I recently purchase and put together my first computer with the following parts:
2x OCZ Platinum 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) (8GB total)
Intel Core 2 Duo E7400 Wolfdale 2.8GHz 3MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W
GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3R LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard
My system kept crashing, so I removed the RAM, and started Memtest-ing each stick. From left to right (on the motherboard, when installed,) slots 2 and 4 work with all my sticks of RAM, but slots 1 and 3 work with only selected sticks. They passed with some sticks, and not with others. Then retesting in slots 1 and 3, I got different results; errors with sticks that had worked, and passes with sticks that hadn't.
I've placed sticks of RAM into slots 2 and 4, and my system appears to be stable, and passes the Memtest. Is the problem I have most likely with my motherboard? The slots aren't dead - they do pass sometimes. Could this be a BIOS error - where those two slots sometimes run the RAM too fast, or something like that? I'm fairly good with computers, but haven't touched BIOS much, so they remain a mystery to me. I would just like a second opinion before I spend money for shipping and time waiting for a new motherboard.
I can provide more details if they'd help. Let me know. Thanks for your input!
