Is my memory the cause of my problems?

C

Chix4mat

Gawd
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Aug 31, 2003
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Before I recently upgraded my memory, I don't recall having any problems like these. You can refer to my other thread here.

When I was using one stick of Samsung DDR400 3-3-3-8, everything was fine. Now I am using 2*512MB DDR400 2-3-3-8, which I bought from here . You'll notice that the memory on the site is stated as being 2-2-2-6, which I find funny in itself.

Anyway's, I am trying to benchmark for video card for a review, and I can hardly get through a demo now without the computer completely crashing. It's bizarre, because with a few tests, especially with Far Cry, I will lose video, and still hear sound for a moment, then that will crash too.

The system is currently not modified at all.. no overclocks. BIOS is currently reverted back to stock, and all the memory settings and such are default.

Here is the CPU-Z view of my memory here. It's wierd, because CPU-Z shows my memory as being in slots 3&4, when it's really in 2&4, if that means anything.

If anyone has any idea if this is linked to the memory, or if there is anything I can do to fix my problem, I would be really appreciative. Thanks!
 
got a pm, so i came running ;)

first, the ballistix is definitly rated for 2-2-2. the mobo is probably just reading the SPD curiously.
also, you might want to play with the dimm slots. and run memtest. if you find you can't get the ballistix to work (pass memtest error free) at 2-2-2, i'd get in touch with either ncix or crucial. crucial themselves have awesome support, if you need to go that way.
 
Alright, cool. How long should MemTest be run? I ran P95 Small FFT's for an hour with no problems.

It's wierd that the mobo would read it at 2-3-3 when it's not though. NCIX is a pain to get support from, so if the worst happens, I'll have to talk to Crucial.

Thanks man
 
i would do at least 5 loops.. which will take a while. if you get errors, it'll probably be on test 5 or 8
 
:p

Did I pass? Did I PASS?? :D

As you can see, I manually set it to 2-2-2. When I reverted to 2-3-3-6, which it considers stock, I got one error in 7 passes.

Going to go test each individual stick now.

[Edit]: I just noticed as well, that memtest detects my AMD as a .13, but it's a Venice. Is that Memtest, or my mobo?

[Edit Edit]: Did one pass at 2-2-2 with each individual stick. Before, it used to get errors right away, but now it doesn't look like it's getting any. I'm thinking it's my mobo.. maybe.
 
the .13 thing is a memtest issue. and that's very odd... especially cause my ballistix can do 2.5-2-2 up to ~250mhz, then i have to drop to 2.5-2-3

*ponders*

how much voltage were you giving them?


edit for your edit.. new bios perhaps? 510-3 would be my recommendation
 
Alright, I'll try 510-3 and then try again. Probably in a bench of Far Cry since I would see results faster than in memtest.

Oh, and my voltage to ram is 2.6. I could up it, forgot about it. If it crashes during this Far Cry run, I'll up it and try again.
 
well.. rated voltage from crucial is 2.8v.. though it gets moderately warm to hot if you don't have a fan on it, or good case airflow.
 
Yeah. I don't really have a way to mount another fan over the memory either. Can't stick it to the inside of the case, because there is a window fan that get's in the way.

I put in one stick at 2-2-2 and even 2-3-3 and ran Far Cry. It still crashed after a few runs. I have both sticks back in, and I'm going to try out all the BIOS's I can find and hopefully one of them will work =/
 
Running the stock BIOS is one of the worst things you could have done. I had whatever came on my mobo and it resulted in all kinds of problems: PCI-e slot 1 (x16) not working, first LAN port not working, memory voltage unchangeable, and a bit of stability problems.

Now that i have the 510-3s everything is fixed, and I can up the voltage to my memory again.

As for your problem, I think that by what your saying that the Ballistix chip may not be good.

Btw: you DID run the first chip you "know" to be good through memtest, right?
 
that's.. odd. all the other memory timings are on auto?
try switching dimms, move the first stick to where the second stick is, and vice versa?

as for the fan, i like to hold em down with a rubberband over the dimms. it's complicated to explain, but i think you can figure it out if you look at it
 
A pic perhaps? :D

Oh, and I looked at mine last night thinking of putting a super-quiet 80mm thermal controlled one on it, and I can't find a way to mount one...
 
Yeah, the stock BIOS does suck. In fact, I think the whole board is starting to suck. The reason I got the Ballistix memory to begin with, is because the board hated my other memory as well. This is a completely fresh board though, so I know it's not a defunked board. Yes, I'm on my second mobo :|

as for the fan, i like to hold em down with a rubberband over the dimms. it's complicated to explain, but i think you can figure it out if you look at it

You mean, having the fan connected to another fan, like the CPU fan with a rubber band?

Also, I will switch the memory around and see if that makes a difference. But I even crashed with a single DIMM, so I dunno.

More soon probably :/
 
DFI makes excellent motherboards. I feel that updating the BIOS will help a lot of your issues.
 
I took your advice Eclipse, is this what you meant?

Project_2501, I've already tried 6 different BIOS's, including 510-1, 2 and 3. With the fan above the memory, I found I was getting LESS errors in memtest.. but still errors.

Still trying more..
 
Alright, still no luck. I've tried 10 different versions of the BIOS. Here are two reference pictures of the memory part of the BIOS:

Pic 1
Pic 2

In pic 1, most of those Autos *were* already filled in for some reason. When I changed them all to Auto, it seemed to have helped a lot. I went from getting an error in memtest in 10 seconds, to getting one in 3 minutes. In FarCry, I used to get through 1 run if I was lucky, now I get through 4.

Still, I am confused, because the problem is still hardly fixed. From those screens, does anything look wrong? Should anything be changed? This is my last hope I think.. else I will have to get ahold of Crucial/DFI.

Thanks again for the help. What a day. Or.. what a two days =/
 
Did you up the voltage that the Ballistix is getting? Because w/o at least 2.8-2.9 volts, it won't really run as advertised.
 
Aye, it's at 2.9. I also changed another option, the DRAM Speed or whatever, it was on Normal, I put it on fast. I ran a 30 minute memtest and had NO errors.

FarCry still crashed on me though. So now I'm going to see if it's just that game or something else. I am thinking possibly my memory is fixed.. I hope. I'll run a 16 hour memtest through the night if I can't get things working properly.
 
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