8GB RAM upgrade killed my OC'd Badaxe2

[Fazzi]

I recently ugraded my Intel D975XBX2 (BadAxe2) System from 4GB to 8GB. I've been running an old e6600 (2.4 stock) at 3.2GHz with not much effort (i.e. on air and with just fsb increase no voltage increase).

I threw the other 4GB of Mushkin redline RAM and that gave me a total of 8GB but no post whatsoever unless I run this thing at 2.4GHz and not overclock!!!

Anyone experienced this with this mobo? I loved the mobo until this week!

Any advice is appreciated.

 

[Termie]

I posted about a similar problem yesterday but didn't get any responses. I'm really wondering if 8GB isn't ready for prime time. On my Asus P5E x38 motherboard, I couldn't even get 8GB of Corsair XMS DHX to post. You're lucky that you can get it to run at stock speed. My suggestion is to run your memory 1:1, so on an e6600, that's a 266 (533) frequency rather than 400 (800), and then clock it up slowly to see if you can get to 333 (667), which would be at 3Ghz on your processor. I may be wrong on this, but these settings shouldn't stress the memory any more than running at stock speed. I've also been told that you should try increasing the northbridge voltage by 0.1 or 0.2, but that didn't work for me. Good luck!

 

[Drsignguy]

Originally posted by: Fazzi
I recently ugraded my Intel D975XBX2 (BadAxe2) System from 4GB to 8GB. I've been running an old e6600 (2.4 stock) at 3.2GHz with not much effort (i.e. on air and with just fsb increase no voltage increase).

I threw the other 4GB of Mushkin redline RAM and that gave me a total of 8GB but no post whatsoever unless I run this thing at 2.4GHz and not overclock!!!

Anyone experienced this with this mobo? I loved the mobo until this week!

Any advice is appreciated.

Have you gone into the maintenance section of your bios and disabled "failsafe watchdog"?
If not, and you don't know how just yet, shut your rig down, set the jumper, ( info ) in manual ) and then turn machine back on. It will boot you right into the bios. You will see "failsafe watchdog". Disable it. Then, go into your memory area and adjust the memory to a 1:1 ratio ( based of of your cpu ) and make sure your timings and voltages are at spec then after that save and exit and follow the screen directions.

Once you have successfully completed this lil task, get back into bios to see if the memory adjustments you've just made, holds. If not re-adjust them and reboot. Use cpu-z to see what your settings, timings and voltages are. You might have to bump up your CPU voltage, memory and NB voltages a bit to become stable. I have this board and it is cool but you have to work at it a bit to get what you want.

 

[Zap]

More modules increase stress on the memory controller. Perhaps try loosening the latencies or underclocking the RAM to see if it helps?

 

[Quiksilver]

Loosen timings and up the northbridge voltage?

 

[Fazzi]

Have you gone into the maintenance section of your bios and disabled "failsafe watchdog"?
If not, and you don't know how just yet, shut your rig down, set the jumper, ( info ) in manual ) and then turn machine back on. It will boot you right into the bios. You will see "failsafe watchdog". Disable it. Then, go into your memory area and adjust the memory to a 1:1 ratio ( based of of your cpu ) and make sure your timings and voltages are at spec then after that save and exit and follow the screen directions.

Once you have successfully completed this lil task, get back into bios to see if the memory adjustments you've just made, holds. If not re-adjust them and reboot. Use cpu-z to see what your settings, timings and voltages are. You might have to bump up your CPU voltage, memory and NB voltages a bit to become stable. I have this board and it is cool but you have to work at it a bit to get what you want.

Yes I have done all that to no avail!

 

[Fazzi]

Originally posted by: Quiksilver
Loosen timings and up the northbridge voltage?

The timings were at 5-5-5-12 and the voltage I have tried increasing. I have the redline Mushkins. BUT I will try loosening the timings even more and cranking up the voltage higher.

 

[tcsenter]

Read the Bad Axe 2 user manual and tech guide. For 8GB you'll need to run @ DDR2-667, maybe even with an extra 0.1 volts (1.9V).

When all slots are populated to the max, its better to back the DIMM frequency down one speed bin then try to optimize timing parameters, rather than start off with a frequency that probably isn't going to be reliable at any timings.

Its been the rule forever; all slots populated to the max = lower DIMM frequency