Intel motherboards running memory at the wrong speeds

[Tripredacus]

I'd like to do a little research here and see if anyone else is having this problem. So far I have encountered 4 Intel motherboards that run memory at the wrong speed. I am limited in what boards and memory I can use. Also on our non-Intel boards we cannot see what speed the memory is running at. It is possible that some of you guys may have this problem too and not even know it!

Symptoms

1. DDR2 800MHz memory is read properly (SPD) in the BIOS but the actual running speed is 667MHz and the timings are wrong.

2. Windows 7 Recovery environment and/or Windows PE 2.x - 3.0 runs very slow.

At first we did not notice that this was happening until WinPE ran slow on a couple machines. Normal boot time (PXE) for my custom WinPE 3.0 x64 is 3-4 minutes. On machines running the memory at the wrong speed it would take over an hour.

Oddities

Let's take a machine with 2x2GB sticks of DDR2 800, total 4GB. Of course this runs at 667MHz. 90% of the time, Win PE does not work properly. Then take out one stick and then Win PE works normal speed. Also works fine with 2x1GB sticks. It is determined that the memory is not the problem, but the board OR in some cases the BIOS version. We can take the memory and put it in another board and it runs at the normal speed and timing. We have since realised that Win PE does not always act slow when the memory is at the wrong speed, so we now check the speeds on everything, and we are finding too many with this problem.

Now, if we decide to "overclock" the memory to the correct speed the system will run fine with 4GB. However this is not a viable option, as if you were to load defaults in the BIOS, it could cause big problems! And who knows what the end users do with these things once deployed into the field!

It occurs to me that this may not necessarily be an Intel only problem but it may also be related (in some complex way that i could not explain) to other boards that have had the 4GB memory issue.

Platforms that do not run properly

1. Windows PE v2.1 x86 from CD-ROM

2. Windows PE v2.1 x86 from PXE

3. Windows PE v3.0 x86 from PXE

4. Windows PE v3.0 x64 from PXE

5. Windows 7 Recovery Environment

The last part, #5 was only tested because I did a full system check early on. So we start with a machine with 2x2GB. WinPE runs very slow. Shut down the machine, take a stick out, Win PE runs normally. Then put a Windows 7 image on the hard drive. Shut down the machine. Put the stick back in. Boot into Windows 7. At this point, Windows 7 runs fine. Then I sysprep the machine, reboot and set up the user. Everything runs fine unless I do a "repair" via WinRE.

Affected boards

- Intel DG45ID with stock BIOS: updating to current runs memory at 800.

- Intel DG41TY all versions

- Intel DG43NB all versions

- Intel DQ45CB with stock BIOS: updating to current runs memory at 800.

Boards not affected

- Intel DG31PR all versions

I would like to post the memory used but I don't have specific part numbers. If any of you find your memory is running at the wrong speed, please post what memory you have, perhaps this will help. We have had this problem with Crucial and Micron (Avant) memory so far. We do not stock any other kind to test.

OK that's enough typing! Let me know your ideas, thoughts, or other useful information. Also if you have seen this issue too, please post the board, BIOS version and kind of memory used, even if it isn't an Intel board.