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4 DIMMS of DDR400 doesn't run at 400!

C

cars10

Junior Member
Hello,

I recently upgraded to Vista 64 and was very disappointed with how sluggish my system sometimes was and the very low available RAM I always had, especially when playing World of Warcraft, which had pretty bad framerates despite a very good graphic card.

Anyway, I ordered another 2GB of ram off eBay and installed them, only to be disappointed that my framerates were even worse!
A quick look in CPU-Z showed me the DDR frequency was set to 100mhz! In the BIOS however it is set to 200!
I tried upping it to 400, but that wouldn't boot. I tried upping the FSB up to 400 from 200 and reducing the multiplier down to 6x from 12x, and that booted, however my OS wouldn't boot and I just got a blinking line at the top of my screen. I've also tried reducing the RAM timings and command rate, but no luck, I can't get them to run at their default speeds.
This is really frustrating me. I was hoping to have a nice performance boost, and now its even worse than with my old 2gb!

System specs are:

A64 X2 4800+ 90nm Toledo core
2GB OCZ Platinum (2-3-2-5 1T)
2GB OCZ XTC (2-3-2-5 1T)
Asus A8N-Sli Deluxe (rev 1085 BIOS)

I would really appreciate any help!

p.s., also weird, is when i set ram settings to Auto they dont run at the timings that are on the DIMM module stickers, aka their default and advertised timings. is that normal?

-edit: I heard that older A64s had an outdated memory controller that would reduce RAM speed when running 4 DIMMS.
However, I have a more recent A64, and even when I remove one of my 1GB sticks and boot w/ 3 dimms, it still runs at 100mhz!
 
need the exact model number off of each stick of ram, and the order that you placed the ram on the motherboard. the latest BIOS is 1805.
 
You're mixing RAM models. Have you tried each pair of sticks independently to see if your board accepts both models? If so, you could try mixing one stick of each to see if mixing the models is causing the problem.

I've seen posts about a number of boards that appear to be touchy about using four sticks of DDR-400, mainly due to stray capacitance in the additional traces and sockets. You may have to try four sticks of the same exact model, and even then, it may not work.

Finally, from Asus' BIOS page, I think you meant you have BIOS ver. 1805, not 1085.

Good luck. 🙂
 
Well, first of off, welcome to the Forums!

A couple things come to mind here.

First, I believe you have to have either 2 DIMMs or 4 DIMMs populated with the MB you have since it's dual channel.

If memory serves me correctly (it's been a while since this was an issue), I believe there is also a limitation with ASUS (and some other) MB's working at rated speeds with 4 DIMMs for the 939 Socket platform.

Next, I see the timings on the RAM appear to be the same but they are different models, so there may be some slight differences and this will cause the speed to be dropped. You could try relaxing the timings on your sticks to see if this will help. I also recall that with 4 sticks you had to drop to 2T instead of 1T - I can't remember if it was the Memory controller or the MB that required this though.

I also think there is/was an issue at 4GB, and that was a Memory controller limitation, regardless of how new the CPU was.

If you really need 4GB, you may be able to get it to work with 2 sticks of 2GB, but I wouldn't guarantee it.

 
It's normal for the A8N series to clock the RAM down for stability when all the memory slots are full (Asus FAQ).

At any rate, things you might want to do:

1) enable hardware remap of >4GB in the BIOS, known to help performance in some scenarios

2) check the voltage that the RAM is rated for, then manually set your BIOS to supply that voltage, instead of leaving it on AUTO (which is 2.6 volts on this board)

3) consider getting four sticks of matching "vanilla" RAM such as Crucial's basic DDR400, which is good solid 2.5-volt non-fancy stuff. Then Ebay your fancy stuff and use the profits to buy pizza 😀
 
hey guys, first of all let me thank you for your response.
unfortunately, i've tried running these modules at their highest timings 3 - 12+ - 12+ - 22+ etc with no luck. I've also tried 2T (which is set automatically when set to Auto in the BIOS.)
It seems as long as there is more than 2 modules inserted it will not run at 200 ddr, even though the BIOS says that is the seting.

the timings written next to my ram under specs are their advertised/rated timings, not the ones i use.
However I can boot with those timings AND a 1T command rate WITH all 4 modules at 4gb, but it still only runs at 100mhz DDR.
(this proves at least I have the updated memory controller in my A64)

i've tried swapping out the dimms in their slots, but not mix and matching the two different pairs ( i will do that now).

-i've set the voltage to 2.65 and 2.6 (off from auto), no luck there either.
-my bios is 1805, sorry typo.
-according to my mobo specs, it supports 4gb of ddr400
 
yup its the damn mix and matching.
running 2gb (2 modules) with 1x platinum and 1x XTC = 100mhz DDR.
what a ah heck.
i cannot explain why this happens 🙁

anyway i can get the overclock compensation to work?
i couldn't understand why my BIOS would POST with 400mhz FSB at 6x Multiplier and 1x HTT and 400mhz DRAM (up from 200)
 
well thanks for your help everyone.
i've given up. my comp's performance at 200mhz is awful.
i've played with the timings some more but to no avail.
i'm going to resell the 2 sticks and live with 2gb until i do a full upgrade. what a bummer
perhaps i could try getting another 2 sticks of the exact same memory, as mix & matching seems to be the problem
 
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