New RAM Purchased..Need Help Pls

SIMP

SIMP

Member
All,
Perhaps you can give me some help with an issue I'm having. I just bought some extra memory for my PC recently and for some reason Vista sees the new memory but the BIOS and CPU-Z does not see the correct type. I have attached links to screen shots of what CPU-Z sees. The BIOS sees it as PC2-4800 memory. This memory is actually PC2-5400 RAM (DDR2 667). Why would the BIOS see it as PC2-4800 and CPU-Z see it as follows? Maybe I need to rearrange it in the slots since I have 2 x 512MB and 2 x 1GB chips? I would certainly appreciate any and all feedback on this. Thank you.

RAM Info: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d179/SIMP123/RAMInfo1.jpg

Slot1 Info: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d179/SIMP123/Slot1.jpg

Slot2 Info: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d179/SIMP123/Slot2.jpg

Slot3 Info: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d179/SIMP123/Slot3.jpg

Slot4 Info: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d179/SIMP123/Slot4.jpg

Again, thanks!!
 
It looks like you have 2 sticks of DDR2 800 and 2 DDR2 677. It should be back clocking the DDR2 800 to DDR2 677 and running all 4 at DDR2 677/333mhz but for some reason the bios has it set at 300 instead of 333mhz.
 
You have to go into the bios itself to manually set the timings there as long as they are same on both sets. If you are mixing memory that can cause simply by seeing different latencies. For 2gb of 6400 800mhz memory here the bios showed 667 until changing auto to DDR2 800 along with manually setting the dram timings of 4-4-4-14 2T or auto for the board here.

CPU-Z is reporting PC2-5300 and PC2-6400 DDR2 800 memory there with the 1gb dimms being the faster memory. It's advised to install the faster memory in the first dimm slot on each channel to expect it to run at the slower memory's speed when mixing. The pair of 1gb DDR2 800 dimms would be the winner once the dram timings were set correctly.
 
Dont put one DDR2 6400 1gb and the slower DDR2 677 512mb sticks in the same memory channel like said above, more than likely it will knock it out of dual channel. Put the DDR 2 800 1gbs sticks in the yellow slots and the DDR2 677 512mb in the black slots. When you boot go into the bios and manually set the memory bus to 333 or 667 ever what its listed as. Set your voltage and timming to Auto. If it boots and runs stable you will be fine. If not you might have to manually set your voltage and timming to get a stable setting between the 2 different pairs of memory.
 
Whenever going to add memory it's always best to go with the exact same as far as timings and type usually with the same brand to avoid problems like this. If you bought the 512s to see 3gb since your sig shows 2gb there a pair of DRR2 800 512s or a 1gb dimm of the same would have been the best move rather then mixing speeds.

The specifications are seen at http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=3&l2=11&l3=184&model=493&modelmenu=1 show PC2-6400 DDR2 800 memory as well as the slower 667 is supported there.
 
Thanks for the input guys. Here's the scenario, I had 4 x 512 chips installed. I had PC2-5300 and PC2-5400 memory mixed. Well the BIOS recognized the memory as all PC2-5300 when this was done. I bought 2 x 1 GB chips the same exact brand and specs as the PC2-5400 512 MB chips. When I mixed the PC2-5400 512 and 1 GB chips, the BIOS decided they were PC2-4800. I made sure I ordered the same exact specs and brand from newegg as my old 512 chips and even checked the label on each chip this morning. All PC2-5400 and I know they're all DDR2-667, 4-4-4-12 and same voltage as I just checked my history in newegg. I guess I will have to set manually in BIOS, huh? Thanks again everybody!!

Update: I switched them modules on my MB so that the 1GB chips are in the first slots of each channel and the 512 chips are in the second slots of each channel. Still, the same result. BIOS sees them as PC2-4800 and CPU-z sees them as shown in the above links but in different slots now. Any advice in changing the speeds in BIOS? Do I need to tell the BIOS they are 667 and not 333 and 400 as shown in CPU-z? Thanks.
 
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You need to go in the bios and find your Memory bus speed settings and change it to 333 or 667 either way its listed.
 
Where it says auto, 533, 667 you would that to 667. The timings may be the problem there since you mixed 5400 with 5300 memory. Since both are supposedly 4-4-4-12 you would then try the CAS 4 followed by 4 under that then 4 and finally 12. For the auto, 1T, 2T setting at the bottom you are better leaving that set to auto.
 
If you find your memory bus just set it to 333/667 and leave the voltage and timming set to auto first and see if it will boot and run stable, theres no need to fool with the timming or voltage till you find that out first.
 
On the Asus model used here simply setting the speed to 800 wasn't enough. But the pair of 800 dimms were just that the exact same PC2-6400 memory where setting the dram timings manually then saw DDR2 800 on the post screen.

With the mix there however try the 667 alone to see how that goes first like advised. Here if wanting to add more in I would either buy another identical pair of 1gb dimms or replace the current with two 2gb dimms like first pondered on now that prices are gradually starting to come down in order to suffer with the 3.2gb or so available ram. Even with prices lower now I still seem to stay with the present 2gb however.
 
Didnt you say PCeye you had a X2 6000, it doesnt run the ram at 400/800mhz anyway. It has a uneven X so the memory runs at 373/746mhz. This is a fact plus I have installed a bunch of X2 6000. And as far as above you do not fool with the voltage or timming till you know you need to.
 
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Okay, I went into the BIOS and changed the DRAM Freq. from DDR2-600 to DDR2-720 which was the highest option. I booted and the BIOS screen showed the memory to be PC2-5700 as opposed to the PC2-4800 it was seeing. The OS booted fine and seems stable. I ran CPU-Z and it still showed the same specs for the RAM as it did before. (Links in first post)

A few ?'s for you guys:
1) Is it safe to run the DRAM at DDR2-720 as opposed to the DDR2-600 it was set on?
2) Does it matter if CPU-Z sees them as it does?

I'm sure I'll have more questions later but I sincerely appreciate the help from everyone here.
 
If it is running on the 720 setting then you know that is the standard speed and fastest without ocing supported. Software tools like CPUID and PC Wizard show what is supported as opposed to actual memory speed.

To answer what speed the 6400 memory is seeing here the System Info for Windows(SIW) tool shows the actual just as seen on the post screen at startup.

 
Cool PC eye, how do you get to that screen in SIW? I found the System Info in Vista but cannot locate that screen. Is that a third party SIW? Thanks.
 
That's a freebie found at http://www.gtopala.com/ PC World lists it as the one of the best 101 fabulous freebies in the lengthy 2006 article seen at http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,124883-page,1/article.html?tk=pcw_pr&findid=52632

Once you download a copy to a folder simply right click on the exe file to select the create shortcut option and drag the supe onto the desktop from any W.Explorer window. You can rename the shortcut later by right clicking on that and simply going to the general tab.

Once you double click on that or simply on the exe file you can look over the left column to select betwen just about anything whether software or hardware installed on your system. It will display quite a bit of detailed info on what item you select. It's definitely a good tool to have onhand when you don't know things like make and model this or that.
 
PC eye said:
To answer what speed the 6400 memory is seeing here the System Info for Windows(SIW) tool shows the actual just as seen on the post screen at startup.

Click to expand...

Well you dont have a X2 6000 then, its common knowledge that odd X AM2 athlons dont run the ram at full speed.

so naturally the 3.0 GHz Athlon 64 X2 6000+ with its 15x multiplier can only support approximate DDR2 speeds of 746 MHz.
http://www.sharkyextreme.com/hardware/cpu/article.php/3660771

Because the chip uses an odd-numbered CPU multiplier and the memory clock is derived from the CPU clock, we’ve got more memory madness going on with the X2 6000+. The 15.0x multiplier means that the memory is forced to use the CPU/8 divider to derive its actual clock when it’s set to DDR2-800 in the system BIOS. A quick calculation reveals that the memory is running at 375MHz or 750MHz DDR on the X2 6000+.
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2007/02/22/amd_athlon_64_x2_6000/1

Since the AMD64 memory bus does not work with decimal numbers, the divider is then rounded up to the next highest number

Athlon 64 X2 6000+3 GHz8750 MHz
http://www.hwupgrade.com/articles/cpu/27/the-last-of-the-k8-the-amd-athlon-64-x2-6000+_2.html

Because we can only use integer memory dividers, the only options for memory speed on a CPU with an odd clock multiplier are DDR2-866 or DDR2-742. Since AMD can't run above DDR2-800 spec, the only option is to underclock the memory to DDR2-742. This wasn't a problem on Socket-939 CPUs because DDR-400 ran at a 200MHz frequency, which you could always obtain by dividing the CPU clock frequency by an integer (since AMD never supported half multipliers). In fact, you simply used the same integer as the CPU multiplier. With DDR2-800, you need a 400MHz clock frequency, which you can only generate if you have an even CPU clock multiplier.
 
Man, I like this software PC, thanks. Here's what it reads about my system.

CPU Info: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d179/SIMP123/CPUInfo.jpg

RAM Info: http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d179/SIMP123/RamSIW.jpg

Looks like it now sees my memory at at least DDR2-667 like the mfg specs said I had!! The 1 GB modules seem to show DDR2-800 though....hmm.

This software tells me stuff about my system I never knew....LOL. I just realized, I am running my CPU at 3.6 GHz. I remember my friend that basically built this thing for me had my system OC'd to 4.1 GHz and I got very concerned. We backed it back down to 3.8 to be safe but it looks like I went even lower to 3.6 to be real safe!!
 
Well I dont know what a Atholon is. But if your have a X2 6000 it is a (Athlon) 64 X2 6000 and it runs DDR2 800 at 746mhz if you want to believe it or not. With AM2 it doesnt matter if you have a Dual or single core the odd X does not run the ram at full speed.
 
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