Dealing with ram errors, and maybe even Memtest program errors?

[figit090]

Sadly my new build has some memory errors (Memtest86+) and I'm currently spending time and watts finding the culprit I thought I'd be using my rig but I didn't get past using it to test itself yet. I'm just running into errors and maybe even program glitches with memtest (read on, and see pics) so I need help from here as I have a short window to RMA these sticks and not enough knowledge to tell what's going on. 🙁

I was told it could be a voltage problem and not a dead stick, since I'm using 32gb of ram, but I got an error running just one DIMM on my last 10 hrs of 8 passes, so that seems to verify that I have a bad chip somewhere in that stick. I did notice that with each new test and configuration, the failing address size gets cut in half...dunno what that means

I noticed my 666mHz ram is running at 670mHz (1340, and not 1333) instead of it's advertised clock speed. At least, that's what Memtest86+ tells me. Upon tweaking the config to see what would happen, I changed the error report mode and hit 7 to reset and it started back up at 3628mHz!!! What's going on? Perhaps I have no errors but memtest is screwing up? I'm going to make a new burn of it with another pc and try again but...has anyone seen this?

I was thinking I had to RMA some sticks out of my dual 16gb sets, but maybe it's back to square one...


My configuration:
CPU: Intel Core i7-3770K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO
Motherboard: Asus P8Z77-V PRO ATX LGA1155 Motherboard
Memory: GeIL Black Dragon 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR3-1333 Memory
Storage: OCZ Vertex 4 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk
Case: NZXT Phantom 410
Power Supply: NZXT 850W ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Professional SP1 (64-bit)

After one test, I tweaked the error report settings and get this glitch in the results headers:

Later I try goofing with settings more and upon restarting it changed speeds every reset...SUPER speed ram glitch? I don't get it. These triple mHz speeds don't even sound possible, nor good good for my ram if it is indeed running that fast...

 

[cl-scott]

What I would do, and it's going to be tedious in the extreme, is test each RAM module individually. Give them at least a couple of passes in memtest. If you have more than one module testing bad, then I would start moving the modules to a different slot on the motherboard and test again. It's possible you have a bad motherboard, not bad RAM, but you definitely would need to do some testing before you can say that for sure. And with the memory controller being moved onto the CPU now, that is also potentially suspect, but before getting too far ahead of ourselves, start by testing the RAM modules individually, then move on to testing the memory banks if needed, then after replacing the motherboard you can consider the possibility the CPU is bad.

 

[figit090]

What I would do, and it's going to be tedious in the extreme, is test each RAM module individually. Give them at least a couple of passes in memtest. If you have more than one module testing bad, then I would start moving the modules to a different slot on the motherboard and test again. It's possible you have a bad motherboard, not bad RAM, but you definitely would need to do some testing before you can say that for sure. And with the memory controller being moved onto the CPU now, that is also potentially suspect, but before getting too far ahead of ourselves, start by testing the RAM modules individually, then move on to testing the memory banks if needed, then after replacing the motherboard you can consider the possibility the CPU is bad.

Thank you, Scott. I have begun testing the ram individually with fail safe mode in Memtest86+. I don't want to jump to conclusions after only 9 passes since I know of those who have even seen errors come after 11 passes, but perhaps it was an incompatibility problem with Ivy Bridge.

Do you or does anyone know if memtest will be more reliable in failsafe mode? So far 8 passes on a stick that was throwing errors (same slot) and nothing.

 

[figit090]

OK. After 21 hours on the wall and 17 passes...nothing. Failsafe mode is either not finding errors or has eliminated an incompatibility causing false errors.

Anyone else run into this issue?

Testing the second stick now...