Very Dissappointed

[PotatoCat]

ok so i ordered another set of DDR3 1600 4GB(2gbx2) Gskill ripjaws ram to double up my current memory and i thought its just gonna be a plug it in and forget about it but this thing caused me so much problems its not even funny.

First, my computer keeps hanging at random intervals after i installed the ram. I suspected the new ram to be at fault and i switched out my old pair and just ran with it and the random freezing keeps happening. Second, my OS is also having alot of troubles booting after i installed this pair, the ram might not be at fault here but these problems only happened right after i installed it. so i finally did a memtest on it and my old pair passed with flying colors, no errors what so ever but my new pair....oh my lord, the test only started for like a minute and it freezes right away... i restarted it like 3 times just for one stick and it freezes everytime. I tested the second one and it also freezes during the memtest, i didnt even bother restarting that one.

My ram is all running stock and i followed the steps listed on the sticked thread. However, my voltage is set to 1.547 because i cant find the1.5v option, i dont think thats the issue because ive been running 1.547v for a year with my old pair of memory and i havent encountered this freezing problem im having now.

Any help would be appreciated

[Tradesman]

Mobo? CPU?, and for informational purposes, any time you mix sets (even the same model) it can be problematic, especially if running AMD. Let us know your mobo and CPU and we can try troubleshooting this

[PotatoCat]

AMD Phenom II 965 Black Edition running stock
AsRock 870 Extreme 3 motherboard

[Tradesman]

With a 965 to run 4 sticks,may need up about 1.6DRAM voltage, will need to add about + 0.1 to 0.15 to the CPU/NB voltage...might also have to play w/ timings. Another possibility is to try at 1333 8-8-8-25. The Rev C version of the 965 is about the lowest AMD CPU I would suggest to run 4 sticks of 1600 (and even many of the Rev C 965s have problems w/ 4 sticks. On Win, it might have gotten corrupted, might want to go into safe mode with 1 or 2 sticks, open a command prompt as Administrator and run SFC /SCANNOW which is a System File Check, it'll check all your primary system files it has a record of and if corrupt replace them with the good versions

[PotatoCat]

On Win, it might have gotten corrupted, might want to go into safe mode with 1 or 2 sticks, open a command prompt as Administrator and run SFC /SCANNOW which is a System File Check, it'll check all your primary system files it has a record of and if corrupt replace them with the good versions

should i use my old sticks or my new ones?

[Tradesman]

Start w/ the old, think your fairly certain they are both good

[PotatoCat]

Start w/ the old, think your fairly certain they are both good

i'll do what you said later in the day, i have work atm.

i'll post back with results of what happened

[damric]

Phenom II is only officially supported up to DDR3-1333 by AMD. Anything higher is considered an overclock, and not officially supported. This is true regardless of what your motherboard or memory manufacturer claims.

That said, with some effort, DDR3-1600 can work at rated speed and possibly higher on Phenom II. If your CPU is a C2 revision chip instead of C3 (check in CPU-Z), it may be even harder to tune.

Typically you will need to raise CPU-NB voltage upwards typically in the 1.3v to 1.4v, but 1.5v isn't uncommon to get stability. Sometimes you might have to manually loosen up certain timings that are, by default, more suited to an Intel chip.

This might open up a lot more questions about overclocking your Phenom II, and I can answer many of those questions, having owned, tested, overclocked, and benchedmarked dozens of AMD chips, including many of the AM3 Phenom II line-up. Memory tuning is by far, the most difficult task when it comes to overclocking. The rest is a breeze.

[PotatoCat]

Phenom II is only officially supported up to DDR3-1333 by AMD. Anything higher is considered an overclock, and not officially supported. This is true regardless of what your motherboard or memory manufacturer claims.

That said, with some effort, DDR3-1600 can work at rated speed and possibly higher on Phenom II. If your CPU is a C2 revision chip instead of C3 (check in CPU-Z), it may be even harder to tune.

Typically you will need to raise CPU-NB voltage upwards typically in the 1.3v to 1.4v, but 1.5v isn't uncommon to get stability. Sometimes you might have to manually loosen up certain timings that are, by default, more suited to an Intel chip.

This might open up a lot more questions about overclocking your Phenom II, and I can answer many of those questions, having owned, tested, overclocked, and benchedmarked dozens of AMD chips, including many of the AM3 Phenom II line-up. Memory tuning is by far, the most difficult task when it comes to overclocking. The rest is a breeze.

my CPU is a rev 3

so if i ran all 4 of my sticks at 1333 the freezing would stop?

[damric]

my CPU is a rev 3

so if i ran all 4 of my sticks at 1333 the freezing would stop?

That's a possibility. You could try that. If it works, then I would try tuning the timings down to compensate for the lower frequency.

A C3 Phenom II should push 4 dimms at 1600 though. Are your timings in auto or manual? If manual, could you list them? If auto, well...fix that lol.

[PotatoCat]

That's a possibility. You could try that. If it works, then I would try tuning the timings down to compensate for the lower frequency.

A C3 Phenom II should push 4 dimms at 1600 though. Are your timings in auto or manual? If manual, could you list them? If auto, well...fix that lol.

i put it at manual
i followed the guide and put these tCL 9 - tRCD 9 - tRP 9 - tRAS 24

[Tradesman]

How's it going at those timings now?

[PotatoCat]

How's it going at those timings now?

those are the timings ive been using with my 2 old sticks since last year and its been very stable. im going to switch them with my 2 new ones and see if they are ok with it, i still havent done the system file check thing that you told me so i better do them now.

[Tradesman]

Let us know how it goes, hope it helps

[PotatoCat]

Let us know how it goes, hope it helps

ive ran with the new pair of ram for about 45 minutes now, ive played a a round for crysis 2 and san andreas and both seem to run fine with no performance drops and freezings. i also did the system scan thing but it stopped at 45% in its validation process because if found some corrupt files and cant fix them. I forgot what the files were though.