Memory problem?

SonWolve

Limp Gawd
Joined
Oct 23, 2006
Messages
153
Hey guys, having an odd problem with my rig last few days and I'm at a stand still right now. Basically I was getting stop errors (0x00000050, 7E, etc) and I tried to reformat,no go. So I was testing things and after I pulled my TV tuner card out I was able to finish the Vista setup but then the problems came back again. I ran each stick separately under memtest, each module failed miserably in less than a minute. I'm thinking thinking that either the memory is truly bad (Though this setup ran flawlessly since August), the motherboard DIMM slots died, the power supply is dying or the memory isn't getting enough voltage. I'm by no means an expert and these conclusions are only based off my limited knowledge.

Voltages:
VcoreA: 1.30 V
Vcore2: 2.03 V
+3.3V: 3.38 V
+5V: 5.89 V
+12V: 4.61 V
DDR Voltage: 0.13 V
+5V Standby Voltage: 5.12 V

These readings are from a third party boot disk that has a bunch of utilities on it as I was unable to locate the section in the BIOS that has these readings. Do those voltages look good? At the moment I'm quite lost so, please, any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

System Specs:
mushkin 4GB(2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model 996564
GIGABYTE GA-G33M-DS2R LGA 775 Intel G33 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard
Western Digital Raptor WD1500ADFD 150GB 10,000 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drive
EVGA 640-P2-N825-AR GeForce 8800GTS Superclocked 640MB 320-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card
Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 Conroe 2.66GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor Model BX80557E6750
CORSAIR CMPSU-620HX ATX12V v2.2 and EPS12V 2.91 620W Power Supply

Thanks again!
 
Update: I tested a different power supply and still had the memory fail, not sure what else to do now... It's either the motherboard or both memory modules... which do you guys think it is? Thanks!
 
DDR takes 2.6V to 2.8V typically. I hope that's the overvolt amount?

If they're ALL failing, my suspect list is (in order of likelihood):

Bad BIOS settings
Bad motherboard (or CPU if you have a CPU-based memory controller, but bad CPUs usually mean it's a boat anchor and won't even spin fans)
Several bad memory sticks (improbable because it requires multiple failures, more possible if a power event occurred, e.g. dead power supply or lightning strike)

Probability goes down more or less logarithmically. #1 is probably 95% of the time the issue when all sticks experience rapid multiple failures in Memtest and there has not been a power event.
 
What do you mean about the overvolt amount? When I check the BIOS for voltages, it basically only lists the items and tells if they are good or bad, on all counts it lists voltages as OK. Those readings I took were from a third party program that I took from a boot cd I have, so I'm not sure how reliable they are.

The BIOS settings were all reset several times, both by means of pulling the battery for a good amount of time (30 minutes) and also resetting BIOS options to "Optimal" settings. Even after all of this, the errors persisted.

I'm not sure if it is the motherboard or CPU... I ran several tests and nothing came up in that regard. There are no beeps on bootup, and I was under the impression that if it was something wrong with the CPU there would at least be a beep error code? Not sure

At this point I am waiting for new RAM sticks to come in, should be here by Wednesday. At that point I'm not sure what I should do. Is it possible my motherboard may be killing the RAM? Again, I had this setup since August without any errors or problems.

As far as a power event (lightning) happening, as the power supply seems to be fine, I'm don't recall this happening. If this did happen though, wouldn't everything be fried, not just the memory? In any case, I suppose I'm hoping for a miracle that it is just the RAM....

Please though, if you have any other recommendations shoot them my way, my mind is open to anything at this point.

From another forum, some settings from my BIOS

CPU Clock Ratio: 8x
CPU Freq: 2.66 Ghz (333x8)
CPU Host Freq: 333
Memory Freq: 800
Timing: 5-5-5-18
ACT to ACT Delay: 3
Rank Write to READ Delay: 3
Write to Precharge Delay: 6
Refresh to ACT Delay: 52
Read to Precharge Delay: 3
Static tRead value: 7
Static tRead Phase Adjust: 29

Then it says System Voltage Optimized and lists overvoltage and undervoltages controls, all set to Normal
CPU GTLREF1 Voltage Ratio: .636
Under the Health menu, it lists Vcore, DDR18V, +3.3V and +12V all "OK"

Thanks
 
Is the DDR voltage at +0.13V? At least my previous Gigabyte GA-X38-DQ6 default DDR voltage at 1.8V so that means you got only 1.93V on mem that wants minimum 2.0V and up to 2,2V on them to operate at their standard, that means DDR voltage at +0.2V and up to +0.4V. I asume you got these mems? http://www.mushkin.com/doc/products/memory_detail.asp?id=562
This is one feature i hate with gigabyteboards that they only list overvolt and not the value you set.
 
E.R. - Those readings are from a third party sensor reader I have on a boot disk... do you or does anyone know of a utility I could boot from to get the sensor readings? If what your saying is true, then it is no wonder the memory is failing if its only getting that much voltage... I'm not sure though...
 
Does not BIOS have anything like PC Health and under that menu some Voltages and temps like DDR or DDR2?
 
It does but it does not show the value they are at, it only states that they are "OK"
 
I would say according to your OP that your RAM is getting 2.03V, showing as Vcore2 just like speedfan, which should work with those main timings. Don't know about your subtimings. I would set ram timings to AUTO to see if that works.

I know in the later BIOS versions for my board Gigabyte went from showing only OK, FAIL to showing actual voltages. Are you running the latest motherboard bios?

EDIT: Disclaimer on the RAM voltage, YMMV with Speedfan but I'd give it a try to see if it matches the utility you've got. That's how it reads my board with the vcore1=CPU and vcore2=RAM voltages.
 
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