A desperate plea! Maximus Formula Q6600

[Soulculler]

I just lost my blasted post by hitting submit without picking a sub-category! By the gods that's annoying. </rant>

Righto! Folks, I really need some help getting my rig to just run at it's rated speed. That's not overclocking I know, but bear with me. I do believe I'll be needing to change voltages and I could really do with the help. I'm new at this, so anything outside of the auto settings for me is overclocking!

My rig:

Asus Maximus Formula
Crucial Ballistix (4x1GB) DDR2 PC2-8500C5 1066MHz
QuadCore Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600
BFG 1000w

Windows XP Pro SP3

This post was huge before I lost it so I'll try to cut it down this time around. In short, I was able to run my system at stock with the ram at 1066 up until I brought another 2gb of RAM. With the new RAM in the system won't even get into windows before it throws up a BSOD.

All I want to do is run my rig stock with the ram at 1066, without burning anything out by going nuts with the voltages. I've a pretty good air cooling system going on in my case, with bundles of fans.

Currently if I run the system all at stock it won't get past the "loading windows" stage without a BSOD. If I increase the NB voltage to 1.45 it will get into windows, but isn't stable. As a side note, I understand the Maximus overvolts the RAM, so I've been compensating for that and running it at 2.12 in BIOS.

I'm pretty sure the problem is getting the voltages and timings right on the RAM and NB/SB but I've no clues where to start. My fiddling hasn't turned up good results and my google searching even less.

Any help would be great!

Cheers lads.

 

[outlw6669]

What is the recommended voltage for your RAM?
FYI, with 4 DIMMs installed, many systems need a bump in the RAM voltage to stay stable.

Try testing each stick individually with [url0http://www.memtest.org/]memtest[/url] at the manufacturers specified speed, voltage and timings.
Vary the slot used for testing also.
It is possible that one stick is in the process of failing or one of your slots may have a short somewhere.

 

[Soulculler]

The recommended voltage is 2.2, with the over volt I've been using 2.12 in bios and getting readings of 2.197 with Everest. I'll memtest the new ram now, the "old" pair I know passes fine.

Any more advice? ^^

 

[outlw6669]

Ignore Everest and bump it to 2.2-2.25v.
They are designed/warrantied to run at that voltage and are not guarantied to run with less.
It's not overvolting it when you do not even have it at the recommended voltage.

 

[jitpublisher]

Agree, a bump up in voltage usually does the trick.

 

[xringx]

For some reason, Crucial Memory sucks now.....I have had 2 RMA 2 different sets of dd2 800 4x1gb in the last year....

Most recently my OC appeared to be unstable.... For the life of me couldnt get it stable... I did Memtest and memory made it past 1 full pass so I stopped...but was still getting BSOD's multiple times a day.....

I then started taking out 1 stick of ram, to see if I would get my reboot.... Of course the last one I tried seems to be it... I havent had a BSOD in over a week where as I was getting 4-5 a day depending on usage...

I still need to memtest it and RMA it... but I found my culprit... This will be my 3rd RMA with Crucial.... I am currently looking at buying Mushkin