New memory doesn't work 75% of the time

  • Thread starter Thread starter Marshall Beachy
  • Start date Start date
M

Marshall Beachy

I just purchased 512 MB of DDR 2700 RAM, and installed it
fine. However, about 75% of the time, Windows will not
boot. It turns on, recognizes all of the memory in POST,
and all appears to be going well. However, when it is
supposed to begin launching Windows, it just stops dead.
The hard drive access light turns off, black screen...
dead. Once I hit reset, it goes through it's normal
routine again, then pops up a message that says Windows
did not start properly last time. I hit "Start Windows
Normally", and about 1/3 of the time from there it will
launch, and the rest is fine. However, the other 2/3 of
the time, it just dies again. The problem didn't occur
with the old memory, so I know it's directly related to
this new memory.

Here's my main specs...

Athlon 1200 CPU
M830LR motherboard
512 MB DDR PC2700 RAM
GeForce4 Ti4200 128 MB video card
SB Audigy Gamer sound card

I'm also currently having a problem with my computer
overheating (which started before this new memory). I'm
pretty sure it's the power supply that's gone south...
I'm getting that fixed soon. I don't think it's related
to this booting problem, but you never know.

Thanks for your help,
Marshall
 
I think it will only take advantage up to PC2100, but it
is still supposed to run it. Here's Crucial's supported
memory for my board -

http://www.crucial.com/store/listparts.asp?Mfr%
2BProductline=PC+Chips%
2B&mfr=PC+Chips&cat=RAM&model=M830L%5CLR&submit=Go

I didn't get my memory from Crucial (it's made by K-Byte
that I got from Best Buy), but that site has memory up to
PC3200. I'm pretty sure the memory is supported. Like I
said, once it finally boots, it runs perfectly fine. No
problems at all.

I also ran a memory test I found (which runs off a
bootable floppy) and it didn't find any errors, so I'm
pretty sure the memory is good too.

*scratches head*
 
Have you set the memory timings in bios to default or most conservative
settings? Are you attempting to overclock the cpu or memory?

MarkS
 
Or you may need to manually configure the memory timing instead of using the SPD
on the module.
 
Marshall said:
just purchased 512 MB of DDR 2700 RAM, and installed it
fine. However, about 75% of the time, Windows will not
boot. It turns on, recognizes all of the memory in POST,
and all appears to be going well. However, when it is
supposed to begin launching Windows, it just stops dead.
Click to expand...

Windows is very fussy about the exact marching of different modules of
RAM. There are critical timing loops that get calibrated at boot, and
if one of them finds itself in the 'wrong' module the system will
probably crash. So check on that matching.
 
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