Since I went Core 2/DDR2, I've had the devil's own time with memory.

First setup with an Abit IP-35E, I found a 2Gb Geil set bad, then a 2Gb Corsair set. I suspect the board may have been destroying memory. So I swap it for a Gigabyte P35-DS3L and get another 2Gb Corsair set. All's well... until I go out today and get a 4Gb set of Patriot DDR2-800.

One stick won't pass Memtest86+, either alone or with its buddies. It also bluescreens on boot. Dialing down the timings down to DDR2-667 doesn't help. The failures are on Test 6 and come in huge numbers almost immediately once the test is started.

I know it's not the board burning it out this time, because the errors don't occur with the Corsair set reinstalled in that socket.


It's not the voltage (the board gives about 1.90-1.92 on stock, and to satisfy the "2.0v" RAM, I used the options to add 0.1v more, to no avail)

The only thing I could think of was that when I first put it in, one stick didn't seat right, and refused to boot until reseated-- but that has never caused lasting damage before (it was just a "press down another 1mm or so and the latch will hold it down") thing.

Obviously, I'm going to return the sticks, since I can assume they were bad as delivered, but does everyone have this much trouble with RAM lately? It's enough to make me want to get a Dell.

I had a set of Corsair PC8500 go bad on me. They were working fine in a EVGA 680i mobo but crapped out when I put them in a Asus P5K WiFi Deluxe. I've since purchased (2) new sets of Crucial Ballistix for the P5K and my new EVGA 780i. Everything is wonderful again :-)

I had 4 bad sticks of ballistix not one could pass memtest86 i got the bsod all the time

so i replaced with g.skill 4x1gb 800mhz 4-4-4-12 and i love this stuff.