Memory FAIL!

[Dead...Again]

I have had a sporadic issue over the last few months where on a cold boot the system would hang in POST, but it would boot after a reset or power cycle. Because of this I normally just use S3 when I am not using the computer.
Well, for some reason I decided to do a shutdown when I left to go visit my parents for Thanksgiving. When I got home, I turned by computer on, but it hung in POST, and I couldn't do anything to get it to boot.
I borrowed a PCI POST card from work and was able to determine that the problem was being caused by my memory. I have 4 1GB OCZ DDR2-1066 memory modules. All but one caused the motherboard to hang at C1. I was eventually able to get 1 to boot on the system. I updated the BIOS in the hopes that this might affect the issue. Well, it seems to have affected it, but adversely. Now none of these memory sticks will boot on the system.
I started an RMA ticket on OCZs website yesterday, and it looks like they are going to replace the memory for me. In the meantime, I was able to find a DIMM at work that I can use, but it is only 512MB. I am running Vista x64, and it crawls with this little memory, so no gaming until I get this resolved.

[Trooper110]

Well, the good news is you know what caused it and are having the issue taken care of for you. Least you won't be out any money other the the S&H on it, which I can't imagine would be very much for RAM as I RMA'd a hard drive for like $9.88 or something like that to WD through UPS.

[mapes]

Just outta curiosity did you reseat the RAM?

[Dead...Again]

Yeah, I actually pulled all 4 sticks and tried to boot with each one individually. I thought maybe one had failed. I'm actually very surprised that they all fail now.

[Murder Simulator]

PC 8500 (1066) is not an official standardized memory speed. All 1066 memory is really just DDR2 800 with overclocking potential.

Sure they tell you it can reach 1066 speeds, but they don't tell you the voltage requirements to run at that speed will likely kill the memory.

If you get really lucky everything works just right without user tweaking. You put the memory in your motherboard, boot it up, BIOS detects it and sets the proper voltage for the speed you've selected. This is where high speed memory gets it's appeal. This is also where the RAM starts to die.

This is actually pretty funny to me. People see 1066 on the package and keep trying to reach that speed because the box says so.

You can run it for a month or 6 months that way no problem but eventually you will burn it up.

After I got my 1066 memory I got lots of BSODs, games crashing or they pop up a diagnostic screen telling me there is an imminent hardware failure in progress. Finally I just set the memory for standard DDR 800 speeds and tightened the timings to 4 4 4 12.

All blue screens stopped. Games run just fine no crashing. BIOS doesn't over volt. Memory should run a good long healthy lifetime.

Don't waste your time trying to hit 1066.

[Dead...Again]

This memory is rated to run at 2.1V. It won't even run correctly at lower voltages, so the first thing I have to do after installing it is go into setup and change the memory voltage.

I think I am going to try just running it at 800 with tighter timings this time around, though. I read something the other day where a guy got better results running his DDR2-1066 memory at 800 with tighter timings and 1T. I think I'm going to try that.