[astowell]

Hi folks, I just built a new pc and was hoping someone could help me diagnose an issue I'm having. First off some specs:

Mobo: Biostar TA790GXE
CPU: AMD phenom II X4 945 (3ghz)
RAM: PNY Optima DDR2-800 2gb x2
Video: Radeon hd 4850 1gb
HDD: Seagate Baracuda 1tb

My first problems started as soon as I tried the first boot of my new system. With both ram modules plugged in (in any of the 'dual channel' positions recommended by my motherboard manual) the system would not display even the bios, and a set of LEDs on the motherboard indicated a "Memory Error". Through trial and error testing, I found that one of the PNY sticks would cause the "Memory Error" and failure to boot no matter what slot it was in, while the other PNY stick would allow the system to boot temporarily. From this I concluded that one of the PNY sticks must be defective, while the other seemed to work. I proceeded with my OS install (XP64) and completed that a little while later (no major problems, though the system did hang once during installation).

However, after successfully installing XP, I started to move some files over from an old hard drive and found that the system would freeze up and become completely unresponsive at fairly regular intervals. I am yet to get the system to remain running for more than about 30 mins so far. I downloaded Memtest86 and made a bootable CD to test the 'working' stick of PNY, however every time I run memtest, it freezes (either before or after locating 'errors') before it finishes.

I have done a bit of reading about memtest results, and have tried disabling legacy usb (no change), as well as increasing the voltage supply to my RAM (also no significant change).

Did I really get a matched pair of defective PNY memory sticks? Should I RMA them through PNY? or am I better off seeking a refund from Amazon and trying a different brand? Thanks for any and all recommendations.

 

[Tyree]

I would suggest a better brand of RAM. OZC & Corsair are my preferred brands on Asus Mobo's but I don't know how acceptable the BioStar Mobo would be. I would suggest checking the Mobo's approved brands.

 

[astowell]

Yea, now that I think of it and checked Biostar's website, they do not recommend PNY, but do recommend some particular OCZ and corsair brands as well as a few others. I guess I'll see if amazon will take these PNY sticks back . . . rawr, thanks for the response Tyree.

 

[astowell]

Hm, so the biostar website lists a -very- restrictive list of memory modules to use. . . Should I restrict myself to only the modules listed there, or is it permissible to use same brand/similar modules? For example, the biostar site lists 3 modules of OCZ memory; one 2gb ddr2-800 module, one 1gb ddr2-800 and one 512mb ddr2-533... Would it be theoretically possible to use a different OCZ 2gb DDR2-800 module?

Is it important that all three listed OCZ modules are from different OCZ product lines? Sorry for my ignorance... RAM has always confounded me.

 

[Tyree]

If a 2gb ddr2-800 module is listed I would think a matched 2X2GB pair of DDR2 800 would be fine.