DDR3 ram timings out of wack

[FallenPhoenixRA]

Ok, so I have been having occasional crashes on my PC. A friend looked at my ram and told me that the timings between the two are different, I have 2 sets of 2x4 gb ram sticks, one can operate at 1866 mhz with a clock of 8-9-9-24 and the other operates at 1600 mhz with a clock of 9-9-9-24.  So he told me to go into the bios and change the clocks manually to match each other.  I went into the bios and found that both channels were set at 11-11-11-28.  So I bumped them back down to 9-9-9-24 and windows refused to work.  So I loaded optimized defaults on my bios and it changed it back to 11-11-11-28 and it operated just fine. So what is the issue here?  the board is a GA-990FXA-UD5-R5.  

 

Thanks in advance!  

 

 

[LionSpeck]

15 minutes ago, FallenPhoenixRA said:

Ok, so I have been having occasional crashes on my PC. A friend looked at my ram and told me that the timings between the two are different, I have 2 sets of 2x4 gb ram sticks, one can operate at 1866 mhz with a clock of 8-9-9-24 and the other operates at 1600 mhz with a clock of 9-9-9-24.  So he told me to go into the bios and change the clocks manually to match each other.  I went into the bios and found that both channels were set at 11-11-11-28.  So I bumped them back down to 9-9-9-24 and windows refused to work.  So I loaded optimized defaults on my bios and it changed it back to 11-11-11-28 and it operated just fine. So what is the issue here?  the board is a GA-990FXA-UD5-R5.  

 

Thanks in advance!  

 

 

Could you post a screenshot of the Memory tab of CPU-Z? Anyways, what seems to be the issue is that you RAM won't work at tighter timings than 11-11-11-28, which totally depends from the memory chip, manufacturer, etc. Now, where did friend see the two discrepant timings? Also, what's the manufacturer and model of your RAM sticks? Check on each kit's original box, as they may seem equal, but apparently may be different

[FallenPhoenixRA]

Yes I know they are different, my discrepant timings are here   one is supposed to operate at 8-9-9-24 and the other at 9-9-9-24.  Although in the bios is shows both operating at 11-11-11-28 which is higher than they should be operating at by default.  I know that the short term fix would be to take one of the kits out and leave the other in, but I really need 16 GB instead of 8 for what I am doing.

[LionSpeck]

Just now, FallenPhoenixRA said:

Yes I know they are different, my discrepant timings are here   one is supposed to operate at 8-9-9-24 and the other at 9-9-9-24.  Although in the bios is shows both operating at 11-11-11-28 which is higher than they should be operating at by default.  I know that the short term fix would be to take one of the kits out and leave the other in, but I really need 16 GB instead of 8 for what I am doing.

Ok, so can you post the screenshot of CPU-Z? That'd be really helpful to understand at which speed and timings they're currently running
Then, in the BIOS, I suggest to try setting the frequency to 1600 and the timings to 10-10-10-24 and test if it boots

[FallenPhoenixRA]

Ah yes sorry about that,  

[LionSpeck]

5 minutes ago, FallenPhoenixRA said:

Ah yes sorry about that,

No worries! Right now, your RAM is running at 1600 MHz with the timings you see listed there: in theory, older AMD architectures preferred higher frequencies to lower timings, so we'll aim at that in the final tweak, but for now we just want to have all of the RAM to be stable. Also, when overclocking RAM, if you raise the frequency but raise the timings too, you'll have zero benefits, because they will compensate each other out: in this case, we want to exploit that not to OC the memory, but to lean it more towards higher frequency, and also to find the stable settings for your sticks. Also, I forgot to ask before, but could you take screenshots of all four slots in the SPD tab of CPU-Z? That may help us figure out the JEDEC and XMP profiles of the RAM you have installed, which are respectively the "default and super safe" timings and the "faster, tested and still safe" timings

[FallenPhoenixRA]

here are all 4 slots.  FYI I am not trying to OC I am trying to get them back to what they should be functioning at in hopes to prevent it from causing my PC to crash

[LionSpeck]

2 minutes ago, FallenPhoenixRA said:

here are all 4 slots.  FYI I am not trying to OC I am trying to get them back to what they should be functioning at in hopes to prevent it from causing my PC to crash

Yeah, I know, but as I said we can leverage that dynamic to find the fastest, not overclocked stable setting for your RAM 

[LionSpeck]

Ok, first of all, I can see that you have your RAM installed in pairs: you should install them in an alternating pattern, as that will make sure that each channel (slot 2-4 and 1-3) is using the same model of RAM. Then, you can try 1600 11-11-11-27 in the BIOS and try if it works

[FallenPhoenixRA]

Um, why 27? 

[LionSpeck]

1 minute ago, FallenPhoenixRA said:

Um, why 27? 

It's a typo, sorry, I meant 28
It's the only common setting in both of your RAM models, so we're sure that it is indeed compatible and tested

[FallenPhoenixRA]

That's the same as it has been.....  and I just bumped it down to 27 and it is working fine

 

[FallenPhoenixRA]

My ram is showing in the BIOS that is is at 11-11-11-28 and it needs to be able to function at 9-9-9-24

[LionSpeck]

Just now, FallenPhoenixRA said:

My ram is showing in the BIOS that is is at 11-11-11-28 and it needs to be able to function at 9-9-9-24

Ok, try 10-10-10-26, as an in-between setting, to see if that works, as 9-9-9-24 didn't work before. Also, did you install the RAM properly, with an alternating scheme?

[FallenPhoenixRA]

Yes I did that.  Will try the new settings

[FallenPhoenixRA]

stable at those as well, this is doing well, before it was crashing at 9-9-9-24 so i guess I can try that next or just see if it's stable at this.

[LionSpeck]

2 minutes ago, FallenPhoenixRA said:

stable at those as well, this is doing well, before it was crashing at 9-9-9-24 so i guess I can try that next or just see if it's stable at this.

Yeah, you can try directly 9-9-9-24; if it's not stable, try 9-10-10-25, as the last timings are more restrictive than the first one

[FallenPhoenixRA]

will do!  Going to try and see if it crashes or not anymore by doing some gaming.  If it doesn't I will not touch it anymore.

 

[LionSpeck]

1 minute ago, FallenPhoenixRA said:

will do!  Going to try and see if it crashes or not anymore by doing some gaming.  If it doesn't I will not touch it anymore.

Sure, you could do that, but I'd recommend testing more intensively if the RAM is stable, with Memtest86 (or some software like HCI Memtest)