Does this sound like bad memory, or something else?

[losimagic]

Thanks Vinny, I'll try that after my current exercise - On Yellowbeards recommendation I have adjusted my RAMs timings and disabled legacy USB support and now running memtest on all the sticks again.

[sleepyhead]

Result?

[losimagic]

Results:


1st pack to be RMA'd:
Stick 1 - 6 passes
Stick 2 - Many many errors -

Walltime: 0:00:14
Cached: 2047m
rsvdmem: 636k
memmap: e820-STd
cache: on
ECC: off
Test: std
Pass: 0
Errors: 1794
ECC Errors: 0

Error Confidence VAlue: 18
Lowest Error Address: 00000000003 - 0.0mb
highest error address: 000e485fb00 - 3656.9mb
bits in error mask: ffffffff
bits in error - total: 32 Min:1 max: 32 Avg: 16
max contigious errors: 2
ECC Correctable Errors: NA (blank)
Errors per memory slot: 0: (very big number getting very big very fast for many minutes) (75million when I switched off)


All this in TEST 2



2nd pack:
Stick 1: System won't even POST
Stick 2: 5 passes

[sleepyhead]

Just to re-confirm; have you taken a single good RAM Module and tried each DIMM slot individually with memtest?

This will eliminate if there is an issue with a RAM Module and certain DIMM slots.

[losimagic]

Just to re-confirm; have you taken a single good RAM Module and tried each DIMM slot individually with memtest?

This will eliminate if there is an issue with a RAM Module and certain DIMM slots.

whenever I've tested or attempted to install vista with 1 stick, I've only used slot A1 - so the slot doesn't appear to be the problem.

[sleepyhead]

whenever I've tested or attempted to install vista with 1 stick, I've only used slot A1 - so the slot doesn't appear to be the problem.

Personally I would test every slot with the good RAM Module. It would eliminate the very small chance that one DIMM slot is frying the RAM Modules, hence why both sets have 1 non-correctly working RAM Module.

I'd hate for you to RMA both sets, get a third and find it is the motherboard that is the root cause.

[losimagic]

Ok, well i've only ever used 1 other slot, B1, so should I try the tests in that one?

tesing a good stick in B1 - so far it's got further than the bad stick got in A1

[sleepyhead]

Like I said, I'd personally test each and every slot.

[losimagic]

ok thanks, i'll give 1 good stick 3 passes or so in the remaining 3 slots

[sleepyhead]

I know it seems tiresome and pointless but having been down this road before, it is always wise to invest time now before starting RMA (I learnt the hard way!!!).

[losimagic]

Yes, I just hope I get to the root of the problem before it's too late to RMA everything back to Scan - would rather do that than have to send it back to asus/corsair/intel/whoever turns out to be the culprit.

1 pass in slot B1 complete, no errors.

[losimagic]

I have now tested the other slots:

A2: 3 passes, no errors
B1: 3 passes, no errors
B2: 3 Passes, no errors

[sleepyhead]

We can more or less say that the motherboard RAM Slots seem ok Best get those two sets of RAM sent back as they both seem faulty.

[losimagic]

2nd set of RAM, and mobo+cpu all be RMA'd for testing

How they'll test this, I've no idea :/

[losimagic]

They're now saying that the CPU is faulty, though not what is actually wrong with it. Didn't really think much could go wrong with them, apart from overheating and dieing.

[sleepyhead]

Wow....next thing you tell me the motherboard failed test too...

At least we know that there are quite a few hardware faults. Lets hope all your replaced bits come back soon.