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Thread ID: 140623	2015-11-13 20:59:00	Old PC Upgrade problem - RAM won't play ball!	boonrider (17200)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
1411363	2015-11-13 20:59:00	Hi all, I'm building up a PC to use as a mame box using a friend's old parts. It started as a Asus P5B Deluxe with an E6600 and 2GB RAM. I purchased an additional 2GB RAM and a E8400 CPU cheaply. The RAM arrived first, I upgraded this and the E6600 + 4GB RAM ran fine. I had to turn on 'memory remapping' in BIOS (or something like that) to get the PC to see 4GB RAM (not 3). So the E8400 arrived, I installed it and I couldn't boot into windows (various BSOD). I reinstalled the E6600 and it booted fine. Eventually I removed two of the RAM sticks, back down to 2GB (Corsair), reinstalled the E8400 and it appears to boot fine (I haven't tested it extensively) The RAM sticks are: 2x Corsair 1GB XMS2-6400 2x Samsung 1GB 1Rx8 PC2-6400U So these worked fine with the E6600 but not the E8400. I see there is a bump in FSB bus speed to 1333 with the new processor. I have updated the BIOS to the latest release which definitely supports to the E8400. So, my goal is to be able to use all the hardware I have and I haven't managed to get there. Does anyone have any suggestions as to what I need to do to make this work? Do I need to limit RAM speed? Any help would be massively appreciated!	boonrider (17200)
1411364	2015-11-13 22:14:00	You could try writing down all the RAM timings from the BIOS with the working setup and then trying to match them with the E8400 installed, maybe the higher FSB speed is causing the RAM to be clocked higher also and you may need to adjust the RAM multiplier. Also whatever setup you end up with you should try an extended memtest before declaring it a success, often memory errors can go unnoticed for a while until something uses a particular memory address range. Using mismatched brands or even batches of RAM is something of a lottery, it can cause problems even when all the chips are fine individually. That's why when dual channel mode became common manufacturers started selling matched kits, to minimise the problems. Odd mixtures of RAM can and do work but it's never guaranteed. If using windows to really utilise 4GB of RAM you need a 64 bit version. Newer 32 bit versions will report the full 4GB but not be able to use it all and older versions will report 3.2-3.4 or so. 32 Bit windows can only address a total of 4GB of RAM and some of it is reserved for system processes or used by integrated graphics etc, the remapping just frees some of the system reserved RAM a bit somehow, I forget the details since abandoning 32 bit years ago.	dugimodo (138)
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