GA-X58-UD5 & RAM = BSOD Problem

[DT86UK]

Hi Everyone,

First time poster so bare with me

I've recently purchased the GIGABYTE GA-X58-UD5 (rev 2.0) along with OCZ3P1333LV6GB RAM (3x2GB) and long story short when the PC runs, boots up fine, but the BSOD will occur at any given moment.

However, when I use 1 stick or 2, this problem doesnt happen - at all. Right now, its now been running some 7+ hours and counting and not one BSOD and has done over the past few days, with all 3 sticks in though im lucky to get an hour or 2 out of it. I'm completely out of ideals as this is by no means my forte. The digging around I've done on related threads have been unhelpful as, from the few I could find, was to replace the board - and the manufacturer of it at that.

Now, I'm not experienced at all at BIOS updates so correct me if Im wrong at all - I've tried upgrading my BIOS however the link i've tried (Downloads on the Board spec page) wont update the BIOS due to me running Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit - as the RAM is 6GB I want to utilise all of it - OR, do i do this on botting up the machine and running from USB Stick???

Ideally I'm looking for a quick solution - although I know nothing ever is with stuff of this nature lol. I had wondered if I put another 3 sticks in if it would over-ride the problem? Plus it would give me the chance to try out a different brand and see if its the RAM. Also, what RAM are any of you using with the same board and if you experienced this problem how did you get around it?

 ..Oh the RAM sticks are in the correct slots too 2nd, 4th, 6th (white ones, counting from left)

Any help would be much appreciated.

Many Thanks,

Dan

Full PC Spec:
Windows Ultimate 64bit
Gigabyte GA-X58-UD5 MoBo
Intel i7 950 CPU
OCZ3P1333LV6GB RAM
Ati Raedon 5830 1GB DDR5
Samsung F3 1TB HDD (X2)
DVD/RW (Dont know specifics)

[Trinitrotoluene]

edit: how rude of me not to say hello and welcome!

I think you're talking about OCZ3P1333LV6GK? And I take it you've tried to run each stick alone in each slot, to find out if it is a ram slot issue. Maybe it's a matter of QVI/PTT voltage tweaking. Let us know what you've tried.

I used the above kit on my X58A UD3R 2.0 board (BIOS FB, to recognize all 6GB). And it started out with receiving two broken kits in a row. The third one was fine, but from my own research and my webshops research the conclusion was that OCZ3P1333LV6GK is not compatible with the board (UD3R). Because I still had BSOD's and everything on non-broken kit so to speak. You might have the same problem, be prepared. This specific module is still on the QVL of the UD3R board, but I've already contacted GGTS a while ago to have them retest it. In the meanwhile I hope people stay away from this kit on this board.

I have solved it by purchasing KHX1600C8D3K3/6GX memory, which is not on the QVL of my board but the OCZ kit was and we all know how that turned out. Thankfully the webshop replaced it for free, even though the OCZ kit was not their product (from OCZ Taiwan RMA).

[Dark Mantis]

Hi

I see TNT has already welcomed you to the forum. 

You will probably find that these modules are just not compatible and quite a lot of members have reported problems with OCZ memory. Personally I would stick with Corsair , Mushkin, Crucial etc. Make sure that you check on their website for compatibility with the motherboard before purchase.

[DT86UK]

Hi guys,

Dont worry about the welcoming good to see it was str8 to business in a way

Trinitrotoluene: My apologies, its GK at the end, your right I have ran each stick and seems to run fine, should also have mentioned that. I have read about voltage tweaking in similar threads but I fraid from doing it as thats where I am inexperienced at these subjects. Plus I would have thought it shouldn't need to have the voltage tweaked? Last system I built was a 775 socket and I cant remember such problems occurring - granted it was my ASUS P5K-E that provided those lol

I would agree with you in saying these parts are not compatible, although they are stated on Giigabyte's Memory List on the product page. Having said that, you cover this as well using RAM that isn't listed but works!

I guess I'll order some more asap, I can get by on 2 sticks @ 4GB until I it arrives - although again to anyone who has this board if your running RAM successfully I'd love to know the product and brand, latency etc to order myself.

Dark Mantis: OCZ was my first choice as I used it on my last PC, and I never gave it much thought (d'oh!), ordering more - Corsair would have been my 2nd choice - unless there is a better one? I'll do this while also referring to Gigabyte's AND the RAM Manufacturer's compatibility list

...then if I still get the BSOD I know its the board, right?   ....or just really bad RAM luck

Thanks for the replies guys, its very much appreciated.

[Trinitrotoluene]

If each stick runs fine on its own in each white slot, then the slots are OK, your board should be OK. By combining all three and finding out it doesn't work, I guess you could say at that stage that it might be a voltage thing. As we know, more sticks = more stress on the memory controller. So it might need a bit more juice. Voltage tweaking would be the first thing suggested on the OCZ support forum as well. Just set the RAM voltage to 1.64/1.66v and try a variety of QPI/VTT voltages. Dark Mantis can give you the exact range you should stay within.

The above is worth trying, but again I'll tell you there's a big chance you're having the same incompatibility problem I did. Same OCZ kit, slightly different motherboard. But then again, I've seen a few threads on the OCZ forum where people did get their ram running after some voltage tweaking. Hopefully you can get it sorted out quickly, is RMA via your shop an option to have them exchanged for something else, without extra costs, like I was able to?

Speaking of choices, the Kingston kit I have right now was my first choice when I built this system. But later on I decided 1600Mhz wasn't necessary, so I chose the OCZ kit. Oh well hindsight
In general, I think X58 is more picky then previous chipsets when it comes to ram. The reason the OCZ is on the QVL but doesn't seem to work, might be that OCZ in the meanwhile changed their chips on the sticks. Resulting in your monitor being dominated by blue and white colors from time to time. I do have trust in Gigabyte that they test properly and also my correspondence with them about this was good.

I think we can assume your CPU makes proper contact with all the pins on your motherboard eh? I've seen this all before, and my CPU was also seated properly. But you never know.

[Dark Mantis]

Yes as TNT says it might be possible to get your memory working but the X58 chipset is much more particular about what memory it will play nicely with.

If you want to try with increased memory voltage he is correct about the voltage. As far as QPI/Vtt goes well you should be looking at 1.20v to 1.40v. You will need to play around with this voltage for stability.

Make sure that your Uncore is twice your memory multiplier also or a maximum of twice  plus 2.

If you decide to change the RAM try Corsair Dominators as they seem to work perfectly with the X58 chipset. Just check on the Corsair website for compatibility.

[DT86UK]

hmm right a few things here:

Just turned the computer on and i got BSOD with 2 sticks and 1 (back on 2 now), so this could also be a cold boot issue too, just no where near as frequent.
However, given the fact I had my window open all day and just walking in from work now - and im in Newcastle, probably wasnt the best temperature to boot up the PC    (a nice 3 Celcius is coming up on my phone...)

I forgot to mention the PSU was 700watts - this should be sufficient given my spec right?

RAM testing, I'll give it a go not completely happy about - just that I've never done it before (like where do I begin, voltage was mentioned but I know there is Latency? and stuff like that), thus a noobie and have always had the thought that it wasn't a healthy practice - but all means correct me if its perfectly to generally fine to do

I checked Corsaire site and some great RAM there but I couldnt find any that matched the MoBo with Gigabyte's QVL (from the GA-X58A-UD5 Product Page link) unless there is a more up to date one? - I'll keep looking and also look @ the Dominators

Cheers,

Dan

[Trinitrotoluene]

Alright Dan, the OCZ sticks should say "7-7-7" on the little sticker, the last number you need is 20 but that isn't printed. The part of your bios that concerns memory timings looks like this. All you need to enter is CAS, tRCD, tRP and tRAS - being respectively 7, 7, 7 and 20. Set Dram timing selectable to Quick and it will set these timings for all channels. Setting timings is perfectly OK and even recommended: auto-detected settings by the bios aren't always optimal. Also, you could try setting tRFC to 88 specifically. OCZ recommended me doing so, you never know. Additionally (when all else failed) you can try to set your timings even looser, 8-8-8-24. But I'll leave that up to you, it might just be easier to pick up a different brand kit and see what that does. If that one runs fine, it's a clear case.

You're right, it could also be a coldboot issue. I've had a permanently broken kit and the other one was bad at coldboot and still couldn't be trusted when warmed up. Nevertheless, they should work. 3 degrees Celsius or 30 The wattage of your PSU is fine, what brand and type is it?

Don't worry about the Gigabyte QVL too much when you're looking at the QVL from memory manufacturers: Gigabyte can't test and list every module out there. Solely looking at the QVL of the memory manufacturer is fine here.

So now you got your timings and I assume you know where to find the QPI/VTT voltage.


Dark Mantis, please correct me if I'm wrong anywhere. Just like to help out here, as it seems to be my case all over again

[Dark Mantis]

You are doing a good job TNT and please do carry on. The more help the better.

[DT86UK]

Hi Guys, I'll give that a shot as soon as im back at the PC. I've had to sort some stuff out over the weekend for family if im honest  ..what to do  eh?

Thank you for breaking the RAM issue down for me  and I'll post back with my results after I've tested them.

Cheers,

Dan

[DT86UK]

Update guys:

Going into the settings of BIOS showed it was 'Auto' set at 7-7-7-16 , would this cause all the upset?

I've set it to 7-7-7-20 as suggested, and as the RAM is meant to run at. Is there any tests I can do or just run a load of programs to use all the RAM and see how runs on a  high load?

Only other thing after that would to just see how it does over time, if any problems occur try the 8-8-8-24?

Cheers

Dan

[Dark Mantis]

Hi

There are many programs that will test out your memory and/or system  but to be fair there is no better test than just using it for whatever you would normally do.

The tight timings could well have caused the problem and it should notice a difference now. However if you do still get any problem it certainly won't hurt to slacken them off a bit more as you suggest.

[DT86UK]

Hi

There are many programs that will test out your memory and/or system  but to be fair there is no better test than just using it for whatever you would normally do.

The tight timings could well have caused the problem and it should notice a difference now. However if you do still get any problem it certainly won't hurt to slacken them off a bit more as you suggest.

Ok cool, I've been running it for a fair few hours now and haven't had any problems (fingers crossed) time will tell I guess and will loosen should it be persistant. Think this one is solved for the time being!

Thanks a lot for the help guys!

- Dan

[Dark Mantis]

You are welcome and you know where to come if you need any more help.

[Trinitrotoluene]

16 tRAS instead of 20 sure could have caused all this! Lets say I really hope it did Though the apparent cold boot issues seem to be out of line then, you'd think it would crash no matter cold or warm. I take it you've been running the memory at 1333Mhz from the start?

Let us know how everything runs after a couple of days.