ASUS P5ND2-SLi / Corsair XMS DDR2 Twin x

[Pimletto]

ASUS P5ND2 - SLi

2 x 512MB XMS DDR2 PC6400

 

Following system build I found Windows Setup ran into problems during file copy. The setup was failing with 'cannot copy file to hard drive' for a range of different setup files. When asked to try copying again sometimes the installation continued but invariably ended with a blue screen.

 

After considerable time troubleshooting I eventually found that removing 1 off the matched DIMMs resolved the problem. I subsequently emailed Corsair support to ascertain reason.

 

I was asked to input memory configurations manually which I did:

 

DRAM Voltage (also called DDR VOLTAGE): 1.9 volts

--------------------

SDRAM CAS Latency: 5

SDRAM RAS to CAS Delay (tRCD): 5

SDRAM Row Precharge (tRP): 5

SDRAM Active to Precharge Delay (tRAS): 12 All other settings are motherboard defaults.

 

I then re-installed the OS with both DIMMS back in place with no problems at all. However, after installation PC started bluescreening at random.

 

I decided to run memtest. All tests pass fine except Test 7 - Random Number sequence which consistently shows 10 errors.

 

This mobo is only supposed to support 5400 but I read there should be no problem with 6400 albeit with no increased performance....

 

Is this not the right memory for the board? Or do I probably have a faulty piece of memory.

[RAM GUY]

Please set the memory frequency at 533 Mhz and then over clock your CPU to get the full memory performance.

[Pimletto]

I carried out memtest on the individual modules and they passed test 7 with no problems. I tested both modules in either memory slot and there were no faults.

 

I then retested with both modules installed and again received errors on this test, albeit only 3 errors this time.

 

Please could you elaborate on your previous suggestion please as I am new to tweaking these performance parameters.

[RAM GUY]

Please follow the link in my signature for the tested settings.

[Pimletto]

I changed the Mem Freq to 533MHz as per your suggestion and now the pair passess Test 7. I haven't tried overclocking the CPU yet as I have never done it before and also I just wanted to be certain the system was completely stable before continuing.

 

Many thanks for your help....

 

PS - You email signature to settings has the XMS2 6400 variant mobo settings for the Asus P5WD2. This states SDRAM clock should be set to 800Mhz not 533 so I just assumed this mobo was different to mine and ignored those settings.

 

Thanks again...

[RAM GUY]

yes but if you look at some of the other modules you will begin to see how it works. And the memory frequency setting is actually a divider of the CPU clock so if you set the CPU Freq to 226 with the memory Freq set to 533 that should make the memory frequency run at about 600 Mhz. 250 Mhz on the CPU clock will give you 1333 Mhz or DDR2 667.