Installed s754 3400+ but now I have memory issues?

W

WLDock

Limp Gawd
Joined
Feb 20, 2005
Messages
246
Well, I picked one of the new Venice core S754 3400+ chips:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103010

This replaced my 3000+ in a Chaintech VNF3-250 with two PC3200 512MB sticks of Crucial Ballistix RAM. I get reboots when WIN XP loads. Next, I set all memory settings to auto and the system now boots but does not see all of the RAM...shows 512MB?
Next, I tried one stick in different slots and it only sees 256MB? The system runs slow as well?

I know this is a Venice core chip with a different memory controller but, what am I doing wrong in the setup? Any help would be much appreciated.
 
You may need to see if Chaintech has a newer bios version for that mobo. It sounds like the bios does not support the Venice core.
If Chaintech has a newer bios then download and flash it to your mobo and you should be ok.
 
Sweet! Glad to hear it. I think you're gonna like that 3400+, its a good one. Now its time to update your sig! ;)
 
Yeah, my sig was a bit dated...I've made a few changes. It's up to date now.
 
Looks like I am still having memory issues...Mem Test fails, and rebooted during games.

I really don't think my memory is bad as this system ran fine with the 3000+ cpu installed. There is something that I am missing with the settings or timings...can't figure it out???
Anyone have any ideas?
 
I'm not familiar with the Chaintech mobo but what settings are you running at? Please post all settings (cpu freq, cpu multi, cpu voltage, HTT speed, ram tiimings, command rate, ram voltage, chipset voltage (if adjustable) and divider.) Once we see all those things we can probably make some good recommendations. That Crucial Ballistix is good stuff.
 
Here are my current settings:

SystemSettingsCPU-Z.jpg
 
You might want to try loosening your mem timings to 2.5-3-2-8 and trying that. If that doesn't help try 2.5-3-3-8 and see. Try sticking with the 1T command rate if that is where you are and if that doesn't help go to 2T. 2T is slower than 1T and will cause some loss of performance but should help greatly with stability. I have to run 2T on my system when playing HL2 to get the system stable or else it crashes.
 
I'd recommend pulling 1 stick of memory, set at 2T, memtest, repeat on the other stick.

If both sticks are having problems you can probably rule out a bad memory DIMM for sure.

It could be that one of the DIMMs was limping and now running at higher speed/1T/etc is driving one of them crazy.

Then, with you sure that both sticks of memory are good, you can proceed.

This gets you a reseating of the memory at the same time, if you haven't done that already.

I had a stick of Corsair value select RAM that would pass memtest at 333mhz. When I pushed it farther with the new Venice chip (~400mhz) it got more flaky and I started noticing it. Another memtest found it was going bad, just a couple of errors on a test.
 
OK, this is getting frustrating! I tried one stick at a time with different timing and both sticks are showing errors.

I wonder if this board supports the Venice? The system crashed when I first installed it then later upgraded the BIOS and was able to get it to boot. Maybe I need to put the 3000+ back in?

I need to find a local hardware guru because I have no clue at this point and I don't want to replace anything on this system nor do I want to spend a lot of money on it.
 
Well, I guess you could just stick the 3000+ back in and see what happens. Your bios may not fully support the 3400+ but that seems unlikely since the 3000+ is a Venice too, right?
If both memory sticks are showing errors something is definitely up. Try putting the 3000+ back in and then run your mem tests again and see what happens. If they pass then you'll know its an issue with the 3400+ of some kind.
 
vnf3-250's are picky with ram voltages. I would suggest leaving timings the same and upping it to 2.9 volts.
 
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