Dell 400sc and Corsair value select....
 

I got the sticks (4) from my previous thread, but now I have an issue with them.

I will start troubleshooting individual stick on saturday, but here is the situation.

I bought 4 sticks of this ram for my 400sc. I previously had 1 stick of kingston value 512 333, comp ran flawlessly.

Now i get random freezing, ie: while browsing, opening a webcam, opening solitaire, etc....

The only thing i changed is the ram, no new software either.

The only thing i can guess (if not a bad stick) is that this MB is picky on its CAS speeds (which are non-changeable, of course). The fastest reported solid system was @ 2.5, 3, 3, 6. I recall reading that these sticks are 2.5, 4, 4, 8. So that shouldnt be an issue.

The computer also runs fine in safe mode, which I thought odd....

anyway, please post opinions.

Thx
Tim

I think your on the right track to finding out what the problem is. I was in a similiar situation not too long ago when I ordered 2 sticks of 512 Crucial for a relative of mine. I did the only thing I new how to do... ran memtest86. Low and behold, not just one of the sticks, but both were corrupt. I RMA'd them back to the manufacturer, and the two they sent back worked perfectly.

Timings on value ram arent something to play around with, and if they're stock (as your mentioned) than that shouldnt be an issue.

If I were in your shoe's, i'd run memtest, and if there are any noticable error's, i'd RMA them back to where you purchased from.

Corsair has a lifetime warranty, and is known for it's quality. They might be defective (I've seen it happen), but it shouldn't be a problem to get new ones.

hrm...

I ran memtest (15 passes) without a single error....

I have an email into corsair, and I will update when I have one.

dont 400sc's come with ECC memory originally. i know that they can take both but maybe thats part of the problem. and have you check the bios for any settings you can fiddle with.

Ya, they ship with ecc, but I had kingston value ram in her with no probs....

As for the bios, unless I flash it (nit recomended, plus voids warrenty) I cannot change a thing...

does it really void the warranty? i have an 8300 so we both have the 875 mobo and i have flashed my bios from a04 to a06. no problems that i have noticed. except that the dell logo doesnt show up anymore at boot up. which is good i guess, haha.

is there like some bios hacks that allow more options?

It is possible that the particular board you have doesn't work with a particular brand of memory. I know some Asus boards are known for that, for example. I also know Dell gets their boards from big companies (like Asus and MSI).

It is an intel board, 875 chipset, and others have used this ram without issues.

As for the bios, it has a06 installed, what I ment is if I flashed a non-dell bios (to unlock cas, fsb, mhz settings) and was unable to get a dell bios back on, I would be out of luck.

sick of me yet?

Well it is def. the ram (or the dual-channel chip in my mobo [doubtful]) due to the fact I put my stick of kingston value 512/333 back in, and it is still running(24+hours).

Corsair says that it isint, because it ran fine in safe mode, and memtest was fine.

They might be right, but then ts a compatibility issue, which I think is worse.

(cause it isint supposed to be)

*sigh.......