RAM upgrade questions - Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community

Speed_Gibson · 03-22-2009, 10:18 AM

Exact situation is this:
My A7V333 has been reading the RAM as 768 MB for ages. After recently getting a new 1 GB stick, I realised/remembered that it had two 512 MB sticks rather the 512/256 combination.

now it will not show anything past 1 GB no matter how they are installed. It does show a single 512 stick correctly.

Starting to wonder if the bios is somehow involved. I last upgraded this bios 4-5 years back (if memory serves)and have no desire to now. My other thoughts are this fine MB is getting old and creaky before its time like its owner

Wyodiver33 · 03-22-2009, 01:20 PM

That's a tough one. I would definitely try upgrading the BIOS, at least before giving up on it. I did a little Google research and didn't find anything quite like your prob. But here's the A7V33 manual, in PDF form, in case you don't have yours any longer. If I think of anything else I'll be back. Good luck!

http://www.nopanic.it/hw/e1010_a7v333.pdf

---------- Post added at 05:20 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:58 PM ----------

More info:

Your results are exactly what the manual insert says as well:

http://www.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/so [...] a7v333.pdf

Two double sided DIMMs work at DDR333 rates
Three double sided DIMMs work at DDR266 rates

The performance gain is benchmarked here:
http://www.lostcircuits.com/mother [...] 33/8.shtml

In the "buffering disabled" picture, compare "133 1:1 Turbo"
to "133 4:5 222" 1372 vs 1446. (That is as close as I can find
to two comparable sets of conditions. 4:5 is running the memory
at DDR333 while the FSB is FSB266.)

That is 5% more memory bandwidth, which will give 1.5-2% more
application performance. Rather than running asynchronous, you
might be better off running synchronous and trying to overclock
the FSB a bit instead.

Also, get a copy of memtest86 from memtest.org, as it can test
_all_ bytes of the memory. The program is unique, in that it
has no OS, and the program moves itself out of the way, and
tests underneath itself. The download from memtest.org, when
executed, will format a self-booting floppy. The computer boots
from the floppy and testing begins immediately.

The spec for the voltage, at least at the power supply, is
5% on +3.3V. You have a 10% drop, so perhaps verifying the
voltage with a multimeter would be a good idea. The low
voltage can be caused by a bad PSU, or it can also be
caused by a damaged ATX 20pin connector. Try reseating the
connector first, and see if the voltage is any better after.

If not, disconnect the power cable and examine the pins for
signs of heat damage. If the connector has been damaged, then
replacing the PSU would only work for a short time, before
the new connector on the new PSU would get damaged as well.
Unsoldering and replacing connectors like this, is not a lot
of fun, as much heat is required to work with those pins. So,
I hope this is not a case of connector damage.

In most cases, another power supply will fix it, if the power
supply is the source of the problem.

Memory does not use that power directly. Power is regulated on
board. Asus uses some linear regulation designs, so the memory,
for example, could be linearly regulated from 3.3V down to 2.5V.
If your 3.3 drops to 2.9, and the memory voltage is 2.6V, there
is 0.3V drop across the MOSFET, which I'm guessing is still
workable.

Speed_Gibson · 03-22-2009, 08:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wyodiver33

That's a tough one. I would definitely try upgrading the BIOS, at least before giving up on it. I did a little Google research and didn't find anything quite like your prob. But here's the A7V33 manual, in PDF form, in case you don't have yours any longer. If I think of anything else I'll be back. Good luck!

..........

I was getting nowhere with google research, just mildly offended at seeing someone asking for help call the MB an "OLD motherboard" on a tech forum. 8 years is not what I would call old personally. Although having a processor below the minimun specs for any recent games (2.0/2.2 GHZ seems to be the norm now) might cause me to reconsider. Works fine for the 1998-2003 era games we play here.
edit: what is "fast" now? Even seeing 3.4 GHZ listed for CPU speeds still sounds unreal to me.

drag0nmanes · 03-22-2009, 09:17 PM

What operating system are you running? I remember that on some of my older windows machines it would only register so much ram, no matter how much the mobo could take.

Speed_Gibson · 03-23-2009, 08:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by drag0nmanes

What operating system are you running? I remember that on some of my older windows machines it would only register so much ram, no matter how much the mobo could take.

This is my fast system running WinXP Pro with SP3. My main concern is the BIOS will not show anything more than mentioned in my first post when checked during POST, and that should be OS dependent as far I know.

telekinetic · 03-23-2009, 08:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Speed_Gibson

I was getting nowhere with google research, just mildly offended at seeing someone asking for help call the MB an "OLD motherboard" on a tech forum. 8 years is not what I would call old personally.

Are you kidding me? 8 years is ANCIENT.

Quote:

Although having a processor below the minimun specs for any recent games (2.0/2.2 GHZ seems to be the norm now) might cause me to reconsider. Works fine for the 1998-2003 era games we play here.
edit: what is "fast" now? Even seeing 3.4 GHZ listed for CPU speeds still sounds unreal to me.

You're missing the part that they're mostly dual core or quad core now, as well, meaning that it's two (or four) processors.

Just to do a quick 'state of the art' check, I built a desktop on Dell for $1200:

Quad core 2.8GHZ processor
8GB of ram
750GB hard drive
Dual nVidia GeForce 9800GT 512MB video cards

Lasereth · 03-23-2009, 09:28 AM

GHz isn't even a good CPU power indicator anyway. It hasn't been since...well, around 2003 really.

Speed_Gibson · 03-23-2009, 07:38 PM

I was hoping to reach 1.5 GB of memory but can handle 1 GB. Might upgrade to an Athlon XP 2600+ one of these days; hoping that nothing more than the CMOS battery needs to replaced on this anytime soon. The CMOS battery on the other workstation using a A7V133 lasted a good while until a few months back. I definitely love these ASUS motherboards.
This works beautifully for all of my audio work; the only problems I have had over the years is the lack of storage space and problems with crashing hard drives (other system), both internal and external. Those f*&(^%ing WD MyBooks are worse than the IBM deathstar drive that died on me years back.
edit: changed wording
Good point with the dual/quad core thing - was aware of it but never think of it. I agree with the 8 year mark of ancient, just a different perspective: my definition of "old" would be the 333 Mgh freecycle clunker I have in storage for the kids, and "ancient" would be the Gateway 2000 486 DX2 66 MGHZ I recall fondly. Anything with SATA/PCEI slots would be "new"

03-22-2009, 10:18 AM	#1 (permalink)
Speed_Gibson Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? Location: right here of course	RAM upgrade questions Exact situation is this: My A7V333 has been reading the RAM as 768 MB for ages. After recently getting a new 1 GB stick, I realised/remembered that it had two 512 MB sticks rather the 512/256 combination. now it will not show anything past 1 GB no matter how they are installed. It does show a single 512 stick correctly. Starting to wonder if the bios is somehow involved. I last upgraded this bios 4-5 years back (if memory serves)and have no desire to now. My other thoughts are this fine MB is getting old and creaky before its time like its owner __________________ Started talking to yourself I see. Yes, it's the only way I can be certain of an intelligent conversation. Black Adder

03-22-2009, 01:20 PM	#2 (permalink)
Wyodiver33 Just here for the beer. Location: Ft. Lauderdale, Floriduh	That's a tough one. I would definitely try upgrading the BIOS, at least before giving up on it. I did a little Google research and didn't find anything quite like your prob. But here's the A7V33 manual, in PDF form, in case you don't have yours any longer. If I think of anything else I'll be back. Good luck! http://www.nopanic.it/hw/e1010_a7v333.pdf ---------- Post added at 05:20 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:58 PM ---------- More info: Your results are exactly what the manual insert says as well: http://www.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/so [...] a7v333.pdf Two double sided DIMMs work at DDR333 rates Three double sided DIMMs work at DDR266 rates The performance gain is benchmarked here: http://www.lostcircuits.com/mother [...] 33/8.shtml In the "buffering disabled" picture, compare "133 1:1 Turbo" to "133 4:5 222" 1372 vs 1446. (That is as close as I can find to two comparable sets of conditions. 4:5 is running the memory at DDR333 while the FSB is FSB266.) That is 5% more memory bandwidth, which will give 1.5-2% more application performance. Rather than running asynchronous, you might be better off running synchronous and trying to overclock the FSB a bit instead. Also, get a copy of memtest86 from memtest.org, as it can test _all_ bytes of the memory. The program is unique, in that it has no OS, and the program moves itself out of the way, and tests underneath itself. The download from memtest.org, when executed, will format a self-booting floppy. The computer boots from the floppy and testing begins immediately. The spec for the voltage, at least at the power supply, is 5% on +3.3V. You have a 10% drop, so perhaps verifying the voltage with a multimeter would be a good idea. The low voltage can be caused by a bad PSU, or it can also be caused by a damaged ATX 20pin connector. Try reseating the connector first, and see if the voltage is any better after. If not, disconnect the power cable and examine the pins for signs of heat damage. If the connector has been damaged, then replacing the PSU would only work for a short time, before the new connector on the new PSU would get damaged as well. Unsoldering and replacing connectors like this, is not a lot of fun, as much heat is required to work with those pins. So, I hope this is not a case of connector damage. In most cases, another power supply will fix it, if the power supply is the source of the problem. Memory does not use that power directly. Power is regulated on board. Asus uses some linear regulation designs, so the memory, for example, could be linearly regulated from 3.3V down to 2.5V. If your 3.3 drops to 2.9, and the memory voltage is 2.6V, there is 0.3V drop across the MOSFET, which I'm guessing is still workable. __________________ I like stuff.

03-23-2009, 09:28 AM	#7 (permalink)
Lasereth Knight of the Old Republic Location: Winston-Salem, NC	GHz isn't even a good CPU power indicator anyway. It hasn't been since...well, around 2003 really. __________________ "A Darwinian attacks his theory, seeking to find flaws. An ID believer defends his theory, seeking to conceal flaws." -Roger Ebert

03-23-2009, 07:38 PM	#8 (permalink)
Speed_Gibson Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? Location: right here of course	I was hoping to reach 1.5 GB of memory but can handle 1 GB. Might upgrade to an Athlon XP 2600+ one of these days; hoping that nothing more than the CMOS battery needs to replaced on this anytime soon. The CMOS battery on the other workstation using a A7V133 lasted a good while until a few months back. I definitely love these ASUS motherboards. This works beautifully for all of my audio work; the only problems I have had over the years is the lack of storage space and problems with crashing hard drives (other system), both internal and external. Those f&(^%ing WD MyBooks are worse than the IBM deathstar drive that died on me years back. edit: changed wording Good point with the dual/quad core thing - was aware of it but never think of it. I agree with the 8 year mark of ancient, just a different perspective: my definition of "old" would be the 333 Mgh freecycle clunker I have in storage for the kids, and "ancient" would be the Gateway 2000 486 DX2 66 MGHZ I recall fondly. Anything with SATA/PCEI slots would be "new" __________________ Started talking to yourself I see. Yes, it's the only way I can be certain of an intelligent conversation. Black Adder* Last edited by Speed_Gibson; 03-24-2009 at 07:45 AM..

03-22-2009, 09:17 PM	#4 (permalink)
drag0nmanes Crazy Location: Oside	What operating system are you running? I remember that on some of my older windows machines it would only register so much ram, no matter how much the mobo could take.