RAM upgrade issue

[jafrisi]

Hello,

I recently purchased 8gb kingston hyperx ram as an upgrade from 8 to 16g for my pc.  It mostly worked, but genereated random BSOD errors and, upon running windows memory diagnistics, found 'hardware issue detected'.  Removed it and all is well.

Question now, was it defective, incompatible?  I researched all the specs and it seemed to be fine.  I would still like to upgrade but want something that will definitely work.  Any thoughts or experiences?  

Kingston Technology HyperX Fury Black 8GB 2666MHz DDR4 CL16 DIMM 1Rx8 (HX426C16FB2/8)

[Grzwacz]

Greetings,

Welcome back to the forum.

I am not a HP employee.

Your PC uses Dual Channel memory. It is best practice to install Dual Channel memory modules in matching pairs. You could have a memory timing mismatch. You matched the memory speed but did you check the voltage of the HP supplied memory module?

Have you tried running the Kingston memory module by itself to see if the system is stable?

I usually use Crucial Memory (Link) when adding memory to HP PCs. Crucial guarantees their modules will work with the existing memory installed in the PC and will refund the purchase price if the memory is incompatible.

Crucial has a memory upgrade configurator or you can manually drill down to your specific HP PC.

Regards

[jafrisi]

Thanks for the quick reply!  Yeah, I actually knew this was a cl 16 and the stock ram is cl 19.  Would that make the voltage different?

I did not bother trying to use only the Kingston, but I suspect it would have worked on its own.  I just returned it and will buy something with exact matching specs next time.

[Grzwacz]

Hi Jafrisi,

You're very welcome.

The memory timings are out of sink. The Kingston memory was 1.2 volts. You would have to look at the HP memory module for the voltage. Voltage and memory timings are two different things.

Every memory spec for all RAM modules should match to achieve system stability.

Regards

[jafrisi]

So when you say the "timings" are out of sync, what do you mean?  Does that have to do with the latency specs? 

[Grzwacz · Accepted solution]

Hi,

Yes, the RAS and CAS timings, memory speed, and voltage should be the same on each memory module.

Some motherboards are more forgiving.

Some HP MBs are finicky.

I have done many memory upgrades for clients on HP systems using Crucial Memory with very few problems. HP recommends Crucial Memory if you can't get HP memory for the PC.

Regards

[jafrisi]

Perfect, thanks so much for all the quick replies.

[Grzwacz]

Hi Jafrisi,

You're very welcome.

Regards