Compatibility - ASRock Dual VSTA & Transcend DDR2 800Mhz

[hvhoon]

Hey Folks,

Thought somebody might have run into this issue here or might know how to help me. I have been using my ASROCK VSTA 775 DUAL for about 6months now, I bought it because I wanted an easy upgrade path from my old AGP and DDR1 memory to Dual Core.

My old relevant configuation was:
Intel Core 2 Duo 6300 2@1.86Mhz
1GB DDR400 RAM (2x512MB Dual DDR)
ATi Radeon 9700 Pro

I decided to upgrade my RAM and graphics card to DDR2 and the GeForce 8800 GTS (320mb) respectively

I first changed the RAM and ran into problems! I bought 2GB (2x1GB) Transcend DDR2 800 , from Newegg and while I know that the mobo is only capable of 533 / 667 I thought it would simply run the ram at slower speeds.

Unfortunately @ 533 and Dual DDR2, the system would always freeze shortly after booting into Windows (VISTA). So I tried 667, system didn't even boot into windows at this point. I then tried taking out one piece of RAM so no Dual DDR (thought one piece might be defective). Still no luck!!

I left all the settings on 'Auto' in BIOS. Has anybody had this issue before using a similar configuration?

Thanks!

 

[Dunny96us]

Hello hvhoon,

I've had a ASROCK VSTA 775 DUAL for about the same time and I recently decided to upgrade to DDr2 last week.

The first thing to mention is that ASROCK released some newer BIOS updates specifically designed for VISTA not long ago. Give those a try.

Secondly, when I upgraded to DDR2 i was getting random blue screens and sometimes i couldnt get past the boot screen. To resolve this i tried the following (taken from ASROCK faq on this mobo):

Please set the "DRAM Frequency" as "[333MHz (DDRII 667)]" in BIOS setup if you use DDRII 667 RAM. (BIOS/ Advanced/ Chipset Configuration/ DRAM Frequency)

Please enable the "Flexibility Option" in BIOS setup if you use DDRII 533 RAM. (BIOS/ Advanced/ Chipset Configuration/ Flexibility Option)

If the problem still remains, please update the BIOS to P1.80 or later version.
http://www.asrock.com/mb/download.asp?Model=775Dual-VSTA#bios

I did the above, apart from the bios update, and i have not had any problem with running my sticks @ 667mhz dual channel.

If this fails then remove your graphics card and try it with your old radeon. I remember reading somewhere that the ASROCK VSTA 775 DUAL had troubles with the geforce 8 series, i may be wrong tho.

Let me know how you get on.