potential gaming RAM disaster....HELP!!!

[sankukai]

Originally Posted by CMetaphor

Just let it run It starts the test automatically as soon as the CD runs. And it will go through each test one at a time in a loop. Just press Escape after its looped a couple times without errors.... or let us know what errors do show up (if any) and we'll help you from there.

Thanks again Cmeth!

Still...does anybody have an idea why my brand-new 8 Gigs of RAM wasn't letting my system boot at 400Mhz?

I'm still puzzled

[CMetaphor]

Originally Posted by sankukai

Thanks again Cmeth!

Still...does anybody have an idea why my brand-new 8 Gigs of RAM wasn't letting my system boot at 400Mhz?

I'm still puzzled

Could be the motherboard not providing enough voltage at default to allow the ram to work at that speed, therefore it gets underclocked to a point where its within tolerance (speed/Cas latency) with the voltage supplied. You were on the right track upping the voltage for the ram, but maybe went a bit too far or changed something you shouldn't have

Edit:
And its cmeta... or just Meta, please.

[sankukai]

Originally Posted by CMetaphor

Could be the motherboard not providing enough voltage at default to allow the ram to work at that speed, therefore it gets underclocked to a point where its within tolerance (speed/Cas latency) with the voltage supplied. You were on the right track upping the voltage for the ram, but maybe went a bit too far or changed something you shouldn't have

Edit:
And its cmeta... or just Meta, please.

Ohh.....that could be it. But then why does it let my 2 2GB PC-6400 sticks operate at 400Mhz with no problems at all? In any case, I'm starting to realize what a crappy motherboard I'm using for gaming. The thing is here in Nicaragua it's hard to come across decent enough motherboards without being ripped off by unscrupulous PC component stores that will charge you about three times the cost of a decent Intel or Asus motherboard purchased in the US or Canada.

PS: oh and sorry about spelling your name with "meth" on it

Meta sounds rather cool actually

[CMetaphor]

Because a 2Gb single stick probably requires less voltage than a 4Gb stick? Thats a supposition, but it makes sense if you think about it. If the system works fine with the 2x 2Gb sticks, then I'd leave it like that until you decide to do a real upgrade and (hopefully) not order from your local ripoff stores.

[sankukai]

Originally Posted by CMetaphor

Because a 2Gb single stick probably requires less voltage than a 4Gb stick? Thats a supposition, but it makes sense if you think about it. If the system works fine with the 2x 2Gb sticks, then I'd leave it like that until you decide to do a real upgrade and (hopefully) not order from your local ripoff stores.

I suppose your theory is the most solid explanation for this case so far.

IF( and that is a BIG if) my memory and/or motherboard turn out to be OK after this episode and do not give me any more trouble(for the foreseeable future at least), will the fact that my FSB:DRAM ratio is now 1:1 instead of 5:6( by that I mean RAM speed decreased from 400Mhz to 333Mhz even if I now have 8 gigs of RAM), and latency specs are now 5-5-5-10 affect my gaming experience in any significant way?

[CMetaphor]

At most, i'd say a 5% difference in performance or so. Not a big deal.

[sankukai]

Originally Posted by CMetaphor

At most, i'd say a 5% difference in performance or so. Not a big deal.

Really?? what I meant to say was that given that I now (theoretically at least) 8GBs of RAM, won't that speed up my gaming experience at all?

Damm

[ilya]

Originally Posted by sankukai

Really?? what I meant to say was that given that I now (theoretically at least) 8GBs of RAM, won't that speed up my gaming experience at all?

Damm

I have yet to see a game make use of more than 4gb of ram. Even ram speed is pretty much a non factor in gaming performance.

Depending on your resolution, a video card or processor/platform "upgrade" (or overclock) are the only ways to net a performance gain in games. (or an SSD for loading times)

[Supergrover]

Your board could also be vdrooping, check the ram voltage in bios and from with in windows, cpuid works fine.
You might have your vdimm at 1.95v in the BIOS but only getting 1.8-1.85 actual.
The AUTO might also be giving a wrong sub-timing for the rated speed, just another thing to check not real likely but wouldn't be the first time.

[LarkStarr]

more ram > ram speed. in 95% of situations.

the more ram you have, the slower the speed needs to be, usually. you could try boosting your motherboard's northbridge voltage and see if that helps. but I'm going to bet your ram is fine. you probably just can't run it at spec with your motherboard dividers.. at that point I'd say leave it at 333 (auto or whatever) and start to drop your ram's timings to eek out that few percentage points. but the real world difference will be slim.

might be an icky memory controller somewhere?