Notice! Kingston memory users - Tech Support Forums

DocMartin · December 18th, 2003, 04:07 PM

If you are using Kingston memory be careful which type you get. My son just built me a pc from scratch and I thought I would be smart and order memory with fast latency times. While we were surfing the internet, the windows xp kept randomly stopping and reloading.
We thought maybe the mobo was bad, or perhaps the ps was not powerful enough. Turns out that it was a memory problem. I called Kingston and the man said that the memory (KHX3200K2/512) we were using was too agressive for my board (8Knxp Gigabyte). I replied, "What kind of mobo can use this memory! My board is supposed to be top of the line."

He replied, "Well actually after we released this memory, we discovered that it was too aggressive for most boards." He then told me that I should be using KHX3200AK2/512 instead of KHX3200K2/512. ( Notice the difference is just an "A" before the K2.)
The memory I had was running at 2-2-2-6-1 and the one he said that I should get runs at 2-2-3-6-1.
My son went into the bios and changed the RAS to CAS value
from 2 to 3. Now everything seems to be working okay.

I'm wondering though, is it wise to change the timing manually, or should I send the memory back and get the right memory. We ordered everything from Newegg. I would appreciate any info that anyone has on this situation.

John Prophet · December 18th, 2003, 04:14 PM

hmmm..I never heard of memory being too "fast" for a system...I mean..as far as the 2-2-2-6-1 etc settings....that is the BIOS settings...I never heard of the RAM itself as being considered as having any "setting" built in or whatever.

Seems more like the BIOS setting was just too fast for the RAM. of course, lot of phone tech support people dont always have real in-depth knowledge.

Then again the memory makers are doing some weird stuff nowadays..like the whole thing with PC100/PC133...it used to be you just bought PC133 and threw it in whatever sdram system you have whether it was a pc100 or pc133 system....but now they make the pc133 where it will NOT work with PC100 systems, lol. I dont understand that at all except of course for their marketing/pricing issues....they want pc100 to be super costly I guess. I just bought some PC133 and it has all these warnings etc on it..saying it works only on 733mhz systems and above, lol..weirdness.

JP

**Whir** · December 18th, 2003, 04:18 PM

That's bizarre. I'm running their 2-2-2-5 at aggressive timings, overclocked to 180MHz and my system is rock solid. But board/RAM conflicts are pretty standard. Most mobo mfcgs have a list of compatible RAM for each board on their websites. Well, good ones do anyway.

uethello · December 18th, 2003, 04:21 PM

Don't buy new memory! Yes, it is perfectly safe to underclock your memory. Safer in fact than buying slower memory.

Too aggressive?!? Baloney!! What is actually happening is their memory is unable to attain the speeds they are selling it at. period. I can't believe he tried to pass that off on you. Your son isn't overclocking your CPU is he?

Not trying to thread crap, but I have memory for sale in the FS forum. If you buy this or any Crucial, Corsair, Mushkin, OCZ memory, they will run with those timings on your rig.

DocMartin · December 18th, 2003, 04:31 PM

Jp, Whirr, and uethello

If you are still there, I have some more questions. I am wondering if my power supply is adequate. I got the antec 660 plus case with the 330 watt true performance ps. Here are the pc components:
8knxp i875p mobo by gigabyte
liteon 52x32x 52x cdrw
liteon dvd 16x
win xp
western digital spec. ed. 80 gig hd
pc 3200 hyperx kingston memory 2 stick kit (512 total memory)
intell processor p4/2.8cGhz800m478p/512KHT RT
FD 1.44MB/Alps#DF354H121F Black

Please help My son built this for me, but I chose the parts.
I am his mother and not his father and I need help.
Thanks
DM
p.s. I forgot the video card is a 7000 Radeon

**Whir** · December 18th, 2003, 04:37 PM

That power supply should be more than enough. I have a 250W pushing all that, plus some more. Depends more on the quality of the power supply than the wattage.

DocMartin · December 18th, 2003, 04:39 PM

Thanks so much for all the info, I really appreciate this forum and all the helpful people on it . I don't know what I would do without it.
DM

DocMartin · December 18th, 2003, 04:41 PM

Oh another thing,

We have the multitasking shut off. We did that when we were having the reloading problem. Is it safe to turn it back on now. Also If I change the video card to a 9600 and also add a sound card and a dvd burner, will my power supply be able to handle everthing?

**Whir** · December 18th, 2003, 04:42 PM

Our pleasure!

It SHOULD be able to... I'm pushing two CD-ROMs, three hard drives, four case fans, the CPU and video card fans, the board, proc (XP2500), 512MB of RAM, onboard everything, plus SoundBlaster Live! 5.1, and a Radeon 9500 Pro (which is probably the most power hungry card ever (other than those old voodoos)) with this 250W.

Big numbers are just a selling tactic, just like any other media trick. What you're really looking for is the amperage per line and stability.

Do you mean multi-threading, rather than multi-tasking? I don't see how that could affect anything as far as stability is concerned.

DocMartin · December 18th, 2003, 05:02 PM

Whir,
Thanks !

Yes multithreading. Sorry about that.