johnarthur

Hello everyone! I just loaded a new system with the follwing specs:

Intel Celeron D 340 2.93Ghz/533FSB Proc
Asus P4P800-E Deluxe Mobo
(2) 512MB corsair PC3200 DDR
XFX GeForce 6600 256 AGP

I have had alot of probs getting this system loaded. I finally have it up and running but can only get this system to function with one RAM (these came as a tested set). When I try to put the second one it I get all kind of errors/screwy graphics/etc. I have it set up per mobo instructions as dual channel.

Could it be a problem with the Cele FSB being 533mhz and this ram is rated at 800mhz? I have switched the chips out and both function as a single, but for the life of me I can't get them to work together.

Any ideas would be helpful. Thanks!

UncleMacro

That shouldn't cause any problems. Since that motherboard uses the Intel 865 chipset, the RAM can be run at a speed different than the 533 FSB. I'd download a copy of CPU-Z and find out for sure what the speed and timing is for your RAM. The Memory tab gives you the current timings for your RAM.


You've got a lot of options when it comes to fiddling with the RAM to get it working: raising the DDR voltage, lowering the RAM clock rate, slowing down the RAM timings. You have to set the AI Overclock Tuner option in the BIOS to Manual before it allows you to manually set most of the values.

DDR Reference Voltage is the BIOS option which sets the RAM voltage. Raising the RAM voltage may stabilize things.

DRAM Frequency is the BIOS option which controls the RAM clock rate. It actually sets the ratio of the RAM clock to the FSB but the BIOS just shows you the clock rate assuming you're not overclocking. It gets confusing so just use CPU-Z to check the actual value. Slowing this value down may increase the stability.

You must set the Configure DRAM Timing by SPD BIOS option to Disabled before you can manually set the RAM timing. Once you've disabled SPD, you can try slowing the timing values down. Higher numbers mean slower (and possibly more stable).

While you're testing, I'd use MemTest86 as your RAM test rather than trying to boot Windows. Windows installations can get corrupted by running with bad RAM. It's better to boot MemTest86 to see if your RAM is running properly.