Ram Trouble

[hollenjoe]

Mi rig is..

Board: K9N Platinum w/NVIDIA® nForce 570 Ultra MCP
Proccesor: amd athlon x2 Windsor 4200+ 2.2ghz overclocked at 2.52ghz
Multiplier x11
Bus: 228
Voltage: 1.320 ( set at 1.4 On Bios)
HT Link: 912 Mhz

Memory: 2 Gb Kingston
533 mhz (set to 460 mhz)
Voltage 1.8 (set at 1.95 On Bios)
I have 3 HDs
1 DVDr
TV Video editing PCI card
2 XFi sound blasters
Geforce GTS 250 1gb OC
430watt power supply
Etc

The thing is, only the video card demands a 450w power supply, so maybe the problems lays there, but ive never heard of my problem and ive read alot.

Its simple, sometimes when i boot my pc it only detects 1 gb of ram, i have to reboot it a couple of times for it to detect the 2gb. Sometimes with the 2gb it gets unstable ( not so offen) but never with only 1gb detected. Ive tried everything, from cleaning and changing slots, so its not hardware related.

Also as you may notcie on my settings i have my processor set to 1.4 volts and my ram at 1.95, but on windows they only read 1.32 and 1.8. I have learned alot on overclocking but dont know if this is normal and teh setting are a limmit.

Temps are Cool...

So could my problem be my power source? Defective ram?

 

[DocClock aka MadClocker]

The power supply is the first I would suspect..If you add up all the voltage/wattage specs, you might find that your 435w is way too low.
That said, you should download Memtest86+ and run all the extented tests and it will tell you if the ram is at fault.
If you can borrow a bigger power supply from a friend, try that and see if it acts normal...although I have 1 question..is this a new build? If not, then how did it act b4?

If your video card says that it needs 450watts then you definitely need more power.

 

[hollenjoe]

It has around 2 years, yeah I ranned the tests with no problems, i forgot to mention that it works fine with no overclocking. What makes me suspect of the power supply besides the obvious, is that my memmories are under clocked, from 533 to 466, im gonna upgrade my power supply and se what happens, ill let you know, thanx

 

[hollenjoe]

Also, is it normal for example to have set the voltage on the memory to 1.95 and only be getting 1.8 when i read it on windows?

On another note, ive been surfing for a power supply, some claim to have real watts and some advertised watts. EXample> I found a 650 advertised Watts one for 30 bucks and a 470 real watt one for 80 bucks, this confused me a little, what should i be aiming for, real or advertised?

Thanx

 

[QuietIce]

Not sure what you mean by "real" and "advertised" wattage. Some PSU companies make good, solid units and some don't but how they list the ratings is virtually the same. To farther complicate matters most companies that sell PSUs don't make them, someone else makes them then labels it with their name.


Does your video card have dual power plugs or a single ...?

 

[trents]

By "real" and "advertised" wattage I think he refers to the fact that cheap PSU manufacturers often over-rate their units by referring to peak power output rather than sustained power output.

 

[hollenjoe]

Dual power since its overclocked and has an added heatsink with a big fan.

I thought it was more like sound equipment where you have RMS or real watts and advertised, for example I have a sony sound equipment that adverstises its power at 3000 Watts, but come on thats what metallica uses in their concerts, probably its true power or rms is 100 watts or close..

What trents said sounds like what they do in the case of PSUs, I read my unit closer and says sustained power was 430 and max power was 500.

so ill be looking for a PSU with 550w sustained power or more, for overcloking and my system I hope this is enough...

 

[QuietIce]

550W sustained should be enough with that one video card but make it a solid unit. Just like stereo equipment there's the good stuff and the bad stuff. Which would you rather have powering your computer (as a comparison) Emerson or JVC ...?

 

[hollenjoe]

OK i got i stable, but i got a nice deal for a 6000+ edition of my processor (30 bucks), with 3.0 ghz factory clock, iv still got my crappy 430 watt psu. I have it overclocked at 3.3 ghz with only 1.40 volts with absolutely no problems at all, my memory is now overclocked nad working perfectly, since my bus is only 220 and my ht link is at 4x it went from 1000mhz(with 5x and no overclock) to 880mhz(800mhz with 4x and no overclock) will i loose to much perfromance with my ht link at 880 mhz? Ive tried leaving it at 1100mhz(5x) but it goes unstable right away, ive heard 1100mhz is the limmit for most boards.

Im panning after getting the new psu to boost my processor voltage to 1.5 and testing 3.5ghz, ive read this chip wont overclock much past beyond 3.2 but ive proven it wrong...

 

[QuietIce]

Nice OC!
I don't listen too closely to the nae-sayers. I've seen 6000's and 6400's running 3.5 GHz with good components, though ~3.2 GHz is the most common high-end.

With your GTS250 you might see a little performance loss at 880 MHz but you'd probably see more loss at a lower CPU speed so I wouldn't worry about it. I am surprised your system is unstable at 1100 MHz but like I've said many times, every system is different ...

 

[hollenjoe]

Thanx,,

My board is funny in the way that my pci express frequency is locked and separated from the HT, wierd huh?

Anyways i think me not able to push any further my ht has to do with my watt shortage, so maybe when i change my psu it will go further,....

In 2 weeks or so i will get a 650 watt unit at 100 bucks, ill post my results...

thanx again

 

[QuietIce]

I can't remember any board where PCIe and HT Link frequency controls weren't separated. Having the PCIe frequency locked at 100 MHz is a little less common but it's much better than than having it synced to the reference clock like it used to be ...

 

[hollenjoe]

Yup its locked at 100mhz, you can actually set the frequency separatly, wierd but cool i guess.

Ok so its stable at 3.3 with 1.45 volts, i wanted to go to 1.5 but in my bios it says its dangerous jeje so i got scared. would you say 1.5 is really that dangerous?

with 1.45 i couldn go over 3.4, in windows it worked fine but within minutes of playing it would crash...

 

[QuietIce]

By "locked" I mean "unadjustable". Most boards have an unlocked PCIe bus with the option to change the PCIe from it's 100 MHz default speed.


I've seen guys run up to 1.55v or even 1.60v on rare occasions. Like anything else in OC'ing it's a personal choice. I run my Opty 180 at 1.55v one month a year (for an extra 100 MHz) during the SETI races and leave it at 1.45v the rest of the time but I've got water cooling so my core temps never get above 50°C if that much (1.55v usually runs ~45°C at SETI load). On the other hand I've seen people burn a CPU because they gave it too much voltage for the cooling they had. You have to make your own decision on this ...