Problems in several areas....looking for more TS tips to find solution

This all started about 2 months ago. After a driver update to my Nvidia video card. I started getting system hangs which started triggering Win7's TDR and reseting my video drivers. At first it was only in one game and I suspected it was a game update, but I recently got The Sims Medieval and it started happening in that game almost right away. After that I susspected it had something to do with the .NET 4 framework that The Sims installed as part of it's install but then realized that dident make any sense. I also found that my OS HDD had a huge ammount of reallocated sectors but they all came at one time. I was watching it for awhile and the count never seemed to get higher so I assumed it was some kind of one time event. Then I started thinking, ok what can cause errors in several different parts of a system seemingly at random? My RAM. Ok so I went online and looked for something that would check my RAM. Windows Memory diagnostic is fairly useless, all it told me is that there are hardware errors. Wow, gee, THANKS Windows for telling me that, too bad you couldent tell me A BIT MORE. In any case I started running a free program I found called Memtest86+. It seems to be a VERY exhaustive test. After running for 1 1/2 passes it had found 17 total errors spread across 3 different DIMM's from what I can tell. So here is where I need a little help. I know the traditional method of checking ram is to run one stick at a time, one slot at a time, to see if any individual stick is consistently having errors and/or there is a problem with my DIMM sockets. I am wondering however if anyone could recommend a more informative memory test program that could tell me which DIMM the error came from and/or if it's a specific address on the DIMM? I am a very old school tech and my brain is seeming to remember that there was some way to either tell a memory stick that a specific address is bad and have BIOS and/or Windows write it out of use, but I may be thinking of ECC memory and mine is not ECC memory. In any case I need a program that is a little more specific about where the errors are coming from other than just giving me the memory address of the error at the time of the test. Also as I did not let the test completely finish it's standard 2 passes perhaps it would have given me more info after the end of the test? Anyone familiar with Memtest86+ in this regard? Also on a partial side note, I have noticed in Speedfan it gives me very specific information about my system voltage levels which I like. However I seem to be getting some strange numbers and I am wondering if this is something to worry about or it's just a symptom of Speedfan perhaps not being 100% in tune with my Motherboard or does someone feel there really might be something wrong with my PSU and perhaps this is contributing to my memory issues. This is what I see on the bottom of Speedfan in regards to my system voltages. Vcore1: 1.23V -12V: -16.89V Vcore2: 3.30V -5V: -8.58V +3.3V : 0.00V +5V: 4.87V +5V: 4.84V Vbat: 3.14V +12V: 12.16V Now aside from the fact that i've worked for Dell tech support and was a store tech for Gateway for several years, I am not THAT much of a tech to know EXACTLY what my Vcore voltages should be other than to say i'm not overclocking anything at all in this system. And I know the +3.3V is pretty much still not used at all yet so I undertand that being 0.00V However the -12V and -5V values worry me. My mind seems to remember that memory uses 5v but I am unsure if it also uses -5v for timing or anything like that. and the -12V value being at -16.89V simply puzzles me. However as the +12V value seems to be in line I am not sure if the -12V value being so out of whack is affecting anything either. Any help in this area would be greatly appreciated also. My apologies for this post rambling on however being a tech and having had to deal with people asking for help before I understand the value of knowing what has already been done and getting ALL the symptoms of the problem to help determine some kind of solution. I am in dire need of trying to keep this computer running without having to need to replace parts that are going to cost me money as I am currently unemployed and can't afford any kind of hardware replacements. The memory and the PSU are fairly recent in the system as I got the PSU to support the GTS 450 video card I just got at Christmas for a present. So they may all possibly be still under warranty if they do need to be replaced. My next step until some kind soul can give me a bit of guidance here is to run the Memtest86+ program to it's full 2 pass completion overnight and see if it gives me some more detailed info after it's completed, but the fact that it seemed to be saying I had errors on 3 different memory sticks is what is also making me wonder if this is some kind of strange voltage issue also. Thank you for any help. PS also my apoligies for this looking like one giant run on sentance. I tried to edit the post and format it a little better but for some reason it's not showing the changes in the post.

Driver Verifier stress the drivers and will indicate a driver that may be causing problems.

Any errors, even one, when running memtest86+ is too many.
These errors can be due to 4GB of RAM, 4 RAM cards installed or 2GB or larger RAM cards.
You will likely need a memory controller voltage bump, be careful too much voltage can cause problems.

If you can post some information, we can try to adjust some settings.


When you run memtest86+ you are looking for bad RAM cards, bad motherboard slots, so you need to follow the testing procedure in the tutorial.
Sometimes errors from these tests can be corrected by adjusting the settings.
RAM - Test with Memtest86+

Can you download CPUZ and post a snip of the CPU, Mainboard, Memory, and SPD tabs.

For posting the information , enter 'Snipping tool' in the Start button > Search box, hit enter. Select the area you want to post and save to a convenient place.
How to Post a Screenshot in Seven Forums


Have you been checking your temperatures?

UseReal Temp , run and check the CPU temps when at idle, under load and/or testing.
Let us know the minimum and maximum temps you get.
Go to your BIOS and tell us what the CPU, RAM and North Bridge (NB) voltages are.

Ok first off as far as the RAM and errors. I could see with all RAM installed I was getting some kind of errors so I went ahead and tested everything. All 4 ram sticks passed with no errors in slot 1 on the MB. I checked one of each type of ram I have in all 4 slots on the MB and again this passed with no errors. However when I reinsert the ram in a Dual Channel configuration this is what I got.

Now as to the CPUZ info. I am posting screenshots of the tabs you requested. Actually there is a nice little function in CPUZ that if you press F5 it auto saves a very small .bmp file of whichever tab you are on at the time. :) Unfortunately it will not save multiple shots from the SPD tab if you switch slot #'s so I just had to get a little creative to get a SPD shot for both of the memory pairs I have in the system. :) Also someone needs to update the saved image in the link you sent me about "How to post a screenshot in Seven Forums" as the image shows a .bmp file and apparently those are not allowed now as they do not show up in the bottom of the attachment tool, so I just converted them all to .jpg's Also so that noone gets too worried. Yes the font size is different in the OCZ spd tab. I was trying to make things a little bigger and more readable but realized that while CPUZ is very nice to let you change those font sizes, there is no option to increase the programs box size itself. :)

As to the current voltages for CPU, RAM, NB. There is nothing in BIOS that directly tells me "this is the current CPU voltage, RAM voltage, NB voltage" I did have AI Overclock turned on in BIOS and had it set for 10% overclock and this seemed to be working fine since I got the system setup the way it is now aprox 5 months ago. Since this problem started I have moved the AI Overclock setting back to AUTO which I am assuming lets the MB and BIOS control the voltages based on what it knows about the installed components. There is another section in BIOS that gives me these values for voltage.

Vcore 1.21
3.3V: 3.29
5.0V: 4.86
12V : 12.16

But it does not correlate these directly to any specific component in the system in that area. Additionally Speedfan 4.43 gives me a Vcore2 voltage of 3.30V if that is helpful at all.

As far as temps goes. Idle temp on both cores is 47c. While running The Sims Medieval and in super speed mode, which I understand stresses the CPU fairly well, the highest temp recorded was 60c on one core and 63c on another.

For now I have taken the RAM sticks out of matched pairs to force the MB NOT to try to use Dual Channel memory mode. I am going to run Memtest86 again overnight and see if I am still getting errors with the memory not in a Dual Channel configuration. I am a bit confused about what the memory is doing though. Looking at the CPUZ info for the individual sticks the only value I see different in the JEDEC level they should be running at is the tRAS value of 15 for the OCZ memory and 18 for the Kingston. Is this enough of a difference to be causing me all these memory errors when the sticks are installed together? Could it also be a possibility that since the Memtest86 program does not understand and cannot bring up any kind of information about what my memory or motherboard is while it's running that it cant perform a truly accurate test with all the memory running together and/or in Dual Channel mode?

In any case than you all for the continuing help in this. As I said I am a support tech from way back but I never had to get this deep into a system and exactly how things are running to resolve issues. :) I still need to run Memtest in the current memory configuration and also run Driver Verifier probably while I am in the game that is still giving me the bad problems with video driver resets while i'm playing in certain areas. I did see something new yesterday, but it might be a symptom of me playing around with my memory so much, Sims Medieval crashed to desktop while I was playing and then when I went to perform a restart I got a "Bad Pool Header" BSOD. As the file size limit for .ZIP or .RAR files is 8MB according to the attachment tool and the file is 100MB even zipped i'm not sure how I would be able to send it to you. Also I noticed that 2 days ago while I was playing DDO which is the game I am having the most problems with, In action center if I look in the Reliability Monitor it shows an event for the 20+ video driver restart errors I had over a 2 hour period in the game. All of them have a BCCode of 117 and they do have 2 .xml files and a .dmp file associated with each event so I will upload a copy of those also in case that provides some extra help here.

Good info in your reply, will answer your questions along with information and some of my opinions.

First, Important thing is the voltages for CPU, RAM, NB.
CPU voltage which is Vcore, your BIOS reading of 1.21v and the CPUZ CPU tab reading of 1.248v are in the right range and will change if you have EIST or CPU stepping enabled.
If SpeedFan was correct with that Vcore2 voltage of 3.30V, there would be smoke coming from the case with a simultaneous blank screen. It must be the 3.3v rail feed.

For the DRAM and NB voltage go to BIOS > Advanced tab > JumperFree configuration > Voltage Control.
From here 'Vcore Voltage' is the CPU voltage, 'Memory Voltage' is the RAM voltage, 'NB Core Voltage' is the memory controller voltage.
The Vcore is fine for now.
Memory Voltage, set manually to 1.80v, if this option isn't available leave it on 'Auto'.
NB Core Voltage, stock setting should be 1.20v, set it to 1.30v if that option is available, if not available set it to the next higher setting, which may be 1.393v.

The North Bridge Voltage, NB Core Voltage, is for the memory controller.
When you have 4GB RAM or 4 RAM cards you will usually need to bump the NB voltage to get the system stable.
This should stabilize your RAM.

It is highly recommended to use the same RAM in all four slots, from the same manufacturer, same batch, purchased at the same time and place.
If it is not the same RAM, as you are experiencing, it may or may not run together.
Sometimes, it can be coaxed into working.

The CPUZ memory tab will list what the timings are currently set at, the voltages are not the actual voltages but the recommended voltages.
The CPUZ SPD tab is just a list of the manufacturers recommended settings and voltages, btw not guaranteed to work on your system.

The CPUZ memory tab is showing that the RAM is set to the 'looser' of the two timings, the OCZ set with 5-5-5-15 timings are more apt to work at 5-5-5-18 than the Kingston set with 5-5-5-18 possibility of working at tighter timings of 5-5-5-15.
So, that should be good.
If the NB voltage bump doesn't fix the issues then we can manually set the timings at 5-5-5-18 or looser, sometimes 'Auto' can cause problems. But, that is for later.

Let's see if the NB Voltage bump will let all four RAM cards run in Dual channel mode, run memtest86+ again, if you get errors stop the test.
Then run memtest86+ again with all four RAM cards in Single channel mode, if you get erors stop the test.

Let me know the results.

Where did you see the ghost RAM?

The NB voltage bump should help, if not you will have to test each RAM card separately, which will take a while with four cards.

Let us know the results of the test with the NB voltage bump.