DRAM timing control

Perhaps someone here can help fill in some blanks for me. I'm still having instability issues with my new desktop, and trying to diagnose the problem. One suggestion someone had was to double check my DRAM timing control.

So I looked on one of my memory chips - it says 7-7-7 @ 1.9V. These are 1600 MHz RAM chips and I have 4 X 2GB of them.

So I boot into BIOS and look up my DRAM settings. They're set to Auto, with the following settings indicated:
1st Information 8-8-8-24-4-60-10-5
2nd Information 9-5-6-4-7-4-7
3rd Information 21-7-1-9-9

I have the option of setting it to Manual, however it doesn't appear to let me manually enter these information strings. Instead, when I set it to Manual, I get one line, that reads:
8-8-8-24-4-60-10-5

I'm not so sure what any of this means. Do I need to somehow set this to manual and then manually enter 7-7-7 somewhere? Is there a problem here?

One issue I have read with this MB is it sets the voltage of the ram to high, although I have have not done anything to change it. My system is stable as can be. Do searches on this MB and start reading........

And sure enough, got a crash again. Here's what the BSOD said:

http://i35.tinypic.com/2r298xd.jpg

Quote:

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Originally Posted by [AK]Camelwalk

One issue I have read with this MB is it sets the voltage of the ram to high, although I have have not done anything to change it. My system is stable as can be. Do searches on this MB and start reading........

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Hmmm, you may be right on that. Check this out:

Quote:

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It’s so designed for overclocking it wouldn’t run stable until I OCed the CPU. Like others, I found that the auto settings in the bios are very unstable, in my case, because many of the voltage settings were WAY too high. I found that you didn’t have to manually set them all; simply use the CPU level up to step your CPU up a notch, and oddly, it lowered the voltage settings on almost every component automatically. I was tempted to give this board a 4 because it really should do a better job on auto (yes I know it’s and enthusiast board, but that’s beside the point), but it’s got too much else going for it.

Otherwise, this is a stupendously well crafted product with nice little extras everywhere (the lit rear panel for example). Is it worth the money…well that’s subjective, but it is, hands down, the most well crafted, designed, and comprehensive MB I’ve ever seen.

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from: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131334

http://forums.microsoft.com/TechNet/...6248&SiteID=17.. Its a start. Have you loaded reference drivers for the Motherboard? IE chipset drivers? 790I drivers off of the Nvidia site?

did you update the bios?

Yes. Still locked up. Updated the chipset driver and the SATA drivers. Still locks up.

So I upped the processor speed from 2.81 to 3.14 GHz. So far, seems stable enough. The odd thing is my RAM is 1600 MHz Ram, but it's not even giving me the option to go above 1440 MHz for the ram, after I up the processor. I don't get that, when I leave everything in auto, it lets me select upping my RAM all the way up to 2000 MHZ if I want (not that I've done that!).

I upped the voltage a bit to the FSB and processor. Played WoW for a couple hours w/ no crashes. Surfing a little bit in Vista, no crashes yet. I think I'll pop in Crysis and see what happens.

I thought u said it wasn;t overclocked? and any update?

It wasn't. According to what I'm reading (& seeing), this MB is unstable when not overclocked. Wierd. Apparently the baseline default settings are messed up.

Now that it's overclocked, it didn't crash all night. Go figure.

Run this memory diag on your machine and see if your settings are causing issues if any of the tests fail you need to change the settings. http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp

So, are u all fixed with the voltage increase?

System seems stable these days, but I am still noticing some odd behavior. Games sometimes seem to slow down for not much reason. There's a rather neat program called "System Information for Windows" that tells you basically all the details on your system, ranging from temperatures to whatever. When I do a cold boot, and ask it about my RAM, it says this:

Quote:

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Memory Summary Top
Property Value
Maximum Capacity 2048 MBytes
Maximum Memory Module Size 2048 MBytes
Memory Slots 4
Error Correction None
DRAM Frequency 764.0 MHz
Memory Timings 9-9-9-24 (CL-RCD-RP-RAS)

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Device Locator Slot 1 Top
Property Value
Manufacturer OCZ
Capacity 4096 MBytes
Memory Type DDR3 (PC3-500)
Speed 29 MHz (DDR3 58)
Supported Frequencies 29 MHz
Memory Timings 7-7-7-21-22 at 29 MHz, at 1.5 volts (CL-RCD-RP-RAS-RC)
Manufacturing Date 2007, Week 28
EPP SPD Support No
XMP SPD Support No

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Device Locator Slot 2 Top
Property Value
Manufacturer OCZ
Part Number OCZ3RPR1600âG
Capacity 2048 MBytes
Memory Type DDR3 (PC3-10700F)
Speed 667 MHz (DDR3 1333)
Supported Frequencies 667 MHz
Memory Timings 7-7-7-21-28 at 667 MHz, at 1.5 volts (CL-RCD-RP-RAS-RC)
Manufacturing Date 2007, Week 28
EPP SPD Support No
XMP SPD Support No

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Device Locator Slot 3 Top
Property Value
Manufacturer OCZ
Part Number OCZ3RPR16002G
Capacity 2048 MBytes
Memory Type DDR3 (PC3-0)
Supported Frequencies -2147483648 MHz
Memory Timings 7--2147483648--2147483648--2147483648--2147483648 at -2147483648 MHz, at 1.5 volts (CL-RCD-RP-RAS-RC)
Manufacturing Date 2007, Week 28
EPP SPD Support No
XMP SPD Support No

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Device Locator Slot 4 Top
Property Value
Manufacturer OCZ
Part Number OCZ3RPR16002G
Capacity 2048 MBytes
Memory Type DDR3 (PC3-10700F)
Speed 667 MHz (DDR3 1333)
Supported Frequencies 667 MHz
Memory Timings 7-7-7-21-28 at 667 MHz, at 1.5 volts (CL-RCD-RP-RAS-RC)
Manufacturing Date 2007, Week 28
EPP SPD Support No
XMP SPD Support No

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For the most part that is correct, however the voltage is off, I've bump it up to 1.7 or 1.9, but it's still saying it's 1.5 V. The Frequency seems off too, because I've bumped my FSB up to give me closer to 1550 MHz. I'm not entirely sure the timing is correct, the bios timing numbers don't agree with that, but that's the correct timing for that RAM chip, so I'm not complaining.

When I play Crysis for a bit, it tells me sometimes things like this:

Quote:

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Memory Summary Top
Property Value
Maximum Capacity 2048 MBytes
Maximum Memory Module Size 2048 MBytes
Memory Slots 4
Error Correction None
DRAM Frequency 764.0 MHz
Memory Timings 9-9-9-24 (CL-RCD-RP-RAS)

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Device Locator Slot 1 Top
Property Value
Manufacturer OCZ
Part Number OCZ3RPR16002G
Capacity 1024 MBytes
Memory Type DDR3 (PC3-25600)
Speed 1600 MHz (DDR3 3200)
Supported Frequencies 667 MHz
Memory Timings 7-7-7-6-28 at 667 MHz, at 1.5 volts (CL-RCD-RP-RAS-RC)
Manufacturing Date 2007, Week 28
EPP SPD Support No
XMP SPD Support No

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Device Locator Slot 2 Top
Property Value
Part Number 2CZ3RR160Š2G
Serial Number 00000600
Capacity 2048 MBytes
Memory Type DDR3 (PC3-10700F)
Speed 667 MHz (DDR3 1333)
Supported Frequencies 667 MHz
Memory Timings 7-7-7-21-28 at 667 MHz, at 1.5 volts (CL-RCD-RP-RAS-RC)
Manufacturing Date 2007, Week 28
EPP SPD Support No
XMP SPD Support No

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Device Locator Slot 3 Top
Property Value
Manufacturer OCZ
Part Number OCZ3RPR16002G
Capacity 2048 MBytes
Memory Type DDR3 (PC3-10700F)
Speed 667 MHz (DDR3 1333)
Supported Frequencies 667 MHz
Memory Timings 7-7-7-21-28 at 667 MHz, at 1.5 volts (CL-RCD-RP-RAS-RC)
Manufacturing Date 2007, Week 28
EPP SPD Support No
XMP SPD Support No

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Slot 4 is now gone. Sometimes slots 2 and 3 are even gone as well. Is it dropping out memory slots when under load???

http://www.apple.com/macpro/

Open it
Order it
Use it
Love it.

nuff said.....

Quote:

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Originally Posted by [AK]StitchJones

http://www.apple.com/macpro/

Open it
Order it
Use it
Love it.

nuff said.....

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heh, you may be right there Stitch. Check this out, Here's a series of screenprints. The first shows, on the left, the System Information for Windows view - note that only 3 of the 4 memory slots are listed as being full. The CPU-Z data shows that I have 8GB of RAM though. Odd... the readings on the right are my various voltages and T's.

http://i36.tinypic.com/beevmg.jpg



OK, so what does CPU-Z say - afterall, it says I have 8 GB of RAM, so it must see it all right? Here's what it says is in the first DIMM slot:
http://i35.tinypic.com/2mophzn.jpg
well that looks OK, except the part number is all garbled.

Here's what it says is in the second - that doesn't look so good!
http://i38.tinypic.com/112d91y.jpg

Memory slot 3 looks OK(ish)...
http://i38.tinypic.com/mt3u4w.jpg

Memory slot 4 is Empty??
http://i36.tinypic.com/20qjsly.jpg

So... is this good? Is this just a polling issue, and a non-item? Is this meaning my RAM is crapping out on me, and of my 8 GB of expensive RAM, I'm only actually getting 4 at the time I did this diagnostic (if that)?

Well this has been a fiasco. I give up, I'm RMA'ing the OCZ RAM back to NewEgg. They're charging me $85 for the privilidge. I tried also RMA'in the Asus Rampage Extreme motherboard, but they refused - saying it's been 31 days. Not too impressed with NewEggs supposedly awesome customer service.

Any suggestions for some rock solid stable DDR3 RAM? Speed is secondary.

It looks like you have a dual channel board. Something is not picking up your second path of memory.

Also note that Vista has a memory limitation of 4gb if you are running the 32-bit version. Below is a link that shows all memory maximum allocations for Windows operation systems.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/libr..._windows_vista

If you are running a 64-bit version of Vista then you will be dealing with either 8gb or 16gb with Home Basic and Home Premium. With that being said, 32-bit = 4gb max, 64-bit = 8gb or +

Running 64 bit Vista, so that's not the issue.

You know, I'm beginning to think this is some kind of polling issue. I run CPU-Z, and it will show any number of my 4 memory sticks to be garbled or outright missing. Yet.... my PC doesn't crash. So.. if any memory stick can randomly start giving me weird readings, wouldn't I be losing important info and crashing? I test again with System Information for Windows - same result, any one of my memory sticks may not show up, or show up garbled.

So I tried another one called MemSet. This is apparently some kind of overclockers program for RAM. And interestingly enough, it's showing all 4 DIMMS free and clear. Occasionally the info might be garbled for the first 1/2 second I click on a DIMM, but then it immediately settles on the correct readings and holds steady. So that's interesting - how come this program is showing my memory as good and the other 2 are not?

Since my PC isn't crashing - even under load, I'm beginning to think the issue may be more with the polling techniques used by CPU-Z and System Information for Windows, rather than my hardware itself.

Thoughts?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by [AK]Clay

Running 64 bit Vista, so that's not the issue.

You know, I'm beginning to think this is some kind of polling issue. I run CPU-Z, and it will show any number of my 4 memory sticks to be garbled or outright missing. Yet.... my PC doesn't crash. So.. if any memory stick can randomly start giving me weird readings, wouldn't I be losing important info and crashing? I test again with System Information for Windows - same result, any one of my memory sticks may not show up, or show up garbled.

So I tried another one called MemSet. This is apparently some kind of overclockers program for RAM. And interestingly enough, it's showing all 4 DIMMS free and clear. Occasionally the info might be garbled for the first 1/2 second I click on a DIMM, but then it immediately settles on the correct readings and holds steady. So that's interesting - how come this program is showing my memory as good and the other 2 are not?

Since my PC isn't crashing - even under load, I'm beginning to think the issue may be more with the polling techniques used by CPU-Z and System Information for Windows, rather than my hardware itself.

Thoughts?

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So how much memory does vista show? (total) That's really the only thing that matters! If no BSOD and performance is good, its looks like your problem is just PC drama. :)

Vista shows 8 gb

So 4 slots with 2gb each and its shows up in Vista (8gb total). I would say you are set as long as you are not getting BSOD!

Run VMWare and create a virtual device that allocations 6gb of ram. See if it will run :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by [AK]StitchJones

Run VMWare and create a virtual device that allocations 6gb of ram. See if it will run :)

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I can do that. Probably make in 5 gb though, since leaving just 2 will bring vista to it's knees

Quote:

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Originally Posted by [AK]Clay

I can do that. Probably make in 5 gb though, since leaving just 2 will bring vista to it's knees

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"God hates a coward."