Asus Z96Js ram problem

Hey guys! I've been having some problems with my Z96j. It would sometimes stutter for no reason while I'm playing a game, typing on MS word etc. So I went and ran memtest 86+ and I found errors on my ram.

I'm pretty sure there's a warranty on the ram, should I just return the laptop to the dealer and let them replace it? Does anyone know how long that will take? By the way, I bought my model from MilestonePC

 

Here's a picture of my error, follow the link!



http://www3.sympatico.ca/victoriacheung/1.jpg

 

I say just contact Milestone and they should replace it pretty quickly for you. Probably takes 5 minutes or so if you can drop by and have them replace it..

 

I'm also getting stutters, and I got my RAM from MileStonePC as well...though I dunno if me taking it in for servicing affected anything. I ran MemTest on it when I bought it with no problems - that was 7 weeks ago. I'll run another one tonight to see myself as well. I'm sure though they would change it for you pretty quick if you took it in.

I paid the extra to get Corsair 1 GB 667 module for mine because I've had the no names go bad on me in the past that I got from CanadaSys - so I put in Kingstons and never had any sort of issue since. Corsair not as reliable? hmmmm

Cat

 

Corsair is really reliable, I use them in my desktop and they're really stable, although OCZ is said to be reliable as well.

I guess if you've got bad ram, you've got bad ram, doesn't matter if they're name brands or not. Although no names are usually worse than named ones.

 

I would stick with Kingston. It's worth the extra 10-15$. They have been in the business for a long time and are known for their quality and no-nonsense exchange policy. I do RMA for a computer store and we have a tendency of getting Corsair and OCZ back a lot more often than Kingston.

=> Most Kingston that come back are often inflicted damage (ie: customer installed them wrong way and blew off four pins, customer had an insufficient power supply with too much stuff on the system and blew up the system, customer had a leaky capacitor on the motherboard and blew up the system, etc.).

=> Corsair and OCZ chips often have a tendency of having single bit errors out of the box, look extremely cheaply made (usually not evident due to heat spreaders) and often tend to have "matched" pairs which drift out of sync after a while (for desktops, since laptop RAM is not sold paired). There's also compatibility issues with certain motherboards on desktops with OCZ and Corsair on certain ASUS motherboards.

I'm not saying that the RMA is bad for Corsair and OCZ... just that most customers prefer that it never has to be sent back in the first place...

 

Well, I own the S96J which is the same as the Z except the Z has the higher res screen. I had the choice of ordering it with either infineon or samsung memory. I went with the samsung. I have owned samsung on three other pc's and never really had a problem with it. Admittedly, im quite a kingston fan but I prefered to let the people install the ram for me and those were their two choices. However, they do habe the best deals on ASUS anywhere.... i mean it
www.istnc.com is the site

 

My housemate just returned two sticks of DDR2-800 'gaming' RAM from OCZ. Both had horrible Memtest errors out of the box. Replaced them with some standard Mushkin, no problems since. If you go on Newegg and read the reviews, there have been *tons* of issues with OCZ lately. I'd stay away, not worth the cost and hassle.

I was under the impression that 'matched pairs' are just a marketing gimmick to make you pay more for the same product. I always buy two sticks of the same thing at the same time and I have yet to have a problem...

 

Hmmm, Kingston was not an option when I got it. I had heard good things about Corsair, I always liked Kingston...I guess I shoud have gotten it elsewhere.

But my RAM is fine, went through 6 passes last night with no errors. But the system still stutters and comes near locking up every so often. Not sure what else to try. Might change the slot of the Memory on the Mobo, but doubt it will have an effect.

Any ideas what else would cause the Stutter problems? Would memory problems that could cause this not be found by Memtest?

Thanks,
Cat

 

Software running in the background? Anti-Virus, etc?

Make sure the Indexing Service is disabled - it will cause those symptoms sometimes.

 

Thanks for the suggestion Jumper, it's possible, I'll double check to make sure its disabled. I do have Norton on in the background but it only is set to do a check once a week on Sunday night - this happens 2-5 times a day (and I only use the system for 5-6 hours a day usually). It seems be getting more frequent.

The program will sometimes completely lock and to get it back I have to alt+tab out and then return. That's when I'm in a game for instance, otherwise it just sort of gets stuck for 10 secs or so and won't do anything and then it comes back to full function. With a dual core proc I'm suprised that something like a norton scan or IS check would do this. I'll also double check and make sure Outlook is not on and trying to check the mail or something, and I'll disable ChckMail just incase.

I don't thnik anything is overheating, and the HDD light is not always stuck on when it happens. Do you know of other possible causes?

Thanks,
Cat

 

Yeah Cat, I know what you mean. When I'm typing on Word or playing a game it would sometimes freeze on me for 10 seconds... then act normal again.

I would say that this is due to a ram issue... since in my case my ram does have errors. I think you've already done this, but if u haven't, run a test on your ram. Memtest 65+ is a really good program. It checks your ram before your laptop goes into windows which means it's more accurate.

Anyways, so I went to Milestone today and they gave me 2 512's for temp use until I get a new 1 gb from the manufacturer... not bad but I have to wait at least 1 week for my new ram

 

Anyway, anyone who cares about performance will know that norton is quite he resource hog. Im not saying this is the cause of the problem, but I do think if you were to emove it you would still see a performance gain. I pefer mcafee enterprise 8, no frills, jsut an exelletn virus scanner. Norton just has too much extras and uses far too much ram... even when it isnt scanning.

 

I did run Memtest86 by a boot up CD as mentioned earlier and it worked ok through 6 passes with no errors. Do you also mean MemTest86 Keiki?

I will try the other slot now to see if it helps.

I use Norton only really because I have a full free subscription to it through the University. If anyone can suggest a just as good one that's free I'd be willing to give it a try. As it is, I've never had a virus on my computer in the past 8 years that I've been using Norton (b4 that I had a couple of trojans but nothing serious).

Thnx,
Cat

 

Haha, sorry it was memtest 86+, no such thing as memtest 65...

If memtest ran fine then I would doubt it's the ram, probably a program like some other forum members have suggested.

Try other AV's like avast! or something, I'm currently using avast on my Z96 and it seems to be pretty good.