problem with Dual Channel DDR

[Sirber]

Hi

I already have 1 pair of Shielded Corsair DDR400 CL2. I bought another pair of Corsair Value DDR400. My system don't want to boot with both installed, only one or the other. Is it normal? Is my motherboard that sissy?

I have a GA-K8NSC-939 with chipset nforce 3 250Gb.

[Sirber]

duh

@mod

please move in HW forum :(

[Fluffbutt]

<sarcasm_on>
Umm.... maybe because you bought two DIFFERENT types of ram there - cl2 and value ram (which is probably cl2.5 or 3)

You need virtually identical ram sticks for dual channel to not go fubar on you. I even insist on the same batch numbers, on the same type (make and model) ram.
<sarcasm_off>

Yup, I was right - it's cl 2.5. http://www.amdzone.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Sections&file=index&req=printpage&artid=181

So you put cl2 and cl2.5 ram together and wonder why it donna work????

[Sirber]

CL can be changed by BIOS, so BIOS could set both at CL2.5 no?

[Fluffbutt]

Yes, you can. Manually set you bios ram access to the slowest the ram sticks support, (2.5).

You'll probably find the SPD on the cl2 is making the bios auto set cl2..

[Sirber]

Thanks for the info! I'll exchange my CL2 ram with the other kit I got for work, so I'll get 4xCL2.5.

[Sirber]

got it:

DDR slot #1 is dead. Bad mobo, BAD! :devil:

[Sirber]

I changed my mobo. Took me 2h :(

Everything works now :D 2GB RAM!!! :D

[Blue_MiSfit]

1337 d00d :)

I am running 1gb in dual channel myself.

One other thing to consider. I think the nforce3 doesn't like 4 sticks of ram if they're dual sided. If so, it forces the 2T command rate, which results in a 10% performance drop roughly.

I think...

Not totally sure.

At any rate, now you can play Battlefield 2 without 5 minutes of stutter at the beginning.

SWEEET :)

[asdfsauce]

I don't think your 1st slot is dead, it’s just that your computer doesn’t want to work in dual-channel mode (activated when you populate banks 0 and 1) with the settings you had.

You might try dual channel again, but with more relaxed timings, since it provides a significant performance benefit to the A64 platform.

[Sirber]

With 2 dimm:

0-1: fail
2-3: work

with 4 dimm:
0-3: fail

[asdfsauce]

How bout just one dimm in bank 1? And, is dual-channel working with 2-3?

[Sirber]

IIRC in the manual they say to use 1 dimm in slot 1 or 3, so 0 and 2 fail.

DC in 2-3 work.