ketapillar
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Soyo KT880 Memory Issues
I have a soyo kt880 dragon 2 motherboard. I'm having problems trying to install some more memory. I have 4 slots to place the ram in and have 4 sticks of mushkin ddr 3200 512m. They are both 2 different batches however.
When i run 2 sticks at the same time (1 gig) it works fine. However when I try to add the other 2 sticks (2 gig) the computer becomes unstable w. memory errors. Does anyone have any idea on what i can do to get it to work correctly?
Any help is much appreciated.
When i run 2 sticks at the same time (1 gig) it works fine. However when I try to add the other 2 sticks (2 gig) the computer becomes unstable w. memory errors. Does anyone have any idea on what i can do to get it to work correctly?
Any help is much appreciated.
OK, can you tell us more about the RAM, (I.E. Model #) and can you tell us about the Processor, try and boot the machine with differing pairs, IE. You have Stick 1, Stick 2, Stick 3, and Stick 4, now Boot with Sticks 1, and 2, now boot with 1 and 3, now boot with 1 and 4, then 2 and 3, then 2 and 4, then 3 and 4 if you get no errors, then try with three sticks, basically, try every possible combination, and if none of them throw errors, then the MOBO cant handle either the ammount of RAM, or you would have to put in matching pairs when you pop in 4 GB.
Just check the CL CAS speed of each RAM stick. That is the MOST crucial aspect of compatibility. If one pair is significantly slower than the other, that is your problem. Any RAM slower than CL2.5 will NOT work on this motherboard. Funny, everyone quotes the rated 2100-2700-3200 "speed" but that is not the crucial issue. CL is.
ASKER
I purchased two sticks to start with then i got two more just recently. they are identical as far as all speed and size aspects go but they are from two different batches. as far as the MOBO it can handle 4 gigs. Ive tried all possible placement combos except for just three sticks and always get memory errors(programs crashing/auto system rebot ect.). The processoris an AMD Athalon 2700 2.16gh. Ill give the three stick combos a try.
DDRAM 512M|PC-3200 991093 MUSHKIN R
DDRAM 512M|PC-3200 991093 MUSHKIN R
Still no CL???? If the CL is 3, it won't work. PC3200 used to be CL 2.5 and now 95% of it is CL 3. I just don't think you understand what I am saying. So let me state, if all sticks were truly identical, and there was no problems on the memory BUS -- AND you had the right drivers (if needed) for the 4x architecture, it WILL WORK - guaranteed.
So one of those parameters is wrong, and since the most obvious is declining CL with newness of ram sticks, you need to understand the implications of what I am saying before you will solve this problem. Good luck, and bye ...
So one of those parameters is wrong, and since the most obvious is declining CL with newness of ram sticks, you need to understand the implications of what I am saying before you will solve this problem. Good luck, and bye ...
Try entering the BIOS and set ur settings to FAIL SAFE DEFULTS and then see if that rectifies ur problem. If not then try setting it to OPTIMAL settings and then try. Its a combination of Wait states which cud be causing these errors. Also try to keep the slower RAM first afollowed by the faster RAM if u feel that the speed is different. Get Memtest from http://www.memtest86.com/ and check if the RAM is fine.. Maybe its faulty.
Dan
Dan
Soyo says those sticks are supported http://www.soyogroup.com/kb/kbdesc.php?id=121
Memtest is a great Idea, I should have put that up earlier, but was too ocupied with other things.
Also, looking at your manual, you may need to adjust your DDR Voltage, are all four memory modules designed for the same voltages?
I understand your ram is the same speed and size, but they may be a different revision, and may have changed voltages.
Try and slow the latency, if it is 2.5-3-3-7, then bump it to 3-4-4-8 - this will slow the ram a bit, if you dont get the errors then you either have one bum module, or you are overclocking the memory unintentionally, if the SPD of one stick is lower than the others, then you will have issues, the BIOS will assign SPD off of the module in DDR-0, and expects the others to keep up, this is why I always put the slow RAM in the first slot, you will not likely get errors from underclocking your memory, or other components for that matter, hope that helps you!
Memtest is a great Idea, I should have put that up earlier, but was too ocupied with other things.
Also, looking at your manual, you may need to adjust your DDR Voltage, are all four memory modules designed for the same voltages?
I understand your ram is the same speed and size, but they may be a different revision, and may have changed voltages.
Try and slow the latency, if it is 2.5-3-3-7, then bump it to 3-4-4-8 - this will slow the ram a bit, if you dont get the errors then you either have one bum module, or you are overclocking the memory unintentionally, if the SPD of one stick is lower than the others, then you will have issues, the BIOS will assign SPD off of the module in DDR-0, and expects the others to keep up, this is why I always put the slow RAM in the first slot, you will not likely get errors from underclocking your memory, or other components for that matter, hope that helps you!
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Everest Home Edition can provide valuable information and specification of the available memory slots and banking of the mainboard and memory modules as well. Free, available here:
http://www.lavalys.com/
Example: my NF2 mainboard has 4 memory slots with 6 banks available. To use all four memory slots, I must use single bank(1 row) memory. If I were to use dual bank(2 row) memory, only three memory slots could be occupied.
There is a wealth of other info on Everest also...use it to determine the features of the mainboard and memory modules...
T
http://www.lavalys.com/
Example: my NF2 mainboard has 4 memory slots with 6 banks available. To use all four memory slots, I must use single bank(1 row) memory. If I were to use dual bank(2 row) memory, only three memory slots could be occupied.
There is a wealth of other info on Everest also...use it to determine the features of the mainboard and memory modules...
T
ASKER
Had to go 2.7V and had to underclock them to 333 mega hertz to get it to work but it runs like a charm now. Thanks for all the help :)
That would explain the errors, your CPU was not capable of keeping up with the 400 mhz bus of the RAM, you still had your CPU set to 333, if you want your RAM speed to come back up, then up the FSB of the CPU as well, you may need to get a better Heat Sink than you have now, but basically the CPU was dropping some of the memory packets as they would come too fast for it to handle.