Novice Level assistance

[BTDylan]

I believe i'm currently having issues with my G.Skill Memory, and I've come here to help. If this is in the wrong section, I apologize but it seems to be the most logical place to put this post. If it needs to be moved, please feel free

First off, I just built my first PC Ever this Christmas. Everything went in great, I've had no problem until this month. I'm not that much of a newb when it comes to using software and what not, but when it comes to Hardware, I'm still very much a novice. Installing, Troubleshooting, anything about it - I have very little experience with

I've recently been having problems with my PC Locking up, and Bluescreens. Each is a indicator that it could be due to memory. I've Googled and I've managed to find two Memory test tools. The one in windows, and Memtest86.

This is the best I could get from Windows
http://i.imgur.com/elyHI7Z.png

The results from the Memtest86, I'm not too sure about. There was A LOT of red on my screen, mainly during Tests 1-8 after letting it run 24 different tests, I shut it down. I'm still unsure as to how many times it's supposed to run, I've read it runs indefinitely. There's very little instructions which came with the tool, all I know is I ran it and it said there were MANY failures with the memory. Even with all the erorrs ( which couldn't fit on my screen, and I'm unable to determine if there was supposed to be a LOG File somewhere ) I was unable to determine what exactly it meant.

I don't know how to overclock even if I wanted to, I don't do things in the BIOS due to my lack of experience ( was told to leave it alone unless something was broken, even then get someone to help) so I'm unsure of any of these Steps and Frequencies and all the Technical terms for things. All I know is, there's telling me its a bunch of errors, and I'd like to know if I should RMA it, or if there's something wrong somewhere else.

Thanks for your time and any of your assistance!!!

CPU : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819116504
Ram : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231428
Motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813130653
GPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814127711
Power supply : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817517001

( Thats all the parts I can name off hand that I think may have any value. Nothings been changed, they were just taken from the box and placed together. No mods, no overclocking etc )

[Tradesman]

Do you have the latest BIOS? If not get that updated, put the sticks in slots 1-3, go into BIOS and enable XMP, select profile 1, change DRAM voltage to 1.55 and give it a try, let me know how it goes, if any problems, we'll try manual set up

[BTDylan]

Unfortunately, I'm unsure as to how to properly update the BIOS. But while browsing through it, I was unable to find any options to enable XMP, or modify the memory at all.

Don't suppose you could give me a quick detailed step by step for this would you?

Update:

After digging around, I was able to find "Enable XMP". I saw nothing about Profiles, as you told me Profile 1 - Nothing like that seemed to exist. I saw how to change the DRAM Voltage, but it only allowed me to pick certain voltages, not the one listed
1.350
1.500
1.650
1.800
1.55 was not listed as an option

Update 2 :

Performing Live Upate seems to just bring up a Black screen.. similar to a dos prompt but without use of any of the generic commands. Don't know if it actually "Did" Anything or I needed to do something more.

Also, I found something about M-Flash. Is that the proper way to Update the BIOS? if I click that, do I need a thumb drive or anything, or does it do everything itself? Just wanted confirmation before I did anything to prevent myself from crippling my PC.

Update 3:
Live update uses something called Winki which seems to have tried to install itself to the Recovory partition of my Hard drive, filling it up completely. Not sure if it failed, and thats why I'm getting the dos-prompt-esque results I'm getting, but I don't know how to change the drive of where to put it.

[Tradesman]

XMP should be OK, DRAM voltage select 1.5 and then see if you can type over it to 1.55, if not, leave at 1.5, on the BIOS update I'll have to check the site, most have rather clear instructions on how to do the update, will take a look, prob not back till This PM, heading out to a couple job site's

[BTDylan]

I've checked the website, and its rather vague unless I do it through flashing ( which it also says clearly don't do if you don't know what you're doing ). Winki tried to install to my Recovery partition, which got filled up to maximum in the process. Not sure why it chose there, but its not letting me use Live Update because of something wrong there, and it has no instructions on how to change it.

http://www.msi.com/product/mb/Z77A-G41.html#/?div=BIOS

I believe this is the correct product. There's tons of downloads there, and i wouldn't know which one of those things I need to download, or how to use them
WARNING!!!!!
DON'T FLASH WHEN YOUR SYSTEM IS RUNNING FINE!!!!
DON'T FLASH IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING!!!!
Thats the warning it says. =/ So.. I clearly don't know what I'm doing, so... I won't worry about that anymore.

If I could figure out why Live Update in the BIOS won't function properly, I could probably have an easier time with updating the BIOS. Not sure what else I can do besides sit here and poke around aimlessly.. which will probably break something at my luck.


Update

I found a program for windows called Live Update 5... Running this shows that all my stuff could be updated. Not sure if I should download them all or not. Opinion on that?
Here's a picture of what the scan says.
http://i.imgur.com/XgQcdjW.png

I winged it, installed all the stuff. Going to try running the tests again.

Tests show the same error results after successfully updating everything I could.

[Tradesman]

Let's download the latest BIOS, set up an empty directory call it flash or what ever, copy the downloaded BIOS file into the new directory, double click on the filename - should ask if you want to open or uncompress the file and where you want it, direct it to the new directory you are in. When done copy all files from the directory onto a preferably blank USB drive, when done - shutdown.

Boot into BIOS
hit the delete key and should get a menu with the option MFLASH at the bottom, click it
then click "select one file to update'
it should find the file on the USB drive and pop it up in a window
click on it and hit enter
it should reboot after finishing the update

[BTDylan]

The Bios is updated, nothing really else I can change. There are still errors in both tests though.

[GSKILL TECH]

Have you tried testing each module to see if one is causing problems?

They should all be stable individually. Also, make sure to use memtest86+ v4.20, not memtest86.

Thank you
GSKILL TECH

[BTDylan]

I put one slot at a time in Slot 1, and they each had errors - Most of them were during different tests for each stick.
My first stick errored in 1 2 4 5
My second stick errored in 1 3 4 5 6 7 8
If I recall properly, it looked like combing the two sticks results made it very simmilar to my first test. I am using Memtest86+ 4.20, Its what I started with. So what exactaly does this mean?

[Tradesman]

I'll drop GSkill Tech to take another look - think it'll be Thurs

[BTDylan]

Whelp. Unsure of what to do now. I just don't really have the technical knowledge to know if it requires a RMA or not.

[Tradesman]

Hopefully he'll be in today, if not I'll take a closer look later this morning or early this PM

[GSKILL TECH]

Feel free to send them in for RMA exchange to see if a new kit works better.

Thank you
GSKILL TECH

[BTDylan]

I managed to borrow memory from my neighbor. The test went Flawless up to 12 Tests, then canceled. So is it 100% Safe to assume this memory is defective? ( RMA Is already made out )

[Tradesman]

I'd think so, GSkill Tech above said to go ahead and RMA