Problems with Crucial Ballistix PC 4000s

[kosmook]

Built my rig at the end of May this year - running at stock speeds - memory settings all on Auto - everything seemed fine until about a month afterwards i started to get random BSODs which all pointed to the RAM being faulty. So I memtested it and sure enough I got loads of errors but only on one of the sticks.

 

So I RMA'd them and got a new pair in July and initially they were working fine, but since I flashed the Bios from 3/10 to 6/23 I have been getting the same BSODs as before. I have memtested them and got loads of errors on both sticks now.

 

The other thing I've noticed is that the full amount of RAM is not being recognised by the board at startup, it comes up as 1047448 MB. I've tried another stick of cheap PC3200 ram that I had lying about and thats coming up short by roughly 1MB as well, but i've not had any memtest errors with that stick.

 

So at the moment I'm using the old stick of RAM and everything is stable, but I'm wondering if the Ballistix are faulty or if there is some issue with the BIOS/Mobo that I don't know about which is making the Ballistix faulty.

 

Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.

[FuzzyDice]

You're not laying them on the carpet when you're changing them, are you? Keeping yourself grounded? All that good stuff?

[typer77]

I didn't have any luck with bios 623-2. but 510-2 seems to be treating me OK.

I will try 623-3 sometime in the future.... will let you know.

[CrucialLabs]

You can not run the memory on auto timings...they will not function properly. You need to make sure and set the timings up in the BIOS and make sure the VDIMM voltage is set to 2.8v. Also you need to downgrade the BIOS back to 510-2.

 

Voltage is the most important part and either not having enough or having too much will produce errors in memtest.

[typer77]

I just tried to use 704-2BT or 623-2. none of them will work. Even though I have the same timing set for all the bios, 510-2 is the only one that works.

 

CrucialLabs, Is this your experience too?

 

thank you!!

[CrucialLabs]

Right now I am running BIOS rev 711-2 in the lab and everything is steady at 250MHz...Angry helped me find the right one for my board..Since all boards, even if they are the same exact type, do not function the same the 711-2 BIOS may not work for you but give it a go anyhow.

 

 

 

Hope this helps.

[Angry_Games]

heh Jim...you mean the 7.04-2BT bios? (there's no 7.11-2 bios that i am aware of hehe)

[ArrowMk84]

Right now I am running BIOS rev 711-2 in the lab and everything is steady at 250MHz...Angry helped me find the right one for my board..Since all boards, even if they are the same exact type, do not function the same the 711-2 BIOS may not work for you but give it a go anyhow.

 

I just got my Ballistix sticks today. Since you're recommending 6/23-2 and 7/04-2, and since the sticks are have "BH" in the label, I take it these sticks are using BH-5 chips?

[typer77]

I ran 510-2 bios. only DDR400, 2.8v, 3-4-4-8 and memtest comes back with 1 error in pass#7 after a 5 hour run. is that normal?

[Angry_Games]

Ballistix modules are Micron IC's, they do not have Winbond IC's in them at all

 

I run my Ballistix PC4000 modules stock speed like this (on the 6/23-2 and 7/04-2BT bioses)

 

 

 

Genie BIOS Settings:

FSB Bus Frequency - 200

LDT/FSB Frequency Ratio - AUTO

CPU/FSB Frequency Ratio - AUTO

PCI eXpress Frequency - 100Mhz

 

CPU VID StartUp Value - 1.500v

 

CPU VID Control - 1.300v

CPU VID Special Control - Above VID * 110%

LDT Voltage Control - 1.20v

Chip Set Voltage Control - 1.50v

DRAM Voltage Control - 2.80v

 

DRAM Configuration Settings:

DRAM Frequency Set - 200=RAM/FSB:01/01

Command Per Clock (CPC) - Enable

CAS Latency Control (Tcl) - 2.0

RAS# to CAS# delay (Trcd) - 03 Bus Clocks

Min RAS# active time (Tras) - 08 Bus Clocks

Row precharge time (Trp) - 03 Bus Clocks

Row Cycle time (Trc) - 09 Bus Clocks

Row refresh cyc time (Trfc) - 16 Bus Clocks

Row to Row delay (Trrd) - 03 Bus Clocks

Write recovery time (Twr) - 03 Bus Clocks

Write to Read delay (Twtr) - 02 Bus Clocks

Read to Write delay (Trwt) - 03 Bus Clocks

Refresh Period (Tref) - Auto

Write CAS Latency (Twcl) - Auto

DRAM Bank Interleave - Enabled

 

DQS Skew Control - Auto

DQS Skew Value - 0

DRAM Drive Strength - Level 7

DRAM Data Drive Strength - Level 2

Max Async Latency - 8.0 Nano Seconds

DRAM Response Time - Fast

Read Preamble Time - 6.0 Nano Seconds

IdleCycle Limit - 256 Cycles

Dynamic Counter - Disable

R/W Queue Bypass - 16 x

Bypass Max - 04 x

32 Byte Granularity - Disable(4 Bursts)

[typer77]

Thanks Angry!! I will try those as soon as I get home. I hope these stock settings will help me with those BIOS too.

In general, if I run ddr400 with those high bandwidth rams with stock voltage, stock latency and timing, will that generate errors?

Also, do you use the yellow slots of the crucial ram? thx.

[Angry_Games]

Thanks Angry!! I will try those as soon as I get home. I hope these stock settings will help me with those BIOS too.

In general, if I run ddr400 with those high bandwidth rams with stock voltage, stock latency and timing, will that generate errors?

Also, do you use the yellow slots of the crucial ram? thx.

 

 

er...stock settings are just that...what the modules and cpu were designed for.

 

all DDR400 modules are designed to at least do DDR400.

 

all DDR500 modules are at least designed to do DDR500 (which includes doing DDR400)

 

all AMD cpu's are only designed for doing stock DDR400 on the FSB (which is a bit of oddness since these cpu's dont have a real 'FSB', but they are designed to accept DDR400 memory modules)

 

errors are not generated by running stock settings

 

errors are generated by running incorrect configurations at stock settings

 

i use yellow slots with all my memory, regardless of what it is, and i run only the 6/23-2 and 7/04-2BT bioses on all of my Lanparty NF4 boards.