2 RAM Issues....

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16 Jun 2008
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312
Hello all,

Recently built my girlfriend a pc and thought whilst buying the bits, i'd replace my RAM, 4Gb G.Skill 6400 with some OCZ 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-8500C5 1066MHz Dual Channel Platinum Series DDR2.

As i wont be clocking hers too much, its more than adequate for her needs, and I thought the OCZ would be better suited for my set up as I had oc'd the G.Skill to 912Mhz, which hasnt caused any problems, but thought rather than oc'ing, i could just use RAM rated higher.

Right, the first, and most important issue is with my gf's pc. When i install more than 1 RAM chip, the PC crashes on start up. I've swapped both sets of RAM, and it happens with both, so thats out. I've tried to manually configure the speeds and voltages, and whilst it seemed to improve things, it still crashed!
Basically when 2 chips are installed, the screen goes blank during boot up and it just freezes. With one chip it works fine, and I've tested all chips individually. Sometimes there are coloured lines across the screen.

Motherboard is Asus P5Q-EM Intel G45 Micro-ATX, processor is Q6600.

Any idea's on this? Im thinking other voltages may need to go up, but seems odd for an unclocked set up to be having this sort of problem?

Second problem is with my PC and the OCZ RAM! It seems to be impossible clock it any further than the G.Skill at 912Mhz. Anything higher and it either wont boot or fails prime blend within a minute. Im very confused as i thought being a faster rated ram, it shouldn't be struggling to achieve the small increases I have tried. I've increased the DRAM voltage to the recommended amount, but this has made no improvement. Im guessing that perhaps by increasing the FSB speed, i should also start to be increasing the voltage?
Anyone able to explain what i'm doing wrong?

Current set up can be found in my sig (only difference is the ram). I've tried manipulating FSB, Multiplier and Ratio's, but not found a combo that would allow an improvement. Do i need to start increasing MB's voltages?

Thanks in advance! Really need some help!
 
Not sure about why you're having difficulties with both sets of RAM in hers, but I suppose increasing NB voltage somewhat an yours would be a logical step, but I've not had much experience with that.

I notice her mobo is an ASUS, which is known to disagree with OCZ RAM, so I'd say that's the problem but for the Geil not working either.
 
I thought it might be a compatability issue, but having looked through the motherboard manual, it says its compatible with both sets of RAM. Any other suggestions?

With mine, will have a go at upping the NB voltages when i get time to experiment.
 
Only thing I can think of is to increase the RAM voltages but you said you already tried that, so I dunno, sorry!
 
Does anyone know if it could it be a motherboard fault? Both sets of RAM work perfectly fine in my PC.

With my PC and the OCZ RAM, I spent a good few hours yesterday playing with speeds and voltages, when I reduced the CPU speed, the RAM would run fine at their rated speed, so think its just down to getting the settings right. Will ask a seperate question in the OC'ing forum.

One quick question though, has anyone overclocked the OCZ RAM? If so how much? The problem I'm having seems to be when i change the multiplier, so if i can OC the ram, i should be fine as i dont need to change the multiplier.

Thanks!
 
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How far are you looking to overclock anyway, DDR2 6400 is rated for 800Mhz, thats enough for 1:1 with a Core 2 processor running with a frontside bus of 1600! Does your board show the ram multiplier as the clock speed (533/667/800 etc) or 1:1 5:4 etc?

You really should be able to set the system so that with everything at "stock speeds" the CPU's FSB is 1066, and the ram is a "mere" 533, and from that point clock the cpu as high as you wish. Perhaps the motherboard is dodgy I dunno, but I've yet to find a board where there's instability on a 1:1 CPU/RAM multi.

PS, the 1:1 is based on a 266mhz quad pumped FSB (1066), and 266mhz DDR1/2/3 memory (533)

OCZ ram does normally overclock pretty well, with just a small bump in voltage.
 
Hey projects14a,

glad to see you got the Girlfriends build finally started! :D

Not sure what on earth is going on at your end as your post is a bit mumbo jumbo heh! :p

Anyways I have the ASUS P5Q-EM and the OCZ DDR2-1066 Platinum you are using and they both work together perfectly! :)

The P5Q-EM shouldn't need any voltage adjustments to work with the OCZ, should just work right out the box and default to DDR2-800 speeds. For the record I have my vDimm set to 1.82v and am run the RAM at 4-4-4-12, no problems at all.

So you are using two sticks of the OCZ Plat inserted into the Yellow ram slots and you have loaded CMOS defaults?

Is the board new or eBay, can you get it stable enough with one stick to flash the BIOS using a USB stick? have you done this already? :cool:
 
Hi folks, sorry for the late reply!

Ive tried it all stock (i.e. everything on auto) and it refuses to start up with 2 sticks in the yellow slots. It seems perfectly stable with just 1 stick, which is why im confused. Bought the board new from OC's, so may ask what they think. The fact its happened with 2 totally different sets of RAM is what makes me believe its a motherboard issue.

I havent flashed the bios, ive never done it before so dont know how to do it, and am nervous of messing it up completely as i've read the horror stories. Is it easy to do?

Its got the G.Skill in hers at the moment, could try flashing the bios with a memory stick as i'd lover to get this sorted!

Mine is a seperate issue now and something im leaving for the time being as i just dont get the time to experiment properly :( Think its because i've not found my Max FSB, so trying to reduce the multiplier and increase the FSB is causing the instability. CPU is very happy at 3.51GHz and the RAM worked fine at 1066MHz when experimenting with lower FSB, so im sure its just a case of trial and error :)
 
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Update, just flashed the bios to the latest version and all seems to be working perfectly now :D Thanks for the suggestion, it was somethnig i thought about, but being slightly green in the area i wasnt sure i wanted to take the risk, plus wasnt sure if it would make the warrenty viod.

Thanks again! Looks like i can get back to playing with my pc :)
 
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