P5K Premium / 8GB RAM

[rwm63]

Hello again...

I posted last week about problems I was having with my P5k, Vista 64 and RAID. After reverting the drives to ATA and re-installing I am still seeing hangs and reboots.

I decided to give memtest86 a try and see if it was my memory. I'm running with 4x 2GB Patriot PC6400 sticks. BIOS is set for auto configuration. I saw bit errors in test #6 with the 8GB.

I removed the sticks that were in the A2/B2 positions (now running with 4GB) and ran 3 passes with no errors.

I removed those two sticks and put the two sticks that were originally in positions A2/B2 into A1/B1 and ran. This time when I powered up it came up with a BIOS message saying that the overclocking failed and asked if I wanted to revert to default settings -- I told it to do so and memtest86 came up. (settings were always set to auto) This time it indicated that I had 4095M of memory. I swear with the previous DIMMs it said 4096M which would make sense. I should see 4096M, correct?

I've been running these two DIMMs for a while now (not quite a complete pass) with no errors (size = 4095M). Does this mean that there is likely an issue in the upper MB of one or both of these sticks?

I can run again with a single stick in A1 (one of the original A2/B2 sticks) and see if it IDs the size correctly (2048M) to determine if one of them is bad. Does this make sense?

Also, I've seen mention of relaxing timings when using 4 sticks. Should I need to do this? And if so, which timing parameters do I need to relax?

Thanks for all your help. You guys have been extremely helpful in helping to get my system running.

[Clunk]

You need to set the RAM voltage manually. It is the cause of most of the problems like this. You will get errors in memtest if the voltage is too low.

Look on the sticks themselves, or find out from the manufacturer what the sticks are rated to run at. Chances are, they are 2.0v, and by default, all DDR2 motherboards will default to 1.8v which is the JEDEC standard.

Try it and report back

Have you updated the BIOS?

[rwm63]

The memory claims to be 5-5-5-12 @ 2V.

Should I leave the timing settings on auto?

I will try this after dinner tonight. Thanks and wish me luck.

[Clunk]

No, always set your voltage and timings manually. If you dont, you will get the odd behavior like you have been experiencing, and also, the RAM will run at SPD settings which are often slower than the RAM is rated for.

[rwm63]

I set DRAM Timing control to MANUALand set the first 5 parameters to 5-5-5-12. All others are AUTO.

I had to set Ai Overclocking to MANUAL to be able to set voltages.
Set DRAM voltage to 2.0.

Nothing else was touched.

When I try to hit F10 (save and exit), nothing happens. Tried setting the Ai Overclocking to N.O.S. too and nothing. Some parameters must not mesh.

Reading down the Advanced screen I get:

Ai Overclocking MANUAL
CPU Ratio Control AUTO
FSB Strap to North Bridge AUTO
FSB Frequency 266
PCIE Frequency AUTO
DRAM Frequency AUTO
DRAM Command Rate AUTO
DRAM Timing Control MANUAL
CAS# Latency 5
RAS# to CAS# Delay 5
RAS# Precharge 5
RAS Active Time 12
Row Refresh Cycle Time AUTO
Write Recovery Time AUTO
Write to Read Delay AUTO
Read to Precharge Time AUTO
DRAM Static Read Control AUTO

Transaction Booster AUTO
Clock Over-Charging Mode AUTO

CPU Spread Spectrum AUTO
PCIE Spread Spectrum AUTO

CPU Voltage AUTO
CPU Voltage Reference AUTO
CPU Voltage Damper AUTO
CPU PLL Voltage AUTO
DRAM Voltage 2.00V
FSP Termination Voltage AUTO
North Bridge Voltage AUTO
North Bridge Voltage Reference AUTO
South Bridge Voltage AUTO

Help!

[Clunk]

Try enabling dram static read control, and if that doesnt work, try disabling it rather than having it on auto if possible.

Also, try setting the DRAM frequency manually to whatever it should be.

[rwm63]

Comedy of errors here...

For some reason the function keys on my keyboard weren't being recognized by the BIOS. Logitech G15. Maybe I was going over to the Exit page before. I've had a long day.

And after changing the settings it didn't seem to recognize my CD with memtest on it and it decided to boot into Vista. I'm running with it now. I can see the CD just fine on vista.

So, I didn't need to muck with the dram freqency or static read control -- both are AUTO.

I'll let this run for a while and hopefully not have any problems.

Thanks again.

[rwm63]

Spoke too soon. It reset itself again.

Don't memory errors typically cause a hang? I know anything can happen but the last handful it's rebooting.


I'll try to get memtest86 running again. I'm running kaspersky. Any issues with it? And Vista -- I'm sure lots of issues.

Any further suggestions?

-Dick

[Clunk]

Comedy of errors here...

So, I didn't need to muck with the dram freqency or static read control -- both are AUTO. - OK, so you are running your 2.0v memory at 1.8v and wondering why you still have problems?

I'll let this run for a while and hopefully not have any problems.

Thanks again.

Spoke too soon. It reset itself again. - Well it would do, its not getting enough volts on the AUTO setting, it needs to be 2.0v

Don't memory errors typically cause a hang? I know anything can happen but the last handful it's rebooting. - You need to test each stick individually in all of the slots for a minimum of 1 hour using memtest v1.70 Test 5. You could well have one or two bad sticks.

Also make sure that you have plenty of airflow accross the RAM as there isnt much of a gap between the sticks when all four slots are populated.


I'll try to get memtest86 running again. I'm running kaspersky. Any issues with it? And Vista -- I'm sure lots of issues.

Any further suggestions?

-Dick

Vista x64 is a memory hog, and so is Kaspersky. I have found that the more memory you put in there, the more it will use for even the most pointless of tasks. An example of this would be that it uses 98% of the memory on my system when doing a virus scan, regardless of there being 2GiB or 4GiB installed.

In my opinion, vista isnt ready for most people yet, and especially not so for high end systems with lots of RAM. Just my opinion.

[rwm63]

I've been running flawlessly with 4GB of RAM for about 48 hours now. I'm going to switch over to the other 4GB of RAM and see what happens.

I did figure out what happened with memtest86 -- when my BIOS got reset the HD became a higher priority boot device than my two DVD burners. I'll run that prior to booting windows again with the other 4GB.

I do agree that Vista is a bit of a pig with memory. I'm sure that OUTLOOK using 100MB of RAM improves my user experience. Same with Explorer. And IE...

I'll let you know what happens.

[rwm63]

For some reason I am not able to boot into memtest86 now... My BIOS is set up with my CD/DVD drives as higher priority devices than my HD. I tried inserting the Windows DVD in one of the drives and it does allow me to boot into it.

I tried the same disk I booted into the other night... and even burned a new one...

Any ideas what's preventing this? Maybe someone is trying to tell me to be happy with 4GB.

Thanks.

[mrpoune]

Hi,

I have the exact problem, sometimes, memtest wont start.

I have patriot 2x1g pc2-8500. The following timings are reported on the chips: 5-5-5-9 2.3v

I am not able to run memtest without error and when I enter those timings, I get the AI overclocking error.

Please share your findings and I'll do the same.

Thanks
fred

[Clunk]

Will it start with 1x stick of RAM in there, in any of the slots?

[rwm63]

For me it is something strange with the CD/DVD drives. I have created a floppy version of memtest86 and that seems to come up. I have run each stick individually through with at least one pass of memtest86 with no errors.

Should I try various pairs next in A1/B1? Or try all 4 again? Maybe I should try swabbing the DIMM contacts and sockets with 99% isopropyl alcohol.

Should I have to derate any timing values for 4 sticks? I guess it always could be heat causing the problem. Do you recommend a memory cooler?

Thanks again, Clunk, for your help.

[Clunk]

Is there a firmware update for your optical drive?

Start with 1 stick in any of the black slots, and then test for at least an hour in each slot, and then do the same with the other sticks one by one.

If you get errors, unplug the optical drive completely and try again.

Dont forget to make sure that your voltage and timings are set manually.

[mrpoune]

Sometimes memtest will start, sometimes not...

All my tests have been conducted with only one stick of ram