[ubuntu-uk] ram voltage

[Alan Pope]

On Sun, Jan 20, 2008 at 07:11:51PM +0000, fazzy.baboon at ntlworld.com wrote:
> I have just successfully built my new computer! Everything runs smoothly, bar 2 or 3 issues.
> The main one is my ram. I have a Gigabyte GA-P35C-DS3R motherboard, which 
supports both DDR2 and DDR3 ram. On it, I have attempted to install 4GB DDR2 
ram. It will not boot like this. A friend of mine searched the internet and 
discovered that OCZ (the manufacturer) ram needs 2.1 volts to handle 4GB, 
but it will run 2GB fine. But when I put the settings up to +0.7 volts (it 
does not tell me the current voltage), which is the highest possible, it 
still does not boot up. I have fiddled with other settings, but to no avail.     
> Does anyone know the required settings for this to work?

Hi,

According to crucial:-

http://crucial.com/uk/store/listparts.aspx?model=GA-P35C-DS3R

You need a matched pair of 2GB sticks. You don't say whether you are using a 
pair or a single 4GB stick.

It claims the following sticks are compatible:-

http://crucial.com/uk/store/mpartspecs.aspx?mtbpoid=392CD53EA5CA7304

Which say that they are 1.8V parts.

Interestingly the 1GB parts are 2.2V

http://crucial.com/uk/store/mpartspecs.aspx?mtbpoid=F6D0533FA5CA7304

If you can boot to Ubuntu using the 2GB parts you can use dmidecode to see 
what voltage they are currently running at.

For example here's what my laptop says:-

Handle 0x0007, DMI type 5, 20 bytes
Memory Controller Information
	Error Detecting Method: None
	Error Correcting Capabilities:
		None
	Supported Interleave: One-way Interleave
	Current Interleave: One-way Interleave
	Maximum Memory Module Size: 4096 MB
	Maximum Total Memory Size: 8192 MB
	Supported Speeds:
		Other
	Supported Memory Types:
		DIMM
		SDRAM
	Memory Module Voltage: 2.9 V
	Associated Memory Slots: 2
		0x0008
		0x0009
	Enabled Error Correcting Capabilities:
		Unknown


This gives you an indicator whether the voltage needs to go up (or indeed 
down).

Cheers,
Al.