P4P8x and memory problem

  • Thread starter Thread starter Ben Champion
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Ben Champion

Building a new system with the ASUS P4P8x motherboard, pentium 4 2.8
fsb800 and crucial 512Mb PC3200 RAM. Installed everything, switch it
on and nothing happens! AFter messing round with various components
from another system i've decided the problem is that the motherboard
doesnt recognise the presence of the RAM. I installed some crucial
PC2700 and managed to enter the BIOS but crashed upon trying to load
windows.

I am aware that the motherboard doesnt support PC3200 as such, it will
only work when the fsb800 processor is installed. I was wondering if I
have to do something special before i can get the overclocked system
to work or if its just an incompatibility with the memory

Many Thanks

Ben
 
Ben Champion said:
Building a new system with the ASUS P4P8x motherboard, pentium 4 2.8
fsb800 and crucial 512Mb PC3200 RAM. Installed everything, switch it
on and nothing happens! AFter messing round with various components
from another system i've decided the problem is that the motherboard
doesnt recognise the presence of the RAM. I installed some crucial
PC2700 and managed to enter the BIOS but crashed upon trying to load
windows.

I am aware that the motherboard doesnt support PC3200 as such, it will
only work when the fsb800 processor is installed. I was wondering if I
have to do something special before i can get the overclocked system
to work or if its just an incompatibility with the memory

Many Thanks

Ben
Click to expand...



Hi Ben,

The pc3200 should allow you into the system without a hitch.

If I were you I would try the following.

Connect yourself with a wristband to an earth point

remove the Mboard from the case and place it on the opened anti stactic bag
in which it came

remove everything from the mb and start afresh.

put the cpu in, a little thermal paste, the hs and fan (plug it in too)

put the 512 of 3200 in slot 1

put the GFX card in

attach the power on button (or of course just short the jumper)

plug in the power supply

attach kb and monitor

switch on....what happens

if nothing double check that everything is seated well

if still nothing try the ram in another slot

if still nothing try the pc 2700

you should now know whether the pc3200 is ok or not.

if you have a boot power down, plug in hd and cd unit power up and try to
install the os

if it bums out write the error here



max
 
Ben said:
Building a new system with the ASUS P4P8x motherboard, pentium 4 2.8
fsb800 and crucial 512Mb PC3200 RAM. Installed everything, switch it
on and nothing happens! AFter messing round with various components
from another system i've decided the problem is that the motherboard
doesnt recognise the presence of the RAM. I installed some crucial
PC2700 and managed to enter the BIOS but crashed upon trying to load
windows.

I am aware that the motherboard doesnt support PC3200 as such, it will
only work when the fsb800 processor is installed. I was wondering if I
have to do something special before i can get the overclocked system
to work or if its just an incompatibility with the memory

Many Thanks
Click to expand...

Ben,

It may pay to think about looking into a BIOS update. Check Asus' site to
see if there is a later one available. If there is, set your machine to
something stable, (i.e. underclock it) and flash the later BIOS. If you
haven't flashed a BIOS before be sure to read (and maybe print out) the
instructions.

Just a a thought.
 
~misfit~ said:
Ben,

It may pay to think about looking into a BIOS update. Check Asus' site to
see if there is a later one available. If there is, set your machine to
something stable, (i.e. underclock it) and flash the later BIOS. If you
haven't flashed a BIOS before be sure to read (and maybe print out) the
instructions.

Just a a thought.
Click to expand...
Good point...

boot with the 2700 and update bios first..

max
 
"~misfit~" said:
Ben,

It may pay to think about looking into a BIOS update. Check Asus' site to
see if there is a later one available. If there is, set your machine to
something stable, (i.e. underclock it) and flash the later BIOS. If you
haven't flashed a BIOS before be sure to read (and maybe print out) the
instructions.

Just a a thought.
Click to expand...

If you are going to do that, boot up a copy of memtest86 from
memtest86.com or memtest86+ from memtest.org. You should test
the memory and make sure it is error free for several passes,
before considering doing a BIOS flash.

While the board has the Crashfree2 BIOS feature, this only
works if the boot block is not being flashed. Many Asus
updates now, have special instructions. There is sometimes
an .exe in the download ZIP file, that causes the flash to include
an update for the boot block. If the computer crashes in the
middle of updating the boot block, your board will be dead.

Also, the best slots for a single stick of ram, would be A2
or B2. These slots are at the end of their respective memory
busses, next to the termination resistors.

If you check this page:

http://www.asus.it/support/cpusupport/cpusupport.aspx

BIOS version 1006 or later is required for a 2.8-C processor
(Northwood) and version 1014 is required for a 2.8-E processor
(Prescott).

That might have something to do with it.

Maybe you should find a slow P4 to use just for the
BIOS flash.

HTH,
Paul
 
After listening to your advice I have successfully updated the BIOS to
the latest version. The PC3200 memory now allows me to enter the BIOS,
which is an improvement on the previous situation. However the system
still crashes when attempting to load windows, even in safe mode. This
also happens when using the PC2700 RAM. I know the fault is not with
the hard drive as i can load windows from it using another system. I
have no idea where to go from here, any ideas?

Thanks

Ben
 
Ben Champion said:
After listening to your advice I have successfully updated the BIOS to
the latest version. The PC3200 memory now allows me to enter the BIOS,
which is an improvement on the previous situation. However the system
still crashes when attempting to load windows, even in safe mode. This
also happens when using the PC2700 RAM. I know the fault is not with
the hard drive as i can load windows from it using another system. I
have no idea where to go from here, any ideas?

Thanks

Ben
Click to expand...

After putting everything together, did you "fresh install" windows onto the
hard drive? Just asking because now you have mentioned it will not boot into
safe-mode which means it sounds like it was already on the hard drive. Yes,
no?

Jim
 
After listening to your advice I have successfully updated the BIOS to
the latest version. The PC3200 memory now allows me to enter the BIOS,
which is an improvement on the previous situation. However the system
still crashes when attempting to load windows, even in safe mode. This
also happens when using the PC2700 RAM. I know the fault is not with
the hard drive as i can load windows from it using another system. I
have no idea where to go from here, any ideas?

Thanks

Ben
Click to expand...

Have you tried to relax the memory timings like CAS etc. try setting
the CAS setting 3 or greater.
 
Ben said:
After listening to your advice I have successfully updated the BIOS to
the latest version. The PC3200 memory now allows me to enter the BIOS,
which is an improvement on the previous situation. However the system
still crashes when attempting to load windows, even in safe mode. This
also happens when using the PC2700 RAM. I know the fault is not with
the hard drive as i can load windows from it using another system. I
have no idea where to go from here, any ideas?

Thanks

Ben
Click to expand...

You load the SAME windows installation on another system? Uh, if you're
talking about W2K or XP, and they're different motherboard chipsets, then
that won't work, 'normal' OR 'safe mode'. You have to do a 'repair' to get
the new drivers installed (I happen to be doing one on a new DFI nForce
mobo as I type).

For XP, boot from the CD as if doing a new install. Tell it NO to repair
from the repair console. Then tell it yes to install windows and when it
finds the existing installation it'll ask if you want to repair it. Yes.

It will copy new files and re-detect all the devices, which will be
different on the new motherboard.

You loose your service packs/windows updates and will need to redo those.
 
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