NF4 Ultra-D Mushkin Memory settings

[D-Bo TEXAS]

Hi I'm a newbie here. I put my first computer together and so far it has been a complete nightmare. To save you some boredome, let's just say I've managed to get my OS running and everything seems to be running ok. However, I bought this system to play games (Battlefield Vietnam, Doom 3, etc) and I plan to keep it for a while. As you can see from my signature, I have what I believe is a pretty good setup as far as components go. I've got all the latest drivers installed. By the way, I'm not trying to overclock the CPU anything....I just want to play my games without crashing to desktop.

 

The problem is that whenever I play Doom or BFV, after about 20 minutes I get a crash to desktop. At first I thought it was my drivers, but I tried about 7 different NVIDIA drivers and betas, nothing worked. Eventually it turned into an IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL blue screen all the time, so I re-installed the OS and partitioned the hard drive and put Windows on a 20G partition. The seems to have cleared up the IRQL blue screen problem. But the games still crash randomly.

 

So, I started thinking that maybe me RAM wasn't running properly. I have no where to begin tweaking the settings, but I ran MEMTEST86 from the BIOS and it found about 25 errors in about 1 hours (all from Test #8). From what I have been reading in the forums, if your memory is stable you shouldn't see any errors. All BIOS settings are default and the memory reads 2-3-3-6 1T DDR400. The default Vdimm is 2.6V. I also ran Prime95 from Windows and it started finding errors after only a minute or two.

 

Right now, I'd like to get memtest86 to run error free (specifically Test #8) and see if that fixes my game crashing problem. So, I have a few questions about where to start. First of all, I have the Mushkin Blue 2X512 memory and I'm not sure if it is Winbond BH-5 or UTT (I found a forum online where someone said most batches especially newer ones are UTT). This memory is supposed to be 2-3-3-6. I have it in the Orange DIMM slots (2 and 4). I know how to tweak the values in the BIOS, but I am not sure which one to start with (I want to start tweaking the value that will have the smallest performance impact). Also, on this forum some people mentioned disabling the CPC (so it reads 2T) and disabling the DRAM Interleave. Which one should I start with? Should I do it before tweaking the 2-3-3-6 values? Should I increase the voltage on the RAM (Mushkin says its rated for 2.5-2.8V so I shouldn't go above 2.8V right?). My CPU fan is big and overhangs the DIMM4 slot, but I don't think it offers a lot of active cooling over the RAM, so I don't want to burn it up or anything.

 

As you can see I am lost and I'm in over my head, but have spent too much money to give up now. So please somebody, end the suffering and help a dude out...

[ZyberNeo]

Well ypu could start reading the memory guide, to see what you could lower/raise..

 

Try giving your mem 3.0v (it's doesn't heart them)

[D-Bo TEXAS]

Yeah I have been reading in some of the Mushkin forums that people are pushing them to higher voltages like 3.3V or 3.4V. Do you think I will need any kind of active cooling at 3.0V? I don't plan to push them up to 3.3V unless absolutely necessary to get them to work (I know I would need cooling at that point)...but I'll try lower values first.

[akadoc]

Those sticks eat voltage. If I turn on my board and just run optimal settings the ram won't even boot due to voltage, so it definately needs turned up. I don't even bother with anything less than 3 volts. That's running default. When you start overclocking it your gonna have to put more volts into them. At 3 volts my stuff doesn't really get hot just stick your finger on them to see if you need to put a fan on them or not. I also pulled the heatspreaders off of those and it helped alot. Voids warranty but really doesn't matter to me.

 

I'd leave cpc at 1T and your blank interleave turned on. The memory can handle alot you just have to work with it alot. If your not overclocking them, put the stuff at 1.5-2-2-5, instead of 2-3-3-6, they can handle it.

 

ALot of info on this specific ram here: http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showth...9034#post859034

 

Very nice way to cool your ram here... all needs a coat hanger and extra fan: http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=3...=active+cooling

[D-Bo TEXAS]

Thanks for the advice...I'll try bumping voltage to 3V and see what happens. If that runs stable, I'll set to 1.5-2-2-5 and retest.

[CJ4]

Here's another thread on your ram:

http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=377110

 

This post http://www.ocforums.com/showpost.php?p=3598900&postcount=302 shows the difference in the BH-5 and UTT sticks. If you bought them fairly recently, you are almost guarantted UTT.

[D-Bo TEXAS]

Thanks for all the advice. I increased my Vdimm to 2.9V and Memtest86 runs with no errors (I ran Test#8 for 1 hour with no errors, and the full test for 3 hours so far). That is the only thing I did (CPC is still enabled, ,and so is DRAM Interleave). My current timings are on Auto and detect at 2-3-3-6 1T. I might bump up the voltage a little bit more and see if I can tighten up the timings a little bit, but at least I know this is stable. I have been able to play BFV for 3 hours without any crashes to desktop, so I'm pretty confident the problem has been solved.