How to tune ram speed in an older mother board!

[Paulo Henri]

Hello everyone, i've been dabbling around these forums a week ago to learn about ram because i wanted to increase it. Well, now i finaly did increase it, but people did warn me that i might run into problems. Since upgrading, i found a few problems, "sometimes" the computers BSOD, when playing a game (like Dark Souls III, which was the game that made me upgrade in the first place)
i am constantly crashing every 20 minutes or more, with exceptions though, i had many hours sessions in some areas of the game, but other areas of the game i keep crashing every 20 minutes, so i don't know if its hardware or the software, but anyway. I dont know if my Ram is already tuned in in speed, i have 4 ram sticks doing two separate dual channels, one pair is DDR2 800MHZ, and the other is DDR2 667MHZ, which is the oldest one, dating back to 5 years ago i think. If i can make anything to stop the potential BSOD and maybe even the crashing i would like to try, and someone said to me on these forums i had to tune in their speed, which i didn't do, just added the new cards and the pc is running normally faster then ever. help!

 

[techgeek]

Well when you mix RAM, often times this can be the result.

As for speed, all the RAM should be working at the slower of the two, so DDR2 667. If it's all working at the speed of DDR2 800, then that could be your problem. But if you haven't gone in and forced it to that speed, then the BIOS should have kept the speed at DDR2 667.

Mixed speeds / timings can cause all sorts of issues. BSOD's, crashes, not POST'ing, etc. Since you didn't say that these problems existed before the new RAM, then I'll assume that this behaviour is as a result of it. The first thing to do is isolate the two. Since you are pretty certain the original RAM is OK, then I'd remove it and run with only the DDR2 800.

Run your computer with this for awhile to gauge overall stability. Then download memtest86 (either USB or cd/DVD ISO) and boot from it. Let the test run for at least 4 hours, longer (overnight) if you can. If there are no errors after that amount of time, then this new RAM is alright on it's own. So then you're left with getting your system stable with both sets together (and to be honest, that may never happen), but that's getting ahead of ourselves. Do the first two things I mentioned and then post back with the results.

 

[Paulo Henri]

Well when you mix RAM, often times this can be the result.

As for speed, all the RAM should be working at the slower of the two, so DDR2 667. If it's all working at the speed of DDR2 800, then that could be your problem. But if you haven't gone in and forced it to that speed, then the BIOS should have kept the speed at DDR2 667.

Mixed speeds / timings can cause all sorts of issues. BSOD's, crashes, not POST'ing, etc. Since you didn't say that these problems existed before the new RAM, then I'll assume that this behaviour is as a result of it. The first thing to do is isolate the two. Since you are pretty certain the original RAM is OK, then I'd remove it and run with only the DDR2 800.

Run your computer with this for awhile to gauge overall stability. Then download memtest86 (either USB or cd/DVD ISO) and boot from it. Let the test run for at least 4 hours, longer (overnight) if you can. If there are no errors after that amount of time, then this new RAM is alright on it's own. So then you're left with getting your system stable with both sets together (and to be honest, that may never happen), but that's getting ahead of ourselves. Do the first two things I mentioned and then post back with the results.

i feel like i have to clarify a few things, my pc IS running nomally, i do get some BSOD's, but they're not often at all. the computer can stay on for days without a single one, but when one BSOD happens, it usually triggers a few others after it returns to the status quo. I already tried removing the old RAM and running the pc with the new ones, runs like a charm, no real problems encountered, most of the problems are related with running this game (dark souls iii) which unfortunately, i can't test with only half of the RAM ( the game only runs with 8gb). so i think there may be a subtle compatibility issue with the ram, if thats the case i don't know what to do to fix it =/

 

[techgeek]

Have you run memtest86 on the new RAM? This will ferret any issues out with the new RAM. So if you've run it on it's own, but you don't feel that just running it on the desktop is enough of a stress test, then run memtest86. This will definitely find an issue if there is one.

Since this is the newest components in your computer, you need to be sure of it before you move on.

As I mentioned before, depending on the RAM and the motherboard, you may not be able to get this combination of RAM stable. This is the danger of having mixed RAM. Sometimes it works just fine, but more often than not, it doesn't. In these cases sometimes you are able to make a few adjustments in the BIOS to stabilize it and sometimes it's just not possible.

For future reference we'll need to know the motherboard you have and the part numbers of each set of RAM couldn't hurt. Just the speed doesn't tell us anything beyond it's generic speed. It doesn't give us the timings, voltage or anything.

 

[Paulo Henri]

Have you run memtest86 on the new RAM? This will ferret any issues out with the new RAM. So if you've run it on it's own, but you don't feel that just running it on the desktop is enough of a stress test, then run memtest86. This will definitely find an issue if there is one.

Since this is the newest components in your computer, you need to be sure of it before you move on.

As I mentioned before, depending on the RAM and the motherboard, you may not be able to get this combination of RAM stable. This is the danger of having mixed RAM. Sometimes it works just fine, but more often than not, it doesn't. In these cases sometimes you are able to make a few adjustments in the BIOS to stabilize it and sometimes it's just not possible.

For future reference we'll need to know the motherboard you have and the part numbers of each set of RAM couldn't hurt. Just the speed doesn't tell us anything beyond it's generic speed. It doesn't give us the timings, voltage or anything.

hello! sorry for the delay! No i have not ran Memtest86, next time the computer BSOD, once in a while now, i will run it on the whole computer with both sets of ram, and then see with the new ram alone. my Motherboard is a DIGITAL HOME P5W DELUXE and i think the Part numbers of the new set of rams is KVR800D2N6/2G. i don't know the number of the old ram but i try to learn about it and post it here. thanks for the help. sometimes the pc doesn't even BSOD, it just freezes forever, with whatever sound was playing in the background staying on, constantly repeating every fraction of a second in a sinister fashion.

 

[hang-the-9]

If you suspect RAM either replace the two new sticks with the same speed as the old one, or better, replace your old RAM with the same model of new RAM you got. Did you already check for a BIOS upgrade for the motherboard? That is the first thing to try if RAM works but crashes at times.

 

[techgeek]

OK, well I have that motherboard in a system that my wife's uses. I need you to check / verify something.

Reboot your computer and check to see what speed it reports. For it should say something like this:

PC2-XXXX where XXXX is the Transfer Rate

For instance my wifes computer has DDR2 800 and it's set up to run that speed, so when it POST's it says PC2-6400. Now since you have a mix of DD2 667 and DDR2 800 is should be running at the slower of the two so it should read PC2-5300. If this is not the case and it's running PC2-6400, then you need to go into the BIOS and do this:

Under Advanced, you see and option for Jumper Free Configuration. Here you will see Ai Configuration, change it from Auto to Manual. Then a few more options become available. Look at the CPU Frequency and make sure it's set to 266, if it isn't, set it to 266. Now look at DRAM Frequency, it will likely be set to Auto, change this to DDR2-667. Exit the BIOS making sure to save the changes as you exit. When it POST's again, it should now report PC2-5300.

If you had to make these changes (ie it wasn't reporting PC2-5300 when you first looked) then run the system for a while and see if it's stable. However if it was already reporting PC2-5300, then let us know so that we can continue troubleshooting. Actually let us know either way.