New Expert board not liking 4 x 512MB

[VTEC]

Hi all,

 

My first Expert board died a week ago and I purchased another Expert to replace it.

 

So far so good, except my 4 x 512MB OCZ DDR400 Platinum Rev 2 doesn't run stable at DDR400 2-2-2-5 timings. On the 1st board, it was rock solid at those settings at 2.77v. I did get memtest to pass on one loop at those same settings, but when left overnight there were errors, as well as every game crashing within 5 minutes. In a couple minites I'm going to try memtest at 2.8v.

 

This is my first AMD build (was Intel-only until recently) and I have the CPC set to Enable, which I understand forces 1T timings. On both expert boards, it would not boot with CPC set to Disable or Auto.

 

Only thing I've done in the BIOS is to Load Optimized defaults and adjust the settings to what I listed above.

 

Any help, as always, is appreciated.

[EdLSmith]

Contact Angry_Games, the forum administrator. If you send the Bad board to him, he can test it and replace it if needed. Lott better than using RMA outfit.

 

Default settings are fine for getting started but they won't do the job of 24/7. Stabilizing the unit is your problem, that's what these boards are all about. You have to learn what stabilizes and what improves performance. It is a love/hate relationship. I thought I'd use a hammer on it the first month or so.

 

Good luck. Make use of the guides and tutoring threads.

[Prostock62]

Vtec you may want to upgrade your bios from stock.Does the bios your using support the processor your running?

[red930]

Agreed.

 

Once we know what the BIOS date is then we can assist you in troubleshooting the issues you are experiencing.

Vtec you may want to upgrade your bios from stock.Does the bios your using support the processor your running?

[VTEC]

I have the stock BIOS, I'll find out which that is. By the way, this article at HardOCP states the Expert is unstable at DDR400 with 4 sticks of RAM. Is this right? My last Expert board was rocksolid stable at those settings, 1T as well. This one won't even boot at 2T DDR400 for some reason, but will at 1T (except it's unstable).

 

Would the power supply (NeoPower 480W) potentially stop the system from running DDR400? It's been stable at DDR333 today for a couple hours in games that crashed within a few minutes at DDR400.

[Prostock62]

It could run unstable but dought thats your problem.The memory controller is in the cpu and if the bios dont support the cpu your going to run unstable.This will give you a idea.

 

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/displ...n64-e3-mem.html

 

You realy should get a bigger PS.The min requirments for the nf4 boards call for at least 485 w min.

[VTEC]

Just got an Enermax Noisetaker II 600W PSU with the 8pin power connector. It's still unstable at DDR400 with 4 sticks at 1T. It won't even load Windows at 2T. It does pass one pass of memtest at DDR400 1T 2-2-2-5 but overnight will show errors. Games crash quickly at that setting.

 

Even DDR333 isn't rock solid stable at 2T. It's still crashing occasionally in games. And the review I linked to at HardOCP states they weren't able to get the Expert stable with 4 sticks at DDR400.

 

 

So I need 2 x 1 Gig?

[VTEC]

I think I solved it. DRAM Drive Strength at 11 allows me to boot at DDR400 2T. It ran 3DMark06 without issue. I'll continue testing but so far so good. Previously, I'd only tried 1-7 for Drive Strength... live and learn.

[Guest Upok]

I love when I come in here and stumble on someone else having the exact same problem I am. Sig below, just got the second gig of plat rev 2. I was gonna get some Mushkin Redline, and still might, but the timing and price were right on the ocz. The first gig of ocz has been superb.

Trying to run at any timings--and I mean anything from 2-2-2-5 to 3-4-4-8--at 200(1/1) ratio fails to start windows. Post goes fine, memtest for 30 minutes is okay, just windows won't start. I'll try memtest overnight and see what happens.

Think I'll try the dram strength at 11. Will post later.

[Guest Upok]

Well, dram strength 11 got windows to boot at ddr400 2-3-2-5, had timings on auto so defaults to 2-3-2-5. Thanks for the heads up, next comes some gaming for stability test, and if all goes well, some overclocking for the weekend.

 

boots at 2-3-2-5 2T with dram strength 9.

now running 2-2-2-5 1T, 2.77V, dram strength 10-stable

2-2-2-5 1T, 2.77 dram stength 11 for gaming stability

[UncleDavid218]

Athlon 64s tend to hate running 4 sticks of any size RAM.

 

That's just how it is.

[Guest Upok]

Upping the Dram strength to 9 got me stable in windows, but not in gaming. Upping the dram stength to 11 has kept me stable in everthing so far, including prime95. My overclocking days appear to be history as long as I am running 4x512s, but games like fear, and cod2 love the extra ram more than the higher clock speed.