need ideas on passing memtest #8

[maka_RTH]

so, i'm trying to get my ram to pass memtest, and i'm close, but i need some suggestions on getting it there. i just ran memtest for almost 16 hours(40 passes), and it failed test #8 five times, the first time on pass 20, prolly about 7~8 hours into it, and 4 more times over the next 20 passes which is when i got home and checked it. my current bios settings for my ram are:

Mhz - 1:1

CPC - enable

Cas (Tcl) - 2.5 (<--- i would like to keep this at 2.5 if possible, i've had it stable at 3 already, but want more out of it :D)

Trcd - 3

Tras - 8

Trp - 3

Trc - 11

Trfc - 14

Trrd - 2

Twr - 2

Twtr -2

Trwt -2

Tref - 3120 (<--- i haven't tried any others as this has seemed quite stable for many)

Odd divisor - disable

Dram Bank Interleave - enabled



(Most of the following settings are on the default values as when i tried tweaking them following the memory guide, it was more unstable)

DQS Skew Control - Auto

DQS Skew Value - 0

Dram Drive Strength - Auto

Dram Data Drive Strength - Auto

Max Async Latency - Auto

Dram Response Time - Normal

Read Preamble Time - Auto

IdleCycle Limit - 256 Cycles

Dynamic Counter - Disable

R/W Queue Bypass - 16x

Bypass Max - Auto

32 Byte Granularity - Disable(4 bursts)

 

as per my sig, FSB is at 280mhz, LDT multi is 3x, cpu multi at 7x to get just ram (cpu has been tested stable at this FSB x10). the current voltage to my ram is set to 3.0v, and bios reports it as 3.08v. i'm gonna pull out the DMM later to test all the rails and everything to see how accurate the bios readings are. also noted in my sig, i have the crucial ballistix pc4000, 2x 512MB, with the micron 5B-G chips. i currently have them in the yellow slots, and i think i'm gonna try moving them to the orange slots before i try anything else, when i have it all out checking the rails. any other suggestions? should i up the voltage to 3.1v? should i leave them in the yellow slots? any other suggestions as far as my timings and whatnot? also, my temps run fairly cool (except chipset, still need to get the evercool fan), cpu at ~27 idle, ~40 load, PWMIC at ~35 idle, ~38 load, and chipset roughly ~45 idle, ~47 load. i have a fan blowing directly on my ram as this greatly improved temps(they used to be hot to the touch, now they're cool to the touch), which resulted in greater stability. anyways, yeah, this has been long, but after reading a ton on here, i decided i wanted to join and add to the community

[Guest Kobalt]

Maybe your at the limit of the RAM, and you should use 3 instead of 2.5, even though you don't want to change that. It doesn't make that much difference except in benchmarks anyway.

[maka_RTH]

k, i switched them to the orange slots, and i'm still using all the same settings. i also measured how much voltage they are getting with a DMM, they're getting ~3.06v (bios is set at 3.0v). anyways, i'm running memtest again, right now test #8 only, since this is the only one to have failed. would it be enough to only run this test all night? or should i still run all standard tests (at least 50 passes) even if it no longer fails test #8?

[Guest Kobalt]

I would still do all tests overnight.

 

There was a reason why they have that many tests, and not just 1 test.

[maka_RTH]

haha, yeah i'm gonna run #8 all night, and then restart and run all tests all day/night or until i get an error at all. so far so good thoug on test #8, 2 1/2 hours no errors, where not long before i started it, with the ram still in the yellow slots i got errors pretty quickly. i'm hoping....

[maka_RTH]

well, i just woke up, and memtest had completed 180 passes, having run for a couple minutes short of 10 hours on test 8. i restarted and now all the tests are being run, we'll see how it looks today when i get home from work...

[smolt]

haha, yeah i'm gonna run #8 all night, and then restart and run all tests all day/night or until i get an error at all. so far so good thoug on test #8, 2 1/2 hours no errors, where not long before i started it, with the ram still in the yellow slots i got errors pretty quickly. i'm hoping....

that's crazy. 5 passes is enough to get into your OS and run something like S & M to stress test your ram take two hours at tops and memtest will never cheak your ram that hard no mater if you run it a hour or 10 days

[maka_RTH]

aight, well, it's now memtest stable. never realized how big a difference just switching slots could make i'm running prime now while i'm at work, but i believe it's stable (unless it gets too hot, it has been running for a load now for over 24 hours..., haha )