The Slow Quad Core

[Skewer324]

Piasbird,

If it is a power supply issue, it's the strangest one I've ever seen where the whole computer runs correctly, but adding a single stick of RAM causes power problems.

I ran the hard drive through the proverbial ringer with sector scans and defragments. Again, this computer's barely a month old with 30 user hours tops.

It could be the video card, but my Spider Tech Sense is telling me that's not the case. Everything about the graphics card has been completely fine.

I haven't tried flashing to an older BIOS, but I view that as a last ditch effort. Besides, there's no reported problems that I'm aware of with this version.

As for trying another forum, I dunno. I'm trying to get this back sooner rather than later. This forum has given a fair bit of help but it's taken several days and I don't know if I have that kind of time anymore.

JPBelauskas,

I can manually set the RAM timings in BIOS. The sluggishness that first showed up on its first visit to the shop was actually fixed by changing the timing from the default nominal 6-5-5-18 to manufacturer's recommendation 5-5-5-12.

 

[rasczak]

Originally posted by: Skewer324
Piasbird,

If it is a power supply issue, it's the strangest one I've ever seen where the whole computer runs correctly, but adding a single stick of RAM causes power problems.

I ran the hard drive through the proverbial ringer with sector scans and defragments. Again, this computer's barely a month old with 30 user hours tops.

It could be the video card, but my Spider Tech Sense is telling me that's not the case. Everything about the graphics card has been completely fine.

I haven't tried flashing to an older BIOS, but I view that as a last ditch effort. Besides, there's no reported problems that I'm aware of with this version.

As for trying another forum, I dunno. I'm trying to get this back sooner rather than later. This forum has given a fair bit of help but it's taken several days and I don't know if I have that kind of time anymore.

JPBelauskas,

I can manually set the RAM timings in BIOS. The sluggishness that first showed up on its first visit to the shop was actually fixed by changing the timing from the default nominal 6-5-5-18 to manufacturer's recommendation 5-5-5-12.

So what happened now? did it fix the issue or are you still having the sluggishness? is it possible to keep those recommended timings so the machine will run at optimum or is this a user preference?

if the timings don't stick could your cmos battery be dying?

Good luck!

 

[RadiclDreamer]

Originally posted by: dclive

Originally posted by: daveybrat
You don't want to leave him with 3Gb of ram. Then he won't be running in dual-channel mode like he is currently. You either have to leave him with 2x1GB sticks or but 2x2GB sticks, but do not use 3 sticks of ram in there. You'll degrade his performance.

2GB is pretty decent for WindowsXP and he can always swap them out with 2GB sticks down the road sometime.

Dual channel vs. Single is what - 1% faster? This is a bit silly.

Difference between single channel and dual channel is much more pronounced that that especially in video and gaming situations

 

[TeeJay1952]

Sorry I read first page and replied before I saw the exchanges over 3 vs 4 gig in XP.

 

[dclive]

Originally posted by: RadiclDreamer

Originally posted by: dclive

Originally posted by: daveybrat
You don't want to leave him with 3Gb of ram. Then he won't be running in dual-channel mode like he is currently. You either have to leave him with 2x1GB sticks or but 2x2GB sticks, but do not use 3 sticks of ram in there. You'll degrade his performance.

2GB is pretty decent for WindowsXP and he can always swap them out with 2GB sticks down the road sometime.

Dual channel vs. Single is what - 1% faster? This is a bit silly.

Difference between single channel and dual channel is much more pronounced that that especially in video and gaming situations

Tom's Hardware and Anand have done testing and found the differences to be essentially insignificant, IMHO.

 

[Narse]

Originally posted by: dclive

Originally posted by: RadiclDreamer

Originally posted by: dclive

Originally posted by: daveybrat
You don't want to leave him with 3Gb of ram. Then he won't be running in dual-channel mode like he is currently. You either have to leave him with 2x1GB sticks or but 2x2GB sticks, but do not use 3 sticks of ram in there. You'll degrade his performance.

2GB is pretty decent for WindowsXP and he can always swap them out with 2GB sticks down the road sometime.

Dual channel vs. Single is what - 1% faster? This is a bit silly.

Difference between single channel and dual channel is much more pronounced that that especially in video and gaming situations

Tom's Hardware and Anand have done testing and found the differences to be essentially insignificant, IMHO.

1% to 5% IIRC, definitely not something to worry about.

 

[JustaGeek]

Skewer324

I don't know if you've already solved the problem, but if not, try to increase the Northbridge voltage manually to the next higher value.

Some motherboards have a great deal of trouble dealing with 4 sticks of memory - my P5N-E SLI requires the maximum of 1.56V for the NB with some brands of RAM!

You might also consider some form of active cooling for memory, and if you increase the NB voltage to a higher level, you should add a fan to NB as well.

Lastly, the V-series (value-series) PSU's from Ultra might not be the most reliable PSU around, so if setting the voltages manually doesn't help, you might want to consider a different PSU (like Antec Earthwatts or similar).

BTW, you should set all the memory Voltage, Frequency and Timings (all those) manually in BIOS (if you haven't already done that...).

Good luck!

 

[Skewer324]

Pure comedy gold. We sent it to the manufacturer who sent it back a week later with glowing statements like "we replaced the motherboard and the processor and it has passed through our quality assurance."

I eagerly unpacked the box and hooked it up to my bench at work and it was the... exact... same... thing. Now their latest quote is "we are unable to find a solution to fix this problem." They wouldn't allow me to talk to the techs who worked on it, and I know the company is selling similarly configured systems with 4gb of RAM, so it has to be possible to fix this, even if it means a different motherboard.

When I called them after re-timing the system to find it was working exactly the same, I got on the phone and the guy gave me the whole "welllll... you won't get to use it aaaaanywaaaaay..." and, not wanting to get into an argument with him, just said, "yeah, well, we're standing firm on what we want because it's obvious you can provide it." What a snot nose.

I don't like giving up. I did make a bit of a noob computer pro mistake and not take down the serial number of the motherboard when we shipped it off so we could call shenanigans if they'd said they switched out the mobo without actually switching out the mobo.

@Justageek, those are all fantastic suggestions. I don't recall seeing any of them in BIOS, and I think it's a pretty major oversight on the manufacturer's part to provide stuff that requires not only manual RAM timing but manual electrical level adjusting. And, in the off chance I do something wrong, I'd fry a customer's computer. If it was mine, I'd take the risk, but for this? I'm not sure.

 

[TemjinGold]

OP: I know it's been sort of asked before but are you able to simply approach the customer and let him decide if it's worth having 1 less stick of ram in there if it means the problem will be gone? I understand he paid for it and should get it but by NOT offering this option, you are costing him in time (as he STILL can't use it), which to some, is no less valuable than money. Either way, he's paying (whether it's in time, money, or both) so it would only be fair if he got to make the call as it IS his machine like you say. I know if I were the customer, I would appreciate my tech being honest with me and letting me make the call rather than having that decision (it must have all 4 gigs) be made for me.

Edit: Forgot to add: If that ram is say, PC6400, have you tried replacing it with maybe PC5300 ram? Some crappy mobos are such that you can run DDR2-800 with only 2 sticks but if you go to 4 sticks, it can only handle DDR2-667 or some such due to the memory controller being sucky.