Problems installing 3 RAM modules

[Ealiom]

I have an ABIT BE7 motherboard with
2x 512mb 333Mhz DDR (double sided) ?? 8 black chips each side??

I recently bought another chip

It is a 512Mb 400Mhz DDR (single sided) ?? 8 black chip on one side only??

When i added this chip to the third and last bank on my board and booted up the computer froze at memory check.
I have tried every combination of chip position. However if the third bank is used by any chip the computer will fail too boot.

It may be worth mentioning that if one of the 333mhz chips is placed in the third bank the computer recognises only 1024Mb and begins loading windows but the computer then restarts. Having the 400Mhz chip in the third bank freezes the computer at memory check!

All the chips work fine on there own or in any combination of pairs. I just cannot get them all too co-exist peacefully.

From what i understand the 400Mhz chip should slow down to the 333Mhz chip speed automatically.


I know that there is a solution to this but it is just beyond me at the moment, and frantic searches of the internet has produced nothing.


Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[firepyro555]

It might be that the Mobo has a hard time dropping the 400 down to 333, what you should do is go into the bios and manually configure the speed instead of having it do it automatically

 

[PCKid777]

Also, what are your RAM timings??? Please provide the stock timings for all 3 sticks of RAM. Perhaps your MB is setting the timings to the wrong setting too.

 

[Ealiom]

From what i can see the CL of my 333's are 2.5, while the 400 has a CL of 3

Within the BIOS there is an option to set timings manually or by speed.

If i choose manual there is no option higher than 2.5 ?


I have successfully run the computer using 1 stick of 333 and 1 stick of 400.
Running with both the manual and by spd (speed) BIOS settings.
There were no issues. The problems arise when i attempt to add another stick into the 3rd bank.

 

[firepyro555]

your motherboard has a max of 333, normally that 400 would just downclock to 333. oddd....

 

[Ealiom]

It is strange i agree i can see no logical reason why it doesnt work.
The 400Mhz RAM does indeed downclock to the slower RAM as i have tried 1 of each stick at once and it ran fine.

I believe there may be some sort of issue with the 2 333's running as pairs ?!? whilst trying to recognise the 400!

Could this be an issue?!?
Help!!!

 

[sturm]

Have you checked to make sure your board will run with single sided memory and 2 sided memory?
Have you cleaned out the memory slot of any dust and dirt?
Check the bios and see if there is an option to turn off dual channel memory.