Need Help On Compatiblity Motherboard/ram - need some help on RAM compatiblity

hello all, i have a ASUS P5VDC-X motherboard (this one here Motherboard ) and i just bought some ram for it and it doesnt work... Corsair 2048MB PC6400 DDR2 800MHz (2x1024MB) DHX this is the ram i just bought for it. ( Ram ) can anyone let me know why it isnt compatible? i was thinking that its because of the "Dual Channel" but my motherboard supports it. is it because of the Mhz? and also more importantly im returning it to get another pair of ram but i need some help on which rams i should go with. if anyone can let me know which ram is most compatible please let me know. which Ram is the best fit for my motherboard?? please help me out ASAP. any help would be appreciated

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What give you an indication that the ram doesn't work?


I don't think there actually any best fit per se.

If you want to be really sure, and if you can bring alone your casing to the shop, bring it there to test the ram you're getting, then you can save some trouble. Don't forget that, if your pc can't boot at all, it could have been the cpu, motherboard or powersupply problem.

PC hardware are so common nowadays that most things would fit nicely. There do exist some incompatibility issues, but if you stick with mainstream products, you should be quite safe. ASUS and Corsair is quite a safe combination. If there do exist hardware incompatibility, you can expect to find bios update or driver patches for it's fix.

But in my personal opinion, VIA chipset is not a good choice. ASUS P5VDC-X is using VIA chipset. I used to support VIA when I can't afford for expensive Intel chipset based motherboard few years back. That's when nVidia is still new. Now you can get one decently priced motherboard with either Intel, nVidia or AMD chipset. I bet you can find other chipset based ASUS board around the same price as P5VDC-X. If price is the concern, then Gigabyte is the alternative, as it's been bought over by ASUS not long ago to target mid end market.

 

 

 

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Here are some questions to get you started:

Did you read the Manual book?

There is always helpful information pertinent to your specific model. Some setting to check for are the CPU, Northbridge, and Memory Voltage. You may need to increase the voltage.

Did you flash the cmos. "Do the jumper" for for a minute"?

This should always work. Kind of like telling your computer you have just installed new hardware and to disregard the previous installed hardware. Sometimes with you might have to hold a key on the keyboard while you boot or when you leave the PC off for a minute, un plug it from the wall and keep the power button pressed in for a minute to relieve the pc of any charge.

Has the motherboard worked before?

If so maybe something might of happened during the handling of it or parts. Like static discharge or exerting to much force during installation of parts.

Does your power supply check out?

Most of the time when I people attempt to upgrade/swap out their motherboard or build a pc for the first time, they hardly look into the new motherboard's power requirements. Sometimes they hardware gives them a break and lets them run their components at a compatible level. Other times it wont even turn over and may even damage their new parts if forced to work with inadequate power.


Trust me. I've had one of my PC's go out on me. But I think it was due to me installing several software which required a reboot, doing a 19 hour burn-in test with a 100%/50% processing load, and also flashing the bios with other applications running. Apparently my PC did not like that when I had to reboot. Oh well... I guess everyone learns a lesson now and then.

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Most motherboard manufacturers do test their motherboards with several memory modules from different manufacturers. If these test are succesfull, they do put it on a list and these lists are available for download on the (motherboard) manufacturer's website. This list however is usualy very limited (compared to the amount of memory modules available).

Some more questions:
1) do you have other RAM modules installed on the motherboard ? If this is the case, that's the reason why it doesn't work, you can't use DDR1 and DDR2 at the same time.
2) Have you used DDR1 before you installed these new memory modules ? If yes, try clearing the CMOS (check the manual if you don't know how).
3) Does your motherboard beep ? The combination of beeps are unique for every kind of problem (eq. long-short-short).


@levimage:
Clearing the CMOS ("Do the jumper" for for a minute) is something completely different than flashing the cmos. Flashing it means writing new data to it while clearing it is just a matter of discharging the internal components (flip flops).
It's also very unlikely that he has to change some voltage to get it working. If the hardware does not work on stock voltages, then it's faulty and needs to be replaced.

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The reason why the RAM stick is not working is the 800MHz RAM speed is not supported by your motherboard, according to the technical specifications at:
http://www.dealtime.com/xPF-ASUS-P5VDC-X-S775-VIAPT880U-ATX

According to that specification, the maximum RAM speed supported for the RAM memory sticks is 533MHz, which basically explains why the RAM memory stick you purchased for the motherboard is not working and functioning.

I suggest you either upgrade you motherboard or buy slower RAM memory sticks that have RAM memory speeds of 533MHz or below to ensure it works properly.

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Can't you change the RAM speed in the Bios? And 533 is slow.. it's probably the portability of this laptop.

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What are you talking about a laptop ?

The RAM should have no troubles running at 533Mhz instead of 800Mhz.

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533MHz is ok for a laptop. If it's not for multimedia purposes there's no reason to run 667MHz or 800MHz at all so, you don't have to worry what type of RAM modules you're using as long as its DDR2 (for laptops).

xboxrulz

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Do the slower speeds make less heat or energy use?

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In theory yes, but I haven't seen a huge reduction in energy usage and heat dissipation from slower RAM. You'll get a larger power savings from a slower processor, graphics card or a slower hard drive since these are the bigger power hogs.

xboxrulz

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