Faulty memory?

[pug10]

So I finished building my PC last night, and at first it refused to boot with 4 sticks, so I did 1 instead and once I enabled XMP in the bios it would boot with 2 or 4 sticks, but only at ddr-1333 with all 4. So I proceded to install Windows 7, apps, etc until at one point playing a game it BSOD on me. I then proceded to run memtest(with all 4 sticks installed), and a couple errors would come up at around test 8. I tried playing around with the voltage (increasing at .25v increments) and loosening the timings (would not boot when loosening though), and through my experience the voltage increase helped a little with the BSOD issue. Next I decided to run memtest at the stock settings (setting ram to 1600 instead of 1333, timings were already set correctly), with only 2 dimms occupied (thus 8gb). On the first set of ram on dimms 2/4 I get errors on the first pass. Ok, so right now at the point I am assuming one of those sticks is faulty. Afterwards I ran memtest on the second pair. No errors as of now, which is making me more confident that it's the ram other than the Mobo. I'd like your guys help on this if possible.

thanks

Note: Already updated BIOS so that's not an option

Mobo: Asus p8z77-V
CPU/Cooler: i7 3770k/Corsair H100 (at stock since i've been having trouble with ram so haven't OC'd)
RAM: Corsair Vengeance 16gb (4x4gb) ddr3-1600 1.5v (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0058J1QYC/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i03)
PSU: PC Power and Cooling 750W
GPU: Radeon HD7970
Case: Corsair H100
HDD: 120gb Sandisk SSD/ 1tb

 

[Raiddinn]

Assuming your tests complete on the RAM sticks which seem to be good now, switch them into the opposite slots and see if they still get no errors.

That should tell you if its the slots or the sticks.

 

[pug10]

Assuming your tests complete on the RAM sticks which seem to be good now, switch them into the opposite slots and see if they still get no errors.

That should tell you if its the slots or the sticks.

Well like I said I tried two sticks on DIMMS 2/4 and got an error. So I replaced those two sticks with the other two and they haven't given me any error, so i'm thinking its the stick but i'm still not sure. I'll try the two initial sticks that had an error on the opposite dimms and let you know what happens.

 

[Raiddinn]

Sorry, I must have misread something when I was skimming over it.

Anyway, do like you mentioned and try the possibly broken sticks in the other two slots.

Some people might go ahead and declare at least one of the first two sticks DOA if the RAM gets through 10 passes with no errors in the same slots the other ones had errors in, but it doesn't hurt to double check.

 

[pug10]

That's odd, I tried the two potentially faulty sticks in the other slots and memtest showed up with no errors... So since I got no errors there and there were no errors for the other pair I decided to try all 4 sticks together just for kicks. The mobo correctly set it to ddr3-1600 and memtest showed up with 0 errors! for now... is this even possible? How else can I check my ram? Besides running memtest for 8+ hours

 

[Raiddinn]

If the RAM sticks weren't pushed all the way into the slot, they could give errors in the test, and if in the second test they were all the way in, that could clear up the errors.

That is just one of a couple possible explanations.

Anyway, if you can get in Windows just fine, you could always download AIDA64 and then slam both the processor and motherboard at the same time. If the computer can survive that without crashing then its 99% likely to be perfectly fine.

 

[pug10]

If the RAM sticks weren't pushed all the way into the slot, they could give errors in the test, and if in the second test they were all the way in, that could clear up the errors.

That is just one of a couple possible explanations.

Anyway, if you can get in Windows just fine, you could always download AIDA64 and then slam both the processor and motherboard at the same time. If the computer can survive that without crashing then its 99% likely to be perfectly fine.

I'll try it out. I tried memtest last night for about 13 hrs and there were no errors again. Also no BSOD's after playing games with it yesterday.

I'll try aida64. If that goes well I will assume that it's fine.

thanks!

 

[pug10]

Best answer selected by pug10.

 

[nikorr]

This topic has been closed by Nikorr