durianwool Posted July 3, 2006 Share Posted July 3, 2006 Hi, I've a HP nc4200 notebook that came with 512MB DDR2 RAM. I just bought the Value Select 1GB SODIMM. I had to change 2 of these as the 1st 2 had problems. First one crashed the system. Second one didn't crash the system but was spuriously crashing the apps and causing CRC errors. Now I am on this 3rd module and hoping that it'll hum nicely. Anyway, while troubleshooting, I used CPU-Z that showed that although I had two different sized modules from two different manufacturers (Infineon & Corsair), it is showing that it is running in Dual Channel mode. 1. Is that true? I thought you must have 2 identical capacity modules to run in dual channel?? 2. The strange thing is also that when at a single module, memtest86+ v1.65 showed that the memory is classified as 'DDR1' running at 266MHz. That threw me off thinking I bought the wrong memory (Corsair DDR2 533MHz). 3. Furthermore SisSoftware's Sandra showed 4 'Logical Chipset 1 Memory Banks' as Bank 0 & 1: 512 DDR2-SDRAMBank 4 & 5: 256MB DDR2 SDRAM Wow! I've never heard of this logical memory banks before! (OK, so I am quite a newbie to these newer memory & chipset techs) Can you explain? ... and of course ... 1. is my system now runninng in dual channel mode? 2. and is it at 128-bit wide instead of 64-bit? My system definitely feels faster, but I guess that's because it doesn't page so much anymore than when it had only 512MB RAM. Here's how my lappy looks like now: Memory SPD ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ DIMM #1 General Memory type DDR2 Manufacturer (ID) Corsair (7F7F9E0000000000) Size 1024 MBytes Max bandwidth PC4300 (266 MHz) Part number VS1GSDS533D2 Attributes Number of banks 2 Data width 64 bits Correction None EPP no Timings table Frequency (MHz) 200 266 CAS# 3.0 4.0 RAS# to CAS# delay 3 4 RAS# Precharge 3 4 TRAS 9 12 TRC 11 15 DIMM #2 General Memory type DDR2 Manufacturer (ID) Infineon (C100000000000000) Size 512 MBytes Max bandwidth PC4300 (266 MHz) Part number 64T64020HDL3.7A Serial number 0313CA15 Manufacturing date Week 64/Year 05 Attributes Number of banks 2 Data width 64 bits Correction None EPP no Timings table Frequency (MHz) 200 266 266 CAS# 3.0 4.0 5.0 RAS# to CAS# delay 3 4 4 RAS# Precharge 3 4 4 TRAS 9 12 12 TRC 12 16 16 Anyway, I was quite surprised that I had 2 failed modules from a brand-name manufacturer like Corsair. Is it not so much of the lifetime warranty, but more of the hassle and frustration to go through to gather evidence to proof to the retailer to change it! Wasted a whole weekend because of this. Thanks very much. BR, Durianwool Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
durianwool Posted July 5, 2006 Author Share Posted July 5, 2006 OK ... 2 days now and things seem stable on my lappy. I guess it must have been a bad batch of Corsair modules, since the 3rd module I got directly from the distributor instead of the retailer. Still ... no one wants to answer the tech questions? RAMGuy? Where are you?! Yoohoo! :confused: In any case, things are so much smoother now with 1.5GB of RAM!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RJLeong65 Posted July 5, 2006 Share Posted July 5, 2006 OK ... 2 days now and things seem stable on my lappy. I guess it must have been a bad batch of Corsair modules, since the 3rd module I got directly from the distributor instead of the retailer. Still ... no one wants to answer the tech questions? RAMGuy? Where are you?! Yoohoo! :confused: In any case, things are so much smoother now with 1.5GB of RAM!! Unfortunately, Corsair is closed during the 4th of July holiday weekend. Wait till at least tomorrow for the RAM GUY to answer your question(s). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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