Old school DDR Memory question!

B

Buztafen

Limp Gawd
Joined
May 19, 2005
Messages
238
Mornin all,

My mates got an old AMD comp that he uses for the t'interent based on a cheapo PC Chips mobo with KT266 chipset...

Specs:-
Socket A for AMD K7 CPU
FSB 266/200MHz
Chipset KT266A/8235
Memory 2 x 184-pin DIMM sockets support two 2.5V DDR SDRAMs (DDR266/200)
Maximum: 2GB

It had 2 x 256mb DDR266 ram in it so i thought i'd give him a small upgrade and stuck 2 x 512mb DDR400 in to give him a gig of memory. I installed a fresh copy of xp after the memory aswell and all seemed well.

Since doing this however, he's been complaining of slow downs and that doing more than 1 thing at a time can cause the comp to freeze for a bit. Granted its not the fastest machine but for the internet it should be ok.

So is the memory having compatibility issues? Is it too 'fast' being DDR400 rather than 200/266? Or do i just need to adjust timings etc in the BIOS (which im still a little green at)

Any help or knowledge would be appreciated.
 
You'd best go see yourself what the slowdowns are like.
 
Yeah im off up there after work tonight.

Its got an Athlon XP 2200 in it which has a FSB of 266 if im not mistaken. Maybe it doesnt play well with the 400 ram? I know the rams good as its been used in 2 other comps without a hitch.
 
the only way to really tell is to remove the modules you have and put the old 256 chips back in. Dont change any settings, just change the ram. It will be slower, but you will be able to tell if it is hanging up. If it doesnt hang, put one of each in and see what happens.
 
I have the book for that motherboard here in my desk, and it says that you're good with up to 2 gb of ram. I would check and make sure it is seated properly, or try a memory test program to make sure its working properly.
 
The DDR 400 should be OK I checked the one we use here, and that's what it is running. It is some off brand we got on ebay, so its probably not the best quality either.
 
I've never had problems running DDR400/PC3200 memory modules with chipsets rated for 266 MHz, including the KT266, a VIA chipset with built-in graphics, and a couple of SiS chipsets (one for an ECS K7S5A Pro), except when I told the BIOS to use the safe default settings. That caused no boot, a siren sound (I think), and with the VIA chipset with built-in graphics the boot screen would slowly grow horizontal bars.
 
The only problem you might have is if the DDR400 modules require a little more voltage than the DDR266 ones. My son's computer has an Asus A7N266-C motherboard and i bumped the voltage ram up to 2.6v and and installed a pair of 512mb Kingston HyperX modules and they worked great. like acarlton stated most DDR400 modules will automatically clock back to match the motherboards FSB speed if you have it set to do so in your bios. Your timing should get tighter because the timing on the modules were set for DDR400 speed. The HyperX modules in my sons computer were 2-3-3-5 @ DDR400 and on his board with auto settings, run at 2-2-2-5 1T. The only problem on this motherboard is it has 3 DIMM slots and can take 512mb modules in the three slots, 1.5gb max.. Also in the third slot you can only use a single load module when the other two are populated with dual load modules :)
 
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