Abit IP35 Pro and 4 sticks of ram problem

[GeezerMan]

I'm setting up an Abit IP35 Pro board with Win 7, Q6600 , 2 X 500GB drives, 4 X 1GB Crucial Ballistix tracer ram, DDR2-800, rated at 4-4-4-12. It's the older double sided Crucial ram rated at 2.2 volts. No overclocking at all.
Board runs smooth with 2 X 1GB installed, but has the typical problems with 4 X 1GB. I have ram voltage at 2.2 volts, relaxed the timings to 5-5-5-15, raised MCH voltage to 1.33. I'm still having boot issues. No signal at all via HDMI. How much should I need to raise the MCH volts? Assuming that's my problem. Any idea about wear and tear on the northbridge with raising the MCH volts?

I would like to continue using this board as a 2nd PC in the house for awhile, so I might just make do with 2GB of ram, if I'm stressing the board with 4 dimms filled.

I will memtest each stick by itself later today, just in case 1 stick, or more, is bad.





Abit IP35 board
Q6600
Antec 550 watt Neopower
ATI 3850 Video card
2 X 500GB drives
4 X 1 GB Crucial Ballistix Tracer ,2.2 V ,4-4-4-12

 

[superccs]

I just recently upgraded because I had an IP35 Pro-XE that developed a CPU voltage issue... It would drop the voltage to 1V from the 1.25V needed to run an E8400. I couldn't do anything in the BIOS or uGuru to get the voltage back up to the required level, and the system would just crash randomly even when I underclocked. :/

Could be the board is just ending its life in your hands...pretty sure that's what happened to me.

 

[GeezerMan]

I got this board new, back when I would build a new PC every 4 to 6 months using bargain deals I would find posted on the web.Deals like a new Cooler Master Cosmos for 69.00 AR, new retail boxed Q6600 for 110.00 AR, quality power supplies for 20.00, DDR2 ram for dirt cheap. I even got some 2 X 1GB OCZ DDR2, 4-4-4-12 ram with Crucial DH9 chips for 2.49 AR. Amazing deals back then. I just wanted something to do. Like an adult erector set . I then would find someone who needed one. Several of my builds are in the neighborhood or with friends. Yes, they would pay for them. I'm not wealthy. Not really worth my time though.

In my case, my IP35 has been babied. I got it new on a Newegg rebate deal back in April 2008.It has a max of 6 months of use, never overclocked. The only time I have raised any volts is with the MCH and the 4 GB ram issue.

 

[Soulkeeper]

my ip35-e runs fine maxed out with 8GB g.skill 2GBx4 @1000
No need to raise any chipset voltages above standard here, i'd caution against thinking that's the problem. I'm conservative with my voltages.
Could be you've gotten a faulty or subpar memory stick or the bios just don't agree with that brand.

 

[GeezerMan]

my ip35-e runs fine maxed out with 8GB g.skill 2GBx4 @1000
No need to raise any chipset voltages above standard here, i'd caution against thinking that's the problem. I'm conservative with my voltages.
Could be you've gotten a faulty or subpar memory stick or the bios just don't agree with that brand.

I have read a lot of posts, some in the official ram support forums, like the OCZ forums, where they talk of raising the MCH volts with 4 slots used. Could be a compatability issue, though 2 X 1 GB runs smooth.

With my main PC, Gigabyte AM2+ board, 965 quad, and 4 X 1GB of 4-4-4-12 Patriot ram, I had to raise the CPU NB Vid Control to 1.30 to get it to post. This is pretty common with this board when filling all 4 slots.

 

[darckhart]

Could be you've gotten a faulty or subpar memory stick or the bios just don't agree with that brand.

I also think it's more likely this. I have all dimms populated on my board from 2 diff manufacturers and 2 diff ram size/clocks, and it's all working fine with volts set on auto.

 

[GeezerMan]

I also need to check and see what bios version I have in it.

 

[Soulkeeper]

Did you run memtest on the sticks yet ?

 

[zagood]

Did you run memtest on the sticks yet ?

my recommendation as well.

 

[GeezerMan]

my recommendation as well.

Yeah, as stated in my first post, it's on my list of things to do today.
I'll run memtest on each stick, by itself, at 4-4-4-12 2.2v.
How many passes do you guys do?

 

[Soulkeeper]

I usually run it for about an hour or so when I get new memory or cpu
enough to where i'm confident it's stable enough to boot my os

then over the next 1-3 days of regular usage (distributed computing, compiling, gaming, etc.) if it don't crash it's pretty much fully stable.


maybe start with one or two full passes on each stick at default settings, could get lucky and quickly weed out the weak stick

reading the reviews on newegg, i'm convinced it's crappy memory
2.2v default just for ddr2 800 speeds is appalling
some of the reviewers said they had to downclock it to be stable

 

[Soulkeeper]

Here is a guy with the same board and same amount of sticks as you:


Cons: After about 2 months of use, they failed miserably. I have 2 kits (4 x 1gb) and I cannot even figure out which is/are the bad ones. I have run memtest with all combinations of the sticks, and have managed to get errors with all four in, and only 3 in, but not any pair or single stick. I get errors at different addresses at different times...

Please, just do yourself a favor and don't go through the trouble. Stay away from any of the Ballistix ram.

Other Thoughts: My system:
Abit IP35 Pro
C2D E7200 w/ GeminII heatsink
Crucial Ballistix Tracer 4 x 1Gb (soon to be replaced)

 

[VirtualLarry]

I have a friend with 4x1GB of HP DDR2-667 (yes, *that* HP DDR2), in an IP35-E, and he is fully stable. Didn't have to adjust RAM voltages or anything. Standard 5-5-5-x timings, running at DDR2-580 or something. (E5200 running at 290FSB, 1:1 DRAM ratio)

 

[n7]

If you can manually loosen tRD (Performance Level in MemSet) & tRFC, do so.

tRD ~6-10, it'll not POST if it's too low :hmm:

tRFC ~55+

Also yeah, Ballistix are rather problematic it seems...tons of bad ones.

 

[bucd]

I'm setting up an Abit IP35 Pro board with Win 7, Q6600 , 2 X 500GB drives, 4 X 1GB Crucial Ballistix tracer ram, DDR2-800, rated at 4-4-4-12. It's the older double sided Crucial ram rated at 2.2 volts. No overclocking at all.
Board runs smooth with 2 X 1GB installed, but has the typical problems with 4 X 1GB. I have ram voltage at 2.2 volts, relaxed the timings to 5-5-5-15, raised MCH voltage to 1.33. I'm still having boot issues. No signal at all via HDMI. How much should I need to raise the MCH volts? Assuming that's my problem. Any idea about wear and tear on the northbridge with raising the MCH volts?

I would like to continue using this board as a 2nd PC in the house for awhile, so I might just make do with 2GB of ram, if I'm stressing the board with 4 dimms filled.

I will memtest each stick by itself later today, just in case 1 stick, or more, is bad.





Abit IP35 board
Q6600
Antec 550 watt Neopower
ATI 3850 Video card
2 X 500GB drives
4 X 1 GB Crucial Ballistix Tracer ,2.2 V ,4-4-4-12

What is your command rate set to? I didn't see that setting on your OP and it's a very important one. I know on some boards when fully populated has to be set to 2T and not 1T.

-D

 

[GeezerMan]

Yep, found a bad stick. Rats. 3 are OK with 4 passes, 1 failed fairly quick.
I tested these sticks not too long ago, and they passed. I don't overclock. These are the older double sided 2.2 volt versions, with the Micron D9 chips, with extremely low hours. These D9 chips were the ones to get, since you could overclock them extremely high. I figured since I don't overclock , they would last awhile. From what I read, when they switched to the 2.0 volt, single sided versions, people had more problems.

I tried some Patriot 4 X 1GB ram, and it behaved like the Crucial ram. I'm pretty sure they used the same Micron D9 chips in this series. I guess I better memtest these as well.

I almost forgot I had some new OCZ ram, so I popped in 4 X 1GB Platinum Revison 2 series in, set to SPD, volts to 2.0, and it booted this morning. They are rated for 2.1 volts, 4-4-4-15 , but I think I'll try lowering the volts to 1.9 since I'm running them more relaxed timings. .

Thanks for the input guys..

 

[Soulkeeper]

with those high voltages and the LEDs that Ballistix memory supposedly runs hot
I'd recommend doubling checking the airflow, and possibly trying lower voltages when you get everything situated.