what now?

[dbyang]

A year ago, I assembled a desktop with following:

ASUS a7n8x deluxe MB(400 fsb)

FeForce FX5600 videocard from Gainward

amd Athlon 2700+

WD Uata 80gb hd

WD SATA 250gb hd

Two Corsair cmx512-2700c2 dimms

cd/r dvd rom (dell)

cd/r dvd/r (LG)

Win XP home

 

Everything worked perfectly from the outset.

Then early this fall, I started experiencing blue screen of death with variable error messages, always dumping physical memory. This increased insidiously. Around this time, I updated to xp sp2 with a few bugs related to receiving images from work. Next I tried updating the original BIOS to the latest version available around October(This seemed to help, but, I was still crashing occasionally.) The crashes increased infrequency to the point I could not ignore it, and would interupt my work everyday.

 

I decided to reinstall Windows, but it would not copy about a dozen setup files. I tried 3 different winXP discs, but they all failed to copy a different set of files, and xp would not install properly. (complete reformat)

 

I had the 2 dimms in slots#1, and #2. I read in the MB manual that 1/2 combination was not recommended for DDR function. I then moved the dimm from slot 2 to slot 3, and winxp still would not install.

 

I ran the WD Data LIfe guard floppy and got zero errors on full test of the hd. I previously ran chkdsk under xp before I reformatted, and also got no errors on the harddrive (80gb ata drive).

 

Finally, I removed dimm from slot #3 and everything is now fine.(running on 512 ram currently.)

What's my problem, and what should I do?

 

Dbyang

:sigh!:

[Wired]

Try the other dimm in the same slot, possibly a bad slot?

[RAM GUY]

Please make sure that you have the latest BIOS for your MB and that you have the memory modules on slot 1 & 3; load Setup/Optimized default settings, and try the following BIOS settings;

CMX256A or CMX512-2700C2

CPU Freq: 166 MHz (333 FSB)

System Performance: User Define

Memory Frequency: 100%

Resulting Frequency: 166 MHz (333 FSB)

Memory Timing: User Define

SDRAM CAS Latency: 2.5T

SDRAM RAS to CAS Delay (tRCD): 3T

SDRAM Row Precharge (tRP): 3T

SDRAM Active to Precharge Delay (tRAS): 6T

DDR Reference Voltage: 2.7 Volts

AGP Voltage: Default *unless you have ATI (9200 or 9600) or NVIDIA (5200 or 5700) then 1.6 Volts suggested!*

All other settings are motherboards defaults

Then please test them one at a time with http://www.memtest.org and let’s make sure it's not some other issue! I would run the test for at least 2-3 passes to be sure!

[dbyang]

I have now downloaded a version of memtest and ran it on my good dimm#1, in slot#1 for >1100% and got zero errors.

 

I then place dimm#2 (Allegedly bad one) in slot#1, and xp freezes when it boots up and gives me a number of unrecoverable errors. When I try to reboot, it fails to boot past the post page.

 

I then place dimm#1 in slot#3, but that didn't boot either. I am guessing that with only one dimm, it must be slot#1.

 

I then place dimm#1 in slot#1, and everything is perfect again(after system restore point reset.)

 

Does this not prove that dimm#2 is bad? Conceivably I could have a bad MB slot #2, or #3, as well as a bad dimm#2. But I can't see how dimm#2 could be working?

 

 

dbyang

[RAM GUY]

I believe the problem that you were having is coming from somewhere else such as the MB maybe; if it is possible for you to test the module in a different system and using the same configuration as a reference, please test it to verify if the memory module/s are good.

[dbyang]

I obtained an rma for the bad dimm, and sent it back.

I received a new 512dimm last week, and installed(old good dimm in slot#1, new dimm in slot#3) it this morning. Everything works now. Memtest finds zero errors.

 

I appreciate the lifetime warrantee on your products.

Thanks for your help.

dbyang :sunglasse