Help needed with ram problem (take 2)

[JM]

Pressed the wrong key in outlook and it sent my post on me... let's try
again...

I have a rev 2.0 A7N8X Deluxe board that's been running flawlessly for a
year with a 2100+ and for the past six months with two 512 meg Kingston
pc3200 dimms (KVR400x64C3A/512). A few days ago I upgraded the cpu to a
3200+, and I've been having stability problems ever since.

It all seems to be related to the RAM; running at 400mhz causes memtest86 to
show errors at various stages
but it's all fine at lower speeds. I borrowed RAM from a friend with a
3200+ in a A7N8X-E Deluxe and had
no problems, although I didn't run memtest with that RAM. My RAM crashed
his machine almost instantly on
getting into windows, so I figured that was pretty conclusive proof that my
RAM wasn't quite up to running at
400mhz.

I bought a couple of sticks of generic (Infineon chips) RAM and installed
it, and still had issues. On further investigation one of the sticks worked
perfectly, while the other errored out in memtest. So I went back for a
replacement for the bad stick, and THAT one also had problems. I went back
again and asked them to test that stick for me, and it tested good for them,
so I asked for a different brand and got a brand new Kingston stick just
like the two I had from the beginning. I put it in, tested it, and got
errors.

The really weird thing that I've discovered with all this testing is that
any RAM I try in slot 3 tests just fine, but the other two slots give errors
on all the RAM I've tried EXCEPT this one stick of generic RAM that was good
from the start. So right now I"ve got that generic stick in slot 1, and a
kingston in slot 3, and it seems to work okay.
I just don't know how long this will work or how on the edge of stability it
is like this, plus it bugs me that I have to put up with this kind of crap
in the first place, I got an Asus to replace my old ECS K7S5A to not have
these kinds of problems.

I have an Enermax 450 watt PSU, two CD drives and a single 200 gig WD S-ATA
hard drive. Should be lots of power for this setup, right? I tried
flashing to the latest bios (1008) with no change, although it did fix the
S-ATA delay I was getting on bootup.

Any ideas on this? I'd like to figure this out this weekend so I can either
return this new RAM or keep it, or look into RMA'ing the whole board...
It's a year and a week old.

Thanks in advance...

 

[donny]

hey buddy im in the same boat as you i had a ecs k7s5a also and no problems
with my memory i switched to a asus a7n8x deluxe and nothing but problems
with ram..
youd think with a name like asus they could manage to make a board that
doesnt conflict with 90 % of ram!

 

[Ben Pope]

I have a rev 2.0 A7N8X Deluxe board that's been running flawlessly
for a year with a 2100+ and for the past six months with two 512 meg
Kingston pc3200 dimms (KVR400x64C3A/512). A few days ago I upgraded
the cpu to a 3200+, and I've been having stability problems ever
since.

It all seems to be related to the RAM; running at 400mhz causes
memtest86 to show errors at various stages

I'll assume you mean 200MHz DDR. Since thats what your RAM and your
motherboard are rated at .

but it's all fine at lower speeds. I borrowed RAM from a friend with
a 3200+ in a A7N8X-E Deluxe and had
no problems, although I didn't run memtest with that RAM. My RAM
crashed his machine almost instantly on
getting into windows, so I figured that was pretty conclusive proof
that my RAM wasn't quite up to running at
400mhz.

It could be a number of things that are wrong... your RAM may or may not be
capable of 200MHz.

I bought a couple of sticks of generic (Infineon chips) RAM and
installed it, and still had issues. On further investigation one of
the sticks worked perfectly, while the other errored out in memtest.

How did you test this? Did you try the working stick in each slot to
confirm each slot was working?

So I went back for a replacement for the bad stick, and THAT one also
had problems.

In all slots?

I went back again and asked them to test that stick
for me, and it tested good for them, so I asked for a different brand
and got a brand new Kingston stick just like the two I had from the
beginning. I put it in, tested it, and got errors.

Which slots?

The really weird thing that I've discovered with all this testing is
that any RAM I try in slot 3 tests just fine, but the other two slots
give errors on all the RAM I've tried EXCEPT this one stick of
generic RAM that was good from the start.

In slots 1 and 2 individually, or running a Dual Channel config?

So right now I"ve got that
generic stick in slot 1, and a kingston in slot 3, and it seems to
work okay.
I just don't know how long this will work or how on the edge of
stability it is like this, plus it bugs me that I have to put up with
this kind of crap in the first place, I got an Asus to replace my old
ECS K7S5A to not have these kinds of problems.

You could always push the FSB up until you get errors... that would give you
a good indication of your margin.

I have an Enermax 450 watt PSU, two CD drives and a single 200 gig WD
S-ATA hard drive. Should be lots of power for this setup, right?
Yes.

I
tried flashing to the latest bios (1008) with no change, although it
did fix the S-ATA delay I was getting on bootup.

There isn't a 1008 BIOS for the "rev 2.0 A7N8X Deluxe", so which BIOS and
board are you running?

Any ideas on this? I'd like to figure this out this weekend so I can
either return this new RAM or keep it, or look into RMA'ing the whole
board... It's a year and a week old.

Run your FSB at 180MHz.

Run RAM at 100%.

Use Slots 1 and 3 (i.e., not the middle slot)

Set your timings manually - use the highest number for each timing for both
chips. e.g, if your RAM chips are rated at 7-2-3-2 and 8-3-2-2, use
8-3-3-2.

Or just use 10-4-4-3, for now.

If that works, try 190MHz and 200MHz.

If it doesn't work, try moving the DIMM in slot 3 (furthest from the CPU) to
slot 2 and repeat.

Ben

 

[Ben Pope]

If it doesn't work, try moving the DIMM in slot 3 (furthest from the
CPU) to slot 2 and repeat.

First, try using a bit more VDIMM. My RAM (Corsair) is warranted to 2.9V, I
think. 2.8V should be safe.

Ben

 

[JM]

I'll assume you mean 200MHz DDR. Since thats what your RAM and your
motherboard are rated at .

Yes, sorry.. pc3200 speed...

How did you test this? Did you try the working stick in each slot to
confirm each slot was working?

Yes, and it works in every slot.

In all slots?

No, as I mentioned later on in the post, all sticks seem to work fine in the
3rd slot.

Which slots?

1 and 2. I tested it without any other RAM installed, first in slot 1, then
in slot 2.

In slots 1 and 2 individually, or running a Dual Channel config?
Individually.

You could always push the FSB up until you get errors... that would give you
a good indication of your margin.

I might try that. If it will run reliably just below full speed, that might
be easiest route rather than
trying to find RAM that will work.

There isn't a 1008 BIOS for the "rev 2.0 A7N8X Deluxe", so which BIOS and
board are you running?

http://www.asus.com/support/download/item.aspx?ModelName=A7N8X Deluxe&Type
=All

First file on the page.

Thanks for the suggestions, I'll try them all and see what I find out.

 

[Ben Pope]

http://www.asus.com/support/download/item.aspx?ModelName=A7N8X Deluxe&Type
=All

Interesting, wonder why I hadn't seen that then? I'll have to try it out
and update my website.

Cheers,

Ben

 

[swilburn]

I have experienced the same problem that you seem to be having,
intermitently. I am convinced (but of course I could be wrong) that it is
the RAM that is the problem. The RAM that I have are the exact same ones
you listed (Kingston ValueRAM), and I plan to resolve the problem by
replacing them with high quality RAM, probably from Crucial. I have heard
that ASUS MB's can be very finicky about their RAM. Working with Kingston
Tech support, I found that the problem mostly goes away if the RAM is ran at
less than their max speed - but then why buy fast RAM if you can't use it?

 

[JM]

I had the same issues (RAM would work fine just below the max speed).
Replaced it with OCZ RAM a week ago and it's been perfect ever since.
Apparently this board/chipset is very picky about what RAM it likes, so just
rack it up to bad luck I guess.