New Motherboard and RAM

[Dan9550]

Hi, I recently purcahsed a new motherboard and set of G Skill ram, for my system the specifications are as follows:

AMD Phenom II 965 BE
nVidia GeFore GTX460 1GB
ASUS Sabertooth 990FX
I am using 2 of these kits [ RipjawsX] F3-12800CL9Q-8GBXL, which gives me total 16Gb of RAM

I have followed the AMD guide on this forum set my timings to 9-9-9-24-2N and set the voltage to 1.5v. But no matter what i do when i am in windows i get random lag spikes where programs become unresponsive for about 1minutes then everything runs fine until i eventually get another lag spike. This makes the PC unusable, i have tried the recommended failsafe settings (8-8-8-24).

I have tried adding extra voltage to both the CPU/NB and the RAM but nothing seems to make a difference i tested some sticks of the ram by itself and i got the same problem. Any help to identify and/or solve my problem would be greatly appreciated.

[Tradesman]

Do you have the latest BIOS?

[Dan9550]

Yes I am using the latest bios

[NemesisChild]

Lag spike?
Usually is related to network/internet issues, but I think I know what you mean here.
You might want to run memtest on each stick individually and up your CPU voltage as well.
But in all honesty, do you really need 16GB of memory?
8GB is more than plenty for most home PC's and it will put much less stress on the IMC.

[GSKILL TECH]

If one module at a time has the same exact problem, it may be the motherboard or CPU. Do you have the latest BIOS? Any other DDR3 modules you can test with?

Thank you
GSKILL TECH

[Dan9550]

By lag spike I mean like all of a sudden the system slows down and everything becomes in responsive momentarily. I will test the sticks individually and use a different hdd if that doesn't work I have another CPU I can test and I will try and find another ddr3 ram stick to test thanks for the feedback so far everyone

[TigerLi]

Hello Dan,

The problem you describe is normally related to one or more processes or program(s) monopolising the cpu and thus not allowing any other activity to take place while it or they are active. You may want to check the following:

1- If multitasking what programs are active when system/cpu temporary locks occur?
2- What background processes and or programs do you have running? Could one of these be the culprit?
3- Use msconfig to shut down all unecessary processes and/or programs that are auto started on windows boot? If that stops the locking problem turn them on one at a time to isolate the trouble maker{s).
4- Windows task manager program and the Windows fault log could also help you pinpoint the problem.
5- Your security program or suite could also be the culprit. Try running your PC without it.

Motherboard, RAM and CPU problems usually cause complete freezes or BSODs.

In summary do not rule out your software setup. Good luck,

[Dan9550]

ok so what ive done is i have reset my cmos, and reset the ram values and i used a ram stick that passed a memtest86+ test. and installed windows onto a different hard drive. So far the system seems to be working fine so im going to assume it was the hard drive. but until im 100% sure i will be keeping a close eye on the system to make sure no other problems arise. Thanks for all the responses as they have helped a lot.

[Tradesman]

Keep us informed

[Dan9550]

Well so far things have been ok, but its only been a day and i havent done a lot of heavy processing as such. I will run memtest86+ again later since i have all 16GB of memory installed. And i will see how the system runs at an up coming lan party

[TigerLi]

Great news Dan,

Glad to hear that your computer is running fine so far. Checking your memory set with Memtest86+ is an excellent idea. Remember also the other items that you will be taking to the LAN party, they need to be tested also.

CPU - Prime 95 - Small FFT - 8 to 12 hours
CPU / Memory interface - Large FFT -8 to 12 hours
Video Card - FurMark (Use with Caution - Major Heat Created)
HHD - ATTO BenchMark 32 or ChrystalDiskMark x64
Computer overall - IntelBurnTest 2 (high to Extreme setting) (Use with Caution - Major Heat Created)

Those are some of the free testing programs that I use. There are many others available on line, just Google for them. There are also many other commercial programs available. I use AIDA64 Extreme Edition, 3D Mark11 and PC Mark 7.

Regards,