DDR400 freezing on KT6 Delta-LSR ?

[Kerosene]

I usually run 2 x sticks of 512MB Kingston DDR400, and have never had a problem.
I've removed them to test a 1GB stick of Kingston DDR400, but it won't work at 'full speed'.
I'm guessing the RAM is fine, as it was working perfectly in the system I pulled it from.

XP freezes (after about 5-10 mins) when I run the RAM at 400MHz, but seems to be ok at 333MHz.

> Tested RAM in all slots, still freezes
> Booted into Windows Memory Diagnostic - no errors
> Booted into Memtest86 - no errors (didn't let it run long though)
> Ran HCI Memtest from XP, and it froze as soon as the test started. But will run fine at 333MHz.

I ordered another 1GB stick a few days ago (to have 2GB total). Have I wasted my money? Will I have to run my DDR400 RAM at 333Mz?

Any suggestions?

View bigger image: http://i35.tinypic.com/2l8x5kw.gif




MSI KT6 Delta-LSR
Seasonic S12 430W PSU
AMD Athlon XP 2800+
1GB Kingston DDR400 (KVR400X64C3A/1G)
MSI GF6200 graphics card
M-Audio Delta 66 audio card
2xSATA HDD, 2xPATA HDD, 1xCD drive, 1xDVD drive

[Grayone]

Try raising the memory voltage in the bios a notch and see if that helps.

[Kerosene]

XP freezing at 2.6V and 2.65V.

I bumped it to 2.7V and ran HCI Memtest, and it froze again.
I didn't reboot to see if XP would freeze "by itself" at 2.7V though, as I thought that the minute I did anything memory intensive, it would freeze up again.

It's odd that I can run both of my 512MB sticks at 400MHz without any problems at all.

Any other ideas?

[Grayone]

Have you tried running memtest 86+ on it?       http://memtest.org/     You might have a bad stick.

[eagle2]

If it doesn't freeze  at 333 run it at that. Try disabling spread spectrum. And you'll get better performance with 1T command rate enabled, although running at 1T rather than 2T may cause instability so I would memtest again.

Kingston produces modules using chips from various suppliers. It can be a bit of a lottery as to which of them work on a Via chipset. You may have picked the wrong one.

[Kerosene]

I tried disabling spread spectrum, froze again.

Bugger it. I'll just stick with 333. I'll be getting another one (DDR400) in the mail in a few days, so I'll test that (by itself) and see if it can run at 400. Not that it will be much use even if it can.

I was going to buy 2 sticks of 333 anyway, but the 400s are cheaper. So I guess even if I'm stuck at 333, I've still saved a few dollars.
Nearly time to retire the Delta-LSR I think....

[Grayone]

Under normal use, you will not notice any difference between 333 and 400.

[eagle2]

Compare the chips on the two modules. They're probably completely different and if they are it's anybody's guess as to whether they'll be happy together.

Running 333 at 1T command rate is as good, if not better than running 400 at 2T command rate as far as I'm concerned for a 166 bus processor.

[Bas]

The difference between 1T and 2T is bigger then between 333 and 400.
If I must take one, I would do 1T 333 over 2T 400.

[Fredrik]

Freezing is mostly processor getting overheated, and on Socket A motherboards it is real hard overheating the processor by changing DDR speed. More likely you kill the sticks of memory first.

This is a VIA chipset, very forgiving memory wise. Try your Kingston sticks on a Nvidia system!!

So, what is according to BIOS your processor temperature? Should be around 40C, body temperature, and STABLE.

[eagle2]

I had three kingston 512 modules, all with different chips. Two of them worked like a dream in dual on an Nforce2 board, but put the same two in a Via board and no go. 

[Bas]

You did grease your CPU-cooler properly did you?
If you took it off for some reason you have to redo it.
Freezing is often an overheating CPU too.

Also freezing can be overheating videocard.
Could be something else, but just happened at the same time you where playing with the ram.