Dual Channel Ram Help!

jpyounis1

Beta member
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3
i really only need a simple question answered. i just upgraded..new specs in my sig. and i started with 2x PNY 512mb DDR400...now that was dual channel. i recently added 2x256mb ProMos DDR400 BUT The 256mb sticks were only one sided as the 512's were dual sided. with the bios that came with my board it would beep twice signaling a ram error but then it would work and load into windows. i recently updated the bios {6/7/06} and now it wont boot at all if i leave the ram the way it was. it isnt dual channel anymore and its only running the 4 sticks at ddr333...it sucks.. i want my dual back .

so on with the question. im keeping my 2x 512's no doubt. im gonna yank the other 2 sticks for now. QUESTION: is it not working because i have 2 sticks double sided and the other 2 single sided.? or is it not working cause all 4 sticks arnt 512mb?

i heard people have managed it working with 2x512 and 2x256 ALL DOUBLE SIDED working in half dual channel and half single channel so whats wrong?

so right now im just running my 2x 512mb in dual channel.....i think the problem is that all sticks are not double sided...is that true? if it is ill go out and get 2x 256mb's that are double sided and it should work fine.






SPECS:
Windows XP SP2 PRO
AMD Athlon 64 3200+
Biostar TForce-939
1.5gb PNY/ProMos RAM DDR400
80gb WD Raptor 10K HD w/8mb cache
XFX 6800 Xtreme 256mb PCIE x16
500w Coolmax PSU
BCC Case
Samsung DVD+-RW 16x
Asus Quietrack 16x DVD-ROM
Sony 52x CD-RW
Creative Audigy 2
 
First off, welcome :)

Hmm a confusing question...

I know for sure it doens't matter what sizes the RAM is to run compability in your computer, but for Dual Channel, this is the case I believe, and also, I believe, but I'm not completly sure, that you need 2 compatble modules for this to work and not 4.

I'm not sure about the 1 sided RAM module to the dual sided one though I'm afraid :(

I'm sure someone can help you out better than me :p
 
Try making sure that the two 512 MB sticks are in the left side for each group of slots and the 256 MB sticks on the right side. If they don't dual-channel then, try taking out the two 256 MB sticks and try to dual channel. If that works, then the problem is with the stick size discrepancy, try to get all four sticks the same size. Below is a crappy diagram:

5 2 5 2
1 5 1 5
2 6 2 6

OR

5 | 5 |
1 | 1 |
2 | 2 |
 
Thats good help :)

If you also don't want to get new RAM when you've got some perfectly good RAM if that doesn't work, is to maybe turn off dual channel mode, and run in single channel, with as much RAM as you have.

In some cases, Dual Channel doesn't actually help anyway. I've read that somewhere.
 
Yeah, I tried to space it out some more to show the groups, but when I posted, it all mashed together.
 
thanks for your help...yea i did what u said and 5|5 works fine in dual channel...i can run all 4 sticks in non dual channel BUT! because its AMD it runs all 4 sticks in DDR333 which sucks.....so looks like im going to buy another 2x 512mb sticks.

thanks for ur help...1gb is ok for now..
 
1gb is plenty for most people :p

I'm running on 1gb at the moment, but will probably end up upgrading to 2gb once I have the money.

Weird about the speed decrease, didn't know about that...
 
i've heard of RAM with lower speeds bringing down the speeds of faster RAM and equalizing it. but if they were both ddr400 i don't see the problem..what were the latencies on the 512 and 256
 
all the ram sticks have the same timings. 3-3-3-8

yep..i read that AMD Athlon 64's intergrated memory controller automatically sets ram speed of non dual channel 4 sticks of ram to DDR333 max.
 
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