Faulty Ram Stick yet Supplier can't find Fault

[azrael1]

Hello all.

Being a seasoned system builder. I however encountered problems with my latest system ( 3 months old ) / I would get random BSODs of various descriptions and it was always random. sometimes daily, sometimes only 2 times a week. ( I reformatted 3 times, reinstalled all the mb / video / sound drivers etc )

I narrowed it down by replacing components. I took one stick of ram ( 2 sticks of PC3200 1 GIG ) out and left it out for a while and the fault still occured ( 3 weeks test period ). I put the other stick in and took the other one out and left it for 6 weeks and no errors. I had ran Mem test on both sticks and no errors had came up.

I sent the faulty stick back to Scan yet i get an email back today saying no fault could be found.

So my only option is to buy another gig of ram from somewhere ?

[HyeongSeong]

What motherboard have you got ? A mate of mine had similar problem and it is to do with the fact that the memory that he brought is not supported by the motherboard. It is worth to check the mother board manual and check.

[azrael1]

Hi the MB is a ABIT NF-95 MB.

I also went on the mb website and theres no reports of problems with corsair standard PC3200 Memory.

[danroyle]

was the ram overclocked or the cpu and did you put enough volts through the memory asrock boards are a bit tight on the max voltages and memory might just need a little more power through it to run stable

[DanceswithUnix]

How long did you run memtest for?

I have had sticks that fail very infrequently even on memtest86, and only really trust a machine if it survives at least an overnight test with no errors.

[danroyle]

How long did you run memtest for?

I have had sticks that fail very infrequently even on memtest86, and only really trust a machine if it survives at least an overnight test with no errors.

same here mine will throw up the odd error on memtest if i lowwer the voltage below 2.8v at stock speeds even though they are supposed to run 2.6-2.9v but 2.8 is the only volts they like although they also clock up very nicely on 2.8v and will run memtest for 10-15 hrs with no errors

[azrael1]

Hi

Nothing was overclocked and there isn't a voltage option on the micro atx board.

I recieved the Ram back and put it back into the PC. 2 Hrs later the first BSOD in 6 weeks.

Scan have proven unable to help me, so the next step is to contact corsair and explain to them the problem.

[DanceswithUnix]

My gut feeling is that it has to be either a PSU on the limit (that can do the oddest things) or it aught to be failing during memtest86 if that RAM is that wonky, though possibly after some hours of running.

I empathise with your problems with Scan and memory, I have had memory declared OK but having compatability problems from them in the past despite trying it on half a dozen systems, with different chipsets (some Intel some Via) and cpus. They refunded me, but I do wonder if that stick of PC133 memory just went out so the next poor shmuck that ordered some.

[azrael1]

Im running a hyper X 400 plus Watt power supply and its fine. I stuck some different ram before into this rig and its fine. Its just that damn faulty stick.

Im emailing corsair now and pestering them to change it

[azrael1]

Man I never thought it would be this troublesome to replace a faulty part.

[DanceswithUnix]

I would hope that Corsair know how to test memory, so lets hope you have a better time with them. Let us know how you get on, I have a lot of Corsair RAM and I am sure lots of other people here are the same.

[azrael1]

Thanks, Now Im just waiting on a reply from Corsair themselves. Hell Im tempted to buy a new MB just to prove them wrong.

[chrestomanci]

Faulty RAM socket?

One of the RAM sockets on my PC has developed a fault, recently and at first I thought it was faulty RAM.

Mind you, in my case it was much more obvous, If the socket was populated the PC would not POST.