Abit IX38 Quad GT and Crucial Ballistix PC8500 DDR2 RAM

[uncleelvis]

Not being aware of any incomatibilty issues, four months ago I purchased an Abit IX38 Quad GT motherboard (along with an Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 CPU) and a kit of two 1GB sticks of Crucial Ballistix PC8500 DDR2 RAM -- BL2KIT12864AA1065. I now see that New Egg lists both of these as deactivated!

I will probably wind up exchanging the RAM, but before I do, I was thinking of tweaking the BIOS settings (up until now, I have just been using the defaults). In my research, I have noted discrepancies between Crucial's spec sheet and the JEDEC #3 SPD values. Although the TCL, TRCD, and TRP values for both are 5, JEDEC #3 TRAS value is 18 while the spec sheet says 15! So I'm not sure which is really correct. I also noted a voltage discrepancy: spec sheet says 2.2V, where the JEDEC #3 figure is 1.8V.

When I went into the BIOS Guru utility, I noted that my automatic setting translated to 1.97 V, which nicely splits the difference! But some have encouraged me to try 2.2V. I am leary of doing this because when I tried 2.1V, my system became even more unstable.

Regarding the instability, for three weeks I have been experiencing blue screens while running Windows or even my BART PE CD and RAM errors while running Windows Memory Diagnostic -- but no errors at all while running Memtest86+ or Prime95! The blue screens and diagnostic test errors were intermittent and tended to occur when the PC was on for an extended period of time (normally I power it down at nighttime) and when my USB external hard drive was plugged in.

Here are my current BIOS settings. I'm willing to change them if others with the same setup have had success.


CPU OPERATING SPEED................ 3,000 (333)
EXTERNAL CLOCK..................... 340 MHz
MULTIPLIER FACTOR.................. 9.0
# ESTIMATED NEW CPU CLOCK.......... 3060 MHz
DRAM SPEED (CPU : RAM)....... Default (DDR2-816)
PCI EXPRESS CLOCK.................. 100 MHz


VOLTAGE CONTROL: Auto Detect


CPU CORE VOLTAGE................... 1.2250 V
DDR2 VOLTAGE....................... Auto
CPU VTT 1.2V VOLTAGE............... 1.10 V (why isn't this 1.2 V?)
MCH 1.25V VOLTAGE.................. 1.25 V
ICH 1.05V VOLTAGE.................. 1.05 V
ICHIO 1.5V VOLTAGE................. 1.50 V
DDR2 REFERENCE VOLTAGE............. Default
CPU GTLREF 0&2..................... 67%
CPU GTLREF 1&3..................... 67%


ADVANCED CHIPSET FEATURES:


DRAM TIMING SELECTABLE............. By SPD
CAS LATENCY TIME (TCL)............. Auto
RAS# TO CAS# DELAY (TRCD).......... Auto
RAS# PRECHARGE (TRP)............... Auto
PRECHARGE DELAY (TRAS)............. Auto
REFRESH CYCLE TIME (TRFC).......... Auto
WRITE RECOVERY TIME (TWR).......... Auto
WRITE TO READ DELAY (TWTR)......... Auto
ACT TO ACT TIME (TRRD)............. Auto
READ TO PRECHARGE (TRTP)........... Auto
COMMAND RATE....................... Auto
PEG FORCE X1....................... Disabled
INIT DISPLAY FIRST................. PCI slot


ADVANCED BIOS FEATURES / CPU FEATURES:


THERMAL CONTROL.................... Enabled
LIMIT CPUID MAXVAL................. Disabled
C1E FUNCTION....................... Auto
EXECUTE DISABLE BIT................ Enabled
VIRTUALISATION TECHNOLOGY.......... Enabled
EIST FUNCTION...................... Enabled


Many thanks in advance!

[TAKTAK]

you need to manually set the RAM timings to 5-5-5-15 and 2.2v as that is what the RAM is rated to run at...

[uncleelvis]

DDR2 VOLTAGE....................... 2.2V
CAS LATENCY TIME (TCL)............. 5
RAS# TO CAS# DELAY (TRCD).......... 5
RAS# PRECHARGE (TRP)............... 5
PRECHARGE DELAY (TRAS)............. 15

I just made the above changes; we'll see what happens.

Are my other settings okay?

[DratUK]

Change INIT DISPLAY FIRST................. PCI slot to PCIe unless you are running a PCI card

Rest looks fine.

[uncleelvis]

Change INIT DISPLAY FIRST................. PCI slot to PCIe unless you are running a PCI card.

Thanks for the catch.

Another question:

PC2-8500 RAM is also known as DDR2-1066 and its I/O Bus clock is half the 1066 value, or 533 MHz.

I'm still in the process of learning, but my understanding is that my mobo fully supports PC2-6400 RAM (DDR2-800, 400 MHz I/O Bus clock) and that the faster PC2-8500 RAM will still work but without being able to achieve the corresponding clock rate of 533 MHz. Here is my confusion. When I run Memtest86+, I see that the clock rate is slighlty higher than what I expect to see. That is, it's 408 MHz instead of 400 MHz. And the type of RAM similarly does not show up as DDR800, but rather as DDR817. Is this normal?

[DratUK]

If your running your board at "Abit" stock speeds there is a 5% Overclock out of the box so to speak. Hence the slight ram overclock.
Hope this explains as I ma 3 whiskies down

[BUFF]

If your running your board at "Abit" stock speeds there is a 5% Overclock out of the box so to speak. Hence the slight ram overclock.
Hope this explains as I ma 3 whiskies down

2% abit stock overclock at optimised defaults not 5%.
sure it's only 3 whiskies?

[DratUK]

2% abit stock overclock at optimised defaults not 5%.
sure it's only 3 whiskies?

Alright it was 6, had my ZX9r motorbike fall on top of me, 200Kgs of it. That tends to cause ones mind to loose a little concentration

2% it is BUFF

[uncleelvis]

you need to manually set the RAM timings to 5-5-5-15 and 2.2v as that is what the RAM is rated to run at...

Thanks once more for that suggestion.

I implemented those changes and also the change suggested by DratUK (Changed INIT DISPLAY FIRST from PCI slot to PCIe).

Same problem!

I'm 99% sure it's the RAM incompatibility mentioned elsewhere on various boards. One possible final last-ditch effort:

The BSODs often have this as an underlying thread: "Disable BIOS memory options such as caching or shadowing." Is this a red herring, or is there something to it? If there's something to it, how is this done? I'm pretty sure that pressing F7 during bootup accomplishes this, but is there a way to make it permanent? In my BIOS's Power Management Setup, the first item is ACPI Suspend Type. The normal value is S3 (Suspend-To-RAM). The other choice is S1 (Power On-Suspend). Is that it? Or am I barking up the wrong tree? Also, if I don't change the setting, I get the option of enabling (this is the default) or disabling "Resume by USB from S3." The only reason I bring this up is these problems only occur if my external USB hard drive is plugged in.

But I still feel I'll be needing to exchange my RAM. Prelimiary Web searches yield these results:

The following from newegg:

CORSAIR Dominator 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TWIN2X2048-8500C5D - Retail

Patriot Viper 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model PVS22G8500ELK - Retail

OCZ Platinum 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model OCZ2N10662GK - Retail

GeIL EVO ONE 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model GE22GB1066C5DC - Retail

WINTEC AMPX 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model 3AXT8500C5-2048K - Retail

Kingston HyperX 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model KHX8500D2K2/2GR - Retail

G.SKILL 1GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Desktop Memory Model F2-8500CL5S-1GBPK - Retail

Also, the following from mwave:

KINGSTON hyper x KHX8500D2K2/2G 2gb kit (1gb x 2) match pair pc28500 1066mhz cl5 5-5-5-15 240-pin ddr2 dimm w/heat spreader
SKU: BA23788Mfg. Part No: KHX8500D2K2/2G

PATRIOT PDC22G8500ELK 2gb kit (1gb x 2) pc2-8500 1066mhz 5-5-5-15 240-pin ddr2 dimm w/heat spreader
SKU: BA24262Mfg. Part No: PDC22G8500ELK

OCZ OCZ2N1066SR2GK 2gb kit (1gb x 2) pc2-8500 1066mhz 5-5-5-15 nvidia sli certified 240-pin ddr2 dimm w/heat spreader
SKU: BA23596Mfg. Part No: OCZ2N1066SR2GK

OCZ OCZ2RPR10662GK 2gb kit (1gb x 2) pc2-8500 1066mhz 5-5-5-15 240-pin ddr2 dimm w/reaper hpc heatsink
SKU: BA23737Mfg. Part No: OCZ2RPR10662GK

CRUCIAL ballistix BL2KIT12864AA106A 2gb kit (1gb x 2) match pair pc28500 1066mhz 5-5-5-15 240-pin ddr2 dimm w/heat spreader
SKU: BA25285Mfg. Part No: BL2KIT12864AA106A

CRUCIAL ballistix tracer BL2KIT12864AL106A 2gb kit (1gb x 2) match pair pc28500 1066mhz 5-5-5-15 240-pin ddr2 dimm w/heat spreader
SKU: BA25504Mfg. Part No: BL2KIT12864AL106A

CORSAIR TWIN2X2048-8500C5D 2gb kit (1gb x 2) pc28500 1066mhz matched pair 5-5-5-15 240-pin ddr2 dimm
SKU: BA23695Mfg. Part No: TWIN2X2048-8500C5D

Thanks in advance again for all the helpful suggestions. :-)