A8N-E memory speed

[Percival P. Cassidy]

A couple weeks back, for the first time since I built this A8N-E machine
a few years back, I ran the nTune utility and it set the RAM speed at
385MHz. (The 4 RAM modules [2x 512MB, 2x 1GB] are all labeled 400MHz,
but the BIOS insists on running them at 333. ISTR reading tht this is an
idiosyncrasy of AMD boards or of this particular chipset.)

A day or two later the system started misbehaving (rebooting before it
had finished displaying the desktop), and I ended up by reverting to an
earlier system configuration without nTune. All was well again. I then
tried to reinstall nTune; the installation claimed to have been
successful, but when I try to run nTune it says it cannot load
nvoclock.sys; the latter file is in place on the system. I unintalled
nTune and installed it again, but the result is the same.

Never mind, I thought, I can just set the RAM speed to 385MHz in the
BIOS -- but there is no such setting: nothing between 333 and 400.

Any way of increasing the RAM speed on this machine? 400MHz might be
overdoing it.

Perce

[FredP]

"Percival P. Cassidy" <Nob...@NotMyISP.net> wrote in message
news:hgheic$n91$1...@news.eternal-september.org...

I'll venture a guess here that you need like memory sizes and run them in
pairs in order to run at 400. I'm in a similar situation with an A8N-SLI.
I had two sticks for a total of 2Gb. I just added a 3rd identical 1GB stick
and now see them running at 333 as you do. I suspect that adding a 4th 1GB
stick would bump the speed back to 400 Mhz. I'm torn as to whether to spend
the $32 for another stick or leave it as I may just upgrade the box
entirely.

[Paul]

My guess would be, no, that wouldn't happen. Three DDR400 sticks would run
DDR333. Four DDR400 sticks would run DDR333. The "Auto" choice by the BIOS,
is based on bus loading. Once two double sided sticks are on the same memory
channel, load compensation is required.

The AMD processors do clock generation for DIMMs, based on dividing down
from the internal core clock. So say, core / 12 or core / 13. The
idea is, the BIOS may choose a divider, such that the target is
met. The BIOS may select a value at or below the target. It shouldn't
try to run the DIMMs above the target value specified in the BIOS
screen. If you select DDR400 nominal, then depending on the core clock
value, the closest divider choice may make the clock DDR385 or whatever.
(That might have happened, because the core was overclocked. And DDR385
as a choice, was just below DDR400.) There are charts available on the web,
which give a complete table of what the options would look like.

You can manually fine tune two stick or four stick combinations.

Two sticks DDR400 Command Rate 1T

Four sticks DDR400 Command Rate 2T or
DDR333 Command Rate 1T

After any forcing of RAM settings, run memtest86+ followed by a
stress test in the OS (Prime95), to ensure the settings are error
free.

The fastest configuration, will remain at two matched DIMMs.
Four sticks means accepting some compromise on speed or
Command Rate, in order to have more RAM.

And if AMD had made docs that humans could read, I'd be providing
links. As it is, the "BIOS writers guide", or whatever it is called,
requires a lot of knowledge on the casual readers part, to make any
sense out of what they're saying. But it is that document,
that is used as a basis for the BIOS behaviors you're seeing.
AMD specifies load compensation, and the BIOS has that behavior.
You're more than welcome to manually tune, for whatever the
hardware can stand.

HTH,
Paul

[Percival P. Cassidy]

Paul wrote:

>>> A couple weeks back, for the first time since I built this A8N-E
>>> machine a few years back, I ran the nTune utility and it set the RAM
>>> speed at 385MHz. (The 4 RAM modules [2x 512MB, 2x 1GB] are all
>>> labeled 400MHz, but the BIOS insists on running them at 333. ISTR
>>> reading tht this is an idiosyncrasy of AMD boards or of this
>>> particular chipset.)
>>>
>>> A day or two later the system started misbehaving (rebooting before
>>> it had finished displaying the desktop), and I ended up by reverting
>>> to an earlier system configuration without nTune. All was well again.
>>> I then tried to reinstall nTune; the installation claimed to have
>>> been successful, but when I try to run nTune it says it cannot load
>>> nvoclock.sys; the latter file is in place on the system. I unintalled
>>> nTune and installed it again, but the result is the same.
>>>
>>> Never mind, I thought, I can just set the RAM speed to 385MHz in the
>>> BIOS -- but there is no such setting: nothing between 333 and 400.
>>>
>>> Any way of increasing the RAM speed on this machine? 400MHz might be
>>> overdoing it.

>> I'll venture a guess here that you need like memory sizes and run them

My main point was: how did nTune get the RAM running at a speed that is
not available in the BIOS? Is there any way of doing that without
running nTune? And why won't nTune run even though the installation
claims (twice) to have been successful? Now perhaps the 385MHz that
nTune chose was too aggressive, but at least 360 (say) would be an
improvement over the default 333.

Perce

[Paul]

Percival P. Cassidy wrote:

>
>
> My main point was: how did nTune get the RAM running at a speed that is
> not available in the BIOS? Is there any way of doing that without
> running nTune? And why won't nTune run even though the installation
> claims (twice) to have been successful? Now perhaps the 385MHz that
> nTune chose was too aggressive, but at least 360 (say) would be an
> improvement over the default 333.
>
> Perce

I can't promise to figure out where "385" comes from. It could be
you had overclocked your core slightly.

You really need to see one of those tables, to see what options
are available. (Double the shown frequency, to get the DDR rate.)

http://oskarwu.myweb.hinet.net/A64Divider.jpg (frequencies)

http://oskarwu.myweb.hinet.net/A64D1.jpg (divider choices)

( Thread: http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/archive/index.php/t-41595.html )

I don't know if I could quickly dig up the rest of the info from
that era. There may have been a calculator site as well, where
you could plug in some info, and it would give you options to use.

There might also have been a tool for modifying memory settings
while in Windows. A64Tweaker. Kinda a dangerous concept.

http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/92/A64Tweaker_v0.6_Beta.html

Xtremesystems is bound to have some web pages, with links to tools
like that. Just a matter of figuring out some search terms.

The Asus forum has lots of threads, but I don't know if they
have the depth of knowledge you're looking for.

http://vip.asus.com/forum/topic.aspx?board_id=1&model=A8N-E&SLanguage=en-us

Paul