Confused

Rob_J · 30 Oct 2010 at 12:38

G’day all, I’m a first time poster but long time lurker and I’d like to pick your brains as mine seem to have gone to mush.

I’m not a complete noob when it comes to PC’ing, but I almost am … think of me as ‘two short planks’.

These are my system spec’s:…

OCZ 600W PSU
Asus P5QL/EPU mobo
Core 2 Quad Q9400 2.66 GHz (Yorkfield)
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 PRO Rev.2
4GB Kingston HyperX PC-8500 – 1066 MHz ram
500GB Seagate Barracuda SATA II
250GB Seagate Barracuda SATA II
Gainward nVidia 8800 GTS 640 GDDR3
Sony 24X DVD R/RW SATA
Win 7 Home Premium 64bit

Here’s my enquiry …

As you can see, I have 4GB Kingston HyperX PC-8500 – 1066 CL 7-7-7-20 @2.2V. I ‘ve manually set the CL to 7-7-7-20 in the BIOS and set the Voltage to 2.2 (ASUS BIOS shows it as ‘Memory Over Voltage’), but in cpu-z it shows the SPD tab as PC2-6400 5-5-5-18 @1.8V.

Can someone please point out what I’m missing here as it’s driving me nuts.

Thanks,
Rob

RJC · 30 Oct 2010 at 12:43

CPU-Z is most probably showing the default values on the memory rather than the actual.

On mine I have 3 boxes filed in and the last one shows my XMP details.

Metroid · 30 Oct 2010 at 12:44

Some motherboards do not output the information correct, A BIOS update may help you. Use this http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=92190 and report back.

Rob_J · 31 Oct 2010 at 15:16

Hi lads,

thanks for the suggestions, it seems as though my ram isn't fully compatible with my mobo (note to self, do more research next time ya lump!).

I've tried Memset, bios upgrade (mine already has the latest), setting timings through bios and a whole lot of suggestions I found on other forums all to no avail. I'll just live with what I've got till the time comes when I can upgrade again, it's no biggie, the ram is showing as 1066 in bios, and PC2-6400 in cpu-z but all's running ok.

Many thanks for trying to help.

Rob

Blue160 · 2 Nov 2010 at 12:08

I had exactly the same problem with the same RAM. I was getting random crashes to desktop on the default settings. The SPD settings the motherboard picks up appear to be wrong. I set it all manually in BIOS and it now works fine, although cpu-z still shows the wrong settings.

1Day · 2 Nov 2010 at 13:26

SPD is not what your memory settings currently are.

Rather that is what the programmed ram settings are. You need to look at the memory tab. Next one along from the SPD tab mate.

What is your CPU multi set at?
What is your memory divider set at?
What is your FSB?

Once you know that you can work out what your ram is running at without the CPU-z.

But CPU-z memory tab is much easier.

1Day · 2 Nov 2010 at 14:44

See what I mean mate.

My ram is running at 2000Mhz 6-9-6-26.

That means my BLK is set at 200 and my multi is dropped right down.

Now my system can do that for a number of reasons. The Gigabyte UD3 board is a rock solid board. AND my CPU will do that BLK with the other settings that the XMP profile changes no problem.

So there you have it.

mmj_uk · 2 Nov 2010 at 15:08

Rob_J said:
Here’s my enquiry …

As you can see, I have 4GB Kingston HyperX PC-8500 – 1066 CL 7-7-7-20 @2.2V. I ‘ve manually set the CL to 7-7-7-20 in the BIOS and set the Voltage to 2.2 (ASUS BIOS shows it as ‘Memory Over Voltage’), but in cpu-z it shows the SPD tab as PC2-6400 5-5-5-18 @1.8V.

Can someone please point out what I’m missing here as it’s driving me nuts.

The memory was probably built to be "800Mhz 5-5-5-18 @1.8V" but Kingston hand picked the best modules and sold them as higher rated parts, in your case they passed testing for "1066Mhz 7-7-7-20 @2.2V" operation.

The SPD profiles are usually just a safe setting to allow for better compatibility, if they shipped the memory requiring 2.2V straight off the bat then many motherboards which didn't support memory overvolting would probably fail to post at 1066Mhz 7-7-7-20.

To see your current memory settings you want to be looking at the Memory tab.

Blue160 · 2 Nov 2010 at 15:13

If that is so why would mine not work at the 1.8v it defaulted to?

1Day · 2 Nov 2010 at 15:57

Because the 1.8v is not the correct voltage if the memory specifies 2.2 volts.

You will have to increase the voltages in the bios to the 2.2volts specified.

Blue160 · 2 Nov 2010 at 19:19

1Day said:
Because the 1.8v is not the correct voltage if the memory specifies 2.2 volts.

You will have to increase the voltages in the bios to the 2.2volts specified.

Well that's what I did, and then it worked.

mmj_uk said:
The memory was probably built to be "800Mhz 5-5-5-18 @1.8V" but Kingston hand picked the best modules and sold them as higher rated parts, in your case they passed testing for "1066Mhz 7-7-7-20 @2.2V" operation

That's what I was questioning as if this was correct the memory should work at 1.8v. (I am not the OP I just happen to have the same RAM and had the same trouble with the SPD being wrong)