OCZ 3500 & Asus P4C800-E... Memtest errors & lockup

[Andy C]

Hi,

I've just build a system around a P4 3.0C, an Asus P4C800-E and 2x512MB sticks of OCZ 3500 EL-DDR memory (full spec in sig).

When running 'memtest' I always fail during Test 4, after which it seems to go a bit mad and lock up forcing me to hit the reset button. The test results are:


Test.... 4
Failing Address.... 0001e7b96e4 - 487.5MB
Good.... 40000000
Bad.... 41000000
Err-Bits.... 010000
Count.... 4
Chan.... 1


Any ideas?

[Edit] Forgot to mention that BIOS settings are all stock and I get the error with performance mode both enabled & disabled.


Andy.

[bigtoe]

manually set ram timings to cls2-3-3-7 in bios.It may be the spd is setting ras to cas at 2 which many modules are unable to run with canterwood.

[Andy C]

Thanks for the reply, bigtoe.

I'm not used to manually setting memory timings, but I'm guessing the order of the values you mentioned are:

CAS - RAS - RAS to CAS - Precharge

Correct?

If that's the case I tried setting the timings to 2-3-3-7 (burst was set to 8) and I still got the error during Test 4. However this time it carried on going. I then got 2 more errors during Test 5 and the pc eventually locked up completely during Test 7.


Andy.

[Andy C]

Ok, running with timings of 2.5-3-3-7 it doesn't give errors anymore, however it *always* locks up totally at around 8 minutes 30 seconds into the tests. I need to recover by hitting reset.

Would a slight voltage increase help?

[Edit]
Hmm, I upped the voltage to 2.65 and I got through the first run of tests, but again the pc totally locked up just as the second run was starting (8m 57s of testing).

After upgrading from a system with rock solid RDRAM, this is quite depressing.
[/Edit]


Andy.

[Andy C]

To summarize settings tried so far:-

Auto Settings .... Failed Test 4 with four errrors and froze.

2-3-3-7 .... Four errors in Test 4, two errors in Test 5 then freezing.
2.5-3-3-7 .... No errrors, but freezes after 8 mins 30 seconds.
2.5-3-3-7 (2.65v) .... No errors, but again freezes at 8 minutes 57 seconds.
2.5-3-3-7 (2.75v) .... No errors, but again freezes at 8 minutes 57 seconds.
2.5-3-3-8 .... No errors, but froze at 5 minutes.
2.5-3-4-7 .... No errors, again froze at 5 minutes.

Duff memory perhaps?


Andy.

[chung_chang]

disable legacy usb support in bios.

[solofly]

A couple things I noticed...
1. Update the BIOS to the newest
2. Only use PS2 mouse/keyboard when memtesting (actually remove all (if any) the devices out of the USB ports)

[solofly]

Originally posted by chung_chang
disable legacy usb support in bios.

I did that with my setup and it corrupted my OS boot files. Newest Bios should solve this issue. (it did for me)

[Andy C]

Well, disabling legacy usb support seems to do the trick. I set timings to 2-2-3-7 and it's been looping for 2 hours in memtest with zero errors so far. I will run it overnight and see what happens.

Solofly... I'm running bios 1009. Are you saying 1010 fixes the memory issue?

Many thanks to all that have replied, much appreciated.


Andy.

[chung_chang]

I heard 1009 lets you overclock better on this board vs 1010. I wouldn't know because I skipped 1009 and went straight to 1010. But you do get RAID 1 with 1010.

[oczguy]

I think 1009 is the first bios with the memory compatibility fix ,

legacy usb support has a habit of making memtest freeze

[Andy C]

Hi oczguy,

So with bios 1009, if I re-enable legacy usb support I shouldn't have any problems with regular use. It's just that Memtest is acting up?

Also, I'm using timings of 2-2-3-7 with Burst 8. I'm guessing this is as good as it gets with the 3500 EL-DDR on Canterwood? Not that I'm complaining as it's still quite tight.


Andy.