Windows server 2003 will not boot with 3gb ram

  • Thread starter Thread starter carleeniet
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carleeniet

I have verified all sticks and slots are working and the system
will post but not boot. Is there a switch in the boot.ini that
is needed? Please help, thanks.
 
|I have verified all sticks and slots are working and the system
| will post but not boot. Is there a switch in the boot.ini that
| is needed? Please help, thanks.

Run Windows Memory Diagnostic tool:
http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp

I usually skip to a test called "STRIDE 6" or something similar.

If you get at least one error, then either one or more of the memory modules
are defective or you need to modify the timing settings from BIOS. try to
relax the clock, and other timing parameters: Active to Precharge, Active to
CMD and so on.

Try rearranging the RAM modules.


George Valkov
 
I have verified all sticks and slots are working and the system
will post but not boot. Is there a switch in the boot.ini that
is needed? Please help, thanks.
Click to expand...

Just for kicks, try the "burnmemory" or "maxmem" option of boot.ini
It probably won't help with an address space issue, but
it gives one more adjustment to try.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/833721/en-us

A comment here about nv_agp.sys and using >2GB of memory.
Claim is, the system will boot in VGA mode with 3GB. So
you could try changing the way your video is set up.

http://www.nforcershq.com/forum/a7n8x-e-deluxe-crashes-on-boot-in-nvagpsys-with-gt-2gb-vt70135.html

Somebody booted WinXP SP1 with 3GB total here. The low
FSB speed suggests the memory is running slow as well.
You can try setting memory to manual, then set the
"percentage" value for memory clock. Try 83% or 66%.
Do not use 50% or 200% settings, as I've heard there can
be problems with extreme settings. It seems some Nforce2
motherboard manuals, recommend running 3x1GB configuration
with a reduced clock, which doesn't make any sense, but if
it isn't working, is something else to try. I've run 3x512MB
on my A7N8X-E Deluxe, at DDR400 and CAS2, with no problem, so
I know three double sided sticks can run at full speed with
no errors. I don't understand what is different about 1GB
modules.

http://www.nforcershq.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=26
http://www.nforcershq.com/bits/screens/3gb_system_properties.gif

You can do more searches on that forum, here:

http://www.nforcershq.com/forum/search.php

I saw your other post, and that is how I know you have an
A7N8X Deluxe nforce2 board.

Paul
 
I have verified all sticks and slots are working and the system
will post but not boot. Is there a switch in the boot.ini that
is needed? Please help, thanks.
Click to expand...

What does it do instead of booting? Crash (what's the error)? Beep when you
power on? Computer just sit there doing nothing? Can you get into the BIOS
(and if so, does that show the memory correctly?)
 
If I recall correctly, an NVIDIA document states that the AMD timing
requirements are not met when 3x1GB DDR400 (pc3200) memory modules are used
in the nforce2 chipset, and therefore recommends a maximum of only 2x1GB
DDR400 memory modules. With 3x1GB DDR333 (pc2700) memory modules there isn't
a problem. If 3x1GB DDR400 is used there may be fatal memory errors that
prevent the OP's rig from booting. If she clocks the memory speed down, or
perhaps relaxes the timings, the 3 modules should work well. Unless she
clocks it entirely down to DDR333, though, I would worry about the
possibility of subtle memory errors that would eventually corrupt an
important file.
Chemical X
 
Thanks for the help Paul. I got the machine to boot with the
maxmem=3072 but the system acted weird. At one time I was using 3 sticks
of Corsair DDR400 PC3200 512meg XMS at CAS 2 and all was well. I got
hold of a couple Kingston 1gig sticks and they ran fine so I decided
to add a third. Is there a real fix for my problem so the system will
not act strange or have any quirks etc? I am back to the two 1gig sticks
but would really like to use the 3rd too.
 
The board is an Asus A7N8X DELUXE and the bios shows the three 1gig
sticks. The system will post and all looks normal although no windows
boot screen, just black. Any ideas?
 
Thanks for the help Paul. I got the machine to boot with the
maxmem=3072 but the system acted weird. At one time I was using 3 sticks
of Corsair DDR400 PC3200 512meg XMS at CAS 2 and all was well. I got
hold of a couple Kingston 1gig sticks and they ran fine so I decided
to add a third. Is there a real fix for my problem so the system will
not act strange or have any quirks etc? I am back to the two 1gig sticks
but would really like to use the 3rd too.
Click to expand...

With the machine booted, try a program like Prime95 (mersenne.org).
There is a "Torture Test" option in one of the menus. While booted
with maxmem=3072, try it out. If this is a hardware stability problem,
you may be able to experiment with Prime95 and determine what configs
cause errors and what ones don't.

Prime95 should run for hours, using something like the blended test
option. On a system here, if I have a hardware stability problem,
I might get an error in the first 30 seconds of use. When the hardware
is properly tweaked, I can run that test for hours.

The fact that maxmem=3072 works, suggests the memory map is wrong some
how, and perhaps the OS is being told there is more than 3GB of memory
available. Like the top of memory is being declared incorrectly. But perhaps
experiments with Prime95 or Orthos or one of the other Prime95
derivative programs, will help distinguish what the problem is.

I had problems years ago, with Win98 and more than 512MB of memory
on another computer. The considered wisdom at the time, was that Win98
could be made stable, for values of memory between 512MB and 1GB, by a
simple change to one of the files. That didn't work for me, and I assumed
it was an address space problem. Then, one day, I decided to boot my Knoppix
CD on that machine. And I got exactly the same symptoms in Knoppix
as I got in Windows (system freeze). It turned out to be a hardware
problem, and probably a design problem with the chipset (problem was related
to AGP, so if I had used a PCI video card, it probably would have run
forever). So my address space theory wasn't correct. You may get additional
information about your problem, by either testing or researching what happens,
when another OS is booted on the hardware. I like Knoppix (knopper.net , a
700MB download in ISO form), because of the text messages printed on
the screen during boot. The same messages can be observed later, by using
dmesg in a terminal window. That is all I use Knoppix for currently, as
a test disk.

Paul
 
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