New memory hates bios settings...

[Korporativ]

I just bought the Coarsair XMS 2Gig(2x1 gig) PC3200 ram from newegg. It lists better memory timings than my previous ram, and I wanted to use my old ram in a different computer. I figured hell, that ram is probably about 4 years old now, newer MUST be better... especially with tighter memory timings, right? Evidently not... this stuff gives me BSOD whenever I try to set my FSB above 200. My previous ram could go past 230FSB and it was Value Select... not XMS. Granted I had to lower HT freq. to 4x instead of 5x to get it there, but this ram will not overclock AT ALL regardless of HT freq or how loose the memory timings are.

Now, what i'm assuming the issue is that my previous ram would overclock so well because on my Epox EP-9NDA3+ motherboard, there is a setting in DRAM Configuration for Max Memclock (Mhz) that i could set to 200. With this new ram, if I set that... the system just beeps at me and won't post. Hell... it doesn't even recover like it should if I have bad clock timings. I have to manualy clear the CMOS via the jumper.

I've heard other people say taking the included heat spreaders off HELPS matters... but I don't see how that would have anything to do with it. Does anyone have any ideas? Perhaps bad ram? I've even tried it with/without pairing it with my old ram. So is it better to have 3 gigs of ram at the normal FSB and 5x HT, or 1 gig that overclocks well?

I even tried messing with nTune, and the best score I could get in system performance was a 204 compaired to my previous scores between 267 and 274 consistantly. Just frustrated with the new memory, and I truly think it is because I can't set the Max Memclock in Bios. Any input would be welcome!

Thanks

 

[htmlmasterdave]

Does the ram run at its rated speed properly? Maybe it can't o/c

 

[DetroitSportsFan]

Whats your DDR voltage set at? Corsair XMS runs at a little higher voltage than value ram. Try running your voltage in the 2.7 - 2.75 range.

It may not correct the problem, but it certainly won't hurt to try.

 

[Korporativ]

Yeah I had that asumption too, my board jumps voltage from 2.7 to 2.8, so i'm running it at 2.8 right now. It WILL run at the specified settings but it can be a bit cranky. I do know my VS ram wouldn't overclock very high if I didn't set the Max Memclock. Maybe swapping the ram positions would help? I dunno, just kinda frustrating. I also thought maybe it was mixing the oldver VS ram with the newer XMS ram... 2 gigs running overclocked should be better than 3 gigs, right? But... it doesn't overclock by itself. It flat out WILL NOT post with that Max Memclock set either. I wonder what the deal is.

 

[DetroitSportsFan]

Hmmm .... I run Corsair XMS Cas2 PC3200s in my system and it overclocks very nicely. I suppose that its possible that one or both of your sticks my be faulty. Try setting them to stock timings and run memtest. I'm sure you know the routine ... Lets see if those sticks will run without error at stock settings first.

You did say you already checked for a bios update .... right?

Whats your complete system specs?

 

[Painman]

It would help to know which 2 gig PC3200 Corsair kit you have, there's like 6 different flavors of it. You might have Nanya, Infineon, Samsung ICs... maybe even something else. Corsair doesn't necessarily build the XMS to overclock worth a damn, just to work as advertised at the rated speed.

 

[Korporativ]

its the Twinx2048-3200c2pt

supposed to be 2-3-3-6 1T cmd. I can't even get it to run at 2-3-3-6 2T... I have to change it to 2.5 CAS latency, and basically no matter what I tweak on it... its unstable even without overclocking. Going to RMA it.

One other interesting thing, though... something new started happening since I was messing with the other ram, and then put my old system ram back in. When it inits the video card, my LCD says "no signal" like always, but after the post screen, it says "no signal" then shows the windows load screen, then shows "no signal" then pops to the login screen. This was not happening before, I've tried popping my AGP card out and in, and changing the bios around... I wonder what could have caused this. I've been using the DVI cable, does this happen to anyone else? Just wondering wtf is going on with that.

 

[Painman]

G.SKILL ZX (link) is getting some good press as a fairly inexpensive, good OCing 1GB x 2 CAS 2 kit. I'm using their HZ DDR500 stuff... I haven't tried OCing it much, just running it @ 250 stock... but it got up and ran on my DFI without any tinkering, which is amazing in and of itself.

Can't help you on your LCD issue, I'm still a CRT guy