Howdy, Stranger!

It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!

Motherboard/memory question

cichy1012cichy1012 Member UncommonPosts: 345

Dont get it Board i have says it takes

 

  • PC2-4200 (533 MHz)

     

  • PC2-5300 (667 MHz)

     

  • PC2-6400 (800 MHz)

     

    4200 and 5300 work fine I cant use 6400 for some reason.

    I have 4 different sticks of 6400, different manufacturers. 18.v and 2.1 v ----still dont work always freezes on starting windows 7 screen.

    Bios is up to date.

     

    any suggestions?

 

Comments

  • QuizzicalQuizzical Member LegendaryPosts: 25,347

    Try with one module at a time and see if it works.  It might just be one memory module that doesn't like the 800 MHz clock speed.

    Also, what voltage are you using?  1.8 V is the stock voltage for DDR2.  If memory is rated at 800 MHz at 2.1 V, then it might not be able to handle 800 MHz at 1.8 V.  And if you run it all at 2.1 V, that's overvolting your memory, and the motherboard or memory controller or some such might not like that.

  • cichy1012cichy1012 Member UncommonPosts: 345

    nah dont work.. memory is both 1.8 v and some 2.1 volt. wired.. tried one at a time. 

     

    oh well..

  • RidelynnRidelynn Member EpicPosts: 7,383

    Memory is pretty finicky - it's gotten better over the years.

    There is probably a timing mismatch between your modules - pairing different DIMMs with different timings and voltages is really a mixed bag, and the older specifications were much more ornery about it (before DDR2 you basically had to have identical DIMMS, same timing and same manufacturer, or you'd have trouble, in DDR3 you can almost do it now without issue).

    Take heart in the fact that the difference in performance dropping down off 800Mhz is very very slight, and not likely to be noticed.

    If they are still under warranty - you can put in one DIMM at a time and crank it up to 800Mhz and run Memtest86 on it. It takes about an hour to run a complete test. If they pass, take special note of all the timings (9-9-9-24, for example) for each DIMM - they may not all be the same.

    If they all pass, make sure you set your DIMMS for the highest timings that you found during your testing inside your BIOS (there should be a customization for this, probably someplace in the overclocking) - this will force all your DIMMS to use the least aggressive timings that were able to pass.

    If you find one that fails Memtest - then it's either clocked too aggressively (you can try raising the timing, or lowering the clock speed), or it's faulty and should be returned. If they can't run at whatever timings they were advertised as (usually on a sticker on the DIMM, or on the packaging someplace, if you still have it), then it's defective on principle, even if you can get it to run slower or less aggressively. Some memory manufacturers have lifetime warranties.

Sign In or Register to comment.