ASUS P5PL2 RAM problems

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trojanfoe

I have had my ASUS P5PL2-based system running fine for a few months
now, however we suffered blue-screen after blue-screen last night
(under Vista Ultimate). There are 4 x 512MB PC2-4200 DRAM modules
installed and after putting the BIOS into slow boot mode (to do the
RAM check) I have isolated the dodgy RAM stick. I have removed it and
am using the system now without problem.

Simply buy another stick right? Well I've just noticed that the BIOS
claims during boot that the RAM is PC2-4300 and not 4200. The BIOS is
configured to set paramaters via SPD and I am not overclocking.

The manual just mentions DDR2-533, which is 4200 isn't it? I am
confused as to whether I have the right memory or not.

The CPU is an Intel P4 3.2GHz.

Any advise would be gratefully received.

Andy
 
trojanfoe said:
I have had my ASUS P5PL2-based system running fine for a few months
now, however we suffered blue-screen after blue-screen last night
(under Vista Ultimate). There are 4 x 512MB PC2-4200 DRAM modules
installed and after putting the BIOS into slow boot mode (to do the
RAM check) I have isolated the dodgy RAM stick. I have removed it and
am using the system now without problem.

Simply buy another stick right? Well I've just noticed that the BIOS
claims during boot that the RAM is PC2-4300 and not 4200. The BIOS is
configured to set paramaters via SPD and I am not overclocking.

The manual just mentions DDR2-533, which is 4200 isn't it? I am
confused as to whether I have the right memory or not.
Click to expand...

Since the peak bandwidth is 4.267 GB/s the manufacturer chose to program the
SPD chip to read 'PC2-4300' rather than JEDEC standard of 'PC2-4200'. Memory
clock is 133MHz.
 
trojanfoe said:
I have had my ASUS P5PL2-based system running fine for a few months
now, however we suffered blue-screen after blue-screen last night
(under Vista Ultimate). There are 4 x 512MB PC2-4200 DRAM modules
installed and after putting the BIOS into slow boot mode (to do the
RAM check) I have isolated the dodgy RAM stick. I have removed it and
am using the system now without problem.

Simply buy another stick right? Well I've just noticed that the BIOS
claims during boot that the RAM is PC2-4300 and not 4200. The BIOS is
configured to set paramaters via SPD and I am not overclocking.

The manual just mentions DDR2-533, which is 4200 isn't it? I am
confused as to whether I have the right memory or not.

The CPU is an Intel P4 3.2GHz.

Any advise would be gratefully received.

Andy
Click to expand...

If you multiply 533 * 8, that gives 4264. That number is somewhere
between 4200 and 4300. Clever marketing means some will label their
RAM as 4200 and others as 4300.

With the current three sticks in the machine, will this program
run for four hours, without stopping with an error ? Try "Orthos"
and run in the default blended mode. You can run this in Windows.
(For Linux users, you can use Prime95 and its "torture test" from
mersenne.org, which is more or less the same thing.)

http://sp2004.fre3.com/beta/beta2.htm

If you cannot pass Orthos, it could be that a second stick is bad.
You could then try combinations of two sticks out of the three,
and see if they'll pass etc.

The BIOS memory tester is not very thorough, and further testing
is needed to find more subtle problems.

Your motherboard (P5PL2) does not show a Vdimm adjustment in the BIOS,
and sometimes, for just the occasional error, bumping up Vdimm a bit
can help. But running at DDR2-533 should not be very demanding, and
the default voltage should be good enough to make the RAM work.

If you want to review your hardware settings, like clocks and memory
timing values, you can use this tool while in Windows.

http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php

HTH,
Paul
 
If you multiply 533 * 8, that gives 4264. That number is somewhere
between 4200 and 4300. Clever marketing means some will label their
RAM as 4200 and others as 4300.

With the current three sticks in the machine, will this program
run for four hours, without stopping with an error ? Try "Orthos"
and run in the default blended mode. You can run this in Windows.
(For Linux users, you can use Prime95 and its "torture test" from
mersenne.org, which is more or less the same thing.)

http://sp2004.fre3.com/beta/beta2.htm

If you cannot pass Orthos, it could be that a second stick is bad.
You could then try combinations of two sticks out of the three,
and see if they'll pass etc.

The BIOS memory tester is not very thorough, and further testing
is needed to find more subtle problems.

Your motherboard (P5PL2) does not show a Vdimm adjustment in the BIOS,
and sometimes, for just the occasional error, bumping up Vdimm a bit
can help. But running at DDR2-533 should not be very demanding, and
the default voltage should be good enough to make the RAM work.

If you want to review your hardware settings, like clocks and memory
timing values, you can use this tool while in Windows.

http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php

HTH,
Paul- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -
Click to expand...

OK thanks, I'll give that a try. My FSB is 800MHz though right? Does
that conflict with the 533? Sorry to be so dumb...
 
If you multiply 533 * 8, that gives 4264. That number is somewhere
between 4200 and 4300. Clever marketing means some will label their
RAM as 4200 and others as 4300.

With the current three sticks in the machine, will this program
run for four hours, without stopping with an error ? Try "Orthos"
and run in the default blended mode. You can run this in Windows.
(For Linux users, you can use Prime95 and its "torture test" from
mersenne.org, which is more or less the same thing.)

http://sp2004.fre3.com/beta/beta2.htm

If you cannot pass Orthos, it could be that a second stick is bad.
You could then try combinations of two sticks out of the three,
and see if they'll pass etc.

The BIOS memory tester is not very thorough, and further testing
is needed to find more subtle problems.

Your motherboard (P5PL2) does not show a Vdimm adjustment in the BIOS,
and sometimes, for just the occasional error, bumping up Vdimm a bit
can help. But running at DDR2-533 should not be very demanding, and
the default voltage should be good enough to make the RAM work.

If you want to review your hardware settings, like clocks and memory
timing values, you can use this tool while in Windows.

http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php

HTH,
Paul- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -
Click to expand...

OK it's been running for 8 hours now and no errors, so that's cool.
Only problem is trying to get the program to stop; is that a known
problem?
 
trojanfoe said:
OK it's been running for 8 hours now and no errors, so that's cool.
Only problem is trying to get the program to stop; is that a known
problem?
Click to expand...

Did you click "stop" ? It throws an error, when I go to the taskbar, right
click the Orthos icon, and select "exit". So it doesn't appear to exit
cleanly. The important thing is, that the test itself doesn't stop, so
that is a good sign. The program does work, because I use it to determine
my overclocking margin - if I increase my CPU clock by just 5MHz, it makes
a big difference to how long Orthos runs without an error.

The alternative to running Orthos, is to use Prime95 from mersenne.org .
The only problem with that, is I have more explaining to do, if I suggest
that program to people.

As for speeds, the Northbridge is specifically designed to handle asynchronous
relationships between RAM speed and FSB. The chipset has a set of fixed
divider ratios (ratio of two simple integers), and that is what defines
the possible relationships. It can mix FSB800 with DDR2-533 without a problem.

It was not too many years ago, when the relationship between FSB and memory,
was a tighter one. But the designers have figured out how to design things,
so the user has more freedom to mix component speeds.

Paul
 
Did you click "stop" ? It throws an error, when I go to the taskbar, right
click the Orthos icon, and select "exit". So it doesn't appear to exit
cleanly. The important thing is, that the test itself doesn't stop, so
that is a good sign. The program does work, because I use it to determine
my overclocking margin - if I increase my CPU clock by just 5MHz, it makes
a big difference to how long Orthos runs without an error.

The alternative to running Orthos, is to use Prime95 from mersenne.org .
The only problem with that, is I have more explaining to do, if I suggest
that program to people.

As for speeds, the Northbridge is specifically designed to handle asynchronous
relationships between RAM speed and FSB. The chipset has a set of fixed
divider ratios (ratio of two simple integers), and that is what defines
the possible relationships. It can mix FSB800 with DDR2-533 without a problem.

It was not too many years ago, when the relationship between FSB and memory,
was a tighter one. But the designers have figured out how to design things,
so the user has more freedom to mix component speeds.

Paul- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -
Click to expand...

Wow you are a fountain of information Paul, though perhaps not the
best company in the pub? Anyway, t it looks safe to get another
PC2-4200 stick then? I was tempted to get myself another 4 x 512 of
higher spec memory and have a go at overclocking, but 2 things stop
me; 1) strapped for cash at the mo, 2) this is a family PC now so I
cannot spend all my time messing with it and making it more unstable.

Thanks for your help on this Paul
Cheers,
Andy
 
trojanfoe said:
Wow you are a fountain of information Paul, though perhaps not the
best company in the pub? Anyway, t it looks safe to get another
PC2-4200 stick then? I was tempted to get myself another 4 x 512 of
higher spec memory and have a go at overclocking, but 2 things stop
me; 1) strapped for cash at the mo, 2) this is a family PC now so I
cannot spend all my time messing with it and making it more unstable.

Thanks for your help on this Paul
Cheers,
Andy
Click to expand...

You don't need to get fancy for a family PC. A single new stick should
cost next to nothing.

Paul
 
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