Re: Dual Channel

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Thanks again Paul. I did a Register Dump as you suggested and the specs are
the same for all DIMMs. For some reason my MB just doesn't like my new DIMMs
in dual channel mode. Oh well.

By the way. Thanks for the tip on Task Manager about checking on maximum
memory usage. I have used Task Manager many times but never noticed that
section. It shows that I am barely into the second gig of memory when I am
doing my heaviest processing.

Thanks again for all the help.

"Paul" <nospam@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:gnl974$fu3$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Charlie wrote:
Thanks Paul for your help. All of my DIMMS look phisically the same. I
played around a bit after reading your response. My 2 original 512 DIMMs
were in slot 1 & 3 and were running dual mode. After adding my 2 new
matched 512 DIMMs to slot 2 & 4 my machine would freeze and not boot.
Removing the original DIMMs from slot 1 &3 I replaced them with the two
new DIMMs in slot 1 & 3 and left slots 2 & 4 empty. The machine would
freeze and not boot. Placing the new DIMMs in slot 1 &2 the machine would
boot and run in single mode. Finally I ended up with the original 2 DIMMs
in slots 3&4 and the 2 new DIMMs in slots 1 & 2. The machine boots fine
and recognizes the full 2 gig but is obviouslly running in single mode.
The machine would not boot with the new DIMMs in the dual mode slotts. I
must have one of the older "strict dual channel" MB.

My question is under the circustances is it better to run a machine with
2 gig of ram in single mode or 1 gig of ram in dual mode.


That depends on whether you needed the 2GB of RAM or not in the first
place.

Use control-alt-delete to open the Task Manager.

Under Commit Charge, the Total is what you're using right now. The
Peak is the most you had busy during the day. My total currently
is 1072700, and my peak is 1167476. If I purchased 1GB of memory,
that would be 1048576, so I need slightly more than 1GB based on today's
usage pattern. On some days, my peak is 800000, so 1GB of RAM would be
sufficient.

I operated for a couple years with 1GB, doing basically the same
things I am doing now, so this isn't typically a problem for me.
When I last upgraded, I got a 2GB memory kit, and as you can see
at the moment, I'm barely using the second gig.

As for all the DIMMs being identical, if the machine is reporting
single channel at the moment, and all the DIMMs are double sided
and have a capacity of 512MB, then chances are they're identical
in terms of rows,columns,banks,ranks. The DIMMs may differ in
CAS or max speed (PC3200) or whatever, and the BIOS should be
able to select settings that are slow enough, so that all
DIMMs would work. In other words, you should be in dual channel
mode, based on what you've said so far.

If you go into CPUZ, use the "About" tab, there is a
"Register Dump" option in there. By default, it'll dump
to "cpuz.txt". For example, this is what is dumped for
one of my two DIMMs. This is for a DDR2 DIMM, but yours
are DDR DIMMs, so the voltage will be a higher value.
Try dumping the description of all four of your DIMMs.

*******
DIMM #1

General
Memory type DDR2
Module format Regular UDIMM
Manufacturer (ID) Kingston (7F98000000000000)
Size 1024 MBytes
Max bandwidth PC2-5300 (333 MHz)
Part number 99C5316-019.A00LF
Serial number 12345678
Manufacturing date Week 25/Year 08

Attributes
Number of banks 2
Data width 64 bits
Correction None
Nominal Voltage 1.80 Volts
EPP no
XMP no

Timings table
Frequency (MHz) 200 266 333 CAS# 3.0 4.0 5.0 RAS# to CAS# delay 3 4 5 RAS#
Precharge 3 4 5 TRAS 9 12 15 TRC 12 16 20
*******

Paul


.

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