Memory problems with Asus . Help needed

[Adam SLATER \(H0llyw00d H0gan\)]

I have a problem with my memory in my PC.
I am running an Athlon 1.2g Thunderbird (Don't hold that against me) on a
Asus A7V Motherboard setup.

I am running shitty old Acer PC-100 ram 2x sticks of 64 meg and one of them
only works sometimes. (Only running on 64meg at moment in my new XP setup,
painfully slow!)

I have 2x 256 meg sticks of PC-133 PQI T28A3-02C3 MS3856UPS ram that I want
to install into the PC to beef it up.

I went into my Bios setup and saw that there is a function to change the
Dram from 100 to 133.

A few months ago I put on of the 256meg sticks in there and fired the PC up
and got a beautiful burning smell so I turned the PC off and put the shitty
old ACER 64 meg sticks back in.

Can someone advise me on how to install the new ram ???
I presume I put the sticks in, turn the PC on and immediately change the
speed in the bios.

Can someone please advise me of the correct method ? Thanks in advance.

 

[The Gadget Shop]

1. Head to the Asus site and download the manual for your motherboard if you
don't have a printed copy...

You might need to change the position of some jumpers/switches on the board
- usually there is an Auto detect front side bus (FSB) and clock speed
setting - take it off auto only if you want to over/under clock.

Cheers, Jason (remove === to reply)

Macrovision disablers
http://gadgets.shorturl.com

 

[Paul]

I have a problem with my memory in my PC.
I am running an Athlon 1.2g Thunderbird (Don't hold that against me) on a
Asus A7V Motherboard setup.

I am running shitty old Acer PC-100 ram 2x sticks of 64 meg and one of them
only works sometimes. (Only running on 64meg at moment in my new XP setup,
painfully slow!)

I have 2x 256 meg sticks of PC-133 PQI T28A3-02C3 MS3856UPS ram that I want
to install into the PC to beef it up.

I went into my Bios setup and saw that there is a function to change the
Dram from 100 to 133.

A few months ago I put on of the 256meg sticks in there and fired the PC up
and got a beautiful burning smell so I turned the PC off and put the shitty
old ACER 64 meg sticks back in.

Can someone advise me on how to install the new ram ???
I presume I put the sticks in, turn the PC on and immediately change the
speed in the bios.

Can someone please advise me of the correct method ? Thanks in advance.

I looked in the manual, and it looks like you can set the processor
FSB with DIP switches or the BIOS. I would leave all the settings the
way they were, so the CPU FSB and memory are both run at 100MHz.
Running the memory slower will allow more memory modules to be installed
without potential problems. If the machine can be made stable that way,
then you can try changing the memory setting to 133 in the BIOS.

In terms of finding a look-alike product, here is a web page with a
picture of a PQI SDRAM stick on it. This stick is low profile and
is unbuffered, which would be what you would want. If the stick is
much taller, or has double rows of chips, that could be registered
ram, which won't work.

http://www.overclockers.com.au/techstuff/r_pqi_pc133/
http://www.overclockers.com.au/techstuff/r_pqi_pc133/ram2.jpg

DIMMs usually have "slots" cut in them, and these slots match with
a plastic key in the DIMM slot. That is supposed to prevent the
wrong kind of RAM from being put in the DIMM socket. You could
compare the new 256MB DIMM you've got, to the old Acer ones, and
see if the slots cut in the DIMM match. That would help verify
they are the same kind.

The PQI web site no longer lists their SDRAM products, but they can
be found in this web archive.

http://web.archive.org/web/20020606011539/www.pqi.com.tw/eng/ourproduct/ourproduct.htm
http://web.archive.org/web/20021122164955/www.pqi.com.tw/eng/ourproduct/pc-133+PC-100.htm

The table in the PC-133 listing says they are all unbuffered, so should
work.

Look in the DIMM socket, to see if any of the contacts got bent out of
position. If everything looks OK, try just a single 256MB stick in
the slot furthest from the processor. With the DIP switches in their
original position, maybe the burning smell will be gone.

You might also visually inspect the 256MB module you put in the board,
for burn marks or discoloration, as that might give a clue as to what is
wrong. Is there any possibility you could find a shop that could pop the
module into a board for a quick test ?

HTH,
Paul

 

[CJC]

A few months ago I put on of the 256meg sticks in there and fired the PC up
and got a beautiful burning smell so I turned the PC off and put the shitty
old ACER 64 meg sticks back in.

Depending where it came from, the 256s may be fried anyway.

IME, burning smells are not always recoverable faults.

Had an AGP card that stripped a plated contact that curled and touched pin
next to it - burning smell and dead board.
Had a floppy drive power lead one pin left. Earthed the 12V line. Incredible
smoke, melted plastic etc but it was OK after I cut the rooted plug off and
changed undies.

First - shit happens, second operator stupidity

Colin