RAM problem

[NYNY2244]

I just picked up a 2 gig pair of Kingston PC5300 DDR 2 memory, the ram seems to work fine, except that I can't install it at the same time as my 1 gig pair which is the same speed and brand. Both pairs work seperate and in both sets of ram slots on my motherboard, but together, my computer will either lockup or i'll get a repeating long beep with no video. The system in question is as follows

Biostar Geforce 6100 AM2
Athlon 64 X2 3600
FSP 400 Watt PSU
EVGA Geforce 8600 GT

Does this kind of stuff usually happen when you're using two pairs that are different sizes?

 

[PurdueRy]

Are you providing the correct voltage?

 

[cmdrdredd]

raise Vcore and Vdimm voltages a bit and try again.

 

[myocardia]

Originally posted by: cmdrdredd
raise Vcore and Vdimm voltages a bit and try again.

Also, force a 2T Command rate in the BIOS. You know that you can't add the second pair, without changing the location of one of the sticks from the first pair, don't you? You have to have the same amount of RAM in each channel. That means you have to have 1.5 GB in each channel; it is never going to work with 1GB in one channel, and 2 GB in the other.

 

[NYNY2244]

Well, I ended up trying to install both pairs and then using the reset cmos jumper before I turned it on and it worked. I'm gonna restart a few times and make sure it boots up before I call it a success.

Changing the voltage didn't do anything. The BIOS default was 1.9 although the RAM is rated for 1.8. This BIOS only goes down to 1.85 for some reason though but lowering it and raising it to 1.95 didn't do anything.

Couldn't find the 2T Command rate thing in this BIOS, possibly because this boards pretty primitive or it might be called something else. Your idea about having 1.5 GB in each channel doesn't seem right because when I tried that configuration, it wouldn't run in dual channel mode. Right now I have it setup as 1A - 1 Gig 1B - 1 Gig 2A - 512 MB 2B - 512 MB with 1A/1B being the first channel and 2A/2B being the second and it's working in dual channel.