[Xenolah]

I have a gigabyte k8ns-pro 754 motherboard with an amd64 3000+ processor and 2x512mb PQI ram sticks. For some reason gigabyte claims that the motherboard with 2 sticks of 512 ram won't run at ddr400 but rather ddr333. My motherboard won't even run that, it gets 2,000 errors in memtest86 @ ddr333. I tested the ram on a friend's computer (asus motherboard) and it got no errors @ ddr400 . I can only get the ram to run stable @ 133mhz on my computer which is a lot slower than I'd like. If anyone knows how to get the ram to run a little faster or at its full speed that would be awesome

[Yousaif]

What model number RAM is that? Have you checked to make sure that you are running it at its rated timings on your board? What voltage are you pushing to your RAM slots?

It sounds like you may be running the timings too tight or not pushing enough power to the RAM.

[Xenolah]

The RAM is PQI 3208GATA01
I don't know what voltage it is, havn't touched it. As for timings it should be (200mhz):

CAS: 2.5
RAS to CAS: 4
RAS Precharge: 4
TRAS: 8

When I set it to those values the computer makes some beeps and puts the values back. The auto bios values (133mhz) are:

CAS: 2.0
RAS to CAS: 3
RAS Precharge: 3
TRAS: 6

Would upping the voltage possibly make it more stable? Can it cause damage?

[Yousaif]

At 266 FSB you are fine to run those tight timings, but if you want to run at 400 FSB then you should start out adding the spec timings manually with the FSB set to 200. You could even try loosening it up further, like 3-4-4-8 just to see if that works as well.

If you have any mobo monitoring software then you may want to check out what voltage it is seeing in realtime on the Vcore voltage. It should show at 2.6V minimum.

Hopefully someone else can answer this question: Is there any evidence of Gigabyte boards with the NForce 3 chipset being picky about RAM?

[Xenolah]

I managed to get the ram to run 150mhz last night using 3-4-4-7 and it past memtest. The ram refuses to run 166mhz or over, it just locks up at the post screen. I've tried using manual timings and auto timings but it doesn't work. The strange thing is that each stick on its own can run @ ddr400 fine they just don't run it together on my motherboard. Both sticks are exactly the same. As for voltage everest reported 2.59v. At the moment I'm running 200mhz fsb.

[Yousaif]

What BIOS version is running on that? When I went to Gigabytes site, I found in the FAQ's this question:

This main board will show DDR333 speed when I use DDR400 double-side RAM module X 2 PCS, 1 PCS or single-side RAM module no problem.

Please update BIOS Ver. F10 or latter.

It looks like you may be able to solve this with a BIOS update.

[Xenolah]

I've tried each bios version up to f11, none of them made a difference

[Yousaif]

Have you tried a different brand of RAM in that board to see if it does the same thing?

[Xenolah]

Don't have any other ram to try, although I might be able to try my friend's ram on saturday. I know for sure though that my ram is fine.

[unclewebb]

I have had fantastic success with the Gigabyte K8NS Pro board but so far I've only been using one Crucial Ballistix PC3200 512 MB memory module rated at CL 2-2-2-5. I'm using one of the new Sempron64 2600+ processors.

It completed 50 passes in MemTest 86 v1.60 last night with zero errors at a front side bus speed of 320 MHz! (That's 320 MHz not 220!!) I have the memory set to 166 in the BIOS which equates to a memory divider of 10 so the memory was running at 256 MHz with timings of CL 2.5-3-3-8. It has run MemTest at CL 2.5-2-2-8 with a few errors but now that it has cooled off outside it might even be able to run error free with those tight timings. The RAM chips get a little hot to the touch at these speeds.

The CPU voltage was increased from 1.40 volts to 1.60 volts for last nights 9:37:47 error free MemTest86 run and the DDR voltage was also set at +0.2 volts in the BIOS which equates to 2.85 volts as reported by Everest. I'm using the latest F11 BIOS.

I have access to another PC3200 512 MB stick of memory which is rated at 2-3-3-6 but it is made by OCZ. When I get the chance I will combine these two different sticks of memory and see if I can duplicate your problems.

You might want to think about throwing out one of your sticks of memory and overclock the hell out of this board. You'll get a lot more performance going this route! With a single memory module, this board has exceeded all expectations. The BIOS limits it to a FSB of 327 MHz but I can live with that!

[unclewebb]

I put in a single stick of OCZ 400512R3 PC3200 into my Gigabyte board and I found it did not overclock as well as the previous Crucial Ballistix memory I had. With a BIOS setting of 166 I did get it up to 310 MHz x 8.0 for a total of 2480 Mhz. I used RAM timings of 2.5-3-3-6 and the resulting memory speed was 248 MHz. In theory, this combo should have worked with a BIOS setting of 133 but it would lock up in the BIOS. That setting is equivalent to a memory divider of 12 so the memory speed would have been about 206 MHz which sounds ideal but I had nothing but trouble trying to run the OCZ memory and this board with the 133 setting.

Next up, I combined the OCZ memory module with my previous Ballistix PC3200 module. At default settings the motheboard only showed 512 MB when booting up in the BIOS. That's odd. When I ran CPU-Z it detected both modules for a total of 1024 MB and they were running at 200 MHz or DDR400. I tried to do some overclocking but with these two modules the K8NS-Pro board fell flat on its face. It was a struggle to get beyond 240 MHz which is terrible compared to the 300++MHz I was able to achieve before. With two matched sticks of memory perhaps I could have done better but still I don't think it would be nearly as stable as before.

In contrast, I was able to run MemTest86 error free overnight with the single Ballistix memory at a FSB speed of 320 MHz, a divider of 10 so the memory was running at 256 MHz, memory voltage BIOS setting = +0.2 for a total of 2.85 volts, HTT=3, CPU voltage=1.60 volts and memory timings were CL2.5-2-2-8. Outstanding performance.

I would suggest only using this board with one stick of memory. There seems to be some issues if you use more than one. A single 512 MB module is more than most users need for the vast majority of applications anyhow. For only $80.99 US ( Part # BL6464Z402 ) you should seriously think about selling your memory and buying one of these with the proceeds. This memory is outstanding with the Gigabyte K8NS Pro board and I've always had good success dealing with Crucial.

[Xenolah]

I've tried my friend's ram (2x512mb pc3200) and it does exactly the same thing. Runs 150mhz stable, 166 post lockup, 200 beeps from motherboard. I tried losening timings and it didn't help.

[unclewebb]

The best way to try and solve your problem is to go back and run your computer with just one 512 MB stick of memory and see what it is capable of. What sort of memory timings does this one stick of memory run at on your board? I think your memory is CL 3-4-4-8 but I had a hard time trying to track down a data sheet for it. Any additional info would be appreciated.

With this motherboard you can't depend on the AUTO setting for memory timings. It seems to misread the SPD settings built into a memory module and it has a tendency to screw up the memory settings. Once you finally find some memory settings that work with this board it won't keep resetting them each time you re-boot.

What worked for me is when I had trouble at boot up, I turned off the power switch on the power supply for about 5 seconds, then I held down the Delete key, turned the power supply switch back on and then pressed the On/Off switch on the front of the computer while still holding the Delete key down. I'd keep holding it after the first Post Beep and keep holding it until I could see the BIOS screen. It would then automatically skip the previous BIOS settings and go directly into the BIOS so I could try again with some new settings. I found this feature handy and I've never needed to access the backup BIOS chip using this method.

Anyway, go into the Advanced Chipset Features menu in the BIOS ( CTRL F1 ). Here are some relaxed memory settings that I have used successfully at default speed:

HT Frequency = 4x MaxMemClock = 200
CL 2.5, tRC=11, tRFC=14, tRCD=3, tRRD=3, tRAS=8, tRP=3, tWR=3, tWTR=1, tRWT=3
tREF=2x2592
1T/2T DRAM=2T

Play around with that one stick of memory using MemTest86 and see what timings it likes to run at. Version 1.60 has a special Athlon64 section where you can adjust pretty much all of the above settings without having to reboot. If you set something way too aggresively you will either lock up your computer or you'll usually start getting a pile of errors almost immediately.

If this is CL3 memory then relax your initial timings from what I've used. I'm just guessing since I don't have your memory to try out but give the following settings a try:
CL 3.0, tRC=13, tRFC=16
tRCD=4, tRRD=3, tRAS=8, tRP=4, tWR=3, tWTR=2, tRWT=3, 1T/2T = 2T

Let me know how testing goes. Lots of trial and error. Any board that can run stable with a FSB of 320 MHz isn't a complete piece of junk. It would have been nice if Gigabyte could have worked out a couple of "issues" but I guess that's the buyers job since the board was so cheap. Of course, buying a single stick of Ballistix or OCZ memory would make life easier!

[unclewebb]

Can you run CPU-Z and click on the SPD tab and post what is listed under the SPD Timings Table when you get your computer running with one memory module?

[unclewebb]

Update: I lowered tREF from 2x2592 down to 2x2064 today. This seemed to make things more stable when doing some extreme overclocking at 325 MHz FSB and beyond. The F11 BIOS limits FSB to 327 MHz. I was able to run SuperPI with the case closed at this speed with CL 2.5-2-2-8 settings but 3DMark2001 was locking up after about the first 5 tests. MemTest86 has reported zero errors after the first hour of testing at a FSB of 320 MHz with CL 2.5-2-2-8 timings. Try adjusting tREF lower a notch or two and see if this helps your stability. I plan to do some more testing to see if I can go error free on MemTest over night with tight timings.

Here are my present extreme settings:

FSB = 327 MHz X 8.0 =2618 MHz Total
CPU = 1.60 volts
HT Frequency = 3x MaxMemClock = 166
CL 2.5, tRC=11, tRFC=14, tRCD=2, tRRD=2, tRAS=8, tRP=2, tWR=2, tWTR=1, tRWT=2
tREF=2x2064
1T/2T DRAM=2T

[unclewebb]

Sempron64 2600+
FSB = 320 MHz X 8.0 = 2560 MHz
CPU = 1.55 volts
HT Frequency = 3x
MaxMemClock = 166 ( ~ memory speed = 256 MHz DDR512 )
CL 2.5, tRC=9, tRFC=12, tRCD=2, tRRD=2, tRAS=8, tRP=2, tWR=2, tWTR=1, tRWT=2
tREF=2x2064 ( ~ 133MHz 3.9 us ) as reported by A64 Tweaker
1T/2T DRAM = 2T
DDR Voltage = +0.1 volts ( ~ 2.75 volts )

Dropping tREF down to 2x2064 allowed me to reduce voltages for both the CPU and the memory and tighten up the other memory timings while increasing stability. It completed 50 error free passes in MemTest86 last night. Click on the following link to see the results:

www.telusplanet.net/public/robecker/Sempron64_2560MHz.jpg

[unclewebb]

Sempron64 2600+
FSB = 325.4 MHz X 8.0 = 2603 MHz
CPU = 1.55 volts
HT Frequency = 3x
MaxMemClock = 166 ( ~ memory speed = 260 MHz DDR520 )
CL 2.5, tRC=11, tRFC=14, tRCD=2, tRRD=2, tRAS=8, tRP=2, tWR=3, tWTR=1, tRWT=3
tREF=2x2064 ( ~ 133MHz 3.9 us ) as reported by A64 Tweaker
1T/2T DRAM = 2T
DDR Voltage = +0.2 volts ( ~ 2.85 volts )
Chipset Voltage = +0.2 volts

Adding a little bit of extra juice to the chipset helped out with occasional lock ups in the BIOS when booting up. The memory voltage was bumped up to 2.85v to help stability. It's now stable in Prime95 for 9+ hours. Here's a look at the present settings:

http://www.telusplanet.net/public/ro...ron64_2600.png