Question regarding RAM. Odd errors.

A

Atwooooood

Weaksauce
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Oct 28, 2009
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So i have two sticks of 2gb corsair dominator RAM. I have both sticks in, equaling 4 gigs total on a 32 bit vista system.

The sticks run fine for a couple days, then they start acting up, so I run memtest and immediately get errors. I can fix this issue by removing the sticks and reinserting them which result in no errors after testing.

But then after a couple days, the same problems repeats itself. Errors with both sticks in, but when tested individually and at the same time again, no errors, and once again they work for a couple more days.

Any insight as to what could be causing the problem. I really don't like having to break in the case and remove the sticks every couple days just to get them to work. By the way, RAM is running at recommended timing, speed, and voltage. (800mhz, 5-5-5-15, 2.1v)
 
That happened to me right before my motherboard died.

When you say it happened after a few days, was your pc running the whole time? Only thing I can think of would be heat or something.

Did you set those timings manually or is it on auto?
 
Does physically removing the power to your computer for a minute, without pulling the RAM, get rid of the RAM errors?
 
To Soban: yes the computer is on the whole time and i manually set those settings.

To Stone Cold: I have not tried that, I will try it next time the problem arises.
 
Turns out that just turning off the computer and unplugging it fixes the problem temporarily...

Does that mean something specific?

And if i can just note, this only happens when i have 4 gigs of ram in, it never does it with my two 1 gig modules in.
 
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Atwooooood said:
Turns out that just turning off the computer and unplugging it fixes the problem temporarily...
Click to expand...

Since Vista/7 came out, I've been hearing of people with similar problems to yours. And, it's not just memory, but could be several things that are attached to the motherboard. The hardware still works, but Windows has problems handling it, until power is removed. I don't know of it's a Windows bug (you could try recreating the problem with a live Linux CD) or a hardware issue.

I do have a few suggestions. Here's the first: Your problem is just with 4gigs, not 2gigs of RAM. More memory takes more power. Try reducing the voltage to your memory, say to 1.8v. Even a small voltage difference creates a big power difference, and maybe all you need is a small power difference.
 
Stone Cold said:
Since Vista/7 came out, I've been hearing of people with similar problems to yours. And, it's not just memory, but could be several things that are attached to the motherboard. The hardware still works, but Windows has problems handling it, until power is removed. I don't know of it's a Windows bug (you could try recreating the problem with a live Linux CD) or a hardware issue.

I do have a few suggestions. Here's the first: Your problem is just with 4gigs, not 2gigs of RAM. More memory takes more power. Try reducing the voltage to your memory, say to 1.8v. Even a small voltage difference creates a big power difference, and maybe all you need is a small power difference.
Click to expand...

Hmm i always figured to raise the voltage. I have increased the NB voltage a little bit which doesnt help and i have also decresed the ram voltage which doesnt help either. Im at a loss =/
 
So after doing some more thorough research, I have found that I need to have "memory remapping" disabled considering I'm using a 32 bit operating system. We'll see if this fixes the problem.
 
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Problem still persists even with memory remapping disabled. System runs solid for a day or so, then the problems arise once again. Any more input?

Edit: So i decided to put the two sticks in the B ram slots rather than the A slots and so far its running strong. Could the ram slots be bad even though i can run 2 gigs in the A slots but not 4 gigs? If they turn out to be bad slots, my board is still under warranty.
 
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Some RAM likes certain slots. Won't be fixed by RMA. Occasionally, RAM has a hard time contacting the fingers inside the slots and as the sticks heat up the contacts sometimes are problematic from expansion & contraction. That is why removing & re-seating the RAM temporarily fixes the problem. I would run the RAM in the slots taht work best and leave it at that.
 
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