Hey there,

Yesteraday i bought myself an Athlon Xp 2600+ (333) and an Asus A7N8X-X mobo (fsb 400Mhz) for it...

For the RAM i bought a cheap Twin Mos 2x256 Mb pair to make use of the boards' dual-channel mode, but, at startup screen the thingy says it detects the full 512Mb but only uses them at "Single-Channel Mode"!!

Does this mean trouble, an old BIOS version or wrong configurations?
Can someone help me in choosing the optimal BIOS option? Thanx!

Two of the RAM slots should be colored differently - to use Dual Channel the two modules have to be in the two off colored slots. Try checking that. Chances are you just put the RAM in the slots closest to the CPU.

for dual channel to work you have to put the ram in slots 1 and 3 or 2 and 3. Also I would upgrade the bios to the latest version as there were some bugs with earlier revisions.

also man, the most important thing when you get a new mobo is memorize the book. I'm almost positive they have this information in there.

with an A7N8X
1) Download bios version 1006 and flash it uptodate
2) Make sure the RAM is in the black slot (slightly seperated from the blue ones) and the blue slot furthest from the black slot
now itll work

Steg

I have virtually the same system, once i upgraded my BIOS it now reads Dual Channel when i boot up

gd gd - problem solved - i dont know have many people have asked the very same question!

Steg

Hello the_Gathering

Now you've gone and done it !!! :bounce: You've made me register at this forum, so that I can reply to your question. I simply had to get in and make one thing very clear:

The Asus A7N8X-X motherboard is NOT a dualchannel RAM motherboard !!!!

This is something I know for certain(100%). I got one myself, and then returned it to get get another one.

The A7N8X-X is the low end budget version of Asus Nforce2 motherboards: http://www.asus.com/products/mb/socketa/a7n8x-x/overview.htm

While it does have 400Mhz FSB and RAM support, it doesn't support dualchannel.

I think its a shame that Asus doesn't have budget motherboards that support dualchannel like for instance Gigabyte does. Not all people are interested in the more expensive motherboards with SATA, Dolby Digital, Dual LAN, RAID etc. etc.

Personally I've allways had Asus motherboards, but now I've broken that rule, and got myself a Gigabyte. Like Asus and others, Gigabyte have a lot of different Nforce2 motherboards, and it can be difficult for newbies to decide which one to get. I assume, you wanna go for a budget motherboard; therefore I would very much recommend the one I got: Gigabyte GA-7N400-L1 (Not GA-7N400-L).

Check this link: http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/MotherBoard/Products/Products_GA-7N400-L1.htm

This sucker has Nforce2 400Ultra, and not "just" Nforce2 400 like the A7N8X-X, and it does indeed support dualchannel. It does require to be flashed with the newest BIOS - but which motherboards doesn't do that??

The Southbridge of GA-7N400-L1 is the same as A7N8X-X, and thus it doesn't have the luxury things like SATA, Dolby Digital, Dual LAN, RAID etc., as both of the boards bigger brothers have.

But IF one insists on getting Asus, then the newest "A7N8X Deluxe 2.0" is probably the one to get...

Hope I made things a little clearer

best regards

That is a shame! I never knew...

I do notice there's no blue slots for the RAM, so I must have confused the heck out of The Gathering ("Blue slots? What blue slots? Ack!!")

Damn!!!!

Just told how can it be:

When I bought this mobo the saler build it before my eyes,and then launched it first and reviewed the bios.It signs that there is AMD Athlon 2400+(correct),and 200 Mhz DDR RAM in DUAL CHANEL MODE!!!!!!!!!!!

The different of then and now,that I have installed the OS (WIN XP).Since this is the problem.

What was that then?

My mobo is A7N8X-X nForce2 400 (not Ultra)

Get a A7N8X-E Deluxe. Gigabit eithernet and DualDDR

As far as I know your mobo doesn't support dual channel ddr, as it was mentioned even if you flash the bios. You should have taken a look at the board at asus.com before buying. (I've almost made the same mistake like you.)