ASUS P4800-VM w/Value Select 1GB400C3

[PhilW395]

Hello everyone...this is my first post here...thanks for the support. This is also the first time I've used Corsair memory, which had excellent reviews from Newegg.com customers.

 

Problem: I've upgraded a customers pc (Dell Dim. 2400) with an ASUS P4800-VM MotherBoard and added a Corsair Value Select 1GB400C3 (DDR 2700) memory stick. I also put the 2x256 Ram sticks in with this Corsair Ram. Not much of anything has worked out and that may include this memory chip matched with the MB mentioned above. The FSB (Front Side Bus) should be 800 to run the Surveilance Camera Video Card, but it reads 533 in the BIOS.

 

End result is a Crash about 3 times a day!

 

From another forum, it seems the Dell Hard Drive holds the BIOS info from the other board, which had the 533 FSB. It also took about 2 hours for the Video Card Tech to install the card, via remote control, because the pc was reading the new video card as the old card no matter what he tried. Okay, enough typing.

 

Any ideas?

 

:roll:

 

Thanks in advance,

PhilW

[RAM GUY]

I am sorry but that module may not be compatible with your system. Please look up your system on our memory configurator and see if newegg will let you exchange it for a PC-2700 module that is listed.

[RJLeong65]

Actually, the biggest wrong that you've made is mixing your OEM Dell memory and the new stick of memory in the same system. You said that you've upgraded that motherboard with an Asus "P4800-VM". Which model are you talking about? P4P800-VM or P4R800-VM?

 

By the way, either of the Asus motherboards that I've asked you about should have been compatible with your 1GB stick of Value Select. (That Dell system is no longer using its original motherboard - but it's now using an aftermarket motherboard.) However, running three sticks of memory on a dual-channel motherboard with four memory slots is strongly not recommended! Your system will likely either run unstably or not even boot at all - and even if it does run stable, the memory would be forced into single-channel mode and forced downwards to DDR333 speed even if all three modules are DDR400, resulting in a serious degrading of the memory performance. In addition, the Value Select sticks should NOT be mixed with any other memory in the same system! Doing so will result in instability and/or memory failure.

 

And one more question about that "upgraded" Dell Dimension 2400:

Which processor does it have? A Celeron with a 400MHz FSB? A Celeron or P4 with a 533MHz FSB? Or a P4 with an 800MHz FSB and HyperThreading?

 

In any case, you can only run your memory at DDR400 speed if your CPU has an 800MHz FSB. That's due to the limitations of Intel's DDR (as opposed to DDR2) chipsets - they support asynchronous memory operation only up to FSB clockspeed +/- PCI bus clockspeed. An 800MHz FSB processor actually uses a 200MHz actual FSB clockspeed - while DDR400 memory (PC3200) runs at an actual 200MHz. And using the JEDEC standards for DDR speeds, you can only use PC2700 or PC3200 memory on a processor with an 800MHz FSB. Conversely, using a 533MHz FSB processor with a PC3200 stick at the rated memory speeds would have resulted in a 67MHz differential between the actual FSB clockspeed and the actual memory clockspeed - well outside of Intel's official spec for asynchronous memory operation with its DDR chipsets. As a result, with a 533MHz FSB processor, you can use only PC2100 or PC2700 memory (or, for a 400MHz FSB processor, you can use only PC2100 memory).

[RJLeong65]

Oh, PhilW395,

 

I forgot to tell you that running that Dimension 2400 P4 CPU's FSB at 800MHz (200MHz actual) is considered overclocking that system's CPU. That's because the multiplier on the P4 processors is locked, and if you have a 2.53GHz P4, you're actually running that CPU at 3.8GHz! That's beyond the maximum safe clockspeed of the Northwood core.

 

No wonder why you got those errors and program crashes.

[PhilW395]

The CPU is a P.4 2.8 533 FSB and I took it out of the DELL 2400 Case and put it in an ANTEC Case along with the ASUS P4P800-VM MainBoard, ValueSelect 1GB400C3 Ram, and the customers 2-160GB Hard Drives. Therefore, it's really not a Dell anymore. Oh yea, I took the Dell ram out of this system and am only running one stick of Corsair ram...have one more on the way, but hope it's not the wrong type....Is the ram mentioned above PC2700?

 

The system still Crashes after running for about 5 hours. :(

 

I'm not overclocking the CPU. Haven't ever attempted that, but would like to know how one day just to bump em up a little if need be.

 

Thanks again,

 

PhilW

[Wired]

The above is a PC3200 stick, although it should run @ PC2700 speeds.

[RAM GUY]

And I would make sure that you have the latest bios and run http://www.memtest.org on the module to be sure its not failing.