New MOBO

[Rudy Kazuti]

A7N8X-E Deluxe
I tried two sticks of memory in dimm slot B1 with no errors. If I put a
single stick in
A1 or A2 I get errors with memtest86. Definitely can not use one in each
channel as dual mode. It looks like something is not right with the A1 & A2
dimm slots as anything inserted gives errors..
I am using Kingston Value ram PC 3200 DDR 400
Memtest reports as,

Ram 199mhz (DDR398)/CAS: 3-3-3-8
Dual channel (128 bits)
L1 cache 128 13441 mb/s
L2 cache 512 4279 mb/s

Everything runs fine as long as I use a single stick in dimm slot B1. Any
thoughts?

Rudy

 

[rOy cOOrne]

A7N8X-E Deluxe
I tried two sticks of memory in dimm slot B1 with no errors. If I put a
single stick in
A1 or A2 I get errors with memtest86. Definitely can not use one in each
channel as dual mode. It looks like something is not right with the A1 & A2
dimm slots as anything inserted gives errors..
I am using Kingston Value ram PC 3200 DDR 400
Memtest reports as,

Ram 199mhz (DDR398)/CAS: 3-3-3-8
Dual channel (128 bits)
L1 cache 128 13441 mb/s
L2 cache 512 4279 mb/s

Everything runs fine as long as I use a single stick in dimm slot B1. Any
thoughts?

How much MB has each module?

Did you try putting a module each in slots B1 and B2?

rOy

 

[Rudy Kazuti]

Each module has 512 mb. There are only three dim slots. A1-A2-B1. A1 & B1
are blue in color. A2 ia a black one. The manual says for dual channel to
use either A1 & B1 or A2 & B1.

 

[Rudy Kazuti]

Follow up: I haven't seen anything in the manual or bios stating that I have
to set the board to use dual channel. I can use it with just the 512 stick
but that's not why I bought 2 sticks of 512. 1 gig is a lot better for my
Cad work.

 

[Ben Pope]

A7N8X-E Deluxe
I tried two sticks of memory in dimm slot B1 with no errors. If I put
a single stick in
A1 or A2 I get errors with memtest86. Definitely can not use one in
each channel as dual mode. It looks like something is not right with
the A1 & A2 dimm slots as anything inserted gives errors..
I am using Kingston Value ram PC 3200 DDR 400
Memtest reports as,

Ram 199mhz (DDR398)/CAS: 3-3-3-8
Dual channel (128 bits)
L1 cache 128 13441 mb/s
L2 cache 512 4279 mb/s

Everything runs fine as long as I use a single stick in dimm slot B1.
Any thoughts?

For a laugh, try running the RAM at 3-4-4-10.

Make sure that RAM and FSB are in synch (RAM at 100%).

Ben

 

[Rudy Kazuti]

How can you change the CAS? I thought it was built into the ram.

 

[Ben Pope]

How can you change the CAS? I thought it was built into the ram.

Nope, the SPD in the RAM gives the minimum CAS (and other timings) for a
given speed.

The chipset actually issues the commands, so if you go into the chipset
config in the BIOS and select the timings manually, you get to configure it.

Ben

 

[donny]

another memory problem with that a7n8x board that makes about 30 in one
month in this forum lol....

 

[Paul]

A7N8X-E Deluxe
I tried two sticks of memory in dimm slot B1 with no errors. If I put a
single stick in
A1 or A2 I get errors with memtest86. Definitely can not use one in each
channel as dual mode. It looks like something is not right with the A1 & A2
dimm slots as anything inserted gives errors..
I am using Kingston Value ram PC 3200 DDR 400
Memtest reports as,

Ram 199mhz (DDR398)/CAS: 3-3-3-8
Dual channel (128 bits)
L1 cache 128 13441 mb/s
L2 cache 512 4279 mb/s

Everything runs fine as long as I use a single stick in dimm slot B1. Any
thoughts?

Rudy

1) Does A1 or A2 work with a single stick, if you drop the
CPU clock to 180MHz ?

2) Do things improve if you increase Vdimm to 2.75 volts ?

3) If (1) works, can you use two sticks in A1 & A2 at 180MHz ?
That is single channel mode, but with two sticks.
It still has single channel bandwidth.

4) Can you now move a stick, so you are using A1 & B1 at
a clock of 180MHz for the CPU ?

5) If (4), can you run Prime95 (mersenne.org) torture test
with the dual channel configuration in (4) ? Is it error
free ?

Finally, you can play with some hacked BIOS files.

http://forums.pcper.com/showthread.php?t=352326

If you have given up on the board anyway, try flashing the
"CPC off" BIOS:

http://www.senorpanadero.net/uploader/userfiles/trats/asus/a7n8x_e/1012-Emod_2T.zip

I downloaded both of them (CPC off and CPC on), and
upgraded my flash to the 1012-Emod.zip version, which is
the "CPC on" BIOS. The Asus BIOS are all "CPC on"
otherwise known as Command Rate 1T, which is the most
demanding setting. If you run a "CPC off" BIOS, you can
generally set the clocks a lot higher. I'm willing to bet
your Kingston will run any way you want it to, with that BIOS.
You will lose memory bandwidth by using CPC off, but it
does wonders to stabilize memory.

If you are a "no compromises" kind of user, return your
Kingston memory and buy some CAS2 memory. (Not CAS2.5,
because when my board is set to CAS2.5, its performance
is exactly the same as CAS3, when measured with the memtest86
bandwidth test.) I use Ballistix PC3200 from Crucial.com
and it fixed my problems. I never bothered to replace the
Trats BIOS with an official Asus BIOS, so I'm still using it
that way. Since Trats "CPC on" is the same as the Asus BIOS,
and uses Command Rate 1T, there is really no need to change
the BIOS again.

Or RMA the Asus motherboard and take your chances with
another one. It all depends on whether you think the
motherboard is really a dog and is performing less than
the average A7N8X-E.

P.S. The link for the "CPC on" BIOS is:
http://www.senorpanadero.net/uploader/userfiles/trats/asus/a7n8x_e/1012-Emod.zip

Paul

 

[Rudy Kazuti]

I have printed everyones suggestions. I appreciate the help. I decided to
start fresh and RMA'd the board yesterday. What pisses me off is if you
spend some bucks for a decent mobo that's advertised to support a cpu with
400fsb and ddr 3200/400 ram then it should do it without having to tweak the
voltages & speeds. I realize that sometimes that's the fun of building but
some of us are hesitant or without the confidence/knowlege to do that. I'll
post when the mobo gets here with the results. Thanks again. Your
instructions do make me a little more confident I can do some tweaking.

Rudy

 

[Ben Pope]

another memory problem with that a7n8x board that makes about 30 in
one month in this forum lol....

In my experience, most of the problems here are misconfiguration, cheap
nasty RAM (which the nForce2 is not very tolerant of) and other resaons that
are not directly attributed to the board.

My Corsair TwinX1024-3200LL has run flawlessly in mine for nearly 18 months.

Ben

 

[John CRawford]

If you are trying to run dual channel you have to
use slots one and three, not one and two

 

[Ed]

In my experience, most of the problems here are misconfiguration, cheap
nasty RAM (which the nForce2 is not very tolerant of) and other resaons that
are not directly attributed to the board.

My Corsair TwinX1024-3200LL has run flawlessly in mine for nearly 18 months.

Ben

I built a A7N8X v2.0(non-dlx) 21 months ago and it's been flawless also.

All the reviews back then were using Corsair with success stories so I
ended up getting Twinx 512MB PC3200LLPT, got 2 kits by mistake but was
never charged for the 2nd , broke the seal and have had 3*256 in it
since.

Cheers,
Ed

 

[Rudy Kazuti]

They are numbered a1, a2 & b1. Which two are 1 & 3?