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snevl
Premium Member
join:2002-12-15
Aurora, CO

1 edit

snevl

Premium Member

Need New Memory?

My wife's computer went BSOD yesterday, and I can't boot into safe mode or even boot from the Windows DVD. I built the machine about 7 months ago based around an Asus P8Z77-V MB with an i5 3570K CPU. I have 16 GB of memory (2x 8GB) G.Skill Ripjaw DDR3 1600. All was working fine until this BSOD.

I burned a MemTest CD from ISO and booted it. Tons of errors, but all were in a relatively small address range: 4276.2MB to 4276.7MB, and always 1 or 2 bits with in the mask 005000000. So here's my questions:

1) Is there any chance the failure is somewhere other than the SDRAM itself? That is, is it a safe bet that if I replace the memory all will be back to normal, or is it possible that there is a failure somewhere else that would have this specific of a result?

2) I was going to pop out one of the two 8GB sticks and see if I can narrow the error to which stick is bad (assuming the answer to #1 is that it must be the memory). I've never run with 1 stick, and can't find the manual for the MB. Does it matter which slot the memory is in?

Thanks in advance for your scholarly opinions!

Steve

EDIT: I hadn't popped the hood on this machine until just after I posted (bad me, sorry). The memory is actually 4x4GB Corsair. I was building another machine for someone else at the time, and they must have gotten the G.Skill memory. With that said, my question #1 is unchanged. I think I know the answer to question #2, in that I need to remove both sticks from either the Blue or Black sockets. Right?
daveinpoway
Premium Member
join:2006-07-03
Poway, CA

daveinpoway

Premium Member

If you click onto "Support" here ( »www.asus.com/Motherboard ··· /P8Z77V/ ), you will find a link to the motherboard manual- this should answer Question #2.
snevl
Premium Member
join:2002-12-15
Aurora, CO

snevl

Premium Member

Duh! Thanks. I'll look at it.
asdfdfdfdfdf
Premium Member
join:2012-05-09

asdfdfdfdfdf to snevl

Premium Member

to snevl
To answer 1 you don't want to take even an educated guess based on the memtest. You need to confirm by physically removing all the sticks and testing with each stick individually. If all the sticks act up in the first ram slot then try them all in the other slots.
snevl
Premium Member
join:2002-12-15
Aurora, CO

snevl

Premium Member

Ok, thanks. I pulled two of the four sticks (one bank) and memtest passed with this reduced 8GB setup. I then booted Windows and my wife has been using the machine since. I think that means one of the two sticks I pulled is bad, but based on your comment. To make sure it is the memory and not the slots, I guess I'll move the two that I know work into the other bank.

Thanks for the feedback.
bbear2
Premium Member
join:2003-10-06
dot.earth

bbear2

Premium Member

Not only try different slots, but sometimes simply re-seating a DIMM can resolve errors.
snevl
Premium Member
join:2002-12-15
Aurora, CO

snevl

Premium Member

Hmmm... I'll try re-seating, but I would have thought the machine wouldn't have been running fine for 7 months. I didn't get a chance to try anything today, but will.

Steve
daveinpoway
Premium Member
join:2006-07-03
Poway, CA

daveinpoway

Premium Member

Before re-seating the RAM, remove all of the sticks and wipe the pins of each one with a soft cloth. This will help to assure that you get a good connection with the socket.

aurgathor
join:2002-12-01
Lynnwood, WA

aurgathor to snevl

Member

to snevl
Some possibilities in order of likelyhood are:
a) bad connection -- cheapest to fix
b) bad memory stick
c) bad memory slot
d) flaky memory bus

First, you should just re-seat (and optionally, clean) the memory modules, then run the memory test. If it passes -- stop there.

If it fails, remove half of the memory, and re-run the test.
Then run the test with the other half.

Post the results.

Depending on what's wrong it may take a few tests to figure out what's wrong.
snevl
Premium Member
join:2002-12-15
Aurora, CO

snevl

Premium Member

Thanks to all for the suggestions. I appreciate the expertise here.

I was able to narrow the problem to one bad 4G stick. With 4 sticks, it was pretty easy to do:
1) I had two sticks in that were working fine for my wife in Win7, and passed all memtest runs. I shut down and moved them to the other pair of slots (from the blue to the black slots), and it all still worked.
2) I cleaned the contacts on the two that were not in the machine, and swapped one of them for one of the two that I knew to be working. Again, memtest passed fine.
3) I left that stick in, and swapped the other stick for the last remaining stick. Memtest quickly failed, again in a fairly narrow address range.
4) I moved the two sticks to the other bank (back to the blue slots). Again memtest failed, but with a different address range.
5) I removed the suspect stick and (in two separate runs) tried both of the two had been out of the machine for the previous test. All tests pass.

So, I have one bad 4GB memory stick. I went back and found that I had ordered all four sticks from Amazon on 8-Mar-2013. I think I know the answer, but is there any point in seeing if Corsair will help?

Steve
asdfdfdfdfdf
Premium Member
join:2012-05-09

asdfdfdfdfdf to snevl

Premium Member

to snevl
I would certainly contact corsair customer service/tech support and explain in detail what you have done to troubleshoot the problem. They should take care of you. The sticks should have a "lifetime" warranty. They will probably want you to return the set of sticks the bad stick came included in. In other words if you bought 2 different 2x4GB sets then they will probably want you to return both sticks from the bad set, etc. If they were all bought as separate sticks then they will probably have you just return the one stick. Get clarification from them about this if they don't specify or if you aren't sure which sticks came with the set that has the bad stick. Don't send anything back though until you have gone through the rma process and have received a valid rma number from them. Read the following warranty page and rma information carefully and then contact them.

»www.corsair.com/us/suppo ··· arranty/
»www.corsair.com/company/contact/

Here is the customer service/tech support site
»corsair.force.com/
snevl
Premium Member
join:2002-12-15
Aurora, CO

snevl

Premium Member

Awesome! Thanks for the links. I've submitted the information and an RMA has been approved.
bbear2
Premium Member
join:2003-10-06
dot.earth

bbear2

Premium Member

I certainly would. Also, if you bought them as a match pair, I would request that Corsair replace them as a match pair. Meaning, you should send back both and get two from the same current batch with nearly sequential serial numbers.
snevl
Premium Member
join:2002-12-15
Aurora, CO

snevl

Premium Member

Actually, it looks as though they require me to send back the set (4 x 4GB in this case), even though I know which one is bad. As someone pointed out earlier, since I bought it as a set, I'm required to return the entire set.

I had already ordered some replacement memory, so when it gets here I'll pull the two remaining in the machine and send all four back to Corsair. I'm actually pretty impressed that Corsair has this lifetime warranty on memory.

Sounds like I will have a spare set of 16GB sticks. Not a good enough excuse to build a new box, but almost...