Memory Problem

[marko]

Hi all wonder if someone could please help me, i wanted to change the memory on my Msi K7N2 Delta, the memory that was in it was working fine it was 2 sticks of crucial 512mb pc2100 DDR 266 which had been running in Dual Channel for about 3 years, to 2 sticks of Crucial 512mb DDR pc3200. well out with the old and in with the pc3200, on boot up i got 1 long beep and the D bracket Led's saying that the memory was either bad or not fitted properly. I had the ram in slot 1 and slot 3 for Dual Channel, so i took the ram out of slot 3 and rebooted, pc boots as normal with the 1 stick in slot 1. So i thought well maybe its cos they werent a matched pair (but the pc2100 wasent a dual channel kit and that worked fine). So i put pc3200 1 stick in slot 1 and the other in slot 2 (non dual channel) boot up and get 1 long beep and leds saying memory either bad or not fitted properly. So i try both sticks seperatly to see if 1 is faulty both work in slot 1 but niether will work in slot 2 on boot i get 1 long beep and leds saying memory either bad or not fitted properly. I then decided to try my original memory pc2100 DDR 266 in the Dual channel mode which had been working fine, on booting i got the long beep and leds saying memory either bad or not fitted properly. I then tryed them in normal mode in slot 1 and 2 and again on boot up 1 long beep and leds saying memory either bad or not fitted properly. so now i try just 1 stick of my original memory pc2100 DDR 266, and on boot up i got 1 long beep and leds saying memory either bad or not fitted properly i tryed all the slots , i'm at a lose to know what to do ?, is it the MB or memory? is it the Ram slots any ideas any help would be most appricated thanks in advance.

[Andrzej]

Hi Marko,

Might not be the cause...

...but I had a similar problem with a graphic card once and even switching back to the pre-upgrade card made no difference

Friend of mine came around with a tin of compressed air - blasted the slot - everything worked fine

It may well not be the problem with yours - but is there any chance that the contact(s) is/are just 'dirty' in some way ?

[herulach]

Could be the timings are screwed up somewhere. Put the new ram in, then reset the bios. See if that helps

[marko]

Thanks for the advice and i'll give it a go cheers.

[marko]

Thank you for the reply herulach, how do i reset the BIOS i would need to clear CMOS first then boot and enter BIOS is that what i need to do ??. What do i need to reset in the BIOS ?? sorry if thats a stupid question, i have a vague idea, i just dont understand why this has happend, the last time i upgraded my memory on this MB about 3 years ago it all worked fine untill now wish i hadent botherd now. Thanks both for your advice much appreciated.

[Andrzej]

Most mainboard BIOS screens have a 'defaults' setting - that should do it - no ?

If you are not sure about the other settings - then maybe use a digital camera to 'grab' the screens

[herulach]

Yeah, i meant just clear the cmos, thats what stores all the bios settings, so doing so resetts it to default.

Therey'll more than likely be a jumper to do it somewhere on your board.

[Supercharged]

Deffo reset the bios and try again, maybe reseat other components too and, as above, you should air-dust it too...

Did you have mains power to board when doing the swap? I'm afraid to say a friend of mine left power switched on to an MSI board (not sure of model tho) doing a memory swap and the board never booted again on dual - we concluded it somehow sh&gged the memory controller and he RMA'd the board

[marko]

Cleared CMOS Blew out mem slots with Air then tryed to boot up still wont post no signal to monitor just 1 Beep every 6 or 7 seconds. Everything else seems to be working Fans, HD, Rom Drives e.t.c. Power was not connectd to MB when i replaced the memory so i'm at a loss to know why the memeory slots have stopped working, and more of a loss to get it working again. Thanks folks for all your help its apprciated cheers all and Happy New Year.

[PhilB]

The last time I bought Crucial memory it took 3 goes at getting a working set, try running a memory test, Google for memtest86 and create a bootable floppy, the test will run in native mode without an OS.
Phil

[marko]

I just tyred a stick of Kingston 256MB DDR PC2100 266MHz DDR Non-ECC CL2.5 DIMM, took out cmos battery plus cleared cmos with jumper left for a few minutes. Then i replaced battery etc, turned the PC on and it booted up, great i thought thats sorted it. Then i decided to try my old original ram 2 sticks of crucial 512mb PC2100 DDR 266, PC would not boot so then tyred the ram i'd bought to replace the 2100 (Crucial 512mb DDR PC3200) tyred just 1 stick and again would not Boot. So then i put the New Kingston memory in and took out the cmos battery and cleared cmos again with the jumper and left it for a while, replace battery etc and turned PC on but even with kingston memory that it worked with earlier would not boot this time . I am really at a loss to know whats wrong anyone got any ideas or is the MB done for ??, any help would be appreciated thanks.

[Andrzej]

Have to say that you are very close to a 'solution' Marco

Having tried most things - you now need to assure yourself that all of the components you are trying are 'wrong'

Is it possible for you to try 'your stuff' in a friend's machine - just to be certain that they all work ?

Worst case scenario - if you had to get a new mainboard for some reason - you should find that prices these days are extremely low

Just in case it helps - let me ping one of the smart guys I know at MSI here in the UK with this thread to see if they can add anything...

...no promises - but they might be able to suggest something

[marko]

Thanks i appreciate what your doing for me, all thats connected to MB at the moment is the memory and graphics card i even tryed it with a different PSU but still no luck. I can't understand why it would boot with the new kingston memory then when i've put it back in it, refused to post very odd. I dont have anyone i can ask to test the ram for me so i'm going to try a local PC shop, or last resort PC world. I'm thinking that i might have to buy a new MB, but if all my Ram is ok at least thats one less thing to buy, thanks again for all your help cheers.

[marko]

To all who gave me help a big thankyou, i have been using my pc now for 2 weeks and (touchwood) all is ok. I took it to a locale pc shop along with all the sticks of ram to have them checked, i left it there for a week and when picked it up, the shop owner told me it worked as soon as he turned it on and that he had tyred all the ram and they were fine. So i still dont know why it wouldn't work and has left me with more questions than answers, i'm just glad its working again but its knocked my confidence a bit as i'm still no wiser as to why a simple Ram upgrade could have caused such a problem. Anyway thanks again to all who gave advice it was most appreciated cheers.