Major problems with P35-DS3P

Okay guys, I've been having problems with my rig for about 2-3 months so far. I'll try to explain my problems as much as I can, but I was JUST done typing my whole post when...lucky me, my rig decided to crash - so please, spare me the flames if I seem a bit angry.

It started about 2 months ago when I got random BSODs when toying with my OC. It eventually came to a point where I had a similar problem as I had about a year ago. The simple fix was swapping out my RAM which I assumed was dead. However, when I threw in a brand new set of DDR2800 Ballistix, my rig would no longer boot. It would only boot with ONE stick in ONE SPECIFIC slot. I assumed that my memory controller was dead, however, when I threw in my RMA'd set of 1066 Ballistix, everything worked fine.

About 2-3 weeks later, I started to have problems just booting up. My rig would give me the error "system 32 file missing or corrupted" and would not let me boot into Windows. The fix was simply copying a file from the Windows Recovery Console. However, not knowing my Administrator password, I could only TRY to access the Recovery Console and then it would kick me out after 3 failed passwords. Yet....it seemed that my rig was intimidated at being changed and would soon work perfectly fine after I tried to access the Recovery Console. When I returned from college, I reformatted and got rid of that problem...only to be met with more...

Now, I STILL get random BSODs. They happen when loading new levels in Crysis, just playing Crysis, transferring music from my iPod to my HDD, and just leaving my rig on. There is no specific thing I can narrow it down too because I do not crash when encoding large files (about 13 VOB files each 800mb into 130mb AVI files) so I don't think it is my temps. Here are some of the errors the BSOD showed (at times it wouldn't show any error):
driver_corrupted_mmpool
RTENICXP.sys
ntfs.sys (prior to reformat)
some error that was related to my nVidia drivers (googled it, but don't remember exact name)


I have NO CLUE at all on what to do now. I'm thinking that it is a motherboard problem, but I want to see what you guys think. Sorry for the extremely long post.

Thanks!

I've read several people having issues with the Crucial Ballistix memory. They seem to be hit and miss and some boards just have issue with it...not sure why. Have you run a memory test to narrow down that issue and rule out memory?

If I were you, I would run the memory test first. If you're memory fails and you like the Crucial memory, I have some that I can hook you up with.

Even after you do that, I would encourage you do a re-install of windows as it sounds like you may have a corrupte registry also. This will take care of the driver issues and the unknown admin password...unless you want to hack the password and restore the registry from backup.

I have a P35-DS3P (rev 1). I tried at one point to use DDR2-1000 (which is the speed you are currently running) from G. Skill. The memory gave me troubles beyond anything I had ever encountered. I think (and others may chime in that I am wrong) is I had to downclock to DDR2-800 speeds and the memory didn't like that one bit. I could NEVER get them to boot anywhere near DDR2-1000 speeds, but I didn't actually expect them to). I swapped them out for a set of DDR2-800 (4-4-4-12 @ 2.1) and now I'm just fine. As you are only running 400x9, you are having to downclock your memory. It won't need the full 2.2V if you're downclocking that much. It may be (and again, I could be entirely wrong here) that it is getting too much voltage.

An option (possibly not a good one, but one nonetheless) is to swap for a set of Crucial DDR2-800s and run at native speeds. You will still have your OC of 3.6 and you won't be OC'ing and DC'ing your memory.

edit: some good info on that specific set of sticks
http://www.driverheaven.net/reviews/Crucial Ballistix PC2-8000/index.htm

@ SuperSaiyan
I ran memtest and it passed (I ran 30 loops I think, it was about 6-7 hours of testing) so I was pretty sure it was not my memory. I also reinstalled Windows as I stated in the previous post, but are you saying I should reinstall again? I know the administrator password right now, but I am not getting the system 32 error

@ capreppy
I tried downclocking my memory to 800mhz, but it will not boot if I manually set the timings to 5-5-5-18. It will only boot (even if I undervolt it) if I leave it at "auto". I am currently running it at 800mhz at 2.1v with "auto" timings. I will try out the 800mhz sticks I have and post that info up.