Topic: Sandra, where are you?

[Rik]

Following the saga of getting my main machine repaired (four visits, new graphics card, power supply, motherboard and CPU tried before checking the memory!), I'm left puzzled. Before things went wrong, I'd not paid too much attention to the POST report, but afterwards, I noticed the RAM was reporting as PC2-5300. This seemed odd as the original RAM was rated at 1066MHz, the temporary replacement at 800MHz, and the final replacement is again 1066, marked PC2-8500 on the pack. The original BIOS settings had been lost due to clearing the CMOS.

It's an Asus P5W64 WS Pro motherboard, with an E6700 CPU and, according to Everest, the clock speed is 333MHz with bandwidth of 2666MHz. SIW, otoh, reports a clock of 266MHz, but both agree the FSB is 1066.

I've manually set the DRAM frequency as advised by Scan, the mobo was on auto settings. Their initial recommendation of 1066MHz was unstable and wouldn't boot, so I've dropped it to 800MHz, and the report at POST is PC2-6400.

Is this correct, or am I missing something?

[Sandra]

Looking at the specs for your mobo it shows this :

Memory Support 4 DIMMs, DDR2, 533/667/800/1066, 8GiB max.

Thats an unusually large range dont you think ?

The clock speed is usually quadrupuled to get the FSB speed and the ram is usually double the clock speed or half the FSB.
If both are reporting the FSB as 1066Mhz then its looking like the clock is really 266Mhz.
FSB of 1066Mhz would normally indicate ram at 533Mhz which would be PC2-4200 or possibly PC2-4300, unless you were going to be overclocking.

800Mhz is PC2-6400 so that should be OK, does it still not boot ?

Did you alter the RAM voltages as well as the frequency ?
I would try setting the frequency and voltages to auto or load failsafe default, if still not booting properly.

[Rik]

Thanks, Sandra. I altered the RAM frequency (clock is 266) to 1067 but it then became unstable, and I had to power cycle it to get back to a bootable system. Left on auto, it gives me 5300, with a change to 800MHz for the RAM it gives me 6400. I'm told I also need to alter the voltage to 2.1, and preferably the timings to 5-5-5-15. I've no problems doing that, but I'm concerned as to what happens if it then refuses to boot, I can't physically clear the CMOS due to my tremors. Would a power cycle normally reset the CMOS in that situation?

[Sandra]

Have you not got the option to load optimised or failsafe from the bios itself Rik ?

[Rik]

I do, Sandra - provided I can get into the BIOS, of course. That ends up giving me PC2-5300 dual channel.

[Sandra]

So that would have it running as 667mhz which should be OK as a starting point even though its a little slower than the 800 and 1066 that you have been trying.
Is it stable when running at that setting ?
If it is then I would leave it at that for now as I dont think the higher Mhz would make that much difference for most applications. The size rather than speed seems to be the main thing in improving performance.

Size really does matter Rik 

[Rik]

 

Running at PC2-6400 is stable, so I may just leave it at that. There's as much RAM there as I can give a 32-bit OS.

[Sandra]

Good idea Rik, if it aint broke dont fix it 

[Rik]

A woman after my own heart.

[Simon]

You're desperate to give that away, aren't you? 

[Rik]

I might get a better one in return.

[Simon]

Not from Sandra you won't, she's from up North.  They never give anything away.  

[Rik]

Sue did. 

[Simon]

Only because she knew what she was getting in return.  Has she renewed the insurances yet? 

[Rik]

She won't tell me.