Help please, 4GHz OC but only 1.99GB of ram usable

hyperst · 30 Jun 2011 at 15:30

Need some help to figure out what is going on, I have just gone from 3.760GHz(188 base clock, 1.265v core) to 4.00GHz 200 base clock and 1.375v core, but I have a problem where my ram usable has gone down to 1.99GB (out of 4GB)usable in windows 7 64 bit, this problem was not here at the lower clock settings. :confused:

Any advice on how to overcome this issue?

Have you had this issue before?

Anything I can try, memory is running at 1600MHz at 1.65v in the bios

MooMoo444 · 30 Jun 2011 at 15:50

I'd suggest taking out sticks and trying different combos to see if you got some faulty modules

Jordan97 · 30 Jun 2011 at 15:53

Double check you haven't accidentally changed the RAM voltage in the BIOS. I know it sounds like a noob mistake, but it could easily happen.

hyperst · 30 Jun 2011 at 16:20

well I have been back in bios to check the voltages and they are still set to 1.65v for the ram, I don't think it's faulty modules as they are recognized fine as 4.00GB installed but only 1.99GB usable and it was fine at 3.760GHz clock, as soon as I go to 4GHz it becomes a problem, very confusing

Columbo · 30 Jun 2011 at 16:23

I've the same mobo and CPU as you fella so I could possibly help you out.

Any chance you could take some snaps of you various BIOS setting and post em up so I can compare them to mine?

Jordan97 · 30 Jun 2011 at 16:25

Change the OC back to the stock settings and see if you get your 4GB back. If you do, then we know it is something going wrong with the overclock.

ScottiB · 30 Jun 2011 at 16:30

sounds like the memory controller on the CPU is being pushed too hard, happened a lot on X58/i7's with 6GB being read as 4GB and 12Gb being read as 8. It would only happen above a certain clock speed and it didnt matter which brand or model of board that I tried.

You could try reducing the clock speed of the RAM whilst leaving the CPU at 4GHz. That often worked on the X58's when dropping from 1600 to 1333.

hyperst · 30 Jun 2011 at 16:34

ManCuBuS said:
I've the same mobo and CPU as you fella so I could possibly help you out.

Any chance you could take some snaps of you various BIOS setting and post em up so I can compare them to mine?

Yeah I can but I can tell you what i just tried, I loaded optimized values and saved, went back in and enabled achi controller, disabled green power, set the base clock to 200, disabled eist, disabled intel turbo boost, set vcore to1.375, disabled spread spectrum, qpi is set to the lowest which is 6200 i think, set the memory at 1600MHz and at 1.65v and left everything else.

Jordan97 said:
Change the OC back to the stock settings and see if you get your 4GB back. If you do, then we know it is something going wrong with the overclock.

Well I loaded optimized defaults, 4GB shows fine in the bios as it does in windows at stock settings and at 3.760MHZ OC, it just fudges up at anything over 3.8ghz

Well I posted also at MSI forum and had a reply about lowering the memory which I did, set it to 1200MHz and booted into windows and I have all 4GB as usable again

But obviously not ideal as the memory is quite a bit underclocked now :confused:

hyperst · 30 Jun 2011 at 16:36

ScottiB said:
sounds like the memory controller on the CPU is being pushed too hard, happened a lot on X58/i7's with 6GB being read as 4GB and 12Gb being read as 8. It would only happen above a certain clock speed and it didnt matter which brand or model of board that I tried.

You could try reducing the clock speed of the RAM whilst leaving the CPU at 4GHz. That often worked on the X58's when dropping from 1600 to 1333.

Yeah it does solve the problem thanks, any way to work around this, is it more to do with CPU then than memory, anything I can fiddly with v wise to try and fix it?

hyperst · 30 Jun 2011 at 16:54

Here's my bios screens

paradisiac · 30 Jun 2011 at 17:02

i would imagine its a case of the cpu:ram fsb ratio. maybe lower fsb higher multi?

Columbo · 30 Jun 2011 at 17:12

I'll compare them to mine when I get in from work fella (in an hour or so.!)

I'm also running 8gb of 1600mhz RAM fine with the CPU at 4ghz so hopefully I'll be able to find something for ya.

sadbuttrue · 30 Jun 2011 at 17:14

VTT should never be auto when overclocking. The bios will either provide way too high a voltage or not enough. I'm guessing the latter is causing loss of memory. 200BCLK requires excessive VTT voltage ime. Most people opt for 191x21, motherboard and bios allowing.

hyperst · 30 Jun 2011 at 17:30

sadbuttrue said:
VTT should never be auto when overclocking. The bios will either provide way too high a voltage or not enough. I'm guessing the latter is causing loss of memory. 200BCLK requires excessive VTT voltage ime. Most people opt for 191x21, motherboard and bios allowing.

Just fired up MSI control centre, VTT is showing in red lol, and at 1.375v :eek:

, I'm guessing this is too much, what should it be and I will set it manually and try.

sadbuttrue · 30 Jun 2011 at 18:43

All boards and setups being different, I couldn't give you an exact figure. That said, you shouldn't need any more than 1.3v. My setup needs 1.26v, but some can run as low as 1.2v.

Insufficient VTT will result in bsod. Borderline VTT will cause stress tests to fail.

Columbo · 30 Jun 2011 at 19:23

Differences on my BIOS set-up are:

EIST - Disabled
OC Genie Button Operation - Disabled
DRAM Timing - Manual (I've manually set-up mine to 8-8-8-24)
Memory Ratio - 4 (1600mhz)
Adjust PCI-E Frequency - 101
CPU VTT - 1.303v

CPU-Z info below if it helps any.

hyperst · 30 Jun 2011 at 20:42

ManCuBuS said:
Differences on my BIOS set-up are:

EIST - Disabled
OC Genie Button Operation - Disabled
DRAM Timing - Manual (I've manually set-up mine to 8-8-8-24)
Memory Ratio - 4 (1600mhz)
Adjust PCI-E Frequency - 101
CPU VTT - 1.303v

CPU-Z info below if it helps any.

Thanks, have been back in the BIOS, played about some and managed to get the CPU v core down to 1.35v, VTT is down to same as yours, tried it 2 settings lower but as windows booted up I did get a couple of runtime errors with programs at start so have settled on 1.303 for the VTT and it passes Intel burn test on max for 5 runs and temp's are fine, just cannot get the memory past 1200MHz, I tried at 1600MHz but got the same as at the beginning about 1.99GB being usable.

So should I leave it at 4.000MHz and 1200MHz on the memory or go back to 3.760MHz and 1532MHz on the memory.

I could update the BIOS as I am running version V1.11

Columbo · 30 Jun 2011 at 20:53

I could update the BIOS as I am running version V1.11

Do this first without question.

paradisiac · 30 Jun 2011 at 21:04

hyperst said:
So should I leave it at 4.000MHz and 1200MHz on the memory or go back to 3.760MHz and 1532MHz on the memory.

I could update the BIOS as I am running version V1.11

the difference in ram speed is not noticable, but the difference in cpu speed can be. so i would aim at getting the highest cpu clock as possible.

updating bios is always a good thing, especially if you are experiencing some issues.

hyperst · 30 Jun 2011 at 21:17

ManCuBuS said:
Do this first without question.

paradisiac said:
the difference in ram speed is not noticable, but the difference in cpu speed can be. so i would aim at getting the highest cpu clock as possible.

updating bios is always a good thing, especially if you are experiencing some issues.

I have updated BIOS now, still the same issue as before

, so it's better to run at 4GHz then and sacrifice memory speed, will do some more digging with voltages when brave enough to see if I can sort this out, shame I only have 3 memory options

Help please, 4GHz OC but only 1.99GB of ram usable

OcUK Systems