BSOD 19 times since May 2012

[crash2009]

Step 13, Display Driver

Catalyst 12.6 was un-installed and Win 7 was requested to "Figure it out"

It appears that Win 7 prefers to use a driver from April of 2011, ver 11.4?

 

[crash2009]

Step 13, Display Driver

For now, Combing has disappeared.

 

[crash2009]

Step 32, Is the motherboard fried?

I contacted Asus Support. Their suggestion was to test Slot 3 and 4 for the possibility of motherboard failure. Will test later today. Their suggestion was to remove Ram Modules 1,2 from Slot 1,2.

Then try a known good ram in Slot 3 only.

Then try a known good ram in Slot 4 only.

If these above 2 tests fail, contact the Asus RMA Department.

 

[crash2009]

Step 33, Test Ram and Motherboard Slots

Maybe this should have been Step 1. Been working on this for a week. It has been a good learning experience. Don't know if is the correct way to test Ram, but it is the way I tested mine. I started by confirming the settings in the bios.

Ai overclock=manual
dram frequency control=manual
dram frequency=800
tcl=5clk
trcd=5clk
trp=5clk
trtp=auto
tras=auto
trc=18clk
twr=auto
trrd=auto

everything else in timings is set to auto

dram voltage=1.99
nbvoltage=auto

Then removed all 4 modules. I had a "feeling" that modules 1,2 were good so I started there. Had a sneaky suspiction that module 3 was no good, so I saved it for last.

Just thought I should add a few definitions to my jargon.

ok=beep, post, boot into windows
no nothing = well "nothing" blank screen, no beeps, no post
overclock failed = the last line of the post, then it gives you a choice between F2 to reset the bios to defaults or F1 to load the bios for adjustments. During all these tests I made no adjustment, I just let the bios boot without changes

Results of testing yesterday morning, when I say “1 in 1” I am referring to Module 1 in Slot 1. etc.

1 in 1 ok
1 in 2 ok
1 in 3 ok
1 in 4 ok

1,2 in 1,2 ok dual channel
1,2 in 3,4 ok dual channel

3,4 in 1,2 no nothing
3,4 in 3,4 overclock failed, no boot

4 in 1 ok
4 in 2 no nothing
4 in 3 overclock failed, F1, use same settings, boots, runs a little rough.
4 in 4 no nothing

3 in 1 overclock failed, F1, use same settings, boots.
3 in 2 no nothing
3 in 3 no nothing
3 in 4 overclock failed, F1, use same settings, boots.
Windows Error: Windows must now restart because the Power Service.....could not do something, then BSOD and restart. Starts rough, BSOD, reboot.
Shut it down, then ran Memtest 4.20 from USB. Failed 3 times in 20 minutes. Went back in the BIOS and lowered the DRAM VOLTAGE to 1.90. Booted back into Memtest and went to work. Came back a couple hours later to find no errors with the lowered dram voltage.

My thoughts are Modules 1 and 2 are OK. Module 4 is nearly dead. Module 3 is dead.

We will see what Corsair has to say, but I think this is the cause of my 19 BSOD's. Might be up to 25 BSOD's now.

 

[crash2009]

RMA

Corsair agreed and gave me an RMA. I am awaiting delivery of the 2 new modules.

As I understand it AMD CPU's have the memory controllers within the CPU itself. Because of the possibility of there being something wrong with the memory controller, I dropped in a brand new CPU, Phenom ll X4, model 965, Black Edition.

And, just for the heck of it I dropped in a XFX Radeon 6770.

 

[crash2009]

Bye Bye Sata

Windows Experience Index ratted out on the hard drive. 5.8 huh? That don't look to good compared to all those 7's.

Threw in an OCZ 120 GB SSD. The only thing tricky was the Bios. Had to set 5 and 6 to IDE for the CD/DVD/BlueRay burners, and then plug them into the motherboard respectively.