Hi guys: I bought some new 16 GB Viper DDR3 1866MHz memory (2 x 8GB clips) and plugged them into this box that has a i5-4771 processor. Started using them yesterday. Since yesterday, 3 times Windows 7 crashed - blue screen of death, out of no warning. This box has been stable for the past 2 months otherwise. I am fairly sure there is some kind of issues with the new memory. What kind of problems I may be dealing with? Any way to work "cure" it, work with it? Or it just might flat be incompatibility and I need to call this off? If the memory is rated at a higher MHz than the motherboard's specs, it is okay, right?
Sometimes higher speed RAM will scale back to meet mobo requirements... but not always. Suggest putting original "good" RAM back in machine... then running freeware utility, "SIV"... to see the timings and voltage of "good" RAM for your box. Then, buy more of that. If the voltage and timings of your new RAM are compatible with your rig, suspect bad RAM. (If RAM is incompatible, should not run/boot at all. The fact that it "runs for a bit before crashing" makes me suspect faulty RAM... Also consider the RAM isn't "waayyy" off for your mobo but only "slightly off".... to where the mobo tries to cope but can't hang on to stability... in that case, still not the "right" RAM for your mobo... and you already know that most mobos have a rather narrow range of RAM specs which will work on it... FWIW.)
Some mobos adjust their timings & voltage from the data embedded on the RAM, some don't ... 1) Check in BIOS that your RAM Timings & Voltages match those of the RAM you bought 2) Run MemTest86 to make sure there is no issue with that RAM - note that finding issues in MemTest86 doesn't always mean the RAM is bad, sometimes the RAM timings or voltages are wrong, sometimes the processor voltage is wrong (this should only apply to overclocked CPUs though)
Thank you Scat and Dom993 for the quick responses and useful information. I will try them out. (But need to be after tomorrow... Tax Day...) My box crashed one more time today after my posted message. I am quite sure it has to do with the new memory. Win7 blue screen said something about MEMORY_MANAGEMENT before it flashed off after just a few seconds.
I would suggest going back to your prior RAM sticks until you have the time to work on troubleshooting this issue. A PC that crashes every now & then isn't good for anything IMO. You might want to try setting the command-rate to 3T on the new sticks before.