Windows 7 - SP1 with 8 GBs DDR2 667Mhz problem

Asked By xiowa

11-Apr-08 09:18 PM

Hello all:
I had 4 2GB sticks of  667 Mhz RAM left over from upgrading a couple of
pcs to 800 Mhz RAM so I pulled out the 3 GB 800 Mhz RAM from my Vista
Ultimate x64 PC and put in the 8 GBs of 667 Mhz RAM.  It seems to work ok
after a couple of re-boots but.......it is quite a bit slower to boot up.
With 3 GBs of 800 Mhz it was taking about 90 seconds to 2 mins.  With 8 GBs
of 667 Mhz it is taking 4 1/2 minutes.  Shutdown time seems about the same.
Intel specs say my DG965WH board can use 8 GB of 667 Mhz.  Is the slow boot
because Windows is taking more time to load more data in memory than it would
with 3 GBs?  Or, is the problem of using more than 4 GB's with Vista using
all 4 slots not solved by the latest Intel Bios and SP1?  The PC was actually
working great with 3 GBs but I wanted to see if it would work with 8 GBs to
make it easier to install & use a couple of virtual operating systems.  I
don't really NEED to have that capability but I just wanted to learn more
about using Virtual operating systems.  I'd be interested in comments from
others using 8 GBs of RAM and how it's working on their pc.

xiowan..........in tucson

11-Apr-08 11:28 PM

I recently upgraded from 4 GB to 8GB, both 800 MHz. I can't say I noticed
any difference in boot times. I have an AMD CPU with an nForce 430 chipset
so we're comparing apples and oranges. The UI seems a bit snappier but it
may just be wishfull thinking. I can certainly run more vm's with more
memory allocated to them without a lot of paging which is nice. I can run
small network scenarios with a couple of servers and three or four clients
with reasonable performance.

The main reason for the 8 GB was for the dual boot to Server 2008 with
Hyper-V but it does seem to have made a difference with Vista, although for
normal use not a huge difference.

--
Kerry Brown
MS-MVP - Windows Desktop Experience: Systems Administration
http://www.vistahelp.ca/phpBB2/

12-Apr-08 12:19 AM

Hello Kerry:
Thanks for the feedback.  I wouldn't have tried using 8 GBs of RAM if it
had been necessary to buy it.......kinda had a sinking feeling there would be
problems. Between Intel & Vista,  I think they kind of exaggerated the
capabilities of the software & hardware.  I'll try using 8 GB for a while but
I'm afraid the slow boot time is a clear indication that my hardware &
software aren't working together right.  I notice my Q6600 cpu is showing
25-35% usage for very long periods of time with applications running that
used to show 7-20% cpu usage.  Possibly the cpu is busy filling up the added
memory but after the memory cache gets to about 3 GBs it doesn't get any
bigger but the cpu still keeps up the high usage.   Oh well,  it isn't the
first time I tried something that didn't work out LOL!

xiowan............in tucson

12-Apr-08 08:16 AM

Hi,

First of all, I don't think that your problem is related to SP1. You have
installed slower memory in your machine than what was in originally. If the
memory isn't matching, it may also be downclocked so that it runs at a
frequency which all sticks can run. As a result, it means that your memory
bandwidth is also lower. This also means that your machine is slower since
programs and data will take longer to transfer to RAM which is where they
operate. In addition, some motherboards will only run RAM at a given speed if
certain conditions are met. In some cases, installing RAM into all memory
slots can cause the system to downclock it so that it runs at a lower
frequency. This is because of physical constraints on the motherboard such as
track distance between the memory sockets and the memory controller. The
greater the difference between the shortest and longest run the more effect
timing issues will have, especially at higher frequencies. Even at lower
frequencies, there may still be an issue with timing, but not to the same
extent. It is possible that a BIOS upgrade may help, but this is probably a
limitation of your motherboard.
Dwarf

12-Apr-08 10:00 AM

If you changed 800MHz RAM or 667Mhz RAM then the problem is memory related,
not SP1. You are using (now) a slower memory than you used previously. I'm
only using 2GB of 667Mhz memory and can still boot my PC in around 70 second
or so and if you use the correct scenario for checking boot up time, i.e,
after the bios has booted and the windows progress bar appears then, in my
case, boot up time is around 40 seconds or so. (this is on an Intel Core2
duo 2.20mhz processor).

--
--
John Barnett MVP
Associate Expert
Windows Desktop Experience

Web: http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org
Web: http://vistasupport.mvps.org

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