Dual Channel Help!

[Liminator]

I recently bought a stick of 512MB PC3200 Kingston RAM to accompany 3 others that are already installed on my computer. My problem is that I can't get Dual Channel to work. It worked automatically when I had two sticks in but it stays at Single with four. They are all of the same size, speed and brand. My motherboard is a GA-K8NSC 939 and there is no option in the bios to enable Dual Channel.

Edit: Also I just looked it CPUZ, it says my RAM is clocked at 200MHz

 

[Liminator]

^bump^

 

[TRDCorolla1]

Some motherboards are picky about this. The manual will usually tell you what is allowed for dual channel mode. In my case, I can't use 4 sticks of RAM for dual channel. I found out only 2 sticks work. So if I ever choose to upgrade to 2GB, I need to get 2x1GB sticks. RIght now, I'm using 2x512MB for 1GB total. Did you verify in BIOS to see if dual channel is enabled? You may be able to return your RAM and just get 2x1GB. 200MHz is normal speed for PC3200's.

 

[Liminator]

Really? I always thought that my DDR was clocked at 400MHz. Also I looked in the manual on Gigabyte Technology's site and it said that 4 chips can do Dual Channel. Yeah I double checked when the computer started and it said Single-Channel.

 

[Atomic Rooster]

That's odd as there's no mention of dual channel not working with four sticks in the manual. It states it will work with either two or four modules. Either way, your really not taking a performance hit without it running in dual channel.

The correct speed is 200MHz for DDR400 (2x200MHz FSB) RAM as reported in CPU-Z.

 

[Liminator]

Oh OK, thanks for clearing that up.

 

[TRDCorolla1]

If that's the case, try reinserting all the RAM modules into different slots. Play around with it to see if it eventually recognize it in dual channel configuration. Other than that, I don't think there's much you can do unless you get your RAM replaced.