Memory timing issue

XooooX

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Dec 14, 2004
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I have a 512 stick of pc3200 OCZ and i was lucky enough to come across another stick for free. However the 2nd stick is different timings and on bootup i get a DIMM timing error. Is there anyway to get them to run at the same timing or am i stuck with 512?
 

TimboAA

Member
Feb 15, 2004
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Not sure what system you are running, but I was running a PC3200 stick along with 2 PC2700 sticks (768mb total) on my DFI UT nf3-250gb and i was getting memory errors all over the place. I removed the odd PC3200 stick and it seemed to get rid of most of my memory errors. I've since moved onto 1 stick of Kingston PC3200 512mb. I haven't ran any tests yet.
 

XooooX

Member
Dec 14, 2004
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I have the same board. But like i said there both 3200, and both 512meg. Is there a way to enter bios and have them run at the same timings?
 

Oyeve

Lifer
Oct 18, 1999
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I doubt it. I have 2 sticks of 512meg pc3200 for 1 gig and I popped in 2 more sticks of 128meg pc3200 and my system went from 400mhz down to 320mhz because the timings were different in the 2 128 pc3200 sticks. I havent been able to fix it yet so I just live with 1gig.
 

SrGuapo

Golden Member
Nov 27, 2004
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Originally posted by: Oyeve
I doubt it. I have 2 sticks of 512meg pc3200 for 1 gig and I popped in 2 more sticks of 128meg pc3200 and my system went from 400mhz down to 320mhz because the timings were different in the 2 128 pc3200 sticks. I havent been able to fix it yet so I just live with 1gig.

I think that is more because most mobos can't really handle all 4 DIMMs being filled, so they have to scale the RAM down a bit.

Also, in theory, the RAM should just scale the timings the same as the slowest one. Have you tried each stick individualy in all the different slots?
 

Oyeve

Lifer
Oct 18, 1999
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887
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Originally posted by: SrGuapo
Originally posted by: Oyeve
I doubt it. I have 2 sticks of 512meg pc3200 for 1 gig and I popped in 2 more sticks of 128meg pc3200 and my system went from 400mhz down to 320mhz because the timings were different in the 2 128 pc3200 sticks. I havent been able to fix it yet so I just live with 1gig.

I think that is more because most mobos can't really handle all 4 DIMMs being filled, so they have to scale the RAM down a bit.

Also, in theory, the RAM should just scale the timings the same as the slowest one. Have you tried each stick individualy in all the different slots?

According to my mobo book the reason is that the 2 sticks of 128meg pc3200 are single sided and the 2 512meg pc3200 are double sided. Stupid reason but that what it claims.
 

XooooX

Member
Dec 14, 2004
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Ok i have both sticks in and it boots up into windows, however its only reading as 512 not 1G, like its not recognizing one of the DIMMs.....
 

ts3433

Platinum Member
Jun 29, 2004
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Originally posted by: XooooX
Ok i have both sticks in and it boots up into windows, however its only reading as 512 not 1G, like its not recognizing one of the DIMMs.....

Bad stick maybe? Take just the one stick and run Memtest on it.
 

XooooX

Member
Dec 14, 2004
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No, Ive run the sticks seperate so one couldnt be bad...

EDIT: Couldnt be the slots either because I tried all 3 in different configs...
 

XooooX

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Dec 14, 2004
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Ok wtf, when i open CPUZ and go to SPD, i can view Slot1 and Slot2. So it is reading both sticks of ram but why is it only registering one stick, i mean under memory tab it says 512 not 1G. OMG im going to break something!
 

Bozo Galora

Diamond Member
Oct 28, 1999
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there is a difference between seeing a stick and running a stick.
a friend was running a computer with win98, then he upgraded to XP and it ran real slow with 128mb RAM (DUH) so he tookit back to the store he bought it from and they added a 512MB stick for 784 total. It still ran slow - for a year, then it was almost unusable, so he asked me to look.
I installed SiSoft Sandra and what do you know, the mobo only supports 512 MAX so the second 512 stick that he paid for was not even being used. RAM showed 784, but only 128 used. This was seen when I did a memtest86 run from a floppy and only saw 128 being accessed.

You made no mention of mobo, but apparently you cant run SPD in BIOS (serial presence detect) - must set ram timings manually, and you ma be having trouble with 2 way or 4 way interleave, especially with mixed single and dual sided sticks. Or the DRAM's may be different density.

So your next step is to load up Sandra and do their memtest and see what it says.
 

Viper96720

Diamond Member
Jul 15, 2002
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motherboard? use cpu-z check the timings of each stick individually. Put 1 in boot up check the timings then check the other. Set bios to the slower timings. Since if one stick has tighter timings it should be able to run the slower one as well.
 

XooooX

Member
Dec 14, 2004
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Originally posted by: Viper96720
motherboard? use cpu-z check the timings of each stick individually. Put 1 in boot up check the timings then check the other. Set bios to the slower timings. Since if one stick has tighter timings it should be able to run the slower one as well.
Ok, one stick is OCZ 3200 Rev2 rated at 2 CAS in cpuz, the next is OCZ 3200 Rev3 rated at 2.5 CAS.
So since they are different timings i can't use them? Im using a DFI Lanparty Nforce 3 Ultra btw.
Ok i put the R3 (higher cas latency) in the first slot, the r2 in the second. It picked up the r3 and i set it to cas 2.0 (default is 2.5) in bios, i rebooted and it read it at cas 2 but still didnt pick up the other stick. Maybe im doing something wrong....
Theres loads of memory options on the DFILP Ultra so idk if im doing the right thing, some help would be much appreciated!
 

Viper96720

Diamond Member
Jul 15, 2002
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Use cas 2.5 if one is cas 2 and the other is 2.5. What about the other timings? ras to cas delay, ras precharge, tras, trc.

Try DRAM Frequency 200Mhz
cas 2.5
Trcd 3
Tras 10
Trp 3
leave rest auti


 

XooooX

Member
Dec 14, 2004
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Originally posted by: Viper96720
Use cas 2.5 if one is cas 2 and the other is 2.5. What about the other timings? ras to cas delay, ras precharge, tras, trc.

OCZ3200R2 (2 Cas)
CAS - 2.0 clocks
Ras to CAS - 3 clocks
RAS Precharge - 3 clocks
Cycle time Tras - 6 clocks
Bank Cycle Time - 12 clocks
TRas - 6
Idle TImer - 16 clocks

OCZ3200R3 (2.5 CAS)
Cas - 2.5 clocks
RAS to CAS - 3 clocks
RAS Precharge - 3 clocks
TRas- 6
Cycle time Tras - 6 clocks
Bank Cycle Time - 12 clocks
Idle TImer - 16 clocks

Just got these both from CPUZ

Well the only difference is the CAS....
 

XooooX

Member
Dec 14, 2004
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Originally posted by: JustAnAverageGuy
set them both to 2.5-3-3-6 then :)
Just set in bios...
Cas - 2.5 clocks
RAS to CAS - 3 clocks
RAS Precharge - 3 clocks
Tras- 6

Still only getting 1 DIMM 512mb
 

XooooX

Member
Dec 14, 2004
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Originally posted by: Viper96720
Use cas 2.5 if one is cas 2 and the other is 2.5. What about the other timings? ras to cas delay, ras precharge, tras, trc.

Try DRAM Frequency 200Mhz
cas 2.5
Trcd 3
Tras 10
Trp 3
leave rest auti


Tried these too, no go.
Does it matter what slot i have the 2.5 stick in?