Memtest86 & How broken is 'error' RAM?
I bought a matched pair of Kingston HyperX 512MB PC3200 sticks from Newegg a while back. After the installation in my PC, I started experiencing lockups and some restarts from time to time. I ran Memtest86 on the system overnight, and received a crap-load of errors for my trouble.
I called Kingston tech support, expecting an RMA (Lifetime warranty on the RAM). I didnt' mention the memtest errors to the support person, but I did mention the hard-locks and resets. He said to up the memory voltage and/or loosen the timings. I didn't want to loosent the timings, so I upped the memory voltage to 2.7V.
Guess what? It worked. The hard-locks and resets went away. I re-ran memtest86 overnight on the system, and no errors showed up in a full 8 hour run. I was shocked, so I did it again a few nights later. No errors.
I was told a few times that if memtest shows errors in the RAM, that you've got one or more bad sticks and that's all there is to it. However, I'd think that if that were the case, then memtest would generate errors no matter what timings/voltage the RAM was run at. But I didn't get any errors when I upped the voltage on my HyperX. It's been running fine, with no glitches/errors since that time (3+ months now). Is memtest fallible? Or can errors show up due to overclocking/timings/undervolting RAM that doesn't necessarily indicate a bad stick of RAM?
I called Kingston tech support, expecting an RMA (Lifetime warranty on the RAM). I didnt' mention the memtest errors to the support person, but I did mention the hard-locks and resets. He said to up the memory voltage and/or loosen the timings. I didn't want to loosent the timings, so I upped the memory voltage to 2.7V.
Guess what? It worked. The hard-locks and resets went away. I re-ran memtest86 overnight on the system, and no errors showed up in a full 8 hour run. I was shocked, so I did it again a few nights later. No errors.
I was told a few times that if memtest shows errors in the RAM, that you've got one or more bad sticks and that's all there is to it. However, I'd think that if that were the case, then memtest would generate errors no matter what timings/voltage the RAM was run at. But I didn't get any errors when I upped the voltage on my HyperX. It's been running fine, with no glitches/errors since that time (3+ months now). Is memtest fallible? Or can errors show up due to overclocking/timings/undervolting RAM that doesn't necessarily indicate a bad stick of RAM?
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Comments
Which is why you up the voltage on the memory when overclocking.
Indeed...3.9Vddr (not a typo...running modded 3.3V rail directly to Vddr) allows me to bench a KHX3200/256 stick (BH5) at 285-290MHz 2.0 5-2-2 (GA-K8N, NF3-150 based board)