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From: marcbkk on 2 Feb 2006 12:33
I just installed a new ASUS P4S800D-X motherboard and I am
experiencing some problems with the memory which are affecting boot
ability of the machine.

I have two 512MB 400MHz DDR Ram chips and one 1GB 400MHz chip
installed. All chips are PC3200.

The motherboard has 4 memory slots and they are color coded, two blue
and two black. I have installed the two 512MB chips onto the two blue
slots and the 1GB chips onto one of the black slots as you are
supposed to.

When the machine boots I get the boot error beep and can't get all the
way through the BIOS boot. If I shut down and reboot or press the
restart button a few times I can eventually get a boot that gets as
far as a BIOS error message that says "Overclocking failed!
Please enter setup to reconfigure your system. CPU Fan Error! Press
F1 to Run Setup. Press F2 to load default values and continue."

I normally proceed by pressing F1 because I don't want to erase all my
BIOS settings. Then I click the "Exit and Discard Changes"
option from the BIOS menu and exit out of the BIOS.

Then the machine will complete the boot through the BIOS and into
Windows XP and all 2GB of RAM runs no problem.

Obviously though something is wrong if I have to power up and down 2-3
times before I can get a boot up that brings me as far as an error
message from the BIOS.

Also, getting a BIOS error message on every boot is obviously not
right.

I am thinking hopefully there are some settings in the BIOS I can make
to get the Motherboard to accept the RAM configuration as such on the
first go without pause or error.

I checked the ASUS web site to be sure and I am already running the
latest BIOS.

I checked the CMOS jumper and it is not in the reset position.

I am running a 400 watt power supply so I think I have enough power.

I have tried setting the CPU speed and RAM speed manually, but it
seems to have no effect.

I have also tried various different RAM configurations using the 4 RAM
slots. If I run either the two 512MB chips or the one 1GB chip alone
it boots fine on the first go without any problems. Any other
configuration of either 2 or 3 of the chips together placed in the
RAM slots in configuraiton it doesn't work properly.

What is odd is that prior to installing this new motherboard I was
running a ASUS P4P800S-X motherboard, which has only two RAM slots.
On that board I had installed the 1GIG chip and one of the 512MB
chips together for a 1.5GB RAM configuration and it worked perfectly.
It would seem this more elaborate board with 4 RAM slots should be
able to handle at least a 1.5GB RAM configuration.

Anyway, thank you for reading about my troubles. At the moment I am
back to running only 1GB of RAM since it boots that way without any
error.

If you have troubleshooting thoughts or BIOS settings ideas you think
I might try in order to get these 3 RAM chips to get along together
so I can run the 2GB of RAM without any BIOS boot errors I would
appreciate hearing from you.

Best wishes,

marc

From: Paul on 2 Feb 2006 14:32
In article <hnrEf.444145$gj3.371595(a)fe02.news.easynews.com>,
no(a)spam.invalid (marcbkk) wrote:

> I just installed a new ASUS P4S800D-X motherboard and I am
> experiencing some problems with the memory which are affecting
> bootability of the machine. I have two 512MB 400MHz DDR Ram chips
> and one 1GB 400MHz chip installed.

<<snipped due to my newsreader having problems with easynews postings>>

Have you read the manual ? See table 1 in the manual.

The table shows, that you may use two DIMMs or you may use four DIMMs.
There are _no_ valid three DIMM configurations. The chipset
apparently, as near as I can tell, does not support virtual single
channel mode, like the Intel chipsets do.

To repair this problem, you can use the 2x512MB DIMMs in the dual
channel slots. Or, you may purchase an additional matching 1GB
DIMM, and use 2x512MB + 2x1GB in the appropriate matching
DIMM slots. Those configurations should work. Three DIMMs
will not work.

Paul
From: marcbkk on 2 Feb 2006 22:32
Paul, thank you. What you say makes real good sense. What is strange
though is that the board wont even run using just two modules, of one
of each kind.

If your theorey holds true, then it would seem I should be able to run
the one 1GIG module on one of the blue DIM sockets for example and
then one of the 512MB modules on on of the black DIM sockets.

This one of each configuraiton did work when I was running the other
ASUS board which had just two RAM slots. Granted the other board had
an Intel Chipset and this one is SIS, but I don't think that should
make so much of a difference.

I think I am going to return to the shop and see if they will exchange
the 1GB module they just sold me for two more 512MB modules. Then I
would have a total of 4 modules running instead of 3 and all 512MB.
It would seem this should work evne though they would be different
brands.

My only fear is it may not work as well becuase, as I said, I already
tried running one of each of the brands together already and it did
not work.

Maybe though it didn't work becuase the two modules I tried running
together, one of each brand, were different sizes in terms of
memory.

Hard to speculate I guess. Trial and error and maybe more error!! :)

From: Paul on 3 Feb 2006 02:35
In article <m9AEf.446823$vC.145477(a)fe12.news.easynews.com>,
no(a)spam.invalid (marcbkk) wrote:

> Paul, thank you. What you say makes real good sense. What is strange
> though is that the board wont even run using just two modules, of one
> of each kind.
>
> If your theorey holds true, then it would seem I should be able to run
> the one 1GIG module on one of the blue DIM sockets for example and
> then one of the 512MB modules on on of the black DIM sockets.
>
> This one of each configuraiton did work when I was running the other
> ASUS board which had just two RAM slots. Granted the other board had
> an Intel Chipset and this one is SIS, but I don't think that should
> make so much of a difference.
>
> I think I am going to return to the shop and see if they will exchange
> the 1GB module they just sold me for two more 512MB modules. Then I
> would have a total of 4 modules running instead of 3 and all 512MB.
> It would seem this should work evne though they would be different
> brands.
>
> My only fear is it may not work as well becuase, as I said, I already
> tried running one of each of the brands together already and it did
> not work.
>
> Maybe though it didn't work becuase the two modules I tried running
> together, one of each brand, were different sizes in terms of
> memory.
>
> Hard to speculate I guess. Trial and error and maybe more error!! :)

I had a look here, and it looks like not all four stick configurations
are working. (Set the menu to "All days", to see as many postings
as possible.)

http://vip.asus.com/forum/bbs_topic.aspx?board_id=1&model_name=P4S800D-X

"I have 4 sticks of Kingston 1GB DDR400 PC3200 Memory and the
problem I have is that in the bios it shows 4GB?s installed
but it is only using 3GB?s? And when i look in windowsXP it
also shows only 3GB."

So four identical 1GB sticks work.

? "I tried to put 4 sticks of Corsair 512mb D400 CMX5123200C2 in
my machine and it boots to windows xp and then goes to a blank
screen. Nowhere does it say you can't run 4 sticks of memory in
the book. Why do they show you haow to install 4 sticks and also
have 4 slots to put them in if you cannot use all 4? terrible.
cost me restocking fee to send 2 back. Now to upgrade to 2 Gig's
of ram I have to pull out the 2 sticks of 512ram andbuy 2 sticks
of 1Gig ram?"

So that guy put four identical CAS2 512MB sticks and the computer POSTed,
but Windows would not work. Perhaps a timing adjustment and testing
with memtest86+ would have resolved the problem.

This one is a little too large to copy, but the only configuration
that sort of works is three sticks. This posting is not too
encouraging.

http://vip.asus.com/forum/bbs_view.aspx?board_id=1&model_name=P4S800D-X&message_id=20060131053824961&filter=5&page_size=100&elite=0&SLanguage=en-us&topic_page=1&page_cnt=2&recc=132

This entry on the Asus FAQ page is strange:

http://support.asus.com.tw/faq/faq_right_second_detail.aspx?kb_guid=4CDFEAB4-34CA-4E66-233E-2F79C525AF2E&SLanguage=en-us

"Question

Does ASUS P4S800D/P4S800D-X support Dual Channel Symmetric and
Asymmetric memory?

Answer

Yes, both Dual Channel Symmetric and Asymmetric memory modes are
supported by P4S800D/P4S800D-X.

When two channels are populated with the same amount (MB) of
total memory, the memory access mode will run at 128Bit*1 Dual
Channel Mode.

When two channels are populated with different amount (MB) of
total memory, the memory access mode will run at 64Bit*2 Dual
Channel Mode."

The implication of that FAQ message, is that your original memory
configuration should have allowed the computer to POST...

From Hothardware -

http://www.hothardware.com/viewarticle.aspx?articleid=162&catid=3

"SiS655FX w/SIS964

Integrated High Performance Dual Memory Controller
- Delivering up to 6.4GB/s Bandwidth
- Performance optimization auto-configurability with
flexible granularity via supporting the Dual 128x1
bit mode in symmetric DIMM types deployment, and the
Concurrent Dual 64x2 bit mode with flexible DIMM
types support
- Up to 4 DIMMs of DDR400/DDR333
- Support Un-buffered DDR DIMM and up to 1GB per DIMM"

OK, I interpret the keyword "concurrent" to mean the
memory controller can run the two channels independently,
in a limited sense like Nforce2. Perhaps if you had gone
to the BIOS and selected

"128 Bit Access Mode" [64*2]

before you added the RAM, the board would have POSTed ?

Also, the most conservative settings would have been to
use Command Rate 2T, at least until you can get the computer
running. I would use 2T for both channels, if using more
than two DIMMs. Set to 2T before adding more than two DIMMs.

Ch0 MA 1T/2T Select [MA 2T]
Ch1 MA 1T/2T Select [MA 2T]

Based on doing a bit more reading, it sounds like the
chipset is a little more flexible than the Asus motherboard
manual implies. The real question is whether the Asus BIOS
is holding the motherboard back.

(_Should_ work with three DIMMs!)
http://www.ocworkbench.com/2003/sis/655fx/655fx-1.htm

I think I was too quick to judge your situation earlier, as
it appears this motherboard's BIOS is a "can of worms".

The testing sequence I would try:

1) Test the 1GB module by itself. Does it work ? Get a
copy of CPUZ, which has an option to dump information
about the DIMMs (www.cpuid.com). The text file output
should have lots of info on the DIMM, and also includes
a dump of the contents of the SPD on the DIMM.
2) Test the 512MB modules separately. Do they work by
themselves ?
3) Now insert 512MB in A2 and 512MB in B2. That should be
a dual channel mode capable of supporting "128*1"
mode preferably. The "128*1" mode is faster than "64*2".
With a single DIMM in matched socket locations, the board
should support 128*1 mode and MA 1T on both channels.
4) Now you are going to reconfigure things. Before shutting
down the computer, enter the BIOS and set memory mode
manually to "64*2" and MA 2T on both channels. Strictly
speaking, for this experiment, you could use MA 1T on the
channel with only one DIMM in it, but considering the
stability of the BIOS, that is not likely to be a good
idea. MA 2T on both channels is safer. Test that the
computer still starts and boots properly with the new
settings. Now shut down and install the new memory
configuration. Put 512MB in A1, 512MB in A2, 1GB in B1.
That balances the total quantity of RAM in the two channels.
I am hoping, that by setting 64*2 mode in advance of
installing the RAM, the computer will POST.

In terms of memory configurations and memory bandwidth,
these are the levels of performance I would expect:

512MB in A2 and 512MB in B2 - supports 128*1 and MA 1T - fastest
1GB in A2 and 1GB in B2 (same as the first config)

four identical sticks - supports 128*1 and MA 2T - slower

512MB in A1, 512MB in A2, 1GB in B1 - supports 64*2 and MA 2T
- slowest of the three configs

When you go to the shop tomorrow, somehow arranging to get
2x1GB would be the fastest. Going 4x512MB is only a bit slower.
Using the three DIMM configuration, assuming that setting the
BIOS manually would make it work, would be the slowest, and
according to one benchmark I read, in three DIMM mode the
chipset performs like an Intel 848 single channel board.

I hope that isn't too confusing. Even with all of the theories
expressed above, the vip.asus.com forums contain a few
postings of configurations that should have worked and did not.
So, things may or may not work out for you.

Post back with your progress,
Paul
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