Setting CAS2 Causes Sysinfo to Report Double RAM in XP

[jodeon]

I recently bought a 512 MB stick of SDRAM (Corsair) that is marked "CAS2". When I set the BIOS to CAS2 -- with only this stick in place -- my system reports 1Gig of RAM (both in sysinfo32 and in MyComputer Poperties). When I set the BIOS to CAS3, it reports normally. The RAM test at boot up reported the correct amount of RAM.

I took this stick out, and put in a 256MB stick and tried the same BIOS settings . . . I got the same thing. CAS2 setting caused the system to report 512 MB of RAM.

The system seems to run with CAS2 selected, although Neverwinter Nights crashes with CAS2 but not with CAS3.

Anyone have any ideas what's going on here? Anyone else have this kind of problem?

Proc: Athlon Thunderbird 1.2Ghz/FSB 133
Motherboard: ABIT KT7A-RAID, BIOS 7n

 

[Grenage]

It could be dodgy CAS2, or simply just CAS3 methinks. Mest to get it replaced at your store to make sure,

 

[jodeon]

OK, I'll try exchanging it and I'll let you know if I get better results. I paid a lot more for CAS2 than what I could have paid for CAS3. I even insisted on name-brand RAM just for this reason. Well, I'll try again.

I guess that the fact it had the same behavior with two different modules made me think it wasn't because of a bad module. The fact that the system reports double the RAM seems like an odd symptom, too. You would think that if the module was doggy, then it would either not work at all, or it might report less RAM, not more.

Well, like you said, I should get it exchanged to make sure.

 

[Tbarney]

My guess is it's a BIOS problem.
Good RAM is usually made well and that's why it costs a lot more. I don't see too many sticks of good RAM gone bad...I have seen BIOS's on mobo with problems on every make. They just patch them.. like Windows..

 

[Oracle2b]

I had the same kind of problem. While upgrading memory
try to follow the rules:
1) same kind of memory (brand, parity, ...)
2) some (less expensive motherboards are tested WITH ONLY
ONE memory stick), so upgrade BY replacing if poss.