K8NS Pro - Strange Issue with Memory

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jason
  • Start date Start date
J

Jason

Hi all,

I have what seems a strange problem with the stability of my Windows
XP (32bit) when I add in another 1GB DIMM. Let me explain....

All works fine and dandy with the 2x512MB DIMM's, no issues. I add in
another 1GB DIMM (PC3200 from crucial.com) and the bios recognises it,
windows starts up, windows see's it. Then when you try and run
programs in Windows you get strange things happen like them crashing,
explorer starting to eat CPU cycles (all 100% of them). I even tried
to install Halo with the extra memory in and it won't, get a message
relating to memory then a blue screen. Take the memory out and
everything back to normal. Surely it can't be a bad DIMM else it
would get picked up at bootup?

Has anyone else seen a similar problem??

Thanks in advance,

Jason

AMD 64 3200
K8NS Pro F1
 
Jason said:
Hi all,

I have what seems a strange problem with the stability of my Windows
XP (32bit) when I add in another 1GB DIMM. Let me explain....

All works fine and dandy with the 2x512MB DIMM's, no issues. I add in
another 1GB DIMM (PC3200 from crucial.com) and the bios recognises it,
windows starts up, windows see's it. Then when you try and run
programs in Windows you get strange things happen like them crashing,
explorer starting to eat CPU cycles (all 100% of them). I even tried
to install Halo with the extra memory in and it won't, get a message
relating to memory then a blue screen. Take the memory out and
everything back to normal. Surely it can't be a bad DIMM else it
would get picked up at bootup?

Has anyone else seen a similar problem??

Thanks in advance,

Jason

AMD 64 3200
K8NS Pro F1
Click to expand...

Jason, have you tried putting the 1gig DDRAM into slot 1 (slot furthest away
from the CPU) and removing the two 512mb sticks ?
 
On Sat, 03 Jul 2004 10:16:38 -0700, Jason wrote:

Surely it can't be a bad DIMM else it
would get picked up at bootup?
Click to expand...

Not necessarily, the BIOS runs a vary basic memory test at bootup. You
need to run memtest to verify that your DIMM is good, get it from
www.memtest86.com.

It certainly sounds like your new DIMM is bad or just incompatible with
your motherboard though Crucial ram usually has good compatibility. Try
running it on its own, perhaps it doesn't like working with your other
DIMM.

K
 
Jason said:
Hi all,

I have what seems a strange problem with the stability of my Windows
XP (32bit) when I add in another 1GB DIMM. Let me explain....

All works fine and dandy with the 2x512MB DIMM's, no issues. I add in
another 1GB DIMM (PC3200 from crucial.com) and the bios recognises it,
windows starts up, windows see's it. Then when you try and run
programs in Windows you get strange things happen like them crashing,
explorer starting to eat CPU cycles (all 100% of them). I even tried
to install Halo with the extra memory in and it won't, get a message
relating to memory then a blue screen. Take the memory out and
everything back to normal. Surely it can't be a bad DIMM else it
would get picked up at bootup?

Has anyone else seen a similar problem??

Thanks in advance,

Jason

AMD 64 3200
K8NS Pro F1
Click to expand...

Have you turned the memory down to the necessary 333MHz as Athlon 64's
require for three DIMMs?
 
Thanks for the replies. I was most interested in the one citing that
I must turn the memory speed down to 333MHz if three DIMMS are
installed. I wasn't aware of this. The 1GB works fine on it's own,
also it works fine with 1 other 512MB DIMM. The only thing that
doesn't work is all three DIMMS together! I have tried all three
locations for the 1GB DIMM and it makes no difference.

What do I loose by turning down thw memory speed, much? I just wanted
2GB of memory in my machine but didn't think it would prove so
challenging!

Thanks again for the responses.
 
Jason said:
Thanks for the replies. I was most interested in the one citing that
I must turn the memory speed down to 333MHz if three DIMMS are
installed. I wasn't aware of this. The 1GB works fine on it's own,
also it works fine with 1 other 512MB DIMM. The only thing that
doesn't work is all three DIMMS together! I have tried all three
locations for the 1GB DIMM and it makes no difference.

What do I loose by turning down thw memory speed, much? I just wanted
2GB of memory in my machine but didn't think it would prove so
challenging!

Thanks again for the responses.
Click to expand...

This is a known issue with the 754 cpu's. Some motherboards can't run with
all three slots filled. Others can run if you make sure the memory speed is
set to either AUTO, or 166 which of course is 333mhz since the 166 is
doubled.

I mentioned the slot for the 1gb stick earlier because on my mobo, the
manufacturer states that it will only work with 1gb stick in first slot, and
512mb sticks in slots 2 and 3.

You may have to do without the 2nd stick of 512mb memory.

Oh, as I started to say earlier, the reason why you have to slow the speed
down is that the 754 cpu's use single channel memory, so the 3rd slot slows
the system down, and with some boards makes the system unstable.
 
K said:
On Sat, 03 Jul 2004 10:16:38 -0700, Jason wrote:

Surely it can't be a bad DIMM else it

Not necessarily, the BIOS runs a vary basic memory test at bootup. You
need to run memtest to verify that your DIMM is good, get it from
www.memtest86.com.

It certainly sounds like your new DIMM is bad or just incompatible with
your motherboard though Crucial ram usually has good compatibility. Try
running it on its own, perhaps it doesn't like working with your other
DIMM.

K
Click to expand...

do you know of a good program out there similar to memtest86 that'll test
L1, L2, and L3 cache memory?
 
do you know of a good program out there similar to memtest86 that'll test
L1, L2, and L3 cache memory?
Click to expand...

On chip cache usually has ECC error correction, I doubt such a program is
necessary or indeed would tell you anything.

K
 
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