Griz said:
I was having problems with my computer with room temperature and system
locking up with no error messages. If it was 65F of less everything was OK.
If it was 70F it would lock up. I found the solution to my problem in the bios.
I enabled 4 way interleave and I can now run a full virus scan at any room temperature.
Maybe one of the MVPs could explain just what doing so does to or for the
ram.
I suspect it just happend to work for you. It might make things worse for
other people with the same problem. I think you would be wise to check that
the memory in your mobo is the right speed and that the cooling system on
your PC is working ok. It only took 6 months for the heat sink on my CPU to
fill up with dust and stop the fan doing its job.
Here is a first class guide to BIOS setings
http://www.adriansrojakpot.com/Speed_Demonz/BIOS_Guide/BIOS_Guide_Index.htm
Hope they won't mind if I quote:
SDRAM Bank Interleave
Options : 2-Bank, 4-Bank, Disabled
This feature enables you to set the interleave mode of the SDRAM interface.
Interleaving allows banks of SDRAM to alternate their refresh and access
cycles. One bank will undergo its refresh cycle while another is being
accessed. This improves performance of the SDRAM by masking the refresh time
of each bank. A closer examination of interleaving will reveal that since
the refresh cycles of all the SDRAM banks are staggered, this produces a
kind of pipelining effect.
If there are 4 banks in the system, the CPU can ideally send one data
request to each of the SDRAM banks in consecutive clock cycles. This means
in the first clock cycle, the CPU will send an address to Bank 0 and then
send the next address to Bank 1 in the second clock cycle before sending the
third and fourth addresses to Banks 2 and 3 in the third and fourth clock
cycles respectively. The sequence would be something like this :-
CPU sends address #0 to Bank 0
CPU sends address #1 to Bank 1 and receives data #0 from Bank 0
CPU sends address #2 to Bank 2 and receives data #1 from Bank 1
CPU sends address #3 to Bank 3 and receives data #2 from Bank 2
CPU receives data #3 from Bank 3
As a result, the data from all four requests will arrive consecutively from
the SDRAM without any delay in between. But if interleaving was not enabled,
the same 4-address transaction would be roughly like this :-
SDRAM refreshes
CPU sends address #0 to SDRAM
CPU receives data #0 from SDRAM
SDRAM refreshes
CPU sends address #1 to SDRAM
CPU receives data #1 from SDRAM
SDRAM refreshes
CPU sends address #2 to SDRAM
CPU receives data #2 from SDRAM
SDRAM refreshes
CPU sends address #3 to SDRAM
CPU receives data #3 from SDRAM
As you can see, with interleaving, the first bank starts transferring data
to the CPU in the same cycle that the second bank receives an address from
the CPU. Without interleaving, the CPU would send the address to the SDRAM,
receive the data requested and then wait for the SDRAM to refresh before
initiating the second data transaction. That wastes a lot of clock cycles.
That's why the SDRAM's bandwidth increases with interleaving enabled.
However, bank interleaving only works if the addresses requested
consecutively are not in the same bank. If they are, then the data
transactions behave as if the banks were not interleaved. The CPU will have
to wait till the first data transaction clears and that SDRAM bank refreshes
before it can send another address to that bank.
Each SDRAM DIMM consists of either 2 banks or 4 banks. 2-bank SDRAM DIMMs
use 16Mbit SDRAM chips and are usually 32MB or less in size. 4-bank SDRAM
DIMMs, on the other hand, usually use 64Mbit SDRAM chips though the SDRAM
density may be up to 256Mbit per chip. All SDRAM DIMMs of at least 64MB in
size or greater are 4-banked in nature.
If you are using a single 2-bank SDRAM DIMM, set this feature to 2-Bank. But
if you are using two 2-bank SDRAM DIMMs, you can use the 4-Bank option as
well. With 4-bank SDRAM DIMMs, you can use either interleave options.
Naturally, 4-bank interleave is better than 2-bank interleave so if
possible, set it to 4-Bank. Use 2-Bank only if you are using a single 2-bank
SDRAM DIMM. Note, however, that Award (now part of Phoenix Technologies)
recommends that SDRAM bank interleaving be disabled if 16Mbit SDRAM DIMMs
are used. This is because early 16Mbit SDRAM DIMMs used to have stability
problems with bank interleaving. All SDRAM modules can now use bank
interleaving without stability problems.
