Corsair Value Select PC3200

[imported_Husky55]

845G-MAX-L.

I have a three year old Pentium4 2.2 Northwood system with 512 MB generic memory working perfectly. But the price of memory went down since I built this system, so I got the new Corsair Value Select PC3200 1024MB.

Guess what, it did not post. I spent the whole day installing the OLD vs the NEW and no luck. The old memory works fine, the NEW Corsair would not allow me to enter BIOS.

There is no more BIOS update for my MSI 845G-MAX-L model MSI6580. The likelyhood that the Corsair RAM was defective is real small.

What do the experts think? Is Intel 845 chipset not able to recognize PC3200 DDR ram?

I am interested in your experience.

 

[bjc112]

Have you tried each stick by itself?

Different slots?

I have a wacky stick of Mushkin 512 PC 3200 that works fine in a ABIT KD7.

It doesn't work in the following:

Epox 8rda
Mac Mini
Asus A8V

And my buddies board as well..

Brought it home, booted right up in the Abit board, runs memtest 86 successfully. I may call mushkin, it might be reasonable to get a RMA.

 

[imported_Husky55]

Thanks BJC for the pointer.

Actually, I was thinking about this all night (EDT) and this morning, I did just what you suggested.

One stick works fine. It's when doubled up then it's a no go.

MSI 845G-MAXL has 3 DIMMS slots, tried all combination, no go. Then I did some more reasearch. Apparently, the Corsair Value Select are DDR double channel, Intel 845 chipset supports only single channel. DIMM slot#1 supports 2 banks (dual channel), DIMMS# 2 and 3 support only one bank that's is the reason the memory does not work in pair.

 

[Ike0069]

Originally posted by: Husky55
Thanks BJC for the pointer.

Actually, I was thinking about this all night (EDT) and this morning, I did just what you suggested.

One stick works fine. It's when doubled up then it's a no go.

MSI 845G-MAXL has 3 DIMMS slots, tried all combination, no go. Then I did some more reasearch. Apparently, the Corsair Value Select are DDR double channel, Intel 845 chipset supports only single channel. DIMM slot#1 supports 2 banks (dual channel), DIMMS# 2 and 3 support only one bank that's is the reason the memory does not work in pair.

That doesn't really make sense. Dual channel is a MB feature, not a RAM feature. That RAM should work in any board, single channel or dual cahnnel. It sound like to me you have a bad stick, or a bad board.

 

[stevty2889]

I agree with Ike, dual channel is a feature of the chipset, not of the memory. Also the 845 chipset doesn't support dual channel anyway..if your are refering to double sided(chips on both sides of the ram), or single sided dimms(only has chips on 1 side), that might make more sense, but it should still work..did you try both sticks individualy, or just one? Also did you try just one stick in slots 2 or 3? Or try both sticks using slots 2 and 3?

I have also had certain times where specific brands of ram wouldn't work with one motherboard but worked perfectly fine on another, even when they had the same chipset..so it may just not be compatible with your motherboard.

 

[Zebo]

Give more volts to ram like 2.7 or 2.8.


Next time buy "Crucial" instead of "Corsair"..theres a world of difference in quality and compatability.

 

[imported_Husky55]

Zebo,

I remember you saying Crucial. But I screwed up, I thought you're only talking about the Ballistix Crucial. I will buy Crucial next time, but then again the OCZ VX looks awfully good!!! I am setting a new AMD system soon. Still doing Kepner Triggoe analysis on MB and RAM and CPU. My present system is already 3 years old.

Good tip, I will try the voltage 2.7 or 2.8 and will report here. But how do I get into the bios since the Corsair do not post when running in pair? Should I run one stick, set the Voltage then exit and then install and run the pair?

IKE and STEVTY,

That's what I thought too. I swear that I was shocked that the Corsair DDR CRSR 512 MB X2 KIT VS1GBKIT400 I got yesterday only works when used singly. Any other combination of DIMM slots and it would not post. I already have 2 X 256 MB generic DDR anyway and they work with no trouble. I already checked and checked again.

Oh, also the Corsair would not post in DIMMS slot #2 and #3 when running singly not in pair. In pair it's no go no matter what I do so far.

I was talking about DIMM1 slot supporting 2 banks, DIMMS 2 and 3 only support one bank.

 

[imported_Husky55]

OK, Zebo, update.

I want to try RAM at 2.7 and 2.8V. I ran one stick of Corsair VS at 2.7 boot up into W2K and then shut down. Installed the 2nd stick in DIMM2 slot. Power on.

Guess what, stuck again, no screen no bios nothing. Fan, PS working.

Repeat again with 2.8 V same result.

Took out the second stick Corsair. Power on. Guess what, NOTHING!!!

But I get to know my Corsair RAM now, unseat the single stick, reseat the stick and power on. This time it's AOK, everything is back to normal!!!

:brokenheart: