Whats the safest way to adjust memory timings ?

[andrei3333]

My MB recently went through some bios hell and needed to be replaced,

its a Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L

memory is the corsair TWIN2XP2048-6400C4 with timings 4-4-4-12 and it also stated 2.1V on the ram sticks

CPU-Z is reporting the timings right now are 5-5-5-18 which i want to change

Hoping to avoid another bios melt down. whats the safest software i can use to adjust these memory timings ?

Do i also have to adjust the ram voltage ? i rather not cause thats what cause my bios to go caput i think the last time

 

[JustaGeek]

The safest way is to NOT use any software to do that.

Just enter the BIOS, and set the Voltage, Frequency and Timings manually.

It is all in your MB manual.

If you do it exactly as specified by Corsair, you'll be fine.

Adjusting the RAM voltage did not destroy your motherboard.


Again, DO NOT USE any software, do it from within the BIOS.

Good luck!

 

[andrei3333]

OK can you please help me more

Do i HAVE to change the voltage in the bios for the ram ?
or can i simply change the timings and be done with it ?

 

[DSF]

If it's defaulting to timings of 5-5-5-18, it's probably not running at 2.1V. To achieve those tighter timings, you're going to need to increase the voltage. If I leave the DS3L at its default setting, it reports in Speedfan as 1.88 volts. The way Gigabyte's BIOS menu works, you don't set the voltage directly, but you set the increase over default. I would try it with the +.2V setting.

Honestly though, it's not going to make a whole heap of difference what your timings are. (Edit: except in certain applications, and even then the difference is pretty small.)

Edit 2: I don't recall off the top of my head, but I'm pretty sure that to adjust the RAM timings on that board you need to enable the advanced features by pressing Ctrl+F1 while you're in the BIOS.

 

[JustaGeek]

Yes, changing the voltage is very important for stable operation, probably more so than the timings.

Set the voltage to 2.1V, timings to 4-4-4-12 2T (2T command rate) and 800MHz (or whatever is required on your MB to run it at 800MHz).

 

[andrei3333]

yes i do use the cnrl+f1 so see the ram settings

strangely thats what fried my bios last time...im very scared to do this, but i want to optimize the ram to its best potential...
Ok so first i increase by +0.2 V the DDr 2 setting, reboot and then change the timings ? or do it in one shot ?

 

[DSF]

Originally posted by: andrei3333
yes i do use the cnrl+f1 so see the ram settings

strangely thats what fried my bios last time...im very scared to do this, but i want to optimize the ram to its best potential...
Ok so first i increase by +0.2 V the DDr 2 setting, reboot and then change the timings ? or do it in one shot ?

So what exactly did you do last time? Give us the play-by-play, without leaving anything out.

 

[andrei3333]

as far as i remember

-Build the whole new system, installed XP, updates, drivers, had the sound driver problem, and fixed it
-Then took the system home and went into bios to change the ram settings, used cnrl+f1 to br able to see the settings, i changed the ram timings to 4-4-4-12, then rebooted without changing anything else

Upon bootup i was trying to click on something ad the system froze....i rebooted. it froze again after like 1 minute in windows....then i go into bios and see : (this is where my memory is scetchy) some setting called DDR18V (i thought DDR18 stood for DDR 1.8 V )setting was at 1.883 volts or something like that

so i changed that setting to +0.2 and rebooted, i dont remember if it went into windows after that, but i do remember that it says something like "Bios recovery....." on a black screen and nothing seemed to happen, so i rebooted and then it jsut diod, kept rebooting after 3 seconds, boot up and shut down cycle...
i am really scared to try this again, i bought the memory for that only reason (4-4-4-12) but now i cant use it ???

if there is no performance difference then i will leave it,,, ;-(

 

[LOUISSSSS]

go ahead and (from a default bios setting) change all at once:

-press ctrl+f1 if u need to
-change the correct timings to 4-4-4-12
-change the DDR voltage to +0.2v or +0.3v. Default is 1.8v so +0.2v would be 2.0v, +0.3v would be 2.1v.
-save + exit bios

then your pc should restart and boot up straight into windows (assuming u have windows installed)
install and open the latest CPU-Z and go into the memory tab then it should say 4-4-4-12 in the Timings section
install and open the latest Speedfan and on the main page VCore2: should be 1.99V or 2.09V (or 1.98V or 2.08V)

 

[andrei3333]

i just downloaded speedfan and it shows vcore2 as 1.9V

 

[andrei3333]

OK i went into bios, the DDR18V was showing 1.903 V by the way
anyways changed the timings to 4-4-4-12 and DDR2 overvoltage by +0.2 V
CPU-Z is showing the right timings, but speedfan is reporting Vcore2 as 2.0 V

so why was bios showing 1.903, i did +0.2 and speedfan now shows 2.0

should i go back to bios and check that setting and up it by another 0.1 ?

 

[n7]

Default vdimm in Gigabyte's bios is 1.8V.
By applying +0.2V, you get 2.0V, & so on.

Now Speedfan is either reading out the vdimm level too high, or your motherboard overvolts RAM slightly.

If you're worried, try running Memtest86+ overnight or at least a few hours @ 1.8V +0.2V & see if it tests stable.

There's not a lot of point in setting even higher voltage if it's stable with less.

 

[andrei3333]

well its stable in windows definitely, but unreal tournament i cant even log into my profile and it crashes, cod4 plays ok i guess but i think my 7800GT is the bottleneck here, not the ram

 

[n7]

Run Memtest; crashing shouldn't be happening.

It's possible the 7800GT is dying too.