[A7V8X-X] memory-ish crashes at 1.5 GB

[Stanley Krute]

Hi

I just built a system using:

Asus A7V8X-X rev 1.01 mobo with 1005 BIOS
RocketRaid 404 RAID controller for hard drives
Three 512 MB sticks of Corsair PC-2100 memory

The system is flakey and crashy with all three
memory sticks installed.

It's solid and non-crashy with just two.

It doesn't matter which two, indicating that
the memory sticks are okay.

Anyone seen this problem ?

Thanks

Stan Krute

 

[Mike Gorman]

The system is flakey and crashy with all three
memory sticks installed.

I just assembled one using the same board and it's pretty flakey but only
has one stick of double sided Crucial pc2700. I have done MUCH tinkering
with settings and such and I get the BSOD way too frequently, mostly with 3D
aps.

Your probably okay with 1 gig of ram. If I hear of any cures I'll certainly
post them. Have you tried reflashing to the 1003 bios? It might be a long
shot.

 

[AJ]

Hi

I just built a system using:

Asus A7V8X-X rev 1.01 mobo with 1005 BIOS
RocketRaid 404 RAID controller for hard drives
Three 512 MB sticks of Corsair PC-2100 memory

The system is flakey and crashy with all three
memory sticks installed.

It's solid and non-crashy with just two.

It doesn't matter which two, indicating that
the memory sticks are okay.

Anyone seen this problem ?

Thanks

Stan Krute

Good news for you. According to this guide, two sticks will out
perform three:
http://www6.tomshardware.com/howto/20030701/index.html
_________________________
French Connection:
http://www.metrospy.com/boycott_brands.htm

 

[Stanley Krute]

Hi Mike

Have you tried reflashing to the 1003 bios?

Same behavior with both the 1003 and 1005 bioses.

Thanks for all thoughts.

Stan

 

[Stanley Krute]

Good news for you. According to this guide, two sticks will out

perform three:
http://www6.tomshardware.com/howto/20030701/index.html

Thanks for the pointer. Nice article.

However, I'd like to have 1.5 GB RAM in this system.
It's used for Photoshop, so is happy with muchos RAM.

I'm using the BIOSes automatic settings for memory
parameters. Guess I may have to tweek some of those.
Page 6 of the above-pointed-to article mentions setting
'command rate' from 1 to 2, so there's plenty of time for
the memory controller to talk to everyone.

stan

 

[Mike Gorman]

I can't say because I flashed up almost immediately. I was originally having
a series of issues that ended up being associated with the old PSU I was
using. Apparently, it had had enough. I have not flashed back to 1003. The
1005 includes a few extra bios options. I'm afraid I don't recall exactly
which ones.

Fact is, this is a low budget board and it's only going to do so much. I
find that if I run things stock it's very stable.

 

[Stanley Krute]

Hi Mike

Thanks for your assistance.

Yep. That's why I'm building a couple of systems with it, to see
if it's a good option for my clients who want to get into a Stanley
Screamer at lower price points.

I find that if I run things stock it's very stable.

Have you tried three sticks of 512 MB RAM ?

Regarding stock/stable: it's the requirement for both
my own machines and those we build for clients. Neither
they nor I have time to deal with hot-rodding issues.

As is my custom, the CPU and memory are running at stock automatic
settings. The memory is fairly high-quality (Corsair VS)
and only PC-2100 speedwise. In this system,
I'm using a nice bran'-new Enlight
420-watt dual-fan server-class power-supply. Asus
Probe shows all voltages well within spec.

Anyways ... I've sent query email to Asus, we'll see
if I get some response ... but thought it'd be good to
report all experiences with the board.

The board does have limitations on the number of banks
of higher-speed -- PC-2700 and PC-3200 -- memory
that it can use. That's why I'm testing it with PC-2100
memory. But those limitations seem to indicate that
dealing with bank communications issues by allowing
a bit more time could turn the trick on the three-sticks
(six banks) issue.

Stan

ps -- It's a very nice board, by the way, esp. at the price,
and both the onboard networking and onboard audio
are quite adequate. With just one GB RAM, using
two 512 MB sticks, all is stable and hunky-dory under
XP. This system has eight RAIDed hard drives and
a Plextor burner, and is a smooth little cruiser with
the A7V8X-X at the helm.

 

[Stanley Krute]

That seems to have taken care of things. I'm now running

1.5 GB of Corsiar VS SDRAM, and things are stable.

Whoooooppppsss, spoke too soon. PAGE_FAULT
shmootz appeared 1 hour into operation. Then 2 minutes
into the next reboot.

Removed stick 3 of memory, reset 1T Command setting,
thinking more ......

stan

 

[SteveL]

Whoooooppppsss, spoke too soon. PAGE_FAULT
shmootz appeared 1 hour into operation. Then 2 minutes
into the next reboot.

Removed stick 3 of memory, reset 1T Command setting,
thinking more ......

stan

Try upping the CAS latency by .5 . I had something similar with some
generic memory on my a7n8x. Fine with 1gb, crap with 1.5gb.

Changed CAS latency from 2 to 2.5 and that made all the difference.

 

[Stanley Krute]

Hi Steve

Try upping the CAS latency by .5 . I had something similar with some
generic memory on my a7n8x. Fine with 1gb, crap with 1.5gb.

Thanks for the thought. The memory I've got is CAS 2.5.
I set CAS to 3 yesterday, but that didn't solve the stability problem.

This one's a stumper for sure ....

Stan

 

[Mike Gorman]

Other things to look at are IRQ conflicts (seriously). Also if running Win
XP reconfigure your page file. set it to zero, reboot then reset it. No
guarantees.

 

[Stanley Krute]

Hi Mike

Other things to look at are IRQ conflicts (seriously).

Oy. The Asus Curse. (humorously).

Question: hmmm. How would one check on this ?

Two data points:

o- XP reports no conflicts anywhere that
I've looked.

o- All PCI devices are functioning.


Stan