My Ram Timings Hate Me (Help!)

DeathTouchWilly · TweakNOOB Joined: 27 Nov 2004 Posts: 49 Location: MA

I have 2 gigs of Kingston RAM that are PC3200. That means 200MHz right? The sticks are organized into 2 512 and one Gig stick that take up all 3 slots on my DFI Lan Party UT NF3 MoBo. CPUZ tells me the ram is running at 100MHz which I interpret as a bad thing... half the speed as what I am paying for.

I look at the Spd Timings table in CPUZ and it tell me to time my ram at 3-3-3-8 in order to bring the speed up to 200 MHz.

I do this and the speed remains at 100 Mhz. I am not overclocking my CPU either, all the settings are completely default. Any suggestions on how to increase the RAM frequency? Or is it supposed to run at 100 MHz for 2 gig?

Thanks so much for any help!
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ToggleHead · TWEAKGURU Joined: 03 Mar 2004 Posts: 4360 Location: Jersey

logically yes....it should be 100mhz..... but with different size mem allocations in there im not sure how it would react....
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Silicon Skum · Posted: Mon Jun 20, 2005 7:17 pm Post subject:

fussnfeathers · Lord of the Tweak Joined: 14 Dec 2004 Posts: 2763

Yes, Houston, you have a problem.......

One thing I would check is that you have your RAM in the proper slots. Most mobos require certain size sticks to be in certain slots. For the most part, mobos require the 1gb stick to be in the first slot. Putting it in the third slot could cause the RAM to not work properly.

Post the rest of your specs (proc, speed, etc) so we can narrow it down some.
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DeathTouchWilly · TweakNOOB Joined: 27 Nov 2004 Posts: 49 Location: MA

OK here's the specs:
CPU: Athlon 64 3400+ (Not overclocked, had to pull the battery outta my CMOS - stock it's at 2.2 Ghz)
DIMM: Kingston DDR3200 x2 512MB (first two slots) 1 GB (last slot)
MoBo: DFI Lan Party UT Nf3 (Nforce 3 NBchipset)
Ram timings are currently stock as well, which is something like 2.5-3-2-8.

I'll try rearranging the order of the RAM... currently the 1 gig stick is in the DIMM3 slot. Maybe that will do the trick. In the mean time, any suggestions as to what to do in teh BIOS, DFI, as usual, is very generous with BIOS features so I can control a lot.

To further clarify whether the 100Mhz FSB is "doubled" because it's DDR, I don't believe this to be the case. I put just the Gig stick of RAM into my MoBo and CPUZ read the speed as 200 MHz, I slid the other two half-gig sticks in and I'm back down to 100 MHz, I believe the RAM is in the wrong order, however.

Thanks again!
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Xal · Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2005 7:38 am Post subject:

Make sure the 512s are in the slots for dual channel (if board supports it) and then put the 1gb in the free slot. Or sell the 2 512s and get another 1gb of the same model and brand.
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DeathTouchWilly · TweakNOOB Joined: 27 Nov 2004 Posts: 49 Location: MA

Yeah the x2 512s ran at 200Mhz before I bought the Gig stick, so I know all three RAM sticks work at 200MHz by default. Something in my setup is causing the motherboard to prevent the RAM from operating at maximum. I'm hoping it's as simple as rearranging the RAM, but otherwise I may have to look into buying what you're suggesting.
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Xal · Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2005 8:01 am Post subject:

Its always a good idea to keep your ram matched, Unmatched ram often causes problems. Why do you need 2gb of ram? I find 1gb perfectly sufficient for all my tasks and my machine is used heavily for sound editing and games.
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X-fi Extreme Audio PCI E
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Nexus Fans
Custom case

DeathTouchWilly · TweakNOOB Joined: 27 Nov 2004 Posts: 49 Location: MA

So by unmatched you mean you should have two gig sticks in rather than a Gig stick and x2 512?
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Xal · Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2005 8:23 am Post subject:

Unmatched meaning different brands/ sizes / speeds.
If you have 3 dimms they should all be the same speed / brand / size to avoid compatability issues.
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[KoG]^weaZel · Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2005 2:19 pm Post subject:

*MOVED* This belongs in the memory section not the CPU area.

you may also be overloading the memory controller. Meaning using the three sticks is what is causing the problems.
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fussnfeathers · Lord of the Tweak Joined: 14 Dec 2004 Posts: 2763

DeathTouchWilly · TweakNOOB Joined: 27 Nov 2004 Posts: 49 Location: MA

No order for teh sticks is making all 2 gigs running at 200 Mhz. I did however get 1.5 gigs to run at 200Mhz. As soon as I put another 512 in, the speed is dropped down to 100 again. And it doesnt correspond to a bad RAM slot on the MoBo or a bad stick of ram, I tested all teh slots and ram sticks individually. As far as I can tell, my MoBo just does not want to run 2 gigs at 200MHz.

Is this a common feature or should I give DFI a call.
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[KoG]^weaZel · Posted: Thu Jun 23, 2005 12:53 pm Post subject:

Have you tried changing the command rate to 2T rather than 1T. I know alot of nForce systems have to drop the command rate to 2T in order to run 2gigs of ram. Its just a problem with trying to run that much ram on those systems.

But hey its 64-bit ready so you can address more than 4 gigs of memory even though you cant even run 2 gigs with out a hitch
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fussnfeathers · Lord of the Tweak Joined: 14 Dec 2004 Posts: 2763

I did a quick scan of your mobo manual again, and I can't honestly see any reason why this would be happening. Try Weaz's suggestion of dropping the CAS rate to 2t, that's about all I can think of.

Are all three sticks of RAM the same timings, voltages, etc? That might also cause a problem. I mean, given that one stick is 1gb, and the other two are 512, they should still be pretty close to each other.
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DeathTouchWilly · TweakNOOB Joined: 27 Nov 2004 Posts: 49 Location: MA

What would my BIOS have the command rate listed under? Is that Cas latency? Ras to Cas? How is command rate generally listed, in other words.

I did notice a difference between my RAM when looking at the two in CPUZ.
The gig stick has ECC correction and the x2 512s are not corrected. Would this have something to do with it?

Thanks again!
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fussnfeathers · Lord of the Tweak Joined: 14 Dec 2004 Posts: 2763

Silicon Skum · Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2005 6:30 pm Post subject:

DeathTouchWilly · TweakNOOB Joined: 27 Nov 2004 Posts: 49 Location: MA

Sounds like great advice. Thanks guys. Just one more question pops into my head.

Where is the best place to sell computer hardware? When you say "sell" the two 512s... if you were in that situation, where would you put them up for sale?

Thanks again!
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