Why wont my samsung 2700 run at Aggressive timings?

This is very very weird. i got this ram about a month ago from newegg. i have 2x256 signle sided dimms and they are genuine samsung. i have also run that memtester v3.0 at 200mhz fsb and also at stock 166mhz and it said there was nothing wrong w/ the ram.

Here is the deal. It will not run at aggressive settings at all whatsoever (i have tried all sorts of variations. it will not run stable at anything but stock by SPD) stable. If i do anything above 140mhz FSB w/ aggressive (unlocked cpu. 133-139 will boot into windows but wont be stable) i will get blue screen in win xp pro.

The voltage is set at 2.85 and i have decent case cooling (26C case temp) with no heat spreader. I can get 203mhz FSB with regular settings and not even 133mhz w/ aggressive. My cpu is at 1.85v, my +5v is at 5.03v my 12v is at 12.1 my +3.3 is at 3.5 (in the ABit mainboards it is called VIO and it is changeable through the bios. I have tried a higher vio as well and it does not do anything).

What is wrong with my memory or do i just have a setting wrong?

I have tried resetting cmos and after i reset cmos i goto load optimized defaults always. i have left everything on the optimized default settings except for the vcore and have put my ram in aggressive (usually i try at 2-4bank-2-5-2 but i have tried ALL of the variation of settings and none has been able to work).

What is going on here?

EDIT: I just tried using only 256 stick and i tested it in all 4 of the dims. I also tried doing it with just the other 256stick in all the dims with no success at all whatesoever. windows gets a blue screen when it boots up (xp pro)

bump anyone know?

Sounds like something with the motherboard if you can't run fast timings at 133mhz but can run slow at 200.
I would ask others with the same board what experiences they are having with fast memory timings.
You might just need to wait for abit to update the bios or check and see if a newer one is available.

Yeah, I seem to be having trouble with my samsung, need to have the command rate set at 2t, not many other specific settings to play with in this BIOS, but I can't have it on top performance, or have the "fast command" any higher than normal, also CAS 2 seems unstable, also it seems to like some volts. However, I am a little unsure whether it's the CPU or NB misbehaving, or whether it's the BIOS or indeed the RAM. There is a newer BIOS release that has been reported faster and more stable, so maybe it's time I went for that.

Also, my Volcano 6cu is pumping like 40C air right at the stick and it feels warmer than I think it could do. NB could be cooler too.

Took me a day or two to realise what speeds I was running things at, I mean when I set DDR333 in BIOS I am really setting a 4/5 multiplier in relation to FSB instead of 1/1 for 266. So I have had the RAM running only up to around 183ish so far (147 fsb), 186 (149 fsb) was the maximum boot into windows speed I had on it, I think the CPU crapped out after that. Hard to be sure. However, seems to behave oddly when set to 266 as well, I wouldn't blame the RAM but it's the RAM settings that seem to make difference on stability when at 147 FSB.

So in my case I need to unlock my CPU to see wtf is going on, and also to cool my NB and flash the BIOS to eliminate those before I am sure what exactly it is doing.

Road Warrior

your question,

"Why won't my Samsung 2700 run at aggresive timings?"



your sig,

512mb 2700 samsung (2x256) w/ aggressive timings and 2.7v

AXP 1900@ 1700mhz (8.5x200)



Now im confused, lol.

I thought it would do 200fsb at 2.7v with agressive timings?

i just ordered 2x256 samsungs from newegg to put in my kx7r.

ill let you know how they work out, they should arrive tuesday hopefully.

I wouldnt get too excited just yet, after all we are still on the 1st bios release.

which reminds me, If I dont get a new kx7 bios or at least some new beta detonators soon Im gonna go into withdrawl symptoms.

lol

yeah i havnt updated my sig in a while. the odd thing is, it USED TO RUN AT 160FSB (when i had it at 11x160fsb) WITH AGGRESSIVE, but recently, i tried to do it (aggressive w/ 11x160) and i would get a blue screen when i load into windows. Really annoying.

I have the same problem with samsung pc2700 on an MSI 745 Ultra. I was able to get it up to 185 fsb with cas2.5, and as soon as I set cas2 , I get lots of weird errors in winxp , even at 100fsb.

nahh man it def aint the same problem. i cant get it to run ANYTHING OTHER than the by spd defaults. right now i am runnin at 10x177 rock stable and it blue screens whenever i try to run win xp w/ aggressive settings. I could really use them also, on other boards, with 2100 ram, when i set aggressive settings, i was able to get another 400 3dmark points. I can get 8550 now with by spd defaults... i may beable to get 9k if i could just run it with these damn aggressive settings!

You may not want to hear this, but you may need to burn in your ram. I have two sets of 512 MB original Samsung PC2700. One consists of 2-256 MB sticks, and recently, I purchased 1-512 MB stick.

Both sets had a hard time doing 180, 2-2-2-5-1 out of the box. I had to burn them in by running Docmem burnin loops, 1X or 2X at 133, 143, 153, 170, 180, 190, 200, 210 until they failed. For the 2-256 MB sticks, I had to do this at 2.5 volts, then 2.7 volts, then 2.9 volts. I found I could pass Docmem at 200 mhz 2-2-2-5-1 at 2.7 volts, but not when running an OS. I would get all kinds of registry errors. The best I could actually do at 200 mhz running Win98SE was 2.5-2-2-6-AUTO and 2.9 volts. The best I could do at 2-2-2-5-1 was 170-180 I think, which is pretty good since I heard it's hard to run -1 on the last setting with 2 sticks.

The 1-512 MB stick is another story. After burning in as per the above, I could hit 210 mhz at 2-2-2-5-1 at just 2.5 volts! Passed Docmem and Memtest. More surprisingly, when I booted into Win98SE it was still stable. I am now running it with a bit more voltage, 2.7, as I had some minor error boxes popping up at 2.5 volts. I tried 240 mhz at slowest setting no go.

Is this the one-stick versus two- stick theory at work? I dunno. It may also depend on luck of the draw and getting a good stick. It may also depend on your motherboard. I did all my testing on a P4S533.

Frankly, if you don't want to mess with burning in, it may be better to fork out the bucks for Corsair PC3200. Note the VR-Zone article did 209 at 2-2-2-5-1 on the Samsung, but this is one 256 MB stick after burning in and it needed 3 volts.