Possible memory leak. Help requested.

Dresden

Celebrating Mediocrity
Veteran
When I built my new system, I bought some new RAM. It's Patriot RAM, the exact model number I can supply later. Lately, I've been encountering crashes resulting in blue screens with an error stating "memory management." I also get the occasional lockup after locking my computer for extended periods of time, forcing me to restart manually. Yesterday, I went out and bought some new RAM, Corsair Vengeance, adding it to my existing RAM, resulting in 16 GB. Everything was fine, I adjusted the voltages to 1.66 v and adjusted the timings, 9-9-9-24. Everything was going great until this morning I encountered another lockup after having returned to my computer from locking it the night before. I have my computer set to not automatically restart in the event of a blue screen, so I'll take a picture of the exact error if it happens again. I've consulted a few friends and they all think it's a memory leak, on the Patriot RAM's part. The question is how does one fix something like this? I know memtest can analyze your memory and let you know if it's definitely a memory leak, but the only version I've found of memtest is an .iso , and I'm a little confused on how to run the software. I can provide my system specs, if need be.

Thanks!

-Dresden
 
Memory leaks are caused by software. What you might have is a faulty piece of hardware. You can test it by e.g removing all your older memory and see if the problem persists. If it does it's most likely caused by something other than the RAM, most likely HDD or motherboard.

For the ISO you'll just have to burn it to cd/dvd or google a bit for the USB stick version. After that insert it and boot from it and have it do it's magic.
 
Try running with higher latencies. I would suggest 9-11-9-27.

Also I would consider 1.66V borderline or even too high voltage. I´m running my G.SKILL Ripjaws at 1.55V and they run fine at 9-11-9-27 but lockup at 9-9-9-24. (1600MHz)
If I try to manually set my mem voltage above 1.65 I get a warning in the bios.
 
If you believe the memory is faulty keeping the RAM in the system and installing more RAM won't help.

For diagnostics do the following:

1. Take out the Patriot RAM and insert the Corsair Vengeance
2. Put all timings to default.
3. Check for lockups over a days usage.

Alternatively also try this:

1. If you have Windows 7 (not sure about vista) insert a blank DVD or CD into drive,
2. Right click on the ISO for Memtest you have downloaded and select burn image (built into the OS)
3. Boot from CD\DVD with newly burnt disc (should take about 30 seconds to burn)
4. Let Memtest run and in the top right should see passes - at least one complete pass needs to run
5. Do this with both sets of memory at whatever settings you want individually and together

If you still face lockups after this and Memtest passes it is highly unlikely to be your RAM.
If Memtest fails with either sticks of RAM even at loose timings - RMA.
 
Test with Memtest and Intelburntest. Given you've swapped the RAM out, it may not be the RAM that's at fault.

It's also possible for a faulty hard drive to cause this kind of problem. If it's a system drive not in RAID, the drive can error out, and the system will lock because it's waiting for the drive to come back, and it never does. I've had that problem where the drive couldn't move a bad block, and it manifested as a intermittent total machine lockup when that block was written to.

Also make sure you are running the latest BIOS. A common BIOS improvement is for better memory support, so an older BIOS might not have that.
 
To elaborate on what Mendel said about RAM voltage, if your CPU is an Intel 13xx or 11xx pin CPU, you should not exceed 1.65V on your DIMMs, on pain of death. Literally, as you can destroy your CPU by too much RAM volts.

Also, 1600MHz operation at 1.65V tends to cause the DIMMs to run quite hot. I've encountered system failures because of this on my own rig. Of course, I have 6 DIMMs packed tightly together, so the ones in the middle are positively baking from the heat of all the surrounding DIMMs. A stronger down-blowing fan on the CPU cooler helped with that.
 
Awesome advice. I'll try booting from Memtest this evening. I'm really hoping it's an easy fix.

Grall, I use an i7 2600k.
 
Great news! I tried some of the advice I found in this thread and I haven't encountered a single blue screen or lockup since I tweaked.

I set my voltage to 1.55 v and reset the timings to 9-11-9-27. Not a single problem, thus far.

However, I do have a question for Silent Buddha. I don't think I have any blank CD's, but you can boot from a USB device, right? Like, if I put the files on a jump drive, that would work.
 
im not entirely sure
i remember with dos you couldnt just create a boot floppy by copying the files from a boot floppy to a blank
(certain files had to go in the boot sector) so you either had to diskcopy a: b: or sys b:
copy *.* b: wouldnt work
you can try it it wont to any harm but i would suspect you would need an image especially for a usb drive
 
OK I ain't Silent Buddha but you can try this:

This process is now more simple.
From a Windows 7 64bit computer (should work with 32 bit as well)

1. right click on flash drive, select a Full format to FAT (not quick format)
2. download "Download - Auto-installer for USB Key (Win 9x/2k/xp/7)" from http://www.memtest.org/#downiso
3. run the program "Memtest86+ USB Installer," it will want to run as Administrator
4. uncheck "Format this drive (recommended)" as you already formatted the thing, let the program install the goods onto the flash drive
5. done. Boot off flash drive

Stolen from: http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1340783

Thanks to dkerlee...
 
Why would you format it yourself and not let the installer do it? :?
 
Great news! I tried some of the advice I found in this thread and I haven't encountered a single blue screen or lockup since I tweaked.

I set my voltage to 1.55 v and reset the timings to 9-11-9-27. Not a single problem, thus far.

Glad to hear it helped!

These DDR3 sticks seem to be cheap but tricky to get to work compared to previous few generations of ram. I don´t remember having to manually configure ram timings and voltage in many years before this. Not worth the trouble to send it to RMA because of this though, I´d say, as the workaround should not result in much if any performance penalty that can be actually seen in anything but some special ram benchmarks.
 
Great news! I tried some of the advice I found in this thread and I haven't encountered a single blue screen or lockup since I tweaked.

I set my voltage to 1.55 v and reset the timings to 9-11-9-27. Not a single problem, thus far.

However, I do have a question for Silent Buddha. I don't think I have any blank CD's, but you can boot from a USB device, right? Like, if I put the files on a jump drive, that would work.

Wow, I'm a bit slow getting to this. :D Not as much time to browse forums as I once had. :)

Anyway, yes. Not sure why you directed that towards me. But, yes, I basically only boot from USB drives anymore. Only one of my computers currently has an optical drive (by choice). Everything else boots for USB stick for OS installs, test utilities, etc.

I still use the HP USB boot key program thingy to make bootable USB keys, but more and more companies (like Memtest) are providing ways to make USB keys bootable with their product.

Regards,
SB
 
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