RAM dropped to PC2700 333mhz from PC3200 400mhz

[diddyb]

I recently bought an HP (yeah i know...) It came with two 256 PC3200 400 mhz sticks... I just bought two 512 pc3200 400mhz sticks of corsair value ram... When my pc boots up it shows that it is running in dual channel but when I check my bios now it says that there is 1.5G of PC2700 333mhz ram installed... WHY??? I've check each set and anI'm sure they are all PC3200 400mhz. Any suggestions on how to fix this? thx!

 

[fireontheway]

Assuming your recently bought HP is using an older Athlon 64 prcocessor it will drop your ram to 333 and command rate if 4 memory sticks are used.

 

[Bruizer]

Yeah. All the athlons with the exception of the venice cores and one other san diego maybe, can only run all four dimms filled at ddr333. The venice core processors like mine however can be manually set in the bios to run at ddr400 speeds at 2t timings instead of ddr333 at 2t timings. Either get a new processor or get just stick the 2x512 sticks in by themselves. If you want more go with 2x1024 sticks.

 

[diddyb]

that might be it... its an AMD 3500... any way for me to tell what core it is without taking it apart?

 

[ND40oz]

download cpu-z, it will tell you what stepping, E revisions are the venice cores.

 

[fireontheway]

Originally posted by: ND40oz
download cpu-z, it will tell you what stepping, E revisions are the venice cores.

:thumbsup:

 

[diddyb]

ok.. downloaded CPU-Z... It shows AMD 64 3500 Venice... Revision DH-E6... Family, model and ext family are all "F", ext model is "2F" and stepping is 2. Under technology it shows 90nm. So i gues getting back to my orignal question, should the memory speed have stepped down to 333mhz? Where can I can I check further? Would a bios update do it? thnx

 

[ND40oz]

Being a venice, the memory should run at 400 mhz, do you have any options in your bios about ram speed? I'd also check to see if HP has any newer bioses for your system.

 

[Rage187]

If socket 754, then theres your answer.

 

[firewall]

I have 2x512MB sticks and they were running DDR333 on my A64 3200+ Winchester. I manually set the RAM to DDR400 at 2T and it's working perfectly fine. RAM is Kingston ValueRam DDR400 (PC3200) with SPD CL3.

 

[fireontheway]

Originally posted by: diddyb
ok.. downloaded CPU-Z... It shows AMD 64 3500 Venice... Revision DH-E6... Family, model and ext family are all "F", ext model is "2F" and stepping is 2. Under technology it shows 90nm. So i gues getting back to my orignal question, should the memory speed have stepped down to 333mhz? Where can I can I check further? Would a bios update do it? thnx

If that is the case then check your BIOS,its most likely the limiting factor.But then again memory running @333ddr is technically slower but you probably wont notice the difference.

 

[Lasthitlarry]

motherboard RAM speed limit seems like the easiest answer

 

[diddyb]

think i figured it out.. but i cant fix it b/c crappy mobo wont let me adjust the ram speeds... according to CPU z the latency on the CVR is 2.5 - - - and the latency on the other ram varies depending on the speed... well at 166mhz it is also at 2.5 - - - and i think they are matching up the 2.5 and running at the lower speed 166 x 2 is approx 333mhz