izusaga Posted June 8, 2005 Share Posted June 8, 2005 This was originally posted in the A7V880 lockups sticky until I realized I was potentially hijacking that thread, and that my actual question is a little different. Let me start with spec's I tested with: ASUS A7V880 (BIOS 1009) ValueSelect VS1GBKIT400 x2 (4x512MB DDR400) 3200+ XP Barton(400fsb), 3000+ XP Barton(333fsb) Rosewill 500w, Antec 480w After over a month of troubleshooting hardware I've had the following results: One of the four 512 sticks shows 2 errors on memtest #7, this had been running for 24 hours and the errors showed on pass 5 and 17. Disgarding the stick with the errors and replacing with another of the exact same model I continued testing running all 4 512 sticks. ASUS Probe displayed the VCORE running from 1.68v-1.71v so I manually bumped the Barton to 1.75v @ 2200 stock, ran stable Prime95/Memtest86. My only real issue is the fact that with all four modules in the motherboard and bios set to default memory settings it displays the RAM as 333 @ 3-5-5-9. For modules designed to run 400 @ 2.5-3-3-8 this didn't seem right to me, so I popped the second and fourth stick out to allow the first and third to run dual channel and left bios stock again. Modules now loaded 400 @ 2.5-3-3-7 (why 7? Dunno..). So, getting a little confused by this I loaded all 4 modules and manually configured to 400 @ 2.5-3-3-8. Failed prime until RAM voltage was bumped to 2.75. ASUS has a very screwy power controller and you are honestly better off hand configuring everything. As for that one stick of 512 which had two errors on memtest #7 on passes 5 and 17 during a 24 hour run, does this warrant RMA'ing the stick? Test 7 is random strings I believe. Also, I put a Vantec headspreader on the module in question, does this void the warranty? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corsair Employee RAM GUY Posted June 8, 2005 Corsair Employee Share Posted June 8, 2005 First thing, you should run the memory frequency at the same speed as your CPU for best performance. Or run the memory at DDR333 with the CPU you have, or it may cause a bottleneck in the CPU and generate errors that are not from the memory. And with 4 modules you may need to run the memory Frequency at DDR266 because of chipset loading. But I would set the memory Frequency at DDR333 and set the timings to Cass 2.5-3-3-7 and set the Dim Voltage to 2.7 Volts and test the modules one at a time to be sure one is not failing. If they all pass then set the Dim Voltage to 2.8 Volts and test with all four installed and the command rate should be set to 2T with more than 2 modules as well? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
izusaga Posted June 8, 2005 Author Share Posted June 8, 2005 First thing, you should run the memory frequency at the same speed as your CPU for best performance. Or run the memory at DDR333 with the CPU you have, or it may cause a bottleneck in the CPU and generate errors that are not from the memory. And with 4 modules you may need to run the memory Frequency at DDR266 because of chipset loading. But I would set the memory Frequency at DDR333 and set the timings to Cass 2.5-3-3-7 and set the Dim Voltage to 2.7 Volts and test the modules one at a time to be sure one is not failing. If they all pass then set the Dim Voltage to 2.8 Volts and test with all four installed and the command rate should be set to 2T with more than 2 modules as well? For testing purposes I used both the 3200+ which is 400fsb and the 3000+ which is 333fsb, same results on both. The 3200+ running at 400fsb is the primary chip for this build, but setting the default still sets the RAM itself to 333. I will try the configuration you mentioned when I get home tonight. I guess my real question for now is does the Vantec copper heatspreader void my RAM warranty on the one stick that gave errors on test 7 of memtest? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corsair Employee RAM GUY Posted June 8, 2005 Corsair Employee Share Posted June 8, 2005 No it would not Void the warranty. But if you remove the lable on the module that would Void the warranty. So if you do send the module in for RMA you should leave the H/S attached and I am sorry but you would not get it back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
izusaga Posted June 8, 2005 Author Share Posted June 8, 2005 I'd be willing to lose out on the $6 those heatspreaders cost regardless as long as I knew that your tech's removing the heatspreader (and probably the sticker, too, considering it's parallel to the epoxy) would not cause them to decide they cannot determine the model and cannot send me a working stick. ;) Mailing me back the RAM with heatspreader removed and useless because they could not make out the sticker is primarily what I'm worried about. Thank you for the quick responses. =) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corsair Employee RAM GUY Posted June 8, 2005 Corsair Employee Share Posted June 8, 2005 No that would not be a problem, as long as the lable is there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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