Herb Posted February 2, 2005 Share Posted February 2, 2005 I am a computer technician by trade and have built many systems before without any major problems but now iv just built myself a uber PC and have started to get blue screen errors. :[pouts: I have narrowed my problem down by the usual methods of taking out all hardware except minimal requirements and then adding hardware and see what causes the blue screen. First I thought my Audigy 2 was causing the problem but then I found out it was my memory. When I have my Corsair XMS 3200XLPT sticks in both blue slots for dual DDR mode the PC will always blue screen usually even before the desktop loads. I swapped out the sticks when running with just one and they are both fine showing that one of the sticks wasn’t bad. The chances of Corsair XMS DDR RAM being faulty was highly unlikely I would of thought anyway. I even installed the latest BIOS. At the moment I have the two sticks sitting along side each other and system seems fine but this is not dual channel mode. I tried settings the timings in the bios but to no avail. Thanks in advance for any help. Here are my specs: Asus A8N-SLi Standard Edition (bios 1003) AMD 64 3200+ Winchester 1 Gb Corsair XMS PC3200XLPT (2 x 512) 256Mb XFX PCI-E GF6800GT 600W Enermax Noisetaker PSU Sony 16x DVD±RW Dual Layer 300Gb Maxtor Plus 10 (7200rpm,16MB) SATA HD's 2 X 80 GB Western Digital HD's Creative Labs Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Sony Silver 16x DVD-ROM + 48x SilverStone "TEMJIN" J02S-W Case Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corsair Employees RAM GUY Posted February 2, 2005 Corsair Employees Share Posted February 2, 2005 Please try and set the Dim Voltage to 2.8 Volts and then test the system with http://www.memtest.org and if you get errors please test them one at a time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Herb Posted February 3, 2005 Author Share Posted February 3, 2005 ran memtest this morning and left it run all day. after 18 runs no errors found. Could this mean that the memory is unable to run in dual DDR mode???? :confused: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Herb Posted February 3, 2005 Author Share Posted February 3, 2005 I see alot of posts regarding 3200XL RAM and A8N-sli motherboards, could this be a common problem? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corsair Employees RAM GUY Posted February 3, 2005 Corsair Employees Share Posted February 3, 2005 Not at all, this is just a popular combo of hardware. Is the system stable with the Voltage ar 2.8 Volts in windows? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Herb Posted February 3, 2005 Author Share Posted February 3, 2005 not with the cards in their properslots for Dual DDR mode. The system even freezes on the first screen you see after you turn it on. How much performance would i be missing out on without it using the dual ddr bandwidth??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corsair Employees RAM GUY Posted February 3, 2005 Corsair Employees Share Posted February 3, 2005 It would be loosing quite a bit. If the modules will pass http://www.memtest.org one up or in single channle with both modules, that might suggest a power problem. Can you tell me the make and model of PSU you have? And have you tried to replce your CPU? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Herb Posted February 3, 2005 Author Share Posted February 3, 2005 600W Enermax Noisetaker PSU so definately not a power problem id say. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wired Posted February 3, 2005 Share Posted February 3, 2005 Sounds like it could be the memory controller. Also make sure you have the latest BIOS, as that board has had multiple BIOS updates recently. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corsair Employees RAM GUY Posted February 3, 2005 Corsair Employees Share Posted February 3, 2005 I would agree with Wired! ( :eek: ) Please check that you have the latest bios, and if so I think I would try and get it replaced and go from there. Also I have no problem replacing the modules, but from what you have posted I suspect some other problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wired Posted February 4, 2005 Share Posted February 4, 2005 Also check out this thread: http://www.houseofhelp.com/v2/showthread.php?t=34134 There's a link near the bottom that has some good info on this board. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Herb Posted February 4, 2005 Author Share Posted February 4, 2005 ok started a memtest in correct dual ddr slots and left it, first test looked like no errors. wil;l report back later. Hope i dont have to replace the mobo. Hmm i see anyother post VERY similar to mine. http://www.houseofhelp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=172164#post172164 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corsair Employees RAM GUY Posted February 4, 2005 Corsair Employees Share Posted February 4, 2005 Actually I would replace the CPU before I replace the MB. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Herb Posted February 4, 2005 Author Share Posted February 4, 2005 ok error on test6 first run with ram in duall ddr slots :evil: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corsair Employees RAM GUY Posted February 4, 2005 Corsair Employees Share Posted February 4, 2005 What Bios version do you have and what slots do you have the modules in and can you tell me the settings you have set for both CPU and memory? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Herb Posted February 4, 2005 Author Share Posted February 4, 2005 bios 1003 iv got my ram settings to auto untill i sort this out except 2.8v RAM at the moment are in slots DIMM_B1 and DIMM_B2 which is stable most of the time but in single channel mode but they should be in DIMM_A1 and IMM_B1 for dual DDR mode but blue screens constantly. I have read something about dual rail PSU not good for this board but i just find it silly to think a 600 $120+ PSU is not upto the task. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corsair Employees RAM GUY Posted February 4, 2005 Corsair Employees Share Posted February 4, 2005 I believe that a dual 12 Volt rail is suggest or AKA ATX 2.0 PSU. We can try and replace the modules if you like, but I would maybe try and replace the CPU, but please get the latest bios Ver 1.003 Beta 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Herb Posted February 4, 2005 Author Share Posted February 4, 2005 I have the standard edition. Not sure if the deluxe and standard share the same bios??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Herb Posted February 6, 2005 Author Share Posted February 6, 2005 I tried a friend pair of XMS3200LL and had the exact saame trouble. I suppose this rules out bad memory. Hmm Maybe i should get the board replaced???? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikej101 Posted February 6, 2005 Share Posted February 6, 2005 I read with interest the comments regarding this problem. I was quite happily running 2 x 256Mb Dual Channel Corsair Value Memory in my board with a dual boot Win98SE and XP Pro setup. Never had any trouble. I purchased a very expensive pair of 512mb Matched pair XMS low latency memory modules and the problems have started to drive me up the wall. First off Win98SE would not run for more than a few minutes before crashing out with out of memory problems. This I attributed to the well known memory 'overload' problem with 98 so limited the available memory to 512mb and set the Vcache up as suggested by Duncan B.C at http://onlinehelp.bc.ca/tips.htm . This seemed to improve things slightly and Win98 would run in a fashion. When running up the XP O.S. I found that was totally unstable - bearing in mind that it has run faultlessly for the past six months - and was almost unusable. Constant crashes and weird messages - blue screen crashes being the most annoying. In desparation I attempted to re-install both O.S. on a pair of new hard drives. That was a mistake. The Win98 would constantly crash whilst installing. When I limited the memory as before - it improved things. Still not stable but better. When I tried to install XP and the (Windows) dual boot the whole lot came to a grinding halt. Win98 came up with VFAT errors and would not run. I am confident that all these problems are due to the 'VERY' expensive Corsair XMS. My next experiment is to put the memory back as it was and put the original Win98 hard drive back in - I will keep you posted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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