Here is my question on the G.Skill forums posted yesterday. No
responses yet. A comment from Paul would be great -- he is always
helpful. Help from anyone is also appreciated. I need it.

Thanks. See below ...

Don

*****


Help from G.Skill or anyone else is appreciated. FYI – A RATHER LONG
NOTE. Proceed with caution.

Please let me know ALL of the optimal memory settings for
F3-12800CL7D-4GBRM memory, a.k.a. G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB)
240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory. The build
project started on or about May 1, 2010.

Here are all of the current memory related settings in BIOS for my
GA-785GMT-USB3, Version 1.0:

The BIOS version is F2. Maybe this is the culprit.

On the first screen, I select “MB Intelligent Tweaker (M.I.T)”.

The “Memory Clock” setting is set to [x8.00] by me.

The “System Voltage Control” on the same screen is set to [AUTO].

Then I select “DRAM Configuration” just below the “Memory Clock” setting.

On that next screen is the following:

DCTs Mode [Unganged]
DDR3 Timing Items [Manual]
CAS# latency [7T] (set by me)
RAS to CAS R/W Delay [8T] (set by me)
Row Precharge Time [7T] (set by me)
Minimum RAS Active Time [24T] (set by me)
1T/2T Command Timing [2T] seems O.K. or try 1T
TwTr Command Delay [6T] seems O.K. or try 5T
Trfc0 for DIMM1 [110ns] try 88ns on all
Trfc2 for DIMM2 [90ns]
Trfc1 for DIMM3 [110ns] (occupied by one stick of F3-12800CL7D-4GBRM)
Trfc3 for DIMM4 [90ns] (occupied by one stick of F3-12800CL7D-4GBRM))
Write Recovery Time [12T] seems O.K. or try 10T
Precharge Time [6T] seems O.K. or try 5T
Row Cycle Time [40T] try 33T or 26T
RAS to RAS Delay [5T] seems O.K. or try 4T

Bank Interleaving [Enabled]
Channel Interleave [Enabled]

Your Assistance:

Please comment on ALL of the settings, not just “7-8-7-24T” (please /
thanks). Are these settings O.K. ? What should I change ? The system
is going through setup pains with occasional “one long beep no boot”
issues (hence the current use of DIMM3 and DIMM4 to get the thing going
again – what a pain). Also, one episode of the “gray vertical lines
screen of death” after installing the Sapphire card (see below –
wonderful, a brand new card), but subsequently FurMark 1.8.2 has run for
1 hour on two separate occasions without incident on abusive settings
(68 degrees C max during the FurMark tesing). Memtest86 V3.5 SMP
(floppy version) shows no issues after running for 12 hours. The system
will periodically stop booting, and then I switch the memory sticks
around between DIMM1/2/3/4 to get it going again. Lots of fun.

Additional Information:

OS: WIN7 32 bit RC. Soon to expire, but I want everything working
correctly before I install the paid for version of WIN7 Professional.

Processor: AMD Athlon II X2 250 Regor 3.0GHz 2 x 1MB L2 Cache Socket AM3
65W Dual-Core Processor.

Video Card: SAPPHIRE 100287VGAL Radeon HD 5670 (Redwood) 512MB 128-bit
DDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card.
Using VGA at the moment. HDMI later. CCC 10.4 Drivers, set at factory
GPU (775) and Memory (1000) settings, auto fan control. Never
overclocked. I tried underclocking at (725) and (950) but that lead to
periodic black screen lockups. Back to factory settings. FurMark was
run on factory settings. Great.

The on-board Video is turned off.

1 SATA hard drive.

1 SATA + 1 IDE optical drives.

1 floppy drive.

Power Supply: COOLMAX "EZ Wire" CU-400T 400W ATX Modular Power Supply.
Maybe this is the culprit.

1 D-Link DWL-G520 IEEE 802.11, 802.11b/g 32bit PCI2.2 High Speed
Wireless Adapter.

1 AVerMedia AVerTV Combo PCIe ATSC/NTSC/QAM TV Tuner Card (White Box)
w/L-P Bracket, PCI-Express x1 Interface.

That is it. If I forgot anything, let me know.

P.S.

This setup is replacing a TYAN S2865 that went up in flames, complete
with scorch marks, so maybe the case has bad mojo. I think it was the
fan-less video card (GIGABYTE GV-NX73T256P-RH GeForce 7300GT 256MB
128-bit GDDR2 PCI Express x16 SLI Support Video Card) that overheated
the motherboard, but who can say. Those components are all way out of
warranty as far as I know. I saw it happen – sparky electrical noises
for a second or two, followed by a plume of whitish grayish smoke the
size of my forearm shooting up followed by a complete shutdown of the
system followed by me going into a moment of shock. Unplug the power
supply. That was in January. Here I am today with a new dodgy system
and several hundred lighter.

Thanks for any and all assistance. I have built a number of systems
since 1998, and have never run into this type of series of issues
before. Or any issues for that matter.

Don