support told me to... :-/
I reduced the MCH Core Voltage by 0.05V, leaving all other settings at its normal values.

Flashed back the F10e Bios, too.

Everything runs smooth and I had no freezes or BSODS since.