T460 - Problems with two RAM sticks

[luiscsilva]

Hello everyone, I got a T460 yesterday, came with 8GB of DDR3 at 1600mhz, 1,35v, with 11-11-11 timings (9-9-9 for 1333mhz).

Today I managed to score a Gskill 8GB kit for 35€, same speed and voltage, with 9-9-9 timings. I figured the system would automatically loosen the Gskill's timings and match the sticks' speeds and latency. I'm ok with running 1333mhz. So I promply installed the second stick and booted. everything seems fine, I run cpu-z and get a bit of mouse lag, then trackpoint stops working. I fire benchmark, run GPU 2D and get after some seconds lose image and "crash". System seems to be running but I have no vídeo.

Open the system up, swap stick slots, try again, same thing. As soon as I open CPU-Z or even passmark and check memory info, trackpoint dies (but after rebooting it's working again). I run the same 2D benchmarks and this time it lasts longer until it freezes, but with image. Keyboard seems to be working, trackpoint and touchpad not.

Open again, this time taking the original ram stick out and leaving the gskill 9-9-9 stick. Same symptoms. By now I can do "normal" PC usage, but if I load the system it seems to have some memory related troubles. I tried loading youtube,some tabs and whatever I could (it's a fresh install), and all seems fine, but if I CPU-Z or Passmark, it acts up.

So, for a last time, I take the Gskill out and put only the original RAM stick back, and the symptoms remained just for one boot, then the system went back to normal and all is ok.

All this time the Memory tab on CPU-Z reports varying speeds and timings (including NB), it just keeps changing between ~500mhz to near 800mhz, with timing going from 9-9-9 to 11-11-11 accordingly.

My guess is that the system tries to match timings, lowering the speed to 1333mhz so that the original stick that came with the system can do 9-9-9, but then the Gskill has lower timings in that frequency, and they both can't play nice. Putting back the original 11-11-11 stick by itself makes the system work fine. The Gskill may also be a bad stick, but I doubt it.

So bottom line I should just buy a 11-11-11 stick to match the original one or is there something obscure I should try?

[RealBlackStuff]

The T460 takes (up to 2x16 = 32GB max) PC3L-12800 (= DDR3L-1600) low-voltage (1.35V) RAM.
Maybe you bought regular non-L (5V) G.Skill RAM?
9-9-9-9 might only work if both RAM sticks are the same speed.
Have you tested those sticks with https://www.memtest86.com/ ?
I'd say return it for one with matching 11-11-11-11 speed/timing.

[luiscsilva]

Thank you for the answer.
Both sticks have the exact same stats (including voltage), except for timings.

GSkill 1600mhz 9-9-9, or 1333mhz 8-8-8 if I recall correctly
Original ram 1600mhz 11-11-11, 1333mhz 9-9-9

I did not try memtest because I didn't have any usb pen at hand to boot it. I think I will just return the module and get one with original timings