How to change 533MHz FSB to 800MHz FSB on Dimension 4600???

Remove the new RAM.  Does the speed return to PC3200 (800 MHz)?

If it does, you've purchased the wrong cache latency RAM.  All the PC3200 RAM must be CL-3 or the system will downclock to PC2700 (533 MHz) speed.

Yes, the ram is CL3 PC3200s 2 sticks of 512mb each. The funny thing is when I take out my old ram and just put these two into DIMM slots 1 & 2, it gives me an error when bootup and then nothing happens (no screen detection, no hd activity...). So, the manufacturer of the ram told me that it requires 800MHz FSB to run properly. So I was wondering how I could change that...

Note that I also tried other ram configurations w/ and w/o the old rams. (note that i did not mix the ram, as the manufacturer also states that it is highly unwise to do so)

Thanks for your quick reply ejn63.

Yes, I believe the manufacturer does guarentee compatiblitiy, but was hoping that would be my last resort.

So to answer my question, does the Front SIde Bus speeds on Dell computers (specifically Dimension 4600) change automatically depending on the RAM supported? or is there a manual way to do that?

It is automatic; there is no way to manually set the speed.

I just dug out my receipt and turns out it is a P4 3.06GHz w/ HT tech and says 533. This pretty much explains why I have this setting, but the thing that puzzles me is that I've been look at Intel's chipset configuration on Intel.com and they say that P4 processors above 2.8GHz run at 400, 533, and 800 FSB. I also confirmed with a system diagnostic tool that my motherboard supports up to 800FSB max, but is currently running at 133MHz SB (4x multiplier). My Dell Dimension 4600 was bought exactly last year btw.

I updated the bios and chipset from intel, but it doesn't seem to work. Does this mean that there's no way to update my computer to run 800 FSB to support PC3200 RAMs? Does this mean my chipset supports 800 FSB but my processor does not? Is there firmware updates for processors? What's the difference between a P4 3.06GHz and a P4 3.0GHz processor?

thanks in advance.

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@satchi wrote:

I just dug out my receipt and turns out it is a P4 3.06GHz w/ HT tech and says 533. This pretty much explains why I have this setting, but the thing that puzzles me is that I've been look at Intel's chipset configuration on Intel.com and they say that P4 processors above 2.8GHz run at 400, 533, and 800 FSB. I also confirmed with a system diagnostic tool that my motherboard supports up to 800FSB max, but is currently running at 133MHz SB (4x multiplier). My Dell Dimension 4600 was bought exactly last year btw.

I updated the bios and chipset from intel, but it doesn't seem to work. Does this mean that there's no way to update my computer to run 800 FSB to support PC3200 RAMs? Does this mean my chipset supports 800 FSB but my processor does not? Is there firmware updates for processors? What's the difference between a P4 3.06GHz and a P4 3.0GHz processor?

thanks in advance.

Hopefully you mean you updated with a Dell BIOS, not Intel...  Updating the BIOS with Intel's would end your warranty.  Further, you can't go back to Dell BIOS... 

Message Edited by rickmktg on 09-28-2004 10:14 PM

Ahh no wonders. Thanks all for the replies.