A7N8X Deluxe DIMM Slot Question

[Skwerl_X]

I recently installed a new A7N8X Deluxe board and have my RAM installed in slots 1 and 3 in order to enable DDR. I'm having problems booting with RAM in the #3 slot. The system will only POST half the time and never boots to Windows. This looked like an obvious problem with the RAM itself. I pulled the stick out of the #3 slot and placed it in the #2 slot and all is well. I also took the known good stick from #1 and put it in #3 and the problem returned so I apparently have a dead slot.

The system runs great with the RAM in slots 1 and 2.

My question is, is it possible that something in BIOS or possibly motherboard jumpers is causing this?

I'm using Geil PC3200 512 MB RAM. I've been very leary about using Geil, but both sticks work as long as they're not in slot 3.

Also, the user's manual isn't real clear to me on configuring RAM for DDR. Will placing the RAM in slots 1 and 2 enable DDR on this board?

Thanks very much.

 

[TheRod]

First... It's not DDR... It's DUAL-CHANNEL DDR operation mode.

On A7N8X board you have 3 memory slot. 2 have the same color. To enable DUAL-CHANNEL DDR you must use 2 stick of the same capacity in the 2 slots of the same color and leavethe 3rd slot empty. Of course, using 2 memory stick of the same model is almost required for system stability.

For your memory problem... You might try to use slower memory timing in the BIOS.

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[Skwerl_X]

Thanks for responding. I'll give it a shot.

Cheers

 

[mrwhipper]

You have a great board but The board can be picky about the ram while running duel channel mode It likes higher quality ram like Corsair XMS, Crucial ect. Some of these companys even make matched pairs for duel channel mobos. If you continue to have this trouble you may have ot change the ram or don't use the duel channel. Like rod said you sould put the ram in the two blue slots to enable the duel channel feature. Good luck. Let us know how you made out.

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[Skwerl_X]

I'll re-try putting the RAM in the blue slots, but I'm having trouble understanding how I should set my BIOS.

Should I use the multiplier to "slow down" the RAM to match the 333 FSB? If so, does it go up or down?

Also, does memory speed function have to be in a particular seeting (Auto vs. By Spd)?

Thanks alot for educating me; I'm enjoying building this computer and I'm really eager to learn the ropes.

 

[mrwhipper]

Set it to auto for now and see what happens.

They are our, fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, sons, daughters, friends, neighbors. They are OUR TROOPS! Please support them.

 

[TheRod]

For the memory config in BIOS...

First GO auto or "By SPD". You can use CPU-Z (freeware) to check the memory timing in WINDOWS.

If you have stability is still an issue. Change to "Manual/user defined" and put the highest settings :

3-4-4-8 is good to start with!

Most memory modules works well with 3-3-3-7. You can also check on the memory stick for CAS LATENCY... Usually, yo uwill see 2 / 2.5 or 3. It can happen that "cheap" memory maker burn wrong SPD on the memory STICK...

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Would you buy a GPS enabled soap bar?

 

[Skwerl_X]

Okay, problem solved. I manually set my RAM to run in synch with the FSB (166MHz),thanks to a suggestion here and everything is running great now.

Thanks for the CPU-X tip. Great program.

Also, thanks for everybody's input. This seems like a great place to learn and burn!

Cheers