Hi all

I recently tried to add a 1GB stick of ram to the 2 512MB sticks I already had in the pc to no avail, I can use any1 stick in any of the 3 slots, any 2 sticks in any of the 3 slots (all different sequences tested with the Torture Test in Prime95) and they work fine but as soon as I add the third stick (doesn’t matter which slot order I put them in) the pc crashes on boot.

Something else weird happening (when the pc is running with 1 or 2 sticks) is that, when I set the memory timings in the bios to 3.0-3-3-8, by the time windows is up and running the timings have reset themselves to 3.0-5-4-9 (as reported by Everest, CPU-Z and CPUid), I can reset them in windows to 3.0-3-3-8 with CPUid and all’s fine, but on reboot, it goes back to 3.0-5-4-9 even though the bios is still saying it’s 3.0-3-3-8,

I don’t know if the two things are connected but I cant sort out either problem and any help would be appreciated.

I’ve listed what I could below, sorry about the length of it.

Kind Regards,
Vern336

CPU AMD Athlon XP 2500+ (Barton) running at 2200MHz (reported as AMD Athlon XP, 2200 MHz (11 x 200) 3200+ Barton)), (been running at that for years)

Motherboard Name Abit KV7-V
Motherboard ID 05/19/2005-KT600-8237-6A6LYA1HC-15 (latest bios (yeah old I know, lol))

Front Side Bus Properties
Bus Type DEC Alpha EV6
Bus Width 64-bit
Real Clock 200 MHz (DDR)
Effective Clock 400 MHz
Bandwidth 3200 MB/s

Memory Bus Properties
Bus Type DDR SDRAM
Bus Width 64-bit
DRAM:FSB Ratio 1:1
Real Clock 200 MHz (DDR)
Effective Clock 400 MHz
Bandwidth 3200 MB/s

DIMM1: 1 GB PC3200 DDR SDRAM (2 ranks, 4 banks)
Module Type Unbuffered
Memory Speed PC3200 (200 MHz)
Module Width 64 bit
Module Voltage SSTL 2.5
Error Detection Method None
Refresh Rate Reduced (7.8 us), Self-Refresh
@ 200 MHz 3.0-3-3-8 (CL-RCD-RP-RAS) / 11-14-2 (RC-RFC-RRD)
@ 166 MHz 2.5-3-3-7 (CL-RCD-RP-RAS) / 10-12-2 (RC-RFC-RRD)
@ 133 MHz 2.0-2-2-6 (CL-RCD-RP-RAS) / 8-10-2 (RC-RFC-RRD)

DIMM2: 512 MB PC3200 DDR SDRAM (2 ranks, 4 banks)
Module Type Unbuffered
Memory Speed PC3200 (200 MHz)
Module Width 64 bit
Module Voltage SSTL 2.5
Error Detection Method None
Refresh Rate Reduced (7.8 us), Self-Refresh
@ 200 MHz 3.0-3-3-8 (CL-RCD-RP-RAS) / 11-14-2 (RC-RFC-RRD)
@ 166 MHz 2.5-3-3-7 (CL-RCD-RP-RAS) / 10-12-2 (RC-RFC-RRD)
@ 133 MHz 2.0-2-2-6 (CL-RCD-RP-RAS) / 8-10-2 (RC-RFC-RRD)

DIMM3: 512 MB PC3200 DDR SDRAM (2 ranks, 4 banks)
Module Type Unbuffered
Memory Speed PC3200 (200 MHz)
Module Width 64 bit
Module Voltage SSTL 2.5
Error Detection Method None
Refresh Rate Reduced (7.8 us), Self-Refresh
@ 200 MHz 3.0-3-3-8 (CL-RCD-RP-RAS) / 11-14-2 (RC-RFC-RRD)
@ 166 MHz 2.5-3-3-7 (CL-RCD-RP-RAS) / 10-12-2 (RC-RFC-RRD)

You see, motherboards like for RAM to be as similar as possible. Those old Via DDR boards and Nvidia nForce2 boards will give you problems if you try and use RAM moudles together that are too different. In this case you got a VIA KT600 board, great ol chipset by the way, with different RAM modules. The board lowering the Timings of the RAM is it's way of trying to remain stable. I've seen this, on some of the HP computers especially, when people have tried to upgrade the RAM themselves only to find their computer acting all crazy a few months latter when the board just decides it's not gonna take it anymore . Even if the RAM and board themselves are fine we just remove the smallest offending stick of RAM and everything is hunky dory.

It could be that your new RAM module isn't really capable of being perfectly stable at it's advertised speed and timings. If you have a cheap power supply it you could also be experiencing too much variation on the rails which would account for those problems too when you have all three RAM modules installed. When boot up go into the BIOS menu and check out PC health to see how much variation you are getting. Also for now set your RAM timings to the slowest possible settings just to see if you can boot stably.

Hi megaman, thanks for the reply,

I managed to get it up and running with the 3 sticks in by lowering the settings to 3.0-5-5-9 and tried memtest, no chance lol.

Just for curiosity's sake I borrowed 2, 1GB sticks from a mate, put them in, set bios to 3.0-3-3-3 (it reset to 3.0-5-4-9 in windows again) test went fine, so I tried my 1GB stick with one of his, and again all was fine, as soon as I put the 3 sticks in together, nada.

I checked the voltages, the DDR is steady at 2.59v doesn't matter how many stick I have in, 2.55v is the lowest setting in the bios, but set at that it still shows up at 2.59v. Ive tried higher but it still wont take the 3 sticks.

I did notice that the 12v rail never gets over 11.87v and down to 11.67v when any 3 sticks are in , its an EZCool 550w PSU, so you maybe right about the problem being there somewhere.

I know another 1GB will work (using 2x1GB) so that maybe the road to go for now.

I cant complain really, the whole thing is built up of bits I've got second hand off ebay, boot fairs and and scrounged off other people, I got the AGP 7600gt out of a skip (the motherboard cost me a fiver though) lol.

It plays games like Call Of Duty 4 and Resident Evil 4 with no problems, and does all my work things like Windows Project and Primavera, Photoshop, Burns my films, everything I ask of it really.

Christ dont I go on, lol

Anyway thanks for the reply

Found out what my problem was on the kingston memory site, when entering the make of motherboard it came up with this.

This system only supports 4 Banks of DDR400/333 memory. If two double-sided DIMMs are used, the 3rd Socket(s) is disabled.

This would explain the problems I was having, because even though the motherboard info states it will recognise up to 3GB, it will only reconise it, if it's run at 266MHz