Stability Issues After Increasing Memory

[shikhae]

I've added 2x 1GB more ram to my system, and now I'm experiencing some stability issues that I've never had. Computer lock-ups, black artifacts on the monitor (only on boot up as the Vista Login Screen shows up), and even a couple BSOD's.

I'll try to give as much detail as I can.

Original setup:
Motherboard: EVGA 680i LT SLI
Memory: 2x 1GB Crucial Ballistix DDR2-667
Processor: Intel Core2Duo e6420
Operating system: Windows Vista Premium 64-bit

The memory was set at 667mhz and timings were 3-3-3-12 at 2.2v
Processor was slightly overclocked to 2.66ghz to sync with the memory; kept at 1.35v

New setup:
Motherboard: EVGA 680i LT SLI
Memory: 2x 1GB Crucial Ballistix DDR2-667 + 2x 1GB Crucial Ballistix DDR2-800
Processor: Intel Core2Duo e6420
Operating system: Windows Vista Premium 64-bit

To match the original pair of memory, I lowered the frequency of the new memory down to 667mhz. Also since the DDR2-800 is rated at 4-4-4-12 timings by crucial I increased the timings to 4-4-4-12 for all memory. Kept at 2.2v

And then... lots of lock-ups, black artifact lines on vista load screen, and a couple BSOD's (when I get a BSOD it usually happens within 10 secs of logging into Vista).

As memory being DoA is s not uncommon the first thing I did was run memtest. This took about 14 hours as I had to check all the sticks one by one.
Memtest results:
All 4x 1GB Sticks: Pass
Each Stick Individually: Pass for each one.

Since there's nothing wrong showing up in memtest, I'm lost as to what could be wrong. Often the computer seems to be running fine, but when I try to run some memory-based applications such as SuperPi, it's a hit and miss. SuperPi works only about half the time, and errors out the other half. I don't know what this means exactly, but I'm assuming that's an issue there.

I was also wondering if power could be an issue since more memory does consume more power.
My PSU and other components:
PSU: Corsair HX520
GPU: EVGA 7950GT KO
Other Stuff: WD HDD, Lite-ON DVD-RW, FloppyDrive, 3x 120mm Fans, Intel Stock CPU Cooler, 2x 40mm NB, SB fans
But as far as I know the Corsair HX520 should be more than sufficient for my components.

I'm really stumped on this matter, so for now I've removed the 2 new sticks.
Does anyone have any ideas what's wrong or anything else I should do to further assess the problem?

 

[SerpentRoyal]

Some boards cannot handle four sticks. Try juicing NB and SB.

 

[shikhae]

Hmm, I hadn't really considered raising the voltage on the NB and SB.
I'll have too look into a bit more, though I'm sure it shouldn't be too much a problem as the board already has active NB and SB cooling.

Still to be on the safe side:
Is there a recommended increment that I should use when increasing voltage?
After each increase is there a utility I should use to check stability?

The lockups and crashes occur randomly so even if I boot fine the first time, that isnt a sign whether or not the system is actually stable.

 

[chizow]

1) Make sure you update your BIOS. Many boards have BIOS updates that specifically address stability/timing issues with 4 dimms populated or 4GB+ of RAM.

2) Make sure to grab Vista 64 Updates for 4GB+. There's numerous fixes here that address compatibility and reliability. Everything from video cards to USB devices.

3) If you're running default memory speeds and FSB you shouldn't have to mess with your NB voltage or mem voltages much, but it can certainly help stability. Long-term though it can expedite any potential problems like dead RAM that seems very common with sticks that run at 2.1-2.2V+.

4) If you're still having problems, try testing each stick with Memtest86 and make sure its not bad RAM.

 

[shikhae]

Chizow,

1) BIOS is now fully updated.

2) I installed Vista updates for 4GB+ ram shortly after I installed the new sticks as I google'd the problem and this was what most were suggesting.

3) Haven't increased NB voltages yet. I don't think I'll ever increase memory voltages as 2.2v is already seems high and they are running very hot right now.

4) As stated previously I did run memtest86 individually on each ram and each one passed. This leads me to belive that the issue is not dead ram.

It seems to run a little better with the BIOS update, I've rebooted several times and I no longer get the black lines on boot up.
I've also opened up the case for now to somewhat lower the temps on the ram.

Is there a way I could actually test stability?
Just booting up without problems doesn't tell me what I really need to know.

 

[chizow]

Originally posted by: shikhae
Chizow,

1) BIOS is now fully updated.

2) I installed Vista updates for 4GB+ ram shortly after I installed the new sticks as I google'd the problem and this was what most were suggesting.

3) Haven't increased NB voltages yet. I don't think I'll ever increase memory voltages as 2.2v is already seems high and they are running very hot right now.

4) As stated previously I did run memtest86 individually on each ram and each one passed. This leads me to belive that the issue is not dead ram.

It seems to run a little better with the BIOS update, I've rebooted several times and I no longer get the black lines on boot up.
I've also opened up the case for now to somewhat lower the temps on the ram.

Is there a way I could actually test stability?
Just booting up without problems doesn't tell me what I really need to know.

You can run some of those synthetic benches like SuperPi or Prime95, although they seem to be better for CPU stability. Personally I like to test memory by just running games, although its harder to isolate RAM specific problems this way. Typically though, games will tell you very quickly whether there's a RAM problem or not as lock ups will occur as early as the splash/intro videos.

 

[lousydood]

I've got a similar problem with a 650i Ultra and 4 sticks of mushkin PC2-6400. I ran memtest86 all night and no problems showed up. I didn't have any problems when I ran with only 2 sticks (old or new), but 4 would cause random bluescreens.

Now I'm sitting in linux running a user-space memtester and so far, so good, with 4GB of RAM. I'm starting to suspect this is a Vista problem.

 

[chizow]

Are you guys running an X-Fi by chance? If so you'll need to grab the updated Vista X-Fi driver that addresses Vista+4GB problems as well. It doesn't look like shikhae is running an X-Fi but might help you out. Also make sure you fully update Vista 64 with the various 4GB+ compatibility patches. There's at least 2 big ones; one for video cards and one for USB devices. Both can result in BSODs without the hot fixes.

 

[lousydood]

I installed http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929777 and so far so good.

keyn eynhore.