Sapphire HD2600xt and 4gb DDR400 BSOD

Noid

Platinum Member
Sep 20, 2000
2,376
183
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I installed Win7 almost 2 weeks ago.
Everything running great with 2gb DDR400, except for Quake4 network spikes.

No hardware overclocking.
But, I moved a match pair of Corsair TWIN X gb sticks from another PC into this one.
Totaling 4gb DDR400 of TWINX CAS 2.0 Corsair.

But Win7 BSODs with the Ati driver.

I uninstalled the ATi hardware and drivers.
Then rebooted with no BSOD, then Win7 installs the drivers.
On reboot (after driver installation) the BSOD returns.

My asrock mb manual states to move the sticks into mixed banks if compatibility problems occur, but this did not help.

I ran the Win7 memory diagnostic with no errors.
(All 4 sticks installed)

The system boots up fine with either pair installed.

Anyone heard of such a BSOD occurring from a ATI card with adding memory?
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Last edited:

Rifter

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
11,522
751
126
if you can get windows 7 running on 4MB you are my hero. win 3.1 would be hard on 4MB.

Im going to assume you ment GB, try one stick at a time in all slots and see what happens. But it seems to be a ATI card problem, perhaps buy a cheap newer card.
 

Noid

Platinum Member
Sep 20, 2000
2,376
183
106
Yes, I fixed my errors. I was up very late messing with this ...
 

Noid

Platinum Member
Sep 20, 2000
2,376
183
106
Anyone have this card running in Vista with 4gb?
 

Noid

Platinum Member
Sep 20, 2000
2,376
183
106
I wonder if they read them anyway. Thought I give it a try.

Anyway, I'm back on 2gb.

No BSOD with 2gb.

Memtest+ 4.0 runs error free for 4 hours with all sticks. I'm going to run it again.

Take some pictures this time, and post to bbzzdd. to I can link them here in case ATi wants to look at them. ( I submitted this thread for them to reference )
 

Noid

Platinum Member
Sep 20, 2000
2,376
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I updated memtest to 4.0.
It found errors on test 5 near the end of my 4gb addressing.

Don't know why the earlier version of memtest+ was Ok.

Apparently my MB has issues with 4gb.

No errors using 2gb sticks.
No errors from my other PC with the other 2 sticks.

I put them all together in the ASROCK and I have errors.

I can no longer point at the ATi drivers now.

My MB has the latest BIOS and drivers. I'm unsure how to resolve this now. I can honestly say I'm not actually using all the 2gb memory anyway. I thought I'd pop the other 2 sticks in and see how things go. So, I'm going to let this lay. Sorry for wasting everyone's time on this problem.
 

Noid

Platinum Member
Sep 20, 2000
2,376
183
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I re-ran Memtest 4.0 today 5 passes no errors with 2 x 1gb.
So I began searching again ...

I'm using 4gb now as I type. Testing ...no BSOD now.
Look here ...

http://www.pallab.net/2009/11/15/how-fix-windows-7-bsod-due-to-4gb-ram/

and here ....

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/264178-30-memory-remap-bios-feature-makes-windows-bits-give-bsod

for RAM timing advice ....

1.

I 1st upped my CPU a .25 volt and upped RAM voltage to 'high'. ( This is a MB BIOS option. I need to install CPU-Z to find out exactly where its at, since hardware monitoring in BIOS does not list this voltage)

2.

I set my DRAM timing to CAS 2.0 (default) then 5,5,15 at T2.

3. Booted into SAFE MODE and used MSCONFIG to set the Advanced boot options to — 1 CPU and 4096 max memory.

Then rebooted.
So, my testing continues ...
1st I'm going to lower the memory voltage. Then CPU back to default.

I'm going to leave the 5 5 15 timings since I didn't get a boot with 4 4 12.

BIOS says 4096 installed memory.
CPU-Z says 4096 installed memory.

But, Windows 7 says only 2gb installed.
MSCONFIG will not allow me to change to 4096.
( Because it only sees 2gb? )

More searching .... again
 

Qbah

Diamond Member
Oct 18, 2005
3,754
10
81
If both sticks seperately work fine the only logical conclusion would be your motherboard has issues. Knowing that ASRock isn't a quality board vendor, I don't think you'll find a workaround. Upping voltages, as you did, may help stabilize the setup and there's little to no risk in doing it imo.

I'd say your two ways out are:
1. Selling the 4 sticks and getting a 2x2GB kit
2) Getting a new motherboard - though you're running a DDR1 mobo, might be tricky and not worth it in the end (same can be said about point 1) ).

So try the voltages, just don't overdo it :p And you may need to keep 'em a bit higher in the end, should account for a bit higher temps only and have no deteriorating effects (unless you really push the volts!)
 

Noid

Platinum Member
Sep 20, 2000
2,376
183
106
You guys didn't read all of my post, or didn't comprehend.

I am currently using 4gb now.
BIOS says 4096
CPU-Z says 4096 (within windows)

But Win7 (x64) only sees 2gb, in task manager and system info.
MSCONFIG won't let me change to 4096 now.
 

stlcardinals

Senior member
Sep 15, 2005
729
0
76
You guys didn't read all of my post, or didn't comprehend.

I am currently using 4gb now.
BIOS says 4096
CPU-Z says 4096 (within windows)

But Win7 (x64) only sees 2gb, in task manager and system info.
MSCONFIG won't let me change to 4096 now.

Could you please post what your exact motherboard model is please?