Is this whats causing my system to hang?

[lettuce]

Ah. So, the problem is not so complex after all. Your ram + processor is not capable of cl8 1600mhz at any processor speed. So you get to blame either the ram or the processor.

Checking the sticks one at a time is a means of determining which. If one or two sticks refuse to run at 1600mhz but the other does so happily, rma the ram as being incapable of running at rated speeds. If they are all fine individually, then it looks like your processor has a crap imc. It will be difficult/impossible to rma it because of this, so you may have to live with the ram running slower.

It is more likely that the ram can't cope.

Well i tried each stick on it own, with optimized defaults in bios, the only settings i changed was the settings relating to the memory to set them at there rated settings, all cpu clocks and volts where stock, and each one of the sticks failed within seconds of running the flash video, but with all 3 sticks in the video ran for about 4 minutes before crashing. So in that case none of the sticks are able to run at 1600mhz.

This still doesnt explain why the system passed Prime, LinX, & OCCT fine, yet a flash video would case a system lockup. I mean how does a flash video relate to memory speed??

I installed windows vista on my F1 spinpoint drive, and got the same results, so we can rule out the SSD drive or OS thats causing this problem

 

[JonJ678]

We already know its not the OS. I vote rma the ram, simply because its easier to get an rma on ram than it is on a processor. Most support staff don't really believe that processors break

Reason for rma is that they will not run at rated speeds, should go smoothly

Sucks a bit though

 

[lettuce]

So you defo think its the RAM then, as i dont want to RMA it and them not find anything wrong with it, even though there is something wrong with it in my system (with the components i have). If they dont find anything wrong they charge £10 for sending it back to me.

Just seems odd that all 3 sticks dont run at the rated speed, well not even rated speed, speeds of 1528mhz. I havent heard of anyone else with this problem though thats all. Depends on how thoroughly OC test the RAM i guess.

Whats a good alternative to the Patriot ram, was looking at the OCZ Gold

 

[DIABLO]

I had the same thing ie ran prime fine for hours but blue screened at low load what fixed it for me was bumping the core voltage up a couple of notches.

 

[JonJ678]

Actually I'm pretty sure its the imc. However if you're lucky its the ram, as intel probably wont take an rma for the imc being more crap than other chips.

At least you'll know this way. I'd look at it as spending a tenner to find out which of the ram and processor is the issue. There's a thread on here somewhere about ddr3 patriot ram labeled 1600mhz which would not run at this speed and identified itself in software as 1333mhz, which adds credence to the ram being at fault. It seems possible that patriot mislabeled a batch.

So yeah, the ram might test fine in ocuk's system, in which case you're a bit screwed. But lets hope not

 

[lettuce]

Hmm, i guess ill order some OCZ gold, and once that get delivered RMA the Patriot back to OC. If they find no fault i stick them on the MM

 

[DavyBoy]

I would also say that it is definitely the IMC now after all this testing.

Sorry if you have mentioned this already in this thread, but was this a pre o/ced bundle you have?

If so then you should just talk to one of the techs here and explain your situation, I am sure they could work something out for you.

Like Jon said though, you wouldn't be able to RMA your chip with Intel because of this problem, as I said before, using mem speeds higher than 1066MHz on these processors is classed as overclocking, which isn't guaranteed to work.

It sucks though that there are loads of other people on here with similar hardware configurations as you who are quite happily running their RAM at it's rated speed.

You could try using different RAM to see if that sorts the issue, but my guess is that you will have the same issues that you are experiencing right now.

It would probably be worth RMA'ing your memory here, but I imagine that it will probably run just fine with their system, and you would just be sent your RAM back which would probably cause you even more frustrations..

 

[lettuce]

Nah wasnt an OC bundle

 

[DavyBoy]

Have you tried talking to one of the techs here?

You should maybe post in the Customer Services section to see if someone there can help you out, they might be able to suggest something else that one of us has overlooked.

 

[lettuce]

Ok I contacted overclockers yesterday via a webnote, detailing the problem I'm having and everything I've tried. I got a reply this morning asking me to send the memory back under an RMA number, reason being 'faulty'.

Now I didn't in the message to overclockers ask to send the memory back, I asked if there's anything I have missed or could try!, so overclockers themselfs are saying that the memory is faulty! I will have to contact them though as they have put it down as a replacement, but I need a refund, otherwise I will be without memory for 10 days. How I'm thinking should I get another set of Patriot memory or try something different, what is the chances of getting 2 lots of faulty Patriot memory??

 

[DavyBoy]

Remember, they will test your RAM to see if they can reproduce the issues that you are experiencing, if however the RAM runs fine on their testbed, those modules will get sent back to you and you will be charged £10 for testing fees..

Regardless of whether you were to ask for a refund instead of a replacement, you are still going to be without RAM until they test it first, unless of course you buy another set of RAM before you send yours off for testing..

You can only hope that it is the RAM that is the problem, becaues there is nothing worse than RMA'ing something only to get told that they found it not faulty..

I spent like 3 months RMA'ing hardware when I first put my system together, and each time it came back to me with no faults found, it was an absolute nightmare to say the least!

 

[lettuce]

I was going to buy some replacement ram before send the patriot ram back, so I wasn't left without a system. I guess it's a risk Im going to have to take if they find nothing wrong with my current ram!

Will overclockers actually test this ram on the same system I currently have, or do they just have a generic test system that they try all rma stuff on?

 

[DavyBoy]

When I sent my processor back to them the first time, they used different hardware than what I was using, it was a Rampage II Extreme they were using.

I don't think it is going to make much difference though, if the RAM is bad, then it is going to buckle on any system you test it on..

 

[Seneker]

This looks like a driver incompatibility issue with Flash rather than any hardware fault. I've had a browse around and this issue doesn't seem to be unique. Let us know if the new RAM makes a difference.

 

[lettuce]

'Flash'?

 

[lettuce]

Ok not 100% sure whats happened, but my system seems fine now, can run th memory at x8 multiplier and the flash video plays fine. The only thing i have done (which was suggested to me) was to disable the following settings in the bios:

C1E
CPU TM function
Speedstep


I did this and the flash video played fine no crashes, so i thought id enable them all again to see if it still crashed my system.....well it didnt. I have no idea whats changed i havent installed any news software, the only thing that would have been installed was windows updates. Any ideas??

 

[jamscones]

Lettuce,

I can't thank you enough for the work you've put into diagnosing this issue in this thread. I have just got a new PC from OC with very similar specs to yours (Ultima Vanquish with EX58-UD5 mobo, i7 [email protected] and 6gb of Corsair XMS3) and I have been having exactly the same problem as you have described. I've been tearing my hair out for the last week trying to find the root cause. I originally thought it was Microsoft Security Essentials as I'd just upgraded Windows Defender to MSE prior to getting two hard locks in an hour and then uninstalled MSE, but then got another lock two days later.....

The PC is super fast and stable when under load i.e. gaming - I have put over 40hrs into Risen and about 20 into a heavily modded and maxed out Fallout 3 since getting the rig, and it's been solid as a rock. However, if I try and watch flash video (youtube or anything else based on the Flash format) in a browser, it's 50/50 whether I'll make it to the end before the machine hard locks and the keyboard and mouse lights go out. It's also spontaneously rebooted itself a couple of times under the same conditions. No BSOD (yes, I've turned off auto-reboot on BSOD), or kernelpanic, and no error entries in the Event Log other than the "improper shutdown" message. No other issues with the machine at all - temps are good, Windows RAM diagnostic and Memtest86 both came back clean.

Based on reading this thread from start to finish, my understanding is that my first step to try and resolve this is to lower the memory clock multiplier, is that correct? I am not at home right now, so don't know what settings the Overclockers engineer who built the PC put in, but I'd imagine they are the same as yours prior to your tinkering while trying to diagnose the fault.

To be clear here, I'm only interested in getting a stable system. Losing a little performance in RAM is not a huge issue for me.

 

[lettuce]

Im glad this thread has help jamscones, first you need to see what memory multipiler Overclockers have set in your bios. im guessing it will be x8?? I had to lower mine to x6, so the memory was running at around 1066mhz, before i could watch a flashvideo with no crashes. But if i was u id contact Overclockers and ask for replacement memory.

Its a bit strange that you have the same problems as i have, yet you have compeletely different memory (although i am now on Corsair XMS3) from my Patriot viper

 

[jamscones]

Im glad this thread has help jamscones, first you need to see what memory multipiler Overclockers have set in your bios. im guessing it will be x8?? I had to lower mine to x6, so the memory was running at around 1066mhz, before i could watch a flashvideo with no crashes. But if i was u id contact Overclockers and ask for replacement memory.

Its a bit strange that you have the same problems as i have, yet you have compeletely different memory (although i am now on Corsair XMS3) from my Patriot viper

I have just tested this. The memory clock multiplier was set to Auto which gave 1566(ish) mhz, the equivalent of 8x multiplier when set manually. The base clock is set to 190. I set the memory multiplier to 6x which put the mem clock to 1140(ish) and re-tested a flash video that was reliably causing a system halt each time within a couple of minutes, and it played the whole 20 minute video without a problem. In fact, it played it through twice.

I think I am going to report this to OC via the support forum. Not sure if this (the OC build) is a non-viable configuration, or whether I've got bad RAM, but Memtest came up with nothing. Interesting that the Core i7 920's maximum rated memory clock is 1066mhz. Is that likely to be a factor here?

Also, my RAM timings (as set by OC) are 9-9-9-28. The OC page here shows the timings at 9-9-9-24:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-169-CS

The Corsair infosheet would agree with that:

http://www.corsair.com/_datasheets/TR3X6G1600C9.pdf

Can you tell if my values would cause an issue?

 

[Seneker]

@jamescons: if your pc is stable at load, but not when browsing web/watching flash videos, this implies Speedstep is making your system unstable. Turn off the following options in bios and your system should be fine:
C1E
CPU TM function
Speedstep
C-state