Ballistix DDR 400 Incompatible with Asus A7N8X Deluxe

[stephen1960]

Allow me to begin with saying that Tom's Hardware has been a great enjoyment to me since I begain building my own computers some years ago and has been entirely invaluable to me.

This post is to let you be aware that my Crucial Ballistix 512mb DDR 400 2-2-2-6 memory modules are incompatible with my Asus A7N8X Deluxe motherboard. I do not believe the modules are defective, I believe that my motherboard does not know how to work with them properly and memory related hardware errors occur which I could not resolve until I replaced my shining new Ballistix modules with my standard Crucial 512mb DDR 333 module. I am anxiously awaiting delivery of a second standard module which will, god willing, extend the life of my beloved A7N8X Deluxe / Athlon XP 3200+ system for another year.

I spent much work and endured many headaches to bring you this (perhaps already known) information.

Do not allow it to fall into the wrong hands

Comments? Please do >====>Stephen


Asus A7N8X Deluxe
Amd Athlon XP 3200+ Barton 400fsb (@ 333)
512mbX2 Crucial DDR 333 (2.5, standard)
Radeon X850 Pro (AGP)
Maxtor 60gb IDE
Maxtor 200gb SATA (v1)

 

[happy_fanboy]

Go into your bios with the 333 stick and set your memory timings manually, then swap in the ballistix and try

 

[stephen1960]

Go into your bios with the 333 stick and set your memory timings manually, then swap in the ballistix and try

I ran the Ballistix at spec 2-2-2-6, 2.8v, 200mhz but I had memory errors. I actually ran it at 166, 133, and 100mhz also, at spec timings and also motherboard timings, always errors, at 100mhz the errors came only occasionally. Tried one stick and two. Very disappointing, had almost lost hope and was ready to order another motherboard when I tried my standard Crucial DDR 333 and the Prime 95 torture test passes fine, before it would give a rounding error before 1 minute was up.

However, thank you for your advice. And yeah, I had to reset the BIOS a few times

 

[Zenthar]

Might come in a bit late, but I got the same board and RAM as you do (A7N8X Dlx + Ballistix) and I did have some problems with it. I don't know if it's voltage related or what, but I did find a quick fix for it: I lowered my FSB by a BIG 1Mhz (165Mhz).

I know it sucks, but by doing this, the RAM gets downclocked to 198 Mhz and it works flawlessly (Memtest86 for 12 hours without any issues). Hope it can help.

 

[stephen1960]

Might come in a bit late, but I got the same board and RAM as you do (A7N8X Dlx + Ballistix) and I did have some problems with it. I don't know if it's voltage related or what, but I did find a quick fix for it: I lowered my FSB by a BIG 1Mhz (165Mhz).

I know it sucks, but by doing this, the RAM gets downclocked to 198 Mhz and it works flawlessly (Memtest86 for 12 hours without any issues). Hope it can help.

Very nice, I'm happy that you got it working, I know how important my computer is to me and the crashes ruin my day.

I'm now running two Crucial standard DDR 333 512mb modules at spec with my cpu external clock at 200mhz, it's an Athlon 3200+ Barton and it's entirely solid, memtest86+ finds no errors and Prime95 runs for several hours with no errors. I'm happy, now I'm thinking I should have ordered DDR 400, oh well. No, I won't put the Ballistix on this motherboard ever again, that 3 weeks was hell. I am hoping, though, it will work properly with a socket 939 board I'm hoping to get soon, muahahahah, that new(er) Asus with the 8 phase voltage regulation deal.

Good luck.

 

[Zenthar]

I had little time on my hands trying to find a better fix that my -1Mhz FSB one and I though I would keep you posted.

As it turns-out it really seems to be a voltage issue that was causing the problem (on my board anyway). I found a hacked BIOS on NForceHQ that allowed the DDR voltage to be set up to 2.9V and now everything works just fine at default speed (200Mhz 2-2-2-6). I might even try a little overclocking .

 

[GavinLeigh]

I remember that people always recommended using a 1:1 ratio between the memory and CPU timings otherwise you'd get a performance hit with an Athlon XP.

Perhaps you should lower your CPU FSB back to 166 and up the multiplier for a better overclock. I am not sure what your options are for multiplier on that board, but you should do some benchmarks with the current setup then try something like 166x12 or 13 and try it again.

8)

 

[stephen1960]

I remember that people always recommended using a 1:1 ratio between the memory and CPU timings otherwise you'd get a performance hit with an Athlon XP.

Perhaps you should lower your CPU FSB back to 166 and up the multiplier for a better overclock. I am not sure what your options are for multiplier on that board, but you should do some benchmarks with the current setup then try something like 166x12 or 13 and try it again.

8)

Now see, you are exactly right, I should be, ideally, running my cpu external clock at 166 to sync with the memory clock but my cpu multiplier is locked so I would be running essentially an XP 2500+.

Why do they lock the multiplier? I have never liked that, there should be better ways to fight bad computer makers/resellers.

 

[AMDThunder]

Now see, you are exactly right, I should be, ideally, running my cpu external clock at 166 to sync with the memory clock but my cpu multiplier is locked so I would be running essentially an XP 2500+.

Odd that. I have (had, till it died) the A7V8X non deluxe version, and the multiplier was not locked. That's how I OC'd it. Never touched the FSB or memory. Had a 2200+ (1.8) up 1.947. Nothing major, but an accomplishment for my 1st OC. I forget what the exact settings were, but still, it wasn't locked. Always had to unclock to install windows, but it ran flawlessly other than that.

 

[Zenthar]

How big a performance hit are we talking about? In my situation where the memory goes faster than the FSB, would it be worth it to downclock the memory from 200Mhz to 166Mhz or performance hit isn't that great?

 

[Zenthar]

I solved my dilema: I overclocked my CPU with a FSB of 200Mhz and multiplier of 11x. Seems my CPU wasn't locked (or somehow my hacked BIOS was able to disregard that).

 

[stephen1960]

I solved my dilema: I overclocked my CPU with a FSB of 200Mhz and multiplier of 11x. Seems my CPU wasn't locked (or somehow my hacked BIOS was able to disregard that).

Hmm, interesting. I had thought that my cpu (XP 3200+ 400fsb Barton) was locked in at an 11x multiplier, perhaps I was wrong.

Theoretically, then, although no one should care in this day of Athlon 64's, I could lower my cpu external clock down to 166mhz to match my ram clock and increase my cpu multiplier to retrieve my cpu speed of ...whatever that is, 200x11=2.2ghz. Right?

Muahahaha THE WORLD IS MY PLAYTOY.

Bah, it's running so perfect right now. I think I'll go see a moovie >==>Stephen

 

[Zenthar]

To see if your multiplier is locked but don't want to risk anything, try lowering the multiplier. That's what I did at first. The if it works, set the FSB to 166Mhz and set the multiplier to something like 13.5x (which should gve you about 2250Mhz). Unless your CPU is already running very hot, it should mind the extra 50Mhz.

From there you could also try to raise the FSB to overclock the RAM a bit. If you do, don't forget to fix the PCI and/or AGP clock or they will be overclocked as well and could "crash" before your RAM does.