Athlon 64 X2 5600+ Failing Torture Test

[Cruelty]

Originally Posted by paulunderwood

Have your tried it set to DDR 800? If it is unstable at 1.9v try it at 2.0v.

Better try 2.1 or 2.2V

[lbthe3rd]

My memory isn't running stable at 800 MHz no matter which way you slice it. I tried it at 800 MHz with 1.9 / 2.0 / 2.1 / and 2.2 voltages. It failed at every one. I sent an email out to G Skill tech support to see if they can explain their faulty advertising.

Thanks for the suggestions anyway though,
Louis

[lbthe3rd]

Ever since I messed with the clock speed of my memory, adjusting the voltage and what not, every time I do a soft restart, (Software Based) like start/shut down/restart it take a huge amount of time for my CPU to kick on (close to 40 seconds) before I hear the little "beep". Any Ideas why this would be?

Thanks Much,
Louis

[rx7350]

When you power on a pc the first thing it does is run POST, or 'power-on-self-test', where all of the hardware is checked before the BIOS is loaded. The 'beep' indicates that POST has completed and all is well, but 40 seconds is much too long.

Perhaps to get back to 'ground-zero' you should reset the BIOS to factory defaults by removing the battery, then moving the CLRTC strap from the left-most two pins to the right-most two pins, and then back to the left-most two pins.

Question - since best performance is usually obtained by running the cpu and memory in sync, or 1:1, shouldn't the memory speed be set to something much lower than 800Mhz? Usually that means setting it to twice (since it's DDR2) the stock FSB speed.

[lbthe3rd]

Originally Posted by rx7350

Usually that means setting it to twice (since it's DDR2) the stock FSB speed.

When you say the FSB speed, you mean I should clock my memory at twice the speed of the front side bus of my CPU? If that is so and my bus speed is 200MHz are you suggesting I should clock my memory at 400MHz.

Does the fact that I am running a dual core processor have any relevance (i.e. 2 x 200 MHz = 400 MHz meaning Mem Clock = 800 MHz)? Or is there only one FSB per CPU?

Another thing, what is an average time for a computer to run a POST before booting the BIOS?

Thanks,
Louis

[rx7350]

Go here for an excellent basic explanation of the relationships between the different pc components. This is a 'how-to' guide on overclocking, which you may not be interested in, but the 'Terms/Definitions' sections is especially relevant to your challenge.

http://www.overclock.net/amd-general...ing-guide.html

Post again, if you need further discussion or clarification.

BTW, every pc I've ever had never took more than 10 seconds to POST if eveything was in order.

[paulunderwood]

Originally Posted by lbthe3rd

Ever since I messed with the clock speed of my memory, adjusting the voltage and what not, every time I do a soft restart, (Software Based) like start/shut down/restart it take a huge amount of time for my CPU to kick on (close to 40 seconds) before I hear the little "beep". Any Ideas why this would be?

Thanks Much,
Louis

This might be due to "power on self test" and/or "Cool 'n' Quiet". Turn these off.

You could try "load setup defaults" (under the exit menu in BIOS.)

If you still can't get the memory running at DDR 800 try clearing CMOS as instructed by rx7350.

Originally Posted by lbthe3rd

When you say the FSB speed, you mean I should clock my memory at twice the speed of the front side bus of my CPU? If that is so and my bus speed is 200MHz are you suggesting I should clock my memory at 400MHz.

Does the fact that I am running a dual core processor have any relevance (i.e. 2 x 200 MHz = 400 MHz meaning Mem Clock = 800 MHz)? Or is there only one FSB per CPU?

Another thing, what is an average time for a computer to run a POST before booting the BIOS?

Thanks,
Louis

Dual core is irrelevant. Your "FSB" or "HT clock" set at Auto or 200 and everything on Auto should run your memory in this mobo at DDR2-800 speeds.

IF your "Jumper Free" has "AI Tuning" set to "auto" it should be running at "200" whatever they call it now... the FSB setting.

Your BIOS has both "AUTO" and "DDR2 800" options. Both of these should work at stock CPU clock speeds (the 200 * 14 = 2800MHz CPU) with all the DRAM settings in AUTO but the 5-5-5 settings are fine. CPU-Z will show you the SPD table settings and CBID will show you the actual results from Windows.

I've had problems like this with a set of G.Skill but not with Geil. In fact I have some of that "racing orange" (2 x 1024MB) PC6400 Geil in my desktop at DDR2-800, 4-4-4-12/2T that I'm very happy with. I generally prefer the Corsair XMS2 to both of them though.

Reading thru this thread it sure sounds to me like you've just picked up some questionable RAM. I'd swap that out until you can run DDR2 800 (AUTO) at 1.9v or 1.95v. Geil should do this or give you a refund. In a cheap mobo (nVidia 405 chipset) and the same CPU, smaller PSU, my Corsair XMS2 (2 x 512MB) is running DDR2-802 on 1.87v @ the 5-5-5-18/2T defaults.

Skip