DS4 + GSkill HZ - Great then Borked

[RobG]

Hi,

I setup my new PC yesterday with the following components.

Purchased brand new:

E6300 conroe OEM from - OcUK
2x1GB GSkill HZ RAM - OcUK
Gigabyte DS4 - OcUK
Radeon x1800XT - OcUK

Components carried forward from old system:

Tagan 480w PSU
250Gb SATA drive
120Gb IDE drive
DVD-RW

OK, so I built the PC and it booted first time (always nice). I ran on my old OS install whilst I checked that everything was working fine. Today I re-installed Windows, all went fine and I played a game for around 30 mins before I had to go out. On my way out the door I started memtest to make sure that the RAM was error free. It ran for around 30 minutes before I got back and I restarted the machine (The memory was error free for what its worth).

This is where the problems start. Immediately after restarting the PC, it would not POST. I have read other posts on the forum describing a similar problem where the PC starts, the fans spin the DVD drive starts to seek then it all cuts off. After around 2-3 seconds it starts again. I have left it looping like this for around 1 minute (probably 10 cycles) and it does nothing.

What I have tried:

Clearing CMOS
Removing IDE cable from mobo
Removing all unnecessary connections from PC (USB, network etc)
Moving RAM to other bank
Removing 1 stick of RAM
Moving the single stick around all slots

When I removed all RAM, the board did give error beeps from the speaker, so it appears to be functioning correctly up to a point.

What really pi$$es me off is that it was all working fine and the PC was on for around 8 hours today having rebooted a number of times after software installs etc. I am guessing this is the now famous problem with the Gigabyte 965 series of boards where the RAM is being run out of spec, but why would it suddenly strike down my machine after running memtest?

Any help you can give me with this would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers

Rob

 

[Hidden Hippo]

From what you've said and from what I've heard, this probably is the problem. I can't see your RAM on the supported list but some work that are not on there. As to why this has happened when it was working fine before I cannot help.

 

[Ozymandias]

Did you increase the ram voltage to get it going at the start - if so, by how much ?

 

[RobG]

Did you increase the ram voltage to get it going at the start - if so, by how much ?

Hi,

When I did the 'virgin' build it booted first time, I didn't need to change volts etc.

I have just brought 256MB of PC2 4300 RAM from 'where in the world' for less than a tenner. It has got me into windows, so now I can wait to see if Gigabyte are going to get a fix out for this soon. Luckily I am on holiday next week, so the wait shouldn't be THAT bad.

Crosses fingers

Rob

 

[Ozymandias]

Ah - I have a DS4, HZ and E6600 coming.

Assuming it boots, my first action is going to be to up the volts to the ram. The DS4 defaults to 1.9 and the HZ sticker I've seen says 2.0-2.1. I that doesn't work some cheap ram (like you) is in order to get it going. My concern is that if it defaults back to safe settings (1.9 etc.) I'll have to go through the mucking about of using the cheap ram again.

 

[Elric]

Great. Seems this is becoming more common with DS4 / HZ combo.

No prizes for guessing what I have bought....I suppose my consolation prise is that I have 4gb of Crucial DDR2 667 ram in another PC should I need to borrow 2gb for a while.

Hope this get's resolved soon.

 

[RobG]

It just gets better and better.

This morning the generic 256MB Dimm wouldn't boot, but I got 1 stick of the GSkill to boot. I have restarted around 20 times now (Re-installed windows yet again) and it seems fine. I am scared to put the second stick in-case it throws a wobbler again.

I am also debating whether to try this new bios..?..?

Just thought I would keep you updated.

Rob