Why does my ram underclock itself?

[crayneogeo]

I tried to do a search but no dice.

My setup:

P4P800 SE
Pentium M 730 1.66ghz out of a Dell 9300
2x512M memory
CT-479 adapter

Able to overclock up to 210FSB on stock cooling. As soon as I increase FSB 1 more MHZ the ram goes to 140MHZ? Anything under 210FSB the ram runs at full speed. I can overclock the processor to over 220FSB, but with the ram slowdown, the overall machine is slower.

Any idea why the ram would do this?

Thanks,

Chris

[eddieate]

are you using clockgen? It doesn't always detect the ram frequency right.
Ed.

[crayneogeo]

No, I clocked the memory in the BIOS, and I am reading the frequency in Rightmark. I confirm the slowness of the ram by running the ram test and seeing the bandwidth as much slower, as well as my superpi times going up.

It does not seem to be timing dependant eitherm as I have tested the ram at 2.5 4 4 8 (stock), and 2.5 3 3 5 (OC) and the results are the same as far as not being able to get past 210 FSB.

BTW - at 1.6@2.52(12x210) and the 2.5 3 3 5 memory timings my superpi is 30.625

I want to break 30 seconds, but cannot with the ram issue.

Chris

[crayneogeo]

bump

[alexio]

Did you set memory frequency in the bios from "AUTO" to DDR400? That may fix it if you didn't yet.

[Delta9b]

Maybe the board is changing to another divider over a certain FSB, can you change them manually or not?

[[XC]melymel]

not sure if it's the same in your board but my asus p4gpl-x with ct-479 and pm had to be set to auto for it to run 1:1, what divider do you have set in bios?

[crayneogeo]

Thanks for all the help. I solved th problem by setting the ram to default at 400mhz instead of auto.

I was able to get me desired sub 30 sec. spi time with 12x215. This is on the stock CT-479 cooler. I am thinking about putting a new cooler on there, but wonder how much it will help. Currently it runs at 1.55v and about 62C under prime load. Case temp is 39C. This runs in a hot room (ambient probably around 80F).

Don't know if I should push it or be happy. I think a full 1GHZ overclock is pretty healthy. And being able to push my generic ram to 2.5-3-3-5 was a bonus. BTW - are those timings considered at least middle of the road speed wise?

Thanks again,

Chris

[alexio]

BTW - are those timings considered at least middle of the road speed wise?

Thanks again,

Chris

2.5-3-3-* isn't too bad. You shouldn't change it to 2.5-4-4-* though. Did you try other timings at all? It's quite possible that it can do 215mhz with a little tighter timings like 2-3-3-* or even 2-3-2-*.

[crayneogeo]

Well the stock timings built in to the ram are 2.5-4-4-8. I was changing the ram timings in Rightmark, and these are the best i could get. When I tried to change the 2.5 to 2, it just kept putting it back to 2.5. And when I tried to change the either of the 3's it locked up the computer immediately. I bumped up the voltage on the ram to max in the bios and it did not change anything. Maybe I can make the change in the BIOS. Is rightmark known as a decent ram overclock utility?

BTW - I have the timings 2.5-3-3-5 set in the BIOS now (after testing with rightmark). I assumed that my pc would lock up if I set the timings to what was causing the lockups in Rightmark. Do you think there is a chance that i could set the timings in the bios that caused the crash via Rightmark and it wouldn't lock up in windows?

Chris

2.5-3-3-* isn't too bad. You shouldn't change it to 2.5-4-4-* though. Did you try other timings at all? It's quite possible that it can do 215mhz with a little tighter timings like 2-3-3-* or even 2-3-2-*.

[alexio]

Do you think there is a chance that i could set the timings in the bios that caused the crash via Rightmark and it wouldn't lock up in windows?

Chris

It's possible that rightmark was just faulthy. You should indeed set the timings in the bios. The P4P800-SE has a special function to automatically revert back to default of the overclock failes. If the function for some reason doesn't work, look for the reset jumper in your manual to manually set it back to default.

[mr_knowitall15]

by buddys ol p4p did that nonsence where it would automatically force a 3:2 divider when you OCed the fsb, even by one. like someone said, set to to ddr400 aka 1:1. or ddr3xx(whatever the hell it is) for 5:4 if you have higher fsb speeds than your ram can take.