adding PNY PC133 SDRAM

[METALWORK]

Looking for help in getting Warcraft III to run with new 256 mb stick of PNY pc133 sdram. Currently have 2 128 mb sticks of mosel vitalic sdram from memman on a Abit kt7-raid board with 900 mb tb processor. Memory settings of "FAST" at cas2. Installed additional PNY stick and it was recognized and was surfing and emailing ok. Tried to launch Warcraft III and no go with memory error message. Tried changing settings in bios with no luck. Removed new stick and game runs fine. I emailed PNY tech support. Probably just cheap memory that won't work?

 

[Bartman39]

couple of things come to mind... first... try different slots (re-arange the order several ways) second... in the bios or via a jumper...? (cant remember...?) up the voltage on the memory (AKA chipset voltage) also try and lower your timings to the lowest settings (even run 100mhz on the memory till you find it will work together...?)


Possibly is just cheap memory... Good old Mosel...

 

[Zepper]

Yeah, I was going to say the same as Bartman. Try putting the new stick in SIMM-0 (or whatever your first RAM socket is called and your old sticks in the other sockets. Did you blow out the third socket before installing the new RAM. Those sockets are notorious dust collectors. Also, are you sure the new stick is CAS2? I don't think I've ever seen PNY CAS2 in any big box stores... You may need to bump down to CAS3. Finally, any time you try to use all 3 sockets it can be problematic. Often you have to use Registered (buffered) RAM in all three sockets in order for it to work.
.bh.

 

[METALWORK]

Here's the deal. Had to bump clock down to 100 mz and WCIII runs fine. Cas2 setting is ok. So I wonder if the tradeoff is worthwhile. It seems that
things are moving quicker with the extra 256 stick of memory. Besides I paid $9.94 for the memory! Thanks for the input, Anandtech is awesome.

 

[Jeff7]

I think that running it at 133MHz CAS3 is better than 100MHz CAS2. Some RAM just can't handle the CAS2 setting at 133MHz, no matter how much extra voltage you give it; I've got a stick of RAM in my PC like that; it's PC2100, CAS2.5. CAS2 causes memory errors, even with extra voltage.
I'd say to set all the RAM to 133MHz/CAS3, or else stick with more robust memory that can handle the faster timings.