Bad memory causing wrong CPU speed to show?

Okay, I have a 2.8 HT p4 on an asus p4p800. For memory I have two TwinX sticks of 512mb pc3200 (400mhz). Ive been using this PC for quite some time with little to no problems at all; but today I just realized that I had the memory sticks installed in the same bank (slot 1 and 2), which wasn't taking advantage of the dual channel feature.

So I simply moved one stick to the first slot of the second bank and booted up. I got an error about 'Overclock failed'; and I just loaded defaults and it went into Windows. Once there, it did say I had 1024 mb of memory (under 'My Computer') but the CPU speed was 1.4, rather than 2.8.

So I tried moving both sticks over 1 (bank1, slot2; bank2, slot2) - exact same thing.

Thinking it wasn't a motherboard problem, I tried the sticks individually - one of them boots fine every time, showing 512mb and 2.8ghz for the cpu speed.

The other stick gives the overclock error, and 1.4 for the cpu speed, BUT it does show up as 512mb; and it does boot into windows after I tell it to load defaults.



Here's the strange part... can anyone explain this?
When I put both sticks in Bank1 (slots1 and 2) it seems to work fine - but im not getting the dual channel bennefits.

ps. Memtest86 ran overnight wtih no problems (with both sticks in)

Put both memory sticks in the blue slots. Boot into your BIOS and check that your FSB is set to 200.

Thanks for the reply.

Yes, I tried that. Gives the overclocking error, BIOS settings are fine - and if i load defaults, it shows cpu speed as 1.4ghz.

One stick works fine every time, the other never works Think ive got it narrowed down ;P