Boots with PC2-6400 not with PC2-8500

[NFI]

Hello,

I've been running a system based on an Asus P5K Deluxe (P35) mobo for a while now, quite happily with 4GB of PC2-8500 in 4x 1GB modules. Unfortunately, if I ever shut down this system, it refuses to boot again until I've done the following;

Take all the memory out
Put one stick of PC2-6400 in
Boot to CMOS
Increase DRAM Voltage 0.05V
Shut down and replace RAM with 4x PC2-8500
Reboot

This is a bit of a pain in the @rse, to be honest... However, today I had to shut down thanks to Windows Update and the system absolutely would not start up again with the PC2-8500 RAM in it. I tried incrementing the DRAM Voltage in .05 steps right up to 2.55V but with no luck The weird thing is, when I put the PC2-6400 RAM in place, the BIOS then complained that "Your Overclocking Settings have Failed" when it boots - what settings? I've set everything back to default to try and get you to boot, you stupid thing!

So now I'm running on 2GB of PC2-6400 in 2x 1GB modules and the system starts fine - it's noticably slower, though and the various VM's I usually run in the background are fairly laggy

So what's going on? Have I got bad RAM or a bad MoBo? I'm going with bad MoBo at the moment, as this is the second Asus board which has started giving me problems (I have another P5 based board which has had its main PCI-E 16x slot just fail). At the moment, I have 4 sticks of OCZ Reaper PC2-8500 RAM just sitting on my desk, taunting me...and it's really bl**dy annoying

Any thoughts will be much appreciated,

Thanks,

Paul

System specs from CPU-Z:
CPU:
Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz
Core V : 1.17V (avg)
RAM:
2048MB
400MHz
1.8V
MoBo:
ASUSTeK P5K Deluxe
P35/G33/G31
ICH9R
BIOS : AMI v0202 04/23/2007

 

[Lemon13]

how are ur spd settings? the ram u intend 2 use uses epp (Enhanced Performance Profiles) in programmed in spd, wich usally can only be applied by nvidia/sli chipsets.
try not 2 use spd profiles, configure the ram by hand.

http://www.ocztechnology.com/products/memory/ocz_ddr2_pc2_8500_reaper_hpc_edition

 

[paparazi]

My tip would be to flash your motherboards bios. Updating often addresses memory issues and makes the mainboard more compatible with different memory types.
Bios 04/23/2007 sounds very early for a P35 chipset equipped motherboard, there must be several newer releases, obviously flash with the latest.
Martin

On wings like angels whispers sweet
my heart it feels a broken beat
Touched soul and hurt lay wounded deep
Brown eyes are lost afar and sleep

 

[BadBigBen]

I'm with Paparazi about updating the BIOS...



Ben

"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."

 

[NFI]

Right, I'll do that, then - cheers for that.

I'll let you know if it improves matters any

Paul

 

[NFI]

No luck - after going through the incredibly convoluted process of flashing the BIOS from 0202 to 0902, my machine still won't boot with the PC2-8500 RAM in it...

It seems that the BIOS is picking up the timing info from the SPD correctly, but with all 4 sticks of RAM in place, it won't even POST... I have, however, got it booting with just two sticks of PC2-8500 in it now, so that's a bonus, at least. When it boots, it still whinges that "overclocking has failed", even though everything is set to auto.

I think this may be just a bad RAM/MoBo combination...although I'm not convinved that this ASUS board is as quality as it's cracked up to be I'd look around for a new board, but there isn't anything out there worth buying at the moment...

Thanks all the same,

Paul

 

[BadBigBen]

Have you tried setting the timing of the RAM yourself, instead of letting the BIOS do it per AUTO?

Sometimes these values are not set correctly with the automatic detection...



Ben

"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."

 

[paparazi]

Maybe you damaged the ram by overvolting it so high?

Spec says 2.1-2.3volts (unless I've missed something)

Martin

On wings like angels whispers sweet
my heart it feels a broken beat
Touched soul and hurt lay wounded deep
Brown eyes are lost afar and sleep

 

[NFI]

I did set all the timing config by hand, but there was one setting (I forget which) that I couldn't set to the value the SPD came up with (SPD set it to 36, whereas I could only set it in steps of 5, so 35 was the closest I could get) - it still wouldn't POST.

It's possible I might have killed at least one of my PC2-8500 sticks, either through ESD or over-volting - certainly the machine happily boots now with just two of them in place. It's equally possible that I might have just picked up a dodgy stick in the past and it's finally died...

Thanks for your help,

Paul