memtest is fine but windows BSODs! [solved]

ayqazi

Distinguished
Apr 27, 2005
47
0
18,530
Hi,

Here's the problem: I just checked my timings on my Gigabyte GA-K8NE, and my memory's running at 166MHz! It should be running at DDR400 as specified here: http://www.ocztechnology.com/products/memory/ocz_ddr_pc_3200_value_series-cas_2_5-dual_channel

My setup is:
Sempron 3100+ (1.8GHz) 64-bit S754
Gigabyte GA-K8NE rev1 nForce4-4x based mobo
2x above mentioned memory
Leadtek Geforce 7600GT stock timings


Here's what the MB Intelligent Tweaker in the BIOS says:

HT Frequency ratio: Auto
CPU Frequency: 200
K8 CPU Clock Ratio: Auto
Current DDR Speed 333
DDR Clock / Timing mode: auto
CPU/DDR clock Ratio: 2 / 1.66
DDR speed 333
DDR Timing Auto
<Here is listed the memory timings, all at stock as specified on the above website>
Refresh Rate (Tref) 166 MHz, 7.8 us
CPU Spread Spectrum Centre Spread
PCIE clock 100MHz
Robust Graphics Booster Auto
CPU Voltage Control Normal
Normal CPU Vcore 1.4
Chipset core PCI-E voltage Normal
HT-Link voltage control Normal
DDR voltage control Normal

CPU-Z in Windows 2000 reports the DDR memory speed as 164.2 MHz.

When I change the "DDR Clock /Timing Mode" to manual and the "CPU / DDR clock Ratio" to "2 / 2", windows 2000 gives BSODs, but memtest doesn't report any errors (I don't run it for that long though)

So can anyone guess the problem?

Thanks
 

ayqazi

Distinguished
Apr 27, 2005
47
0
18,530
Update: I set the "DDR Voltage Control" to +0.1 as well as the 2 / 2 cpu/ddr clock ratio, and it booted, but prime95 torture test gave errors (on the first calculations, something about rounding being 0.5 but was expecting 0.4). I set it to +0.2 (the max memory voltage increase) and the same thing happened.

Note that even with voltage being "normal" (which it doesn't tell me how much it is in numbers) and cpu/ddr clock ratio being set to 2/2 all memtest tests pass.

Is the CPU doing something funny? CPU-Z still reports a speed of 1.8GHz.

Thanks
 

ayqazi

Distinguished
Apr 27, 2005
47
0
18,530
Update: It seems Semprons can only run 1GB of RAM (or 2 512MB sticks together... I can't be sure) at 333MHz max (or 366MHz if supported by the motherboard).

This is because an Asus K8n4-e would give memory errors if the memory speed was too high, i.e. near 400MHz. It'd stop giving errors at around 380MHz. This seems to be a limitation of the Sempron 1-channel memory controller.

Oh well, no worries.
 

samir_nayanajaad

Distinguished
Feb 22, 2006
331
0
18,780
Hi,

Here's the problem: I just checked my timings on my Gigabyte GA-K8NE, and my memory's running at 166MHz! It should be running at DDR400 as specified here: http://www.ocztechnology.com/products/memory/ocz_ddr_pc_3200_value_series-cas_2_5-dual_channel

My setup is:
Sempron 3100+ (1.8GHz) 64-bit S754
Gigabyte GA-K8NE rev1 nForce4-4x based mobo
2x above mentioned memory
Leadtek Geforce 7600GT stock timings


Here's what the MB Intelligent Tweaker in the BIOS says:

HT Frequency ratio: Auto
CPU Frequency: 200
K8 CPU Clock Ratio: Auto
Current DDR Speed 333
DDR Clock / Timing mode: auto
CPU/DDR clock Ratio: 2 / 1.66
DDR speed 333
DDR Timing Auto
<Here is listed the memory timings, all at stock as specified on the above website>
Refresh Rate (Tref) 166 MHz, 7.8 us
CPU Spread Spectrum Centre Spread
PCIE clock 100MHz
Robust Graphics Booster Auto
CPU Voltage Control Normal
Normal CPU Vcore 1.4
Chipset core PCI-E voltage Normal
HT-Link voltage control Normal
DDR voltage control Normal

CPU-Z in Windows 2000 reports the DDR memory speed as 164.2 MHz.

When I change the "DDR Clock /Timing Mode" to manual and the "CPU / DDR clock Ratio" to "2 / 2", windows 2000 gives BSODs, but memtest doesn't report any errors (I don't run it for that long though)

So can anyone guess the problem?

Thanks

You see what I put in bold in that quote? That is your problem, set it to one and then you will get the most you can, the 333mhz supported by semprons.
 

ayqazi

Distinguished
Apr 27, 2005
47
0
18,530
Thanks for replying, but I don't think you're right about that. That's the cpu/mem ratio.

If you read the later post, you'll find I already solved the problem. I tried it on another motherboard (an Asus this time), and had to manually set the mem/cpu ratio down to 2:1.66 to get it to work without memory errors in applications. Semprons can't run 1GB of memory at DDR400 - DDR366 is the highest they'll go.

Adding [solved] to subject to make sure people don't get mislead or have waste any more of their time.