Octopus Overlords

I got a memory upgrade for Christmas and it is the following:

2x512MB (for a total of 1GB) OcZ DDR 3200

I have an Intel 845PE chipset on my motherboard (it's an Intel board as well). When I put the two chips in it reads 512MB in Memory Bank 1 but it reads Not Installed on Memory Bank 0. No matter what memory settings I use, it won't detect that second chip. When I switch the chips, it still doesn't read any memory in Memory Bank 0. I know the bank works okay since I had two 256mb chips before and they both detected.

When I first loaded the new memory it said it wanted SPD, but that the new memory did not support it. I don't know what that is, so I said sure, go ahead and boot up.

Anywho, any suggestions on how to get that second chip to detect?

I haven't worked with Intel boards in a while but Athlon boards that support DDR memory use alternating banks. Try installing in 0 and 2 or 1 and 3. The recommended configuration should be in your motherboard manual. If you don't have your manual, most manufacturers have downloadable PDF copies on their website.

The motherboard only has two memory banks, unfortunately. Could it be a timing issue?

Do you have the latest BIOS for your mobo? If not, I'd go ahead and flash up to it. I think the 845PE chipset may only support up to a 533 FSB and thus PC2700 memory. The PC3200 should work (at a slower PC2700 speed), but you may need the latest BIOS in order to recognize it properly. That's my first thought, especially since both banks appear to work okay with your older RAM.

Well, I ended up exchanging the OcZ memory (which had a CAS Latency of 3, which my MB couldn't be set too) for some Patriot Extreme Performance memory. It has a CAS Latency of 2 and it's SPD. The board detected the timing settings and it now sees all 1GB of memory.

Timing settings are a bitch...