No Stability after Memory Upgrade

I recently upgraded my memory from one 1GB memory stick to three 1GB memory sticks and now I get random restarts. I have a Athlon XP 2800+ (Barton) on ASUS A7V600-X with Mosel PC3200 DDR400 memory. Can someone tell me what the bios setting are for running my system at an optimal stability?

Run Memtest86 or Memtest86+ and see if you get any errors. If you get errors with three sticks, retest one stick at a time.

Are the two new pieces exactly the same as the original (CPUz SPD tab)?

JLK03F150 said:

Run Memtest86 or Memtest86+ and see if you get any errors. If you get errors with three sticks, retest one stick at a time.

Are the two new pieces exactly the same as the original (CPUz SPD tab)?

Click to expand...

There are three 1GB Mosel PC3200 DDR 400 memory sticks all three have been tested and are working properly. I just need to know what the proper BIOS setting are for my configuration. For example what are the settings for CPU Speed, CPU Frequency Multiple, CPU External Frequency (MHz), CPU VCore setting. I also need to know what the Chip Configurations are for SDRAM Configuration, SDRAM CAS Latency, SDRAM RAS to CAS Delay, SDRAM Precharge Delay, SDRAM Active Precharge Delay, SDRAM 1T Command Control?

Pretty sure these are the CPU settings.
CPU Speed 2.083GHz
CPU Frequency Multiple 12.5
CPU External Frequency (MHz) 166.6
CPU VCore 1.65v

You want the RAM running 1:1 (166MHz) and the 4 primary timings are on the SPD tab 2.5-3-3-7 @ 166MHz. The command rate should be 1T for max performance, but might need to be changed to 2T for stability.
Sorry, not sure about this one...
SDRAM Active Precharge Delay

Hope this is accurate info, been a long time since I played with Bartons.

JLK03F150 said:

Pretty sure these are the CPU settings.
CPU Speed 2.083GHz
CPU Frequency Multiple 12.5
CPU External Frequency (MHz) 166.6
CPU VCore 1.65v

You want the RAM running 1:1 (166MHz) and the 4 primary timings are on the SPD tab 2.5-3-3-7 @ 166MHz. The command rate should be 1T for max performance, but might need to be changed to 2T for stability.
Sorry, not sure about this one...
SDRAM Active Precharge Delay

Hope this is accurate info, been a long time since I played with Bartons.

Click to expand...

I tried run two sticks in slots one and three with the Memory Frequency (MHz) set to 400MHz and my machine seems to be faster than running three memory sticks at 333MHz. I thought more memory was suppose to make my machine run faster? Will the settings change if only running two 1GB sticks?

More memory is only faster to a point. Say with your 1GB you are using 1.5GB. That means you have 500MB going to the swap file on the HDD, which slows everything down. Adding another gig will cover the data being sent to the swap file & speed up the system. Three GB won't be any faster than two GB, you'll just have more available physical memory.

The memory timings are based on the JEDEC table programed into the sticks. Some settings can be altered by adding voltage, but that is dependent on the RAM's ICs. It's probably best just to follow the table though.

Another configuration to try is 10.5x200MHz on the CPU & set the memory to 1:1, DDR400. Still basically stock CPU speed, but everything is running on a faster bus. Only try this if the board has native support for 200MHz CPUs.

Use 2.5-3-3-7 for the RAM latencies.