I have an Abit NF7-s version 2 motherboard and Kingston Hyperx ddr400 ram, 2 sticks of 512mb. The ram worked for a long time with no problems at 2-3-3-6 timings but after a family member used a treadmill in the same room as the computer the ram will not operate properly at 2-3-3-6 timings. I suspect it was the treadmill's fault because it sucks a lot of voltage from the room as you turn up the speed (the lights actually dim as you increase speed), and the computer was not hooked up to an uninteruptable power supply. The powersupply of the computer is a Zalman, pretty good quality, and it's working fine, as far as I can see.

Kingston is great with their lifetime warrenty, and they exchanged the ram for some brand new sticks. But the new sticks perform exactly the same. The computer will not boot at 2-3-3-6, it is unstable at 2.5-4-4-8, and it's stable at 3-4-4-10 timings. This is "performance" ram, this stuff costed a bit a money. To run it at the same timings and speed as value ram, which costed about $50 less at the time I bought this stuff is unnerving.

I've tested the 2 sticks in every possible configuration on the motherboard including single channel and dual channel modes; they still are only stable at 3-4-4-10.

Interestly enough, I put just 1 stick in at a time and when only 1 stick is in the motherboard, they run at the normal 2-3-3-6 timings stably. So I think it's a motherboard problem because the ram is new and seems to be working okay individually. This ram is a dual channel kit, so it was supposedly tested at Kingston's factory for dual channel compatibility.

What do you think? Is there something else that may be causing the problem?
Thanks.

Sounds like the MO BO to me also, since you have changed the ram. I'm really not up to speed as to giving you a profesional opinion, just common sense, for I'm no professional technician but do build my own PC's.

It's been awhile since I posted this...

Anyway, I actually tested each ram stick and each ram slot on the mobo. The motherboard is fine.

I just happened to recieve bad ram twice from Kingston. With the current batch they sent me, 1 stick is flawless while the other stick is error prone.

The only problem the ram is giving me is a memory error while playing Half Life 2 games. This is partly because of how shitty Valve's game engine is and partly the ram. I use a 3D modeling program that uses up to 90% of my ram and I'd never had an errors while using it. But I turn on Half Life 2 and the thing crashes within the first few minutes when loading up a map in the background of the main menu, and Task Manager says the game used, at a max, 250MB.

While testing the ram, I found that the first error occurs near 128mb on the error prone stick (the sticks are 512mb each). So I put the ram into single channel mode and put the flawless stick in the first accessed memory slot, and the erroneous stick in the next slot. Half Life 2 games work fine now.

So I have to run this expensive ram in single channel mode with 3-4-4-8 timings.

Glad that you found the problem. That is rare to get two orders of ram that were bad especially from Kingston for I heard they are a very good company. I use Crucial (http://www.google.com/url?sa=l&q=http://www.qksrv.net/click-1192196-5032657&ai=Bxg1YqbSZQuP-NrGK4AHp58TADMCy4Abw4ZybAefCggbQ2mQIABABGAEoAjgASI 45mAHJUMgBAegBAQ ) for my ram and as yet have had no problems with anything I have bought from them.

I really don't understand that 3-4-6-8 thing at all. I just put my ram sticks into their slots and away I go. I also use 512 sticks but I'm seeing the 1 GIG sticks dropping in price to about 100.00 a stick now. I bought my 512's at 50.00 each but want more speed and my MO BO will handle 5 GIG's. I will wait a little longer before I buy anymore for I've only had the 512's for 1 year or so along with a 256MG Raedon X-800 video card. The video card really brought up the performance.

I also found that I needed a 500 watt power supply to keep up with the power requirements the new card had. Did you increase your power supply, what is it? That could be another area of concern.You should find a dedicated circut for your PC, that way the treadmill won't cause any power problems. Just run a extension cord into another room that doesn't use much electricity and is not on that treadmil circut. Good luck, I hope I'be helped.




Radeon® X800 Graphics