can someone try and help ? :)

might be in the wrong place sorry if it is..

Hi, i recently brought some extra memory for my PC i had 2 sticks of kingston hyperX of 256mb each these were HKX3200K2/512 - CL2, the new stick i got were also kinston hyperX and again i got two 256mb stick, however these were HKX3200AK2/512 - CL2. i was told that the new stick were a new version of the old ones i have had for the past 18months or so and are compatable.

however..

my problems started as soon as i put the new sticks in, PC would not boot and when i got it to it would hang as windows loaded or just after it had loaded, i went into the BIOS and alterd the CAS etc which work for a while but the PC would just keep rebooting its self for no reason or things would hang/crash back to the desktop, after alot of search on the net and reading i finally got it to the point where i am totally stuck and have no idea what else to try, i have ran prime95 blend test for about 4 hours with no errors and i ran memtest86 for about 40mins with no errors (just the standard test when it runs i did not alter anything) i know this is not really long enough but i figure if my PC reboots its self or locks up with in 5 to 10 mins of playing a game or something it would hang/reboot/crash in the time i have ran the tests.. ?

my system is (with nothing O/C)

P4 2.80Ghz with 800 FSB
1gig of ram (the kingstone stuff obviously )
abit IC7 mobo with the latest BIOS on
radron 9800 using the omega drivers (sapphire 128mb - i brought this as a none "pro" but all the bench marking list it as 1 but i dont think it is )

my current BIOS settings are

N/B strap CPU as - By CPU
AGP Ratio - Fixed
Fixed AGP Frequency - 66/33mhz

CPU core voltage 1.5750
DDR SDRAM - 2.8
AGP Voltage - 1.6

CAS latency time - 3
Act to Precharge Delay -8
Dram RAS# to CAS# Delay - 4
Dram RAS# Precharge - 4

 

It would appear, that the memory timings are quite relaxed, and are less than what they could be. The one question I would ask, is there a limitation on the amount of double sided ram on that MB? My old Soyo board would only allow 2 sticks. I don't know if that could possbly be an issue, but might be worth a look.

 

im not sure, but i can use the PC fine it seems if i just have either of the 2 sets in using dual channel but still all 4 in and its crash city

ive just been on abits site to try and see but i cannot find anything about it.. where can i look ?

EDIT

with just 1 set in the memory is fine running 2.5,6,3,3 i could maybe even go alittle faster, and the Dram ratio is 1:1

i can run these settings fine with either set in

 

It would seem that when you are only running 1 pair, the board tightens the timing on it's own, which would lead me to believe that there is a problem with the second set of slots or the memory controller. Are the actuall memory chips on the sticks the same? The simplest solution might be to take back the new set of sticks, and replace with 2 512s, and sell your original 2. Not an ideal solution, but a possibility. I'm not that well versed on memory isssues, and assume that someone with more expertise will jump in here and offer a better solution. The key seems to be, that when all 4 sticks are in, the timing is further relaxed, which indicates a conflict (I'm guessing here).

 

i brought the stick as pairs in a kit, both sets.

i have abit of an update...

i put the old pair in again late ;ast night after reading alittle more, i set BIOS to its default setings for everything and took it from there, i re-upped the Dram voltage to 2.8v, CPU core voltage 1.5750 and AGP Voltage - 1.6 in the memory settings they were 2,6,2,2.

i then loaded up SWG and played that for about 1h 30mins and it was trouble free it had been crashing after about 5 to 10 mins before, i have not tryed SWG yet today but i have been playing FM2005 for the past 3 hours and i ran the "the project" demo from cryteck for about 35mins this morning all ran fine with no crashing...

im hoping this is now fixed and the setting BIOS back to default did somethign i have missed

if it crashes again no doubt i will post again lol, thanks for the help matey