Problem With Memory Settings?

[cdog222]

I am quite new to overclocking, and I have just spent the better part of 5 hours playing around with my new system. It seems that I have a good deal of flexibility with the FSB and multiplyer settings, and I am able to get to just under 2500mhz with my AMD XP 2800. I am using an Asus A7N8X Deluxe mb

 

The problem starts when I try to make any adjustment to the memory settings in the BIOS. It seems that with any minor adjustments, things go bad fast, from having to take out the battery on the mb and reset the CMOS to simply not being able to POST. I am using Corsair XMS 3200 ram.

 

I guess I have 2 questions :

 

First, I am seeing many people post with memory BIOS settings of 5-2-2-2, etc. Currently, my BIOS is showing as 8-3-3-3, and I don't know how to make it better without running into the problems mentioned above.

 

Second, how do I tell what frequency the memory is running at? With the frequency setting in BIOS set to 'auto', the 'Resulting Frequency' is also showing as 'Auto'.

 

Hopefully I'm not another noob rehashing the same stuff for the 1000th time - if there is good reference material that I can read to help, please point me in the right direction. I've been looking for quite a while, and I've found lots of good general information that has allowed me to get to this point, but now I'm stuck

 

Thanks in advance...

 

edit......I wanted to add that I am currently at 205mhz with a multiplyer of 12.0

Edited June 23, 2003 by cdog222

[soke73]

ok.. try this.

 

i'm not exactly sure which corsair xms you have(C2 have diff timings than the LL even though its pc3200).2 sticks or one.

 

regardless, try to put your memory freq in the bios to SPD. also for your memory timings, try it first on the OPTIMAL setting, for stability purposes.

 

as far as the cpu freq - try a low setting first like 200 X 11 = 2.200. just try to boot up and get to windows.

 

before you look to do some serious oc'n, try to get stability first.

 

check that out. suggestions?

Edited June 23, 2003 by soke73

[cdog222]

Ok, a bit of an update.

 

Using the above suggestion (Thanks!), I was able to change the BIOS memory settings to 6-3-2-2. Unfortunately, when I try to change the RAS to CAS setting from 3 to 2, I wind up with a blank screen and flashing cursor immediately after POST. I'm assuming that 3 is my limit then??

 

Secondly, by changing the frequency to SPD, I am showing a memory frequency of 200mhz. Now here's the dumb question of the day - does this reflect the DDR capability of the RAM, meaning that it's running at 400mhz, or is it really at 200mhz? I made the assumtion that it was the latter, and changed the frequency setting from SPD to 120%, which resulted in my having to reset the CMOS.

 

Any more feedback would be appreciated.

 

Oh, and as to the type of RAM, it is the Platinum 'version' - not sure if that helps or not.

 

Thanks!!