P4VMM2 and DDR266 causes WinXP to hang on startup

[SA22C]

I recently was given a P4 machine with a P4VMM2 1.0 board and 512 MB of 266 DDR ram. I did some benchmarks and noticed that my memory bandwidth was pretty asstastic. I checked the BIOS and low and behold the memory was set to 100 MHz and to no interleave. I changed the settings to 133 and to 4 way. The board claims support for DDR266 and the sticker on the RAM states that it is a 266 module. Anyhow, with the RAM set to 133, Windows XP will hang and briefly flash a BSOD *Blue Screen of Death* at me before rebooting. If the RAM is left to 100 MHz, Windows runs fine. I was really hoping to get the extra performance of the 266 clock speed, do you have any suggestions as to cause and remedy? I updated my BIOS to the latest revision already, which had no effect.

 

[jammydodger]

If you are using P4a running the RAM at 133Mhz wont give a huge performance boost but if you are using the P4b then it is worth pursueing this further.
Do you have the option to increase VDDR voltages with your motherboard? You could increase the voltage to 2.7v? Or you could slacken the RAM timmings.

 

[o1die]

I would disable the 4 way interleave. I had similar problems with an amd rig. If it still gives you the same problem, try setting it at 132.

 

[Crashman]

P4 with 400 bus on single channel PREFERS DDR400 RAM! That's because it's SINGLE CHANNEL. So DDR266 is better than DDR200.

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[Crashman]

It's a pretty crappy board, but I can't rule out a problem with the RAM itself rather than the RAM controller. I'd leave it at DDR200 (100MHz) and sell it.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>