Windows 7 - Gigabyte P67-UD3-B3 getting black screen with 8gb of ram

Hi all,

First post. Been troubleshooting a desktop we built for video editing at the office for a while, running out of ideas so I thought I'd post here to bounce some thoughts around.

The issues is the desktop will randomly BSOD or just black screen with no response, at random times doing random tasks. It is running Windows 7 64bit.

The hardware is a Gigabyte p67-UD3-B3 motherboard with an Intel i7 and 8GB (dual channel, 2x2GB) Corsair DDR3 memory (TW34G1333C9A).

I believe this to be a memory issue, as I have tested and reinstalled my drivers already. Also, I do not experience the issues when I remove one channel of 4GB of memory. It does not matter which channel, or which sticks are removed.

I have used MemTest and received no memory errors. I think the issue is possibly being cause by memory compatibility or memory bios settings.

The memory uses XMP to auto set all the settings in the bios. It appears that the settings are as they should be. Frequency at 1333, volatage 1.5v.

Corsair's website lists this ram as compatible with this motherboard. Gigabytes website does not list this memory on their compatibility list, but the 1600 version is.

Any input on what I can change in the bios to continue troubleshooting? As I said, when I am running 4GB of ram everything appears to be functioning properly, but when I add another channel of 4GB I start seeing the errors.

Thanks, and any more info that would be required to help you understand the problem just let me know!

I'm a little confused trying to understand your RAM setup.

You say "an Intel i7 and 8GB (dual channel, 2x2GB) Corsair DDR3 memory"
Then "when I remove one channel of 4GB of memory"

So what I am picturing is that you have 4 RAM slots and you have all 4 filled with modules - four 2GB modules. Correct?

And if you remove two of the modules from one channel (4GB total) then the system runs OK. Correct?

Assuming the above is correct, it is very common for there to be issues on some motherboards when all 4 RAM slots are populated. The motherboard's voltage to all the slots or one of the slots drops against spec. People have had success getting the system to become stable by increasing the RAM voltage in the BIOS settings until the freezes stop. Just do the increases in small increments (.05v - .1v) at a time to test.

You might also check here. Good Gigabyte forum.

GIGABYTE

Yeah you are understanding the setup correctly. I will try the voltage increases and see if I can get it stable with all 4 sticks in. Thanks for the input, I was unaware it was common for motherboards to have have the problem. This is my first build using all ram ports on my board though.

Depending on vendor and how long ago you purchased the RAM, you could RMA the 4 sticks of 2 gig for 2 sticks of 4 gigs each and occupy only 2 slots.

I slowly increased the voltage all the way up to 1.64, still was seeing the same issues. Any other settings I could check? The timing is set to auto at 9-9-9-24.

Well you could play with the BIOS settings some more. Try a mode other than XMP. If the Award BIOS has an AUTO mode try that. I hesitate to suggest DOCP mode unless you know what the settings should be. (DOCP may be an AMI BIOS thing). But other than the voltage issue I don't think there is much hope with settings anyway given your symptom.

You could restore the BIOS defaults and test again also.

Are the 4 sticks exactly the same Brand, model, and timings? Or are the 2 newer sticks the same specs but a different Brand? It is also known that some Brands of RAM just do not play nice together.

I don't know about your board, but with many boards with all 4 dimm slots filled you have to increase the CPU NB voltage. Change it in small increments up to a max. of 1.20V. That can stabalize the ram.

I have increased the QPI/VVT from 1.05 to 1.08, I have not ran into the black screen where I normally would when doing certain tasks.

I'll keep my fingers crossed, thanks for all the input thus far!