# Very weird mobo/RAM problem (MSI P35 Platinum)



## Ypnos (Nov 7, 2007)

Hi all, I'm new to the forum.

I'm at my wit's end with this new system I bought. Well, I say new.. I got it about 5 months ago and have had problems ever since. I built the system myself and in the 13 years I've been doing this, I've never seen anything like it. Here's the time line of what has happened:

Initially bought:
Gigabyte P35C-DS3R mobo
2x1GB Crucial Ballistix PC2-8500 RAM
Antec P182 case
Hiper 580W PSU
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 CPU

- After random crashes/BSoD in both WinXP64 and Vista32 I sent one of the RAM sticks back.
- No joy with the replacement so sent motherboard back.
- No joy with new motherboard so sent other stick of RAM back.
- No joy with new RAM so bought 2 new Hard Drives
- No joy with new Hard Drives so bought new PSU (Zalman 600W)
- No joy with new PSU. At this point I thought that the 2nd RAM stick I sent back was the wrong one so sent the right one back. Also the motherboard went into an endless powerup/down cycle. Checked the Gigabyte forum and found this is a problem with the board. So I got a refund on the motherboard and went out and bought an [MSI P35 Platinum], which is my current board.
- The new motherboard has been running on 1GB for over a week completely stable.
- New RAM stick arrived yesterday and after 5 minutes of operation....BSOD!!!!!!!! AGH!!!! :'(

In the BIOS, I have set the RAM voltage to 2.2V and the FSB to 1067MHz, these are the Crucial manufacturer's optimal settings. Interestingly, if I set the voltage to Auto it detects the RAM speed as 800MHz... Also, if I run CPU-Z it detects the RAM as PC2-6400!!!

Please someone help me, I'm at my wit's end with this thing. I have changed everything except the CPU and Graphics Card (8800GTS). Basically if I run it with just one stick of RAM in, it runs stable. If I put a 2nd stick in, it crashes (usually when under load, like in a game).

Thanks in advance for any advice.


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## patton45 (Nov 7, 2007)

well i think this might sound crazy but the p182 is f***in cursed i have one i have built three systems in over 7 months and none of them will ever run stable it will be stable for a few days then suddenly start crashing now mine is a doorstop downstairs i say junk the cursed case lol


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## Grimskull (Nov 7, 2007)

hi, 

Dont know if this might help but the motherboard RAM slots are green and orange. You might have installed the RAM in the green slots, but according to the manual for the P35 motherbaord you have to install the ram in one green and one orange slot.....  filling the green slot closest to the CPU and the orange slot closest to the CPU. Dont know if this might help but its a pain in the ass that msi do that.


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## patton45 (Nov 7, 2007)

its not msi and on msi your suposed to pair them by colors it says on the mobo ca green cb orange  he has a gigabyte board


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## patton45 (Nov 7, 2007)

dude you know that board takes ddr3 right


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## patton45 (Nov 7, 2007)

apprantly it has problems with ddr2
and it looks like a lot are arriving doa you can pay when your rma with some companies for a factory test do you have anyfriends with ram to use to test it


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## Ypnos (Nov 7, 2007)

Grimskull said:


> hi,
> 
> Dont know if this might help but the motherboard RAM slots are green and orange. You might have installed the RAM in the green slots, but according to the manual for the P35 motherbaord you have to install the ram in one green and one orange slot.....  filling the green slot closest to the CPU and the orange slot closest to the CPU. Dont know if this might help but its a pain in the ass that msi do that.



I always do this with all my motherboards... 

patton45 - at this point I'll believe anything! lol


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## patton45 (Nov 7, 2007)

your not using the green slots right


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## Ypnos (Nov 7, 2007)

patton45 said:


> dude you know that board takes ddr3 right



All resellers sell it as DDR2... All the reviews I've read say it's a DDR2. I got rid of the Gigabyte, btw. I have an MSI P35 Platinum.


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## Ypnos (Nov 7, 2007)

patton45 said:


> your not using the green slots right



I'm confused... I'm supposed to put both RAM sticks in the same colour bank?


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## patton45 (Nov 7, 2007)

the green slots are for the ddr3 and the red and yellow for ddr2


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## patton45 (Nov 7, 2007)

yes red and red and yellow and yellow and green is for ddr3


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## Ypnos (Nov 7, 2007)

patton45 said:


> the green slots are for the ddr3 and the red and yellow for ddr2



You're thinking of the Gigabyte mobo. That had 4xDDR2 and 2xDDR3. I don't have that any more, I have the MSI which is 4xDDR2 only.


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## patton45 (Nov 7, 2007)

ya i know that board its the same way msi green is channel a put them both in green  if they dont post orange is channel b try it bad dimms are common on the msi p6n diamond


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## Grimskull (Nov 7, 2007)

patton,

he has a MSI P35 Platinum board..... according to the manual for that board channel A is one green and one orange slot. Is this the motherboard?

http://global.msi.com.tw/index.php?func=proddesc&prod_no=1212&maincat_no=1 

It runs stable on one stick of RAM but when another stick is entered it has a BSOD, so what RAM slot did you out it in? bring the board back to standard settings before you enter the second stick or RAM. 

The RAM configuration is on p2-7. It uses DDR2 RAM.


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## Ypnos (Nov 7, 2007)

Grimskull said:


> patton,
> 
> he has a MSI P35 Platinum board..... according to the manual for that board channel A is one green and one orange slot. Is this the motherboard?
> 
> ...


Yes that's the board.

I just noticed on the manual that it says 1.8v, but the PC2-8500 Crucial memory requires 2.2v.................


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## Wile E (Nov 7, 2007)

Ypnos said:


> Yes that's the board.
> 
> I just noticed on the manual that it says 1.8v, but the PC2-8500 Crucial memory requires 2.2v.................


The ram only has to be capable of running at 800MHz at 1.8v, only for intitial post, so you can make BIOS changes as necessary, which it should do without problem. 2.2v is for 1066Mhz operation. What are your ram timings set at?


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## Ypnos (Nov 7, 2007)

Wile E said:


> The ram only has to be capable of running at 800MHz at 1.8v, only for intitial post, so you can make BIOS changes as necessary, which it should do without problem. 2.2v is for 1066Mhz operation. What are your ram timings set at?



The RAM is PC2-8500, that is 1066MHz at 2.2v (as per Crucial's spec sheets). I've let the motherboard do the timings automatically, so I don't know what they are... Shall I try setting them manually? What should I set the voltage and speed at?


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## Wile E (Nov 7, 2007)

Set them for 5-5-5-15 2.2v 1066MHz

Oh and about the 1.8v warning, 1066 ram boots at 800mhz until either, you overclock them, or you enable SLI memory in a supported board.


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## Grimskull (Nov 7, 2007)

im not a fan of overclocking, so i would be in favor of setting them to a factory/default speed, just to get the two sticks of RAM working, if you can get them working and running stable with absolutly no problems then start to over clock them, but you run the risk of damaging or shortening the life span of your hardware, hense why i dont overclock, but totally up to you.


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## Wile E (Nov 7, 2007)

Grimskull said:


> im not a fan of overclocking, so i would be in favor of setting them to a factory/default speed, just to get the two sticks of RAM working, if you can get them working and running stable with absolutly no problems then start to over clock them, but you run the risk of damaging or shortening the life span of your hardware, hense why i dont overclock, but totally up to you.


His ram is factory rated at 1066MHz.


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## Ypnos (Nov 7, 2007)

OK, I'll try that, thanks.


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## Ypnos (Nov 7, 2007)

Grimskull said:


> im not a fan of overclocking, so i would be in favor of setting them to a factory/default speed, just to get the two sticks of RAM working, if you can get them working and running stable with absolutly no problems then start to over clock them, but you run the risk of damaging or shortening the life span of your hardware, hense why i dont overclock, but totally up to you.



Yeah, I'm not overclocking. It's 1066MHz memory as standard, requiring 2.2 volts.


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## Grimskull (Nov 7, 2007)

sorry... meant factory/default on the motherboard, not the RAM..... apologises for the mistake.... let us know how you get on.... i take it they are matched paired sticks of RAM also.


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## Ypnos (Nov 7, 2007)

Grimskull said:


> sorry... meant factory/default on the motherboard, not the RAM..... apologises for the mistake.... let us know how you get on.... i take it they are matched paired sticks of RAM also.



Indeed, they're a matched pair. The question remains though: does this motherboard support 2.2v RAM?


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## Wile E (Nov 7, 2007)

Ypnos said:


> Indeed, they're a matched pair. The question remains though: does this motherboard support 2.2v RAM?


If it has the option to set 2.2v vDimm, then yes, it supports 2.2V ram.

Have you updated the bios at all? If not, you may want to. It might be a BIOS bug.


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## Grimskull (Nov 7, 2007)

can only find that it supports PC2-6400 and PC2-5300 RAM. 

This might help.... says it supports Memory Voltage: 1.8v to 3.3v in 0.05v Increments
http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/1096/5/page_5_bios_and_overclocking/index.html


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## Wile E (Nov 7, 2007)

Grimskull said:


> can only find that it supports PC2-6400 and PC2-5300 RAM.
> 
> This might help.... says it supports Memory Voltage: 1.8v to 3.3v in 0.05v Increments
> http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/1096/5/page_5_bios_and_overclocking/index.html



It's right on their website. http://www.msicomputer.com/product/p_spec.asp?model=P35_Platinum&class=mb



			
				MSI said:
			
		

> Intel® P35 Chipset
> • 	Supports FSB 800MHz, 1066MHz & 1333MHz
> • 	Support Dual channel DDR2 667/800/1066 memory interface up to 8GB (P35 chipset supports up to DDR2-800 officially. For DDR2 800+, manually BIOS adjustment is needed)
> • 	Support Dual PCI Express 16X interface with either 1x16 or 1x4 operation.


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## Grimskull (Nov 7, 2007)

Yeh was just reading that on their website Wile E.

This is from MSI website...... additional to Wile E post. Hope this helps!

Main Memory  
• Supports 4 unbuffered DIMM of 1.8 Volt DDR2 SDRAM  
• Supports up to 8GB memory size  
• Support Dual Channel DDR2 667/800/1066MHz and up (Intel P35 chipset supports up to DDR2-800 officially. For DDR2 800+, manually BIOS adjustment is needed)  

    Due to the High Performance Memory design, motherboards or system configurations may or may not operate smoothly at the JEDEC (Joint Electron Device Engineering Council) standard settings (BIOS Default on the motherboard) such as DDR2 voltage, memory speeds and memory timing. Please confirm and adjust your memory setting in the BIOS accordingly for better system stability. 
Example: Kingston HyperX DDR2-800 PC6400 operates at 2.0V, 4-4-4-12. 
For more information about specification of high performance memory modules, please check with your Memory Manufactures for more details.


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## Ypnos (Nov 7, 2007)

Ace! thanks Grimskull. I'd rather put it down to my incompetence than having to RMA more stuff! lol

And thanks Wile E


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## Ypnos (Nov 7, 2007)

OK I've manually set the timings to 5-5-5-15.

However there are other settings in there:
DRAM TRFC
DRAM TWR
DRAM TWTR
DRAM TRRD
DRAM TRTP
I've left these as they are but I'm pretty sure they're wrong...

Also, I have the option in the BIOS for FSB Memory Ratio:
Auto
1:1.25
1:1.5
1:1.66
1:2
1:1
1:1.2
1:1.6


Any ideas what all of the above should be?


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## Darknova (Nov 7, 2007)

Put it all at Auto for now. Currently you want to get it STABLE. Screw the fact it's meant to be 1066 for now, we need to see if it's a problem with the motherboard first.

Put both sticks in and boot at Auto. If it's all stable then we know it's a problem with the RAM. You said CPU-Z recognised it as PC-6400? Well it could be either the SPD on the module is wrong, or they sent back the wrong sticks on your RMA, in which case get in contact with them.


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## Ypnos (Nov 7, 2007)

The problem is that if I put it on Auto, there's no way of telling what settings it's using...


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## Ypnos (Nov 8, 2007)

So does anyone have any ideas about those timings?


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## Darknova (Nov 8, 2007)

Ypnos said:


> The problem is that if I put it on Auto, there's no way of telling what settings it's using...



Run CPU-Z when you boot up (if it boots).


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## Ypnos (Nov 8, 2007)

The PC does boot on Auto, but with 2 sticks of RAM in it hangs when under load, like in a game...


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## Ypnos (Nov 8, 2007)

OK Everything's on Auto and this is what CPU-Z gives:
-------------------------
  CPU-Z version 1.41
-------------------------

Processors Map
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Number of processors	1
Number of threads	2

Processor 0
    -- Core 0
        -- Thread 0
    -- Core 1
        -- Thread 0


Processors Information
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Processor 1 (ID = 0)
Number of cores		2
Number of threads	2 (max 2)
Name			Intel Core 2 Duo E6600
Codename		Conroe
Specification		Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU          6600  @ 2.40GHz
Package			Socket 775 LGA (platform ID = 0h)
CPUID			6.F.6
Extended CPUID		6.F
Core Stepping		B2
Technology		65 nm
Core Speed		2402.4 MHz (9.0 x 266.9 MHz)
Rated Bus speed		1067.7 MHz
Stock frequency		2400 MHz
Instructions sets	MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, EM64T
L1 Data cache		2 x 32 KBytes, 8-way set associative, 64-byte line size
L1 Instruction cache	2 x 32 KBytes, 8-way set associative, 64-byte line size
L2 cache		4096 KBytes, 16-way set associative, 64-byte line size
FID/VID Control		yes
FID range		6.0x - 9.0x
max VID			1.238 V
Features		, VT

Chipset
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Northbridge		Intel P35/G33/G31 rev. A2
Southbridge		Intel 82801IR (ICH9R) rev. 02
Graphic Interface	PCI-Express
PCI-E Link Width	x16
PCI-E Max Link Width	x16
Memory Type		DDR2
Memory Size		2048 MBytes
Memory Frequency	400.4 MHz (2:3)
CAS#			5.0
RAS# to CAS#		5
RAS# Precharge		5
Cycle Time (tRAS)	18
Command Rate		2T

Memory SPD
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

DIMM #1

General
Memory type		DDR2
Module format		Regular UDIMM
Manufacturer (ID)	Crucial Technology (7F7F7F7F7F9BFFFF)
Size			1024 MBytes
Max bandwidth		PC2-6400 (400 MHz)
Part number		
Serial number		88017AC0

Attributes
Number of banks		2
Data width		64 bits
Correction		None
Nominal Voltage		1.80 Volts
EPP			yes (2 profiles)
XMP			no

Timings table
Frequency (MHz)		333	400	
CAS#			4.0	5.0	
RAS# to CAS# delay	5	5	
RAS# Precharge		5	5	
TRAS			15	18	
TRC			20	23	

EPP profile 1 (full)
Voltage level		2.200 Volts
Address Command Rate	2T
Cycle time		2.500 ns (400.0 MHz)
tCL			4.0 clocks
tRCD			4 clocks (10.00 ns)
tRP			4 clocks (10.00 ns)
tRAS			12 clocks (30.00 ns)
tRC			24 clocks (60.00 ns)
tWR			6 clocks (15.00 ns)

EPP profile 2 (full)
Voltage level		2.200 Volts
Address Command Rate	2T
Cycle time		1.875 ns (533.3 MHz)
tCL			5.0 clocks
tRCD			5 clocks (9.00 ns)
tRP			5 clocks (9.00 ns)
tRAS			15 clocks (28.00 ns)
tRC			30 clocks (55.00 ns)
tWR			8 clocks (15.00 ns)


DIMM #2

General
Memory type		DDR2
Module format		Regular UDIMM
Manufacturer (ID)	Crucial Technology (7F7F7F7F7F9BFFFF)
Size			1024 MBytes
Max bandwidth		PC2-6400 (400 MHz)
Part number		
Serial number		7F10A9DB

Attributes
Number of banks		2
Data width		64 bits
Correction		None
Nominal Voltage		1.80 Volts
EPP			yes (2 profiles)
XMP			no

Timings table
Frequency (MHz)		333	400	
CAS#			4.0	5.0	
RAS# to CAS# delay	5	5	
RAS# Precharge		5	5	
TRAS			15	18	
TRC			20	23	

EPP profile 1 (full)
Voltage level		2.200 Volts
Address Command Rate	2T
Cycle time		2.500 ns (400.0 MHz)
tCL			4.0 clocks
tRCD			4 clocks (10.00 ns)
tRP			4 clocks (10.00 ns)
tRAS			12 clocks (30.00 ns)
tRC			24 clocks (60.00 ns)
tWR			6 clocks (15.00 ns)

EPP profile 2 (full)
Voltage level		2.200 Volts
Address Command Rate	2T
Cycle time		1.875 ns (533.3 MHz)
tCL			5.0 clocks
tRCD			5 clocks (9.00 ns)
tRP			5 clocks (9.00 ns)
tRAS			15 clocks (28.00 ns)
tRC			30 clocks (55.00 ns)
tWR			8 clocks (15.00 ns)
-----------------------

Have been running it full whack for a few hours now and it seems stable.


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## Wile E (Nov 9, 2007)

Ypnos said:


> EPP profile 2 (full)
> Voltage level		2.200 Volts
> Address Command Rate	2T
> Cycle time		1.875 ns (533.3 MHz)
> ...


Yep, those are 1066MHz sticks. That's what EPP Profile 2 is. Set the timings exactly how they're listed on that chart. Voltage 2.2v.


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## Ypnos (Nov 9, 2007)

533.3MHz?


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## Wile E (Nov 10, 2007)

Ypnos said:


> 533.3MHz?


Yep. It 533Mhz actual, 1066MHz Effective because it is a type of DDR memory. DDR stands for Double Data Rate. It can perform 2 operations per clock cycle, so they say it's equivalent to 1066MHz. It's basically a marketing gimmick.

Same Goes for PC3200 400MHz DDR1 memory, for example. It actually runs at 200Mhz, but does 2 operations per clock cycle, thus the 400MHz rating.


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## Ypnos (Nov 10, 2007)

Excellent! Thanks for your help


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