new memory problems... ?

Hey people, morning etc.

just bought some ram off a guy on the forums, (2x512mb pc3200 twinmos sticks), and after whacking them in my pc this morning, i've had a couple BSODs (irql_not_less_or_equal and a pagefault_in_nonpaged_area or something)... i've tried clocking my cpu down (from 11x200 to 11x166), but it didnt help... i'll leave it running prime95 tonight, see what happens, and maybe run memtest86 later tomorrow... is it definately the ram that is the problem - cos if so i guess i'm gonna have to send them back - cos i doubt i have any kind of warranty with twinmos

mark


ps ram is not overclocked, running at 'by SPD' settings at 2.6v

alot of people have been having problems with twinmos and nforce 2 boards seems theres a bit of a compatability issue with them
ive just changed mobo from a a7n8x rev 1.04 to a a7n8x rev 2.0 and the ram i was using in the old board wont work in my new board but that was nanya ram

memtest86 is the test app for ram :)
Get cpu-z. It *should* tell you the SPD info for both sticks of ram (bios will only tell you one, and the other may not like those!)
Also make sure the timings are what they are suppost to be! note that some companys program the SPD at JEDEC standard vaules, even if they can achive more (corsair for example).
More voltage will make ram more stable. Check in the HW monitoring page of bios that its 2.6 or higher. Most (pc2700 or higher) ram wont work stable below that. Increase voltage upto 2.9V if you must, but lots of ram will overheat at 2.8v so check its not overheating if you do that.

Memtest86 is the only good way to test for errors. Test3 usually means b0rked ram, or mobo. test5 is the only one that ever gives me overclocked-ram related errors, as if theres errors i dont other running 6 or 7 which should find the same ones.

Twinmos ram likes 2.5-3-3-7 timings usually. or 3-3-3-8.
What chips do they have on them? samsung are v good, m.tech are ok, but ive not used others.

ok, well i fired up prime95 last night, came back this morning had a windows critical error about the memory not being able to be read or some such crap, i'll reboot and whack the voltage upto 2.8, download cpu-z and see whats what :)

on a slightly unrelated note - why doesnt my a7n8x deluxe v2 mobo (with bios 1007) unlock my t-bred 1700+ (which was unlocked on my old kt333 epox board??)

cheers

mark

ok, its now at 2.7v, cos i really want to go whacking too much volts for long, ran prime95, went to brush my teeth, came back and it has BSODed with some INPAGE blah blah error or something.

mar

Despite having the "-X" variety, I never found the 1007 BIOS to be good for overclocking. That's why I've stuck with 1005. As for vMEM. I've kept mine running at 2.8v for around a year I think with no problems...how else do you think I could get PC2700 RAM up to PC3200 speeds? ;)

twinMOS seem to not want people using dual channel kits of TwinMOS on the nforce2 chipsets. Works perfect in two systems i've got at home so i don't see how people are getting problems

I've got two TwinMOS sticks running fine in my machine (NF7-S), but I think that may have something to do with it having Winbond.

Mike

Quote:

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how else do you think I could get PC2700 RAM up to PC3200 speeds?

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my pc2700 samsung did pc3200 @ 2.7v, but i've sold/swapped that and have 1gb of twinmos instead...

i guess i could try it in my p4 rig, dual channel.. i guess that would show if it was a compatibility issue - also are there any problems with these 'uber' bioses, or are they just as reliable as the asus ones - i dont want to flash and find i've got a dead board :( - £43 from ebuyer was a bargain tho :D

mark

The uber BIOS's are the same as the ones that Asus releases, but with certain options unlocked. It is not more stable nor give much more of a performance difference that cannot be attributed to within 1 per cent of benchmark error paramaters. With my board, I've got uber's 1005 BIOS and it's got chipset voltage manipulation whereas the Asus release doesn't.

No problems with the ones I've run although these are bh-5 chips

ok... tested one of the sticks in my shuttle (sn41g2), ran prime 95 for 8 hours while i was at work, no errors no warnings, so i'm testing the other stick now.. i'm pretty sure the ram is 100% fine, its just my stupid asus mobo :mad: i guess maybe i'll have to start using the shuttle as a main rig then...

ahhhhhhh Damint ! I just typed a really long reply and I got an error when I submitted it :(

Anyway, the basic points were, always check the Nforce2 memory compatibility list before buying ram for an Nforce2 mobo:

http://www.nvidia.com/content/nForce...patibility.asp

If you can't see it on there then check the asus forums for what people have said does work in their mobo.

I am running 2 sticks of 512Mb PC3200 twinmoss with winbond chips which is on the list, so check your ram codes against to see if your's are on the list.
I have alos used 2 sticks of PC2700 samsung which was on the nvidia list and they worked fine, but I have also used 2 sticsk of crucial 256 which arent on the list, but were mentioned by people in the MSI forums as compatible so I bought them.

well both sticks (individually) were fine in the shuttle for some prime95-ing and i've whacked them back in my computer, see whats what... ran some CS and some lo:mac ok, and hasnt crashed yet (touch wood).. might try some prime and see what happens..

mark