RAM recognition problem

Associate
Joined
10 Jan 2006
Posts
2
Hi.

(This may be the same problem as described here)

Recently, my computer started blackscreening (just went black - had to restart).

The relevant specs are (copied from Lavalys Everest):

Mobo: ASRock 775VM8 (3 PCI, 1 AGP, 1 AMR, 2 DDR DIMM, Audio, Video, LAN)
CPU: Intel Pentium 4 550, 3400 MHz (17 x 200)

At that time I had 2x 512mb RAM (DDR400 PC3200):
Timings:
200 MHz: 3.0-3-3-8 (CL-RCD-RP-RAS)
166 MHz: 2.5-3-3-7 (CL-RCD-RP-RAS)

The two RAM sticks were generic (Elixir and no-name Matrix) but had the same specs and also modules on both sides.

Anyway, the PC was working fine until the blackscreens. I used to just restart the PC, believing the problem to be an XP error. However, upon later inspection, I saw my system only had 512mb memory which was strange. After a while, the PC wouldn't boot at all giving numerous post beeps (AMI BIOS) involving the RAM. I took out the offending stick from the mobo using trial and error to see which one was causing the problem (I have a micro-ATX mobo with only 2 DIMM slots) and the PC started booting fine.

Believing this to be the root of the problem, I recently aquired another 512mb stick to replace the RAM, which is a Samsung M3 68L6523DUS-CCC stick with modules only on one side. Long story short, when I had two sticks in, the PC would have trouble booting (again giving the post beeps), and when it did, neither the BIOS or OS recognised the memory, however in Everest (the system diagnostics tool) detected both sticks and retrieved prodoct information etc. which was strange. I mixed and matched the three RAM sticks in the two slots to no avail. At the moment, I am using just the Samsung stick on its own and have two free sticks (one working, one possibly faulty).

I've spoken to some people on the internet (Google doesn't give any relevant results as far as I can tell), and they say motherboards can be fussy about module position and some other things, hence why I've mixed and matched the RAM in the slots.

I've not ran Memtest because when the possibly faulty RAM is in it doesn't boot, plus, I have two sticks which are working fine. This makes me believe the problem to be with the DIMM slots, however they've never been tampered with or been pushed with excessive force. The RAM clips in easily and securely.

Any help on what the problem could be would be greatly appreciated as 512mb is really getting me down. :(

-- Tom
 
Associate
Joined
29 Oct 2005
Posts
2,464
Location
Newcastle upon Toon
If one stick of RAM always causes a balckscreen/nonboot then its faulty if the PC boots fine with a diff stick of ram in.

Its possible your mobo cant run your replacement stick due to incompatibility. the different speed of RAM will often cause a problem - even if run at the poorest timings.

M
 
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