GA-P35-DS3L & OCZ2P8004GK = Trouble

[SugarJ]

Anyone else running the above mobo and OCZ Platinum 2x2g ddr2-800?

I bought this memory "unopened" from a fellow member, and I can't get the board to POST with only this memory in it. The only way I can get the system up is to leave my G-Skills in pos 1&3 and put the OCZ in pos 2&4. I've tried putting them on board 1 at a time, that doesn't work either. I was putting the OCZ in there in prep for my trial transistion to Vista 64bit. (And they're shiny, look very nice).

I've manually set timings to 5-5-5-15(I know it's rated at 5-4-4-15), bumped the voltage to 2.2V, set the FSB to 400 with 2.0 mult. This should work, shouldn't it? I know these are rated at 2.1V and my board defaults to 1.8V.

[BALISTX]

I find OCZ are finicky when it comes to Gigabyte boards. Have you tested the ram in a different board? If you don't have a different board, what about testing them in a friend's board.

[3.0charlie]

I've matched many times OCZ sticks and Gigabyte boards without any problems - and the manual setup you did should work. If that still won't allow POST, 2 more options: change timings to Auto, and if that still doesn't work, default back to stock settings (no oc) and try it. You have to find a way to run Memtest86+ on those sticks, one at a time if you can.

[SugarJ]

Originally Posted by BALISTX

I find OCZ are finicky when it comes to Gigabyte boards. Have you tested the ram in a different board? If you don't have a different board, what about testing them in a friend's board.

Ya, I tried them in my Asus P5N-E, had problems there too. Going to try to find someone local running OCZ Platinums to see if they will drop in their board and work. If I can't I'll take them to NCIX to see if they can test them there (came from there originally, still got packaging with SKU sticker). If I knew these things worked 100% then I can probably find a work-around.

[SugarJ]

Originally Posted by 3.0charlie

I've matched many times OCZ sticks and Gigabyte boards without any problems - and the manual setup you did should work. If that still won't allow POST, 2 more options: change timings to Auto, and if that still doesn't work, default back to stock settings (no oc) and try it. You have to find a way to run Memtest86+ on those sticks, one at a time if you can.

I'll try setting to Auto timings and dropping back to stock speeds, but I'm going to leave the dimm at 2.1V because I've seen people have problems with lower voltages. I'm going to leave these sticks in slots 2 & 4 because the machine posts with them there now with the G-Skills in place. If that doesn't work, I'll try 1 G-skill and 1 OCZ set to same timings.

I've been able to get Memtest 86 running, not plus, from my Ultimate Boot CD, but it craps out at 4GB. Not sure if this is a Memtest limitation or not.

Thanks for all your help 3.0Charlie and BALISTIX, you guys have been an invaluable resource over the last couple of days.

[3.0charlie]

No problem - Jerry and I both have that board, and we know it inside-out.

[SugarJ]

I think I'm toast. I can't get these OCZ's to post individually or together in any slots, or in a 1 of each Gskill and OCZ configuration. If the machine does POST, it dies right at the memory announcement. (Says Mem- then artifacts)

Tonight I'll pull my 512mb G-skills out of Lindsey's machine, and see if I can get the OCZ's to boot in the same configuration I had with the 1Gb Gskill sticks. That would give me a 5Gb config that I should be able to test with Memtest 86.

If I can't get that to work, or get them to work in the Asus board, I'm taking them to NCIX for testing.

On a positive note, I am really enjoying the E8400. (Go to your happy place Gord, think positive thoughts)

[3.0charlie]

With all the differesnt tests and configs you've tried, you should be confident to return those on the basis of being defective.

[BALISTX]

I agree with John, it looks like those sticks are defective. Sine you have the packaging just return them to NCIX.

[SugarJ]

They're going back. The guy I bought them from emailed me a copy of the invoice. All should be good.

Thanks guys.