Massive slowdown with 4 GB memory

[MyDogHasFleas]

I got an Intel DG665WH board with the 965 Express chipset. I got 4 1G sticks of Kingston memory off the Intel recommended list (DDR2-800). Using a 32-bit OS (Linux) I only see 3.3 GB memory, as expected. The memory map (Linux dmesg command) shows that the rest has been relocated above the 4GB line and that I should use a PAE kernel or a 64-bit distro. All well and good.

My problem is... when I do this, I get a MASSIVE slowdown. It takes an hour to complete the Linux install. Somehow touching this high memory slows everything to a crawl. If I remove one stick, everything runs fine again.

MEMTEST also shows this behavior. So I'm convinced it's a hardware issue, not a software one.

I tried lowering the memory speed in BIOS, no joy.

Anyone have a clue what's going on, or what I should try next?

 

[datwater]

In the release notes for bios revision 1676:

Fixed issue where system would run slow with 4 GB of RAM and
certain PCI Express Graphics cards.

And there's been furhter updates since then. Update yer BIOS, dude

Edit: now I notice 1 post - welcome to Anand Tech

 

[PurdueRy]

Originally posted by: datwater
In the release notes for bios revision 1676:

Fixed issue where system would run slow with 4 GB of RAM and
certain PCI Express Graphics cards.

And there's been furhter updates since then. Update yer BIOS, dude

Edit: now I notice 1 post - welcome to Anand Tech

Very nice catch. That pretty much would explain his problem. I would also recommend making sure your BIOS recognizes the timings and speed of the RAM correctly as well as set the correct voltage manually.

 

[MyDogHasFleas]

Originally posted by: datwater
In the release notes for bios revision 1676:

Fixed issue where system would run slow with 4 GB of RAM and
certain PCI Express Graphics cards.

And there's been furhter updates since then. Update yer BIOS, dude

Edit: now I notice 1 post - welcome to Anand Tech

my bad should have mentioned I am at the latest BIOS 1687 dated May 10 2007

thanks for the welcome

I guess I am going to try memtesting each stick individually, can you think of anything else?

 

[MyDogHasFleas]

Originally posted by: PurdueRy

Originally posted by: datwater
In the release notes for bios revision 1676:

Fixed issue where system would run slow with 4 GB of RAM and
certain PCI Express Graphics cards.

And there's been furhter updates since then. Update yer BIOS, dude

Edit: now I notice 1 post - welcome to Anand Tech

Very nice catch. That pretty much would explain his problem. I would also recommend making sure your BIOS recognizes the timings and speed of the RAM correctly as well as set the correct voltage manually.

yep I'm all down with the voltages, timings, etc. the board/chipset is quite specific about this and I got memory that they've tested and said is compatible. I actually had an earlier pass at this machine where I had those issues and fixed them.

 

[datwater]

Well, since the Intel docs specify that "certain PCI Express Graphics cards" had the problem ... I'd try a different PCI-E card, too - if I had one on hand - just to see.

 

[MyDogHasFleas]

Originally posted by: datwater
Well, since the Intel docs specify that "certain PCI Express Graphics cards" had the problem ... I'd try a different PCI-E card, too - if I had one on hand - just to see.

actually I am not using a pci-e card at the moment, just using the builtin graphics chipset on the board.

 

[Babesia]

Hi there , im having excatly the same problem with my DG965HW motherboard
Did you fine a soultion ?

Will run fine with 2 GB or 3 GB of ram in , as soon as i put the 4th one in it runs like a pig.

Tried on board and pci express card same result.
Have Latest BIOS .

Any Ideals ???
ty

 

[Ualdayan]

Try going back to the update right before they claim they fixed that issue with 4GB and PCI-E graphics cards. That seems to be the update where the problem was created. Go back to April 6th's. (April 13th is when they did that)

 

[Gerbil333]

Enable Memory Remap feature in the BIOS.

 

[Babesia]

Cant find Memory Remap feature in the BIOS.

Note : OS see 4gb of ram but runs so slow.
OS is Windows 2003 server R2 enterprise. supposely supports 2TB of ram.

might be a driver thing.
Might try 64 bit drivers
also 2003 Enterprise x64 R2

any other ideas out there ???

 

[Ualdayan]

Originally posted by: Babesia
Cant find Memory Remap feature in the BIOS.

Note : OS see 4gb of ram but runs so slow.
OS is Windows 2003 server R2 enterprise. supposely supports 2TB of ram.

might be a driver thing.
Might try 64 bit drivers
also 2003 Enterprise x64 R2

any other ideas out there ???

DG965WH doesn't have that option. I have the exact same board as you, and I tried just about every setting you can imagine in the BIOS. The ONLY solution was to roll back to the BIOS released on April 6th for me.