Dual Channel RAM probs on 8KNXP

[JohnnyB]

This has been a weird one, I have the following components:
Gigabyte 8KNXP non-ultra - BIOS ver f5
P4 3.06 Ghz 800FSB
2x Corsair CMX512 ver2.2
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro
WD 120GB ata100 HD
OEM 56x CDRom IDE
Audigy 2 Platinum
Windows XP Pro

I left off my other devices for the purposes of this test.

THE PROBLEM:
Dual Channel DDR is apparently causing OS installation errors/crashes and application crashes as well.

WHAT I'VE DONE:
Messed with various ram timing settings. Nothing seemed to help.
Changed advanced BIOS setting to both high performance and optimized defaults. Also combo'd these settings with various ram timings. No luck.
Removed all components except for video and one stick of CMX512 ver1.1 (which is what THG used in their testing). Reinstalled XP Pro. No problems.
After OS installation, updated all drivers and SP'd XP.
Removed ver1.1 and replaced with a single stick of ver2.2. All applications worked fine. Traded out with the second stick of ver2.2. Again, everything worked fine, so the memory sticks are apparently all ok. Unfortunately, I only have stick of ver1.1, so I can't check out this version in dual mode. Checked dual ver2.2's one last time just now and crashed out of WarCraftIII in less than one minute.

That's where I'm at right now. I'm going to try using DIMM slots 2 and 5 next. My current ram timings are 2-6-3-3 which is factory recommended by Corsair. It seems like I tried them all, but other people seem to be having good luck with these boards so maybe I'm just missing something. Hopefully something obvious

J-

 

[truiz9902]

try this link. Scroll down to page 14 and there you should find a little info on the DDR DIMM set-up. Hopefully it's as simple as that, as far as I can tell, if you are using a pair of the CMX512, you should be using Dimm slots 1 and 4. Thats with channel A being DIMM 1,2,3 and Channel B 4,5,6
<A HREF="http://america.giga-byte.com/MotherBoard/FileList/Manual/manual_8knxp_e.pdf" target="_new">http://america.giga-byte.com/MotherBoard/FileList/Manual/manual_8knxp_e.pdf</A>

 

[JohnnyB]

Thanks for the reply, I do have a hard copy of the manual and I did use slots 1 and 4 originally.

I have since attempted dual channel DDR using slots 2 and 5. The screen message "RAM runs in Dual Channel" pops up (just as it did with 1 & 4), so I know the BIOS is seeing it, but applications still crash and lock up.

Anyone else have any ideas?

I am currently using 3 CMX512's in single channel mode using slots 1, 3 and 5. I wanted to check DIMM slot 5 to see if I could get a page fault while in single channel mode. So far the computer is working fine, so it ain't that.

Could my power supply be the problem? I'm using a rather old Antec 300w power supply.

J-

 

[spiral]

FWIW I've had similar problems with a knxp.
I'm running two cmx512 cl2's. couldnt even install 2000 with the default timings... only way to get it working was to reduce the mem to 1.66... 200 works but when I play something like fs2002 it bombs during HD access... I'm running two WD120G in raid 0. atleast the raid detects ok everytime...

 

[JohnnyB]

I've read about problems with SATA not booting, but you're the only person who posted this problem. What are you going to do?

I was going to try to get someone on the phone. I sent an e-mail a few days ago and have yet to hear anything.

I guess the only other option is to wait until a fix is released, which simply pisses me off. Twitch posted that his board works perfectly, I'd really like to know what his bios settings are.

In the meantime, is your performance better with 1.66 in dual or 200 in single?

J-