Hi Tony... yes there are ways And FYI... adjusting Vtt by POT helps a little... but you can't go much because a) Vtt start off high without load already and b) the droops are too large under some conditions. George's new Maximizer would solve it, but it's a tad high $ for just the needed Vtt solution. If you have multiple MBs... would you be willing to rob one for a RT9173A and parallel a pair to verify it's a pure load condition?

But... why I dropped by tonight was to answer the question as to why it might be a good thing to use the Vmem mod to adjust your memory voltage rather than programming it in the BIOS... at least for Vmem above 3.2V.

Here is what happens during a re-boot of the MB... note it doesn't matter if it's a re-boot initiated within windows, pressing ESC during memtest, or hitting the reset switch... in all cases just after the VGA detect and POST tests, the Vmem regulator takes a drop like this:


This happens with the newer BIOS's that have the "low Vmem during Memory-POST cold boot" fix in them. I don't know about anybody else, but one wouldn't think that would be the best thing in the world. This only occurs if Vmem in the BIOS is set to a voltage greater than 3.2V

Here is a complete picture of what happens during a cold boot now. You can see when the Vmem level is initially set to the value programmed into the BIOS by the user, followed by the same several second dip down to a lower level. You can also see a glitch occuring when that initial level is set:


One last note... Vmem (at least on my MB) is 100mV over the value set in the BIOS for the higher voltages ( more than 3.2V using 5V rail).

Have other info collected, but time is up... work tomorrow.

Peace