System unstable. Compatibility?

r0undb0y · 18 Jun 2006 at 09:42

I have just put together the following..

AMD X2 4200+
Asus V8M-VM
ATI X1900XT.

I was planning to swap my 2x 512Mb crucial ballistix PC4000 CL2.5 into this machine from another, but there is a big problem. The system is very unstable and I have traced it to the RAM. some slower kingston value from another machine works fine as does some of my friends "no name el cheapo DDR"

With the ballistix in it fails a prime95 test on the first run with a rounding error got 0.49 expected below 0.4.

I ran CPU-Z and according to that the SPD timings are correct. (mobo timing is on auto). I have tried manualy entering them but I am not to sure what I am doing as there are more timing settings than I expected..

This Ballistix RAM runs rock solid stable in my other machine.

Could this be a compatibility problem?

TIA

senorstealth · 18 Jun 2006 at 20:48

try underclocking the ballistix and see what happens

r0undb0y · 19 Jun 2006 at 09:46

Yes I have tried 150 and 183.

I have put the balistix back into my Intel p3 system and its works fine passes all tests so I am pretty sure the ram is fault free. I must just be the new system doesn't like it for some reason. It would be nice to know why as when I buy some faster ram for my new system I dont want find I have the same problem.

has anyone heard of any compatability issues with balistix ram and asus/amd systems?

Dutch Guy · 19 Jun 2006 at 10:36

Please state what timings, what speed the RAM was running at and if you have the sticks actively cooled.

Also try different slots to see if that helps.

r0undb0y · 19 Jun 2006 at 11:36

Ok CPUZ reported the following as at this stage I had it set to auto

CAS 2.5
tRCD 4
tRP 4
tRAS 8
CMD 1T

This was at 200Mhz and unstable as hell.

When I switch on manual timing on my motherboard I am presented with

this.

CAS 2 -> 3
TRAS 5 -> 15
TRP 2 -> 6
TRCD 2 -> 6
TRRD 2 -> 4
TRC 7 -> 22
TRFC 9 -> 24
TRWT 1 -> 6

I manually set the same timing for the obvious ones (CAS, RCD, RP, RAS) but have no idea what to set the others to...

I dont have any active cooling but they were not really hot either..

I have tried eack stick on its own in all 4 slots with no luck..