Major Ram problems plz help

lucentmoon · 03-15-2008, 07:11 PM

OKAY,
Specs:
Motherboard - via apollo p4x400
bios - p4pbultra v.16 or .6 (cant remember)
2.26 ghz.
3 sticks 512 kingston PC3200 - 2.6 volts - More Ram stats further down.
radeon 9800 pro (256MB)
win2k

I dont know if this should go under motherboard or ram but this all started with a ram upgrade so here goes.

here is the story =
I had been running fine for some years with exact setup, but with 1 stick of 512MB kingston. I ordered a 1gig stick. same as current pc3200 same everything on the specs. My motherboard manufacturer says max ram board can handle is 3gigs, 1gig per slot. for some strange reason it wouldnt work by itself or with my current 512 stick. I reinstalled windows and looked for bios updates. I had the latest update *VIA* had to offer. I ended up taking my comp to work (i repair/service computers all day)
my boss let me trade out the 1 gig stick with 2 512Mb sticks. Installed them fine. bios reported 1.5gig memory. I thought great...problem fixed...Got all my progs installed. up to date video drivers and directx9.c
etc.. installed my games. Went to play Counterstrike-Source. program crashed about 10 minutes into playing. I went into the bios and loaded fail-safe settings. It put my memory to manual instead of speed setting. agp aperture at 64mb. random other bs settings nothing to do with ram got changed. ram settings on manual i believe were 2.5-3-7-3 1t command rate. Bank interleave OFF - i could be mistaken i'll have to double check. My system isnt booting windows at the moment.

ANYWAYS, when i set fail-safe settings in my bios windows gets halfway through startup and comp resets. I Then changed bios settings to optimized. (ram set to (BY SPEED))
i can load counterstrike. and i even played for a good hour. system memory dumped on me. Now the VERY STRANGE PART. after playing around changing the cas latency and command rate to 2t to see if games would run better...another memory dump later. my bios is only showing 512mb instead of 1.5gigMb of Ram. I rearranged Memory sticks on the motherboard. just kinda swapped them around. then it showed the full 1.5gig again.

ANY HELP would be SOOOO GREATLY appreciated. I havent yet run memtest86. should have the stats up tomorrow or by monday when i take my comp back to the shop. ALSO if anyone can tell me the commands to read a dump file that would be awesome too.

So this is where im at. My system will perform basic crap like playing music browsing etc. BUT I upgraded ram specifically to get better performance out of counterstrike and other games etc..

**speedster123** · 03-16-2008, 06:09 AM

which ram is installed?
http://www.ec.kingston.com/ecom/conf...ype=DDR+PC3200

bump the voltage up 1 notch

lucentmoon · 03-16-2008, 09:22 AM

all 3 sticks are currently installed are the same model which is this
KVR400X64C3A/512 512MB 400MHz DDR Non-ECC CL3 (3-3-3) DIMM

so bump the voltage up to 2.7? also wouldnt lowering the cas latency to 2.5 provide more stability??

**speedster123** · 03-16-2008, 12:24 PM

try bumping up the voltage and relaxing the timing

03-15-2008, 07:11 PM	#1 (permalink)
lucentmoon Registered User Join Date: Mar 2008 Posts: 2 OS: win2k	Major Ram problems plz help OKAY, Specs: Motherboard - via apollo p4x400 bios - p4pbultra v.16 or .6 (cant remember) 2.26 ghz. 3 sticks 512 kingston PC3200 - 2.6 volts - More Ram stats further down. radeon 9800 pro (256MB) win2k I dont know if this should go under motherboard or ram but this all started with a ram upgrade so here goes. here is the story = I had been running fine for some years with exact setup, but with 1 stick of 512MB kingston. I ordered a 1gig stick. same as current pc3200 same everything on the specs. My motherboard manufacturer says max ram board can handle is 3gigs, 1gig per slot. for some strange reason it wouldnt work by itself or with my current 512 stick. I reinstalled windows and looked for bios updates. I had the latest update VIA had to offer. I ended up taking my comp to work (i repair/service computers all day) my boss let me trade out the 1 gig stick with 2 512Mb sticks. Installed them fine. bios reported 1.5gig memory. I thought great...problem fixed...Got all my progs installed. up to date video drivers and directx9.c etc.. installed my games. Went to play Counterstrike-Source. program crashed about 10 minutes into playing. I went into the bios and loaded fail-safe settings. It put my memory to manual instead of speed setting. agp aperture at 64mb. random other bs settings nothing to do with ram got changed. ram settings on manual i believe were 2.5-3-7-3 1t command rate. Bank interleave OFF - i could be mistaken i'll have to double check. My system isnt booting windows at the moment. ANYWAYS, when i set fail-safe settings in my bios windows gets halfway through startup and comp resets. I Then changed bios settings to optimized. (ram set to (BY SPEED)) i can load counterstrike. and i even played for a good hour. system memory dumped on me. Now the VERY STRANGE PART. after playing around changing the cas latency and command rate to 2t to see if games would run better...another memory dump later. my bios is only showing 512mb instead of 1.5gigMb of Ram. I rearranged Memory sticks on the motherboard. just kinda swapped them around. then it showed the full 1.5gig again. ANY HELP would be SOOOO GREATLY appreciated. I havent yet run memtest86. should have the stats up tomorrow or by monday when i take my comp back to the shop. ALSO if anyone can tell me the commands to read a dump file that would be awesome too. So this is where im at. My system will perform basic crap like playing music browsing etc. BUT I upgraded ram specifically to get better performance out of counterstrike and other games etc..

03-16-2008, 06:09 AM	#2 (permalink)
speedster123 Mentor Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: United States-New York-Long Island Posts: 5,206 OS: xp pro SP3 My System	Re: Major Ram problems plz help which ram is installed? http://www.ec.kingston.com/ecom/conf...ype=DDR+PC3200 bump the voltage up 1 notch __________________

03-16-2008, 09:22 AM	#3 (permalink)
lucentmoon Registered User Join Date: Mar 2008 Posts: 2 OS: win2k	Re: Major Ram problems plz help all 3 sticks are currently installed are the same model which is this KVR400X64C3A/512 512MB 400MHz DDR Non-ECC CL3 (3-3-3) DIMM so bump the voltage up to 2.7? also wouldnt lowering the cas latency to 2.5 provide more stability??

03-16-2008, 12:24 PM	#4 (permalink)
speedster123 Mentor Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: United States-New York-Long Island Posts: 5,206 OS: xp pro SP3 My System	Re: Major Ram problems plz help try bumping up the voltage and relaxing the timing __________________