Booted up computer, got to login screen where it says, "Windows is starting up..." and then I got a blue screen. Ok, I thought - reboot. This time it got to the same point and spontaneously restarted. Spooky. Tried a few more times and either way either it would restart, or give me a blue screen. Each blue screen is different. Ive gotten, "IRQL_NOT_LESS_THAN_OR_EQUAL" or something about NTFS.sys, or win32k.sys or USBPORT.sys or "BAD_POOL_HEADER" or another .sys that has to do with my wireless card. In other words, NONE of the blue screens/errors are related.

My friend told me that usually that is the sign of a stick of RAM gone bad. So I tested 1 then 2 then 3 and the 4th one seemed to cause the probems. I swapped it with another one in another slot (to make sure it wasn't the socket) and got the same error, but when I took it out it stopped. So, ok, I thought - it was a stick of RAM.

Booted up the computer, everything running fine. Then my sound card utility "caused an illegal operation" or whatever it is that you have to press 'end task.' So I did. A minute later, Zone Alarm did the same thing... then something else, then something else. So I ran memtest and immediately got one error after another CONTINUOUSLY.

SO WTF GUYS!!! Is it the motherboard? I cannot imagine two sticks of ram going bad at the same time. The first time this happened, I had unplugged my whole computer, and taken out the sound card to read the serial number of my motherboard to Asus as I was actualy going to RMA it anyway because of it reading the wrong temperatures on the CPU. What are the odds that this happens at the same time?!? I have no idea what it could be. Any thoughts?

That happened to me not much time ago, and it was a faulty memory stick in my case. I did RMA. Then, a few months later, it happened again, and it was a memory stick again. I did RMA again :chicken:
I checked the sticks one by one, I checked them in other computer, I mixed them with other memory sticks and always something went wrong. MemTest didn´t detect errors, I tryied to undo the overclock, .... Sometimes it worked fine, sometimes not.
Man, when your computer does weird things, the memory is faulty

If it is not the memory, it´s the mobo IMO

This really sucks. Only two weeks left of college, but this computer provides us with ALL the entertainment (movies, games, TV) in our dorm room. If I RMA the mobo - since it SEEMS to be the source of the problem - then I have to ship it to THEM first and then it takes them TWO WEEKS to return it. UGHHH....

I know how do you feel Fortunately I had the memory of the other computer and I could survive with one stick in each PC until the replacement parts arrived
Did you test the memory in other computer? Have you contacted Corsair? Because if the problem is the memory, you can RMA the faulty kit and keep the other one. Normally when I mobo becomes faulty, it just does not work.

Yeah. I am still not sure what the problem is. When I took that one stick of ram out it at least booted, but then it was still having errors. I'm having a hard time believing that two sticks of ram went bad simultaneously - especially two sticks that I've had for almost 5 months or even two years if it's the older two. I'll be looking for someone else to test the RAM but everyone's out partying today.

Luckily I have 4 sticks so if it IS the RAM, I'm sure I can find ONE of them that works, lol.

Yeah, when you have problems with your rig and it´s almost impossible to know why... that sucks a lot
Be sure the voltage, timmings and speed are right in the Bios. Have you got the latest Bios?
You can login to this live chat and tell the agent about your problem. It´s the Crucial support live chat but don´t tell them that your memory is Cosair I used it when I had the same problem due to my memory was Crucial Ballistix, they are nice people. If they tell you that you might do RMA, be sure the memory is the problem

Yeah. I updated the BIOS about a week ago. Had to manually set the timings to 4-4-4-12. Strangely enough, I've always had a warning in Asus Probe for some sort of voltage... but it does run at 2.1V. Either way, it's been like that since the stone age, so I doubt that is the problem. I think that alarm is due to the fact that it runs at 2.1 and not 1.8... I'll have a friend test all 4 sticks when I get a chance.

Well, that´s the only way to resolve this kind of misterys, testing part by part
Good luck man

My friend asked me if I remembered to reset the ram voltage from 1.8 to 2.1 when I updated the BIOS. I FORGOT!!! I was so excited as I thought that was the issue and it did actually get a TINY bit farther into the boot (I was able to click my name in the login screen) but then I got the blue screen. Back to square 1.

Damn.

EDIT: MORE DEVELOPMENTS: Upon friend's suggestion, I set the timings of the ram from 4-4-4-12 to 5-5-5-18 and brought the voltage back down to 1.8V. Now it booted AND memtest has been running for two minutes now with no errors (as opposed to a bajillion errors within .0005 seconds of starting.)

Power supply issue? That seems to be the only logical explanation at this point. More opinions? I've been running this setup for a WHILE without issue and I'm fairly certain this computer does not draw 520 Watts...

OK - ANOTHER UPDATE: Seems that when I set the voltage to 2.1 in the BIOS and reboot, the BIOS hardware monitor still shows the RAM as getting 1.88V. So something isn't working right. Either way it gets 1.8V? I don't know what that could be. I'd think if the PSU was faulty - other voltages would be off, or the whole thing would be screwy. Everything else is fine (+5V rail is a bit low @ 4.78V) just the ram only gets 1.88V no matter what I set it to. Should I be adjusting the DDR2 Termination Voltage setting as well? I left that on auto...

It seems the new question is this: Why does my ram stay at 1.88V regardless of whether it's set to 1.8 or 2.1V? Do I need to change more than just the basic RAM voltage in the BIOS for the voltage to actually increase (like termination voltage maybe?)