Help configuring ram

[TigerUK]

I bought another pair of RAMs to give me a total of 8GB in my system. I run vmware on my computer so need to set 2GB to each OS.

I couldn't find the original rams I bought so ordered another matching the specs as closely as possible. See screenshots below for details

Original ram crucial ballistic ddr2, in slot #1 and #3

Bought new corsiar in slot #2 and #4

I was surprised to find that their timings table was completely off wack, but there was one consistent timing EPP#1 matched, I'm not sure if this is correct but the SPD Ext. shows the timing that the motherboard has set for the rams. Is this the case?

If it were true then it would means that the timings are synchronised between rams. But leaves me with one nagging issue, the crucial us 2v and the corsair us 2.1v

Is that a major issue?

 

[TigerUK]

Thanks for writing Plec

I've managed to find a "common denominator" with the ram configurations and the timings, voltage and frequency match on all four rams. Check the attachment at the end..

However my bios setttings throw out some complete out of whack data. according to the info from cpuiz the rams run on 800mhz, at 1.8 v, but my bios tells me they're running at 1.96 volts and at 1066mhz which is overclocked?

I have to add that all my RAM configurations are set to [Auto] but the mobo sets the default voltage at 1.96v

COuld it be that the BIOS settings are being overridden by the OS or should I downgrade the RAM settings based on the info obtained from CPUiz?

 

[TigerUK]

Edit: p.s. are you not seeing the 5 images I uploaded after the 4 original posts?

Sorry, if this refering to a BIOS link/img/attachment - i can't see it.

No, I was referring to the cpuiz images

As i don't know the spec of your 2 sets of memory i'm a bit out of the loop. What are the 2 types of memory that you have and could you list the brand and model code for both?

The information is on the screenshots, both DDR2 800mhz
1 pair crucial ballistic
1 pair corsair xms2

Could you also confirm that you manually input common settings for both sets and then saved and exited? (i'e. you didn't just check the BIOS info.)

I saved and exited after setting ratings at Auto, then i re-entered the bios and the voltage was set to 1.96.. But the cpuiz settings above seem to indicate that it should be running at 1.8v

Please don't feel i'm stating the obvious - but sometimes things get lost in translation.

 

[TigerUK]

Thanks these are the settings from the bios before the changes.. SHould I just change the voltage to 1.8, and leave everything as is?

I have change
DRAM frequency to 400mhz ddr2-800 (from auto)
DRAM voltage to 1.79v [didn't work], then set it to 1.85v [next voltage up] and is now working

 

[TigerUK]

sucks.. I will run memtest and do a full round today.. and report back.. I was under the impression they were both 2v.

Doesn't the CPUiz timings table mean anything? Because according to that the corsair should run at 2.1v

 

[TigerUK]

Plec, thanks for responding and giving me help throughout this post. I learnt a few things from this.

Playing around with the voltage wasn't fruitful. I set the voltage at 2.0, 1.86 1.79 etc and have not been able to run it successully, on 1.86 it did book and run fine with all ram banks, and even did metest and it worked great, then then following day I tried to turn the computer on and it wuld not get past post. I tried to tweak it, but still failed, eventually I pulled out the old crucials and am running the corsair on the stated specs.

As you discovered the corsair was in fact 2.1v.. I should have pulled out the RAMs and read the label on the side

Im running the corsairs just fine in 4-4-4-12 2.1v, so what I'll do is sell the balistix and get another set of corsairs, and (will pay extra attention that it's the exact same ones as I have on now).. Hopefully I won't take a hit in the used market.

 

[TigerUK]

Plec thanks for helping me out with this, in the end I just threw in the towel, the system would seem stable and boot fine, and then after long period of non use when I tried to reboot it would just give me a black screen, and I'd have to remove two rams out and then reconfigure the bios and retry.

All these technical aspects confuse me which is why I never bothered to overclock this rig which was clearly designed for it. In the end I just sold the two pairs of performance rams, and bought 2x4GB nonname rams. They work straight out of the box without configuring.. Plus the CL rate is just one step down from the downclocked CL that I was attempting with the pair of mixed performance rams.

So probably avoided,rather than solved, but you live and learn, maybe next time when I have more time to learn about computing stuff