Strange things a'happenin'

This is a post that my friend asked me to list on a forum that "you know is good at hardware stuff". Where better than here?

He will be signing up here later, but he wanted me to get the post on here quickly. :)


Here goes:
Got my system up and running (amd 3000, 2x256mb OR 2x1gb GeiL value dual chan)

Anyway, when it was running it was sitting with 1 of the 1gb sticks in, but it was refusing to go dual chan with that (it gets kinda confusing after this).

I re-flashed the bios, and after post it failed, no error message. I panic, it won't even read from floppy.

Finally some how it randomly boots and I get into the bios, have a look and everything seems fine, reboot.... uhm, dead again...

Re-boot a few other times and finally manage to get it to boot off the floppy, so I re-flash with a slightly older bios... no change, system still just randomly hanging when I try to boot or to enter the bios settings.

now for the extra weird stuff, with 1x256mb chip the system won't get past post, with 2x256mb chips in dual chan it'll get past post and sometimes (although almost never boot)

Various other memory configurations seem to have completely random effects as to whether or not it'll post or boot.

My thoughts are that perhaps the memory is stuffed, but I can't see how all four chips could go down like that?

Anyone got ANY suggestions?

I think I'm going to head over to a friends and try my ram on his box later on just to see if that's definitely what's fallen over.... I'm at a complete loss and very frustrated!

Ohh, the motherboard is a KN8 Neo2 probably a good thing to mention that! ;D

You also want to check his PSU - if he's just upgraded from e.g. socket A it may not be up to the task especially if he has a meaty gfx card (6800GT etc.)

Just got him to check this. His voltmeter confirms that all is okay. The setup has been working in the past, the only change that he has recently made - after about 6 months of using the system - is the cooling.

Every aspect of his new cooling solution has been quadruple checked and is installed and working flawlessly.


EDIT: When posting he is presented with the error of "CMOS Checksum Error - Defaults Loading".

Quote:

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Originally Posted by acidrainy

Just got him to check this. His voltmeter confirms that all is okay.

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Not so much about voltages these days as Amps ...
How many A on the +12V rail?


"EDIT: When posting he is presented with the error of "CMOS Checksum Error - Defaults Loading"."
So he just goes in & sets up the BIOS manually, saves & exits ...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by BUFF

Not so much about voltages these days as Amps ...
How many A on the +12V rail?

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How would we take this measurement? We have a digital multimeter here and have been using a molex conector to take readings from.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by BUFF

"EDIT: When posting he is presented with the error of "CMOS Checksum Error - Defaults Loading"."
So he just goes in & sets up the BIOS manually, saves & exits ...

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I think this is a result of whenever he resets the CMOS... Not sure if this actually plays a part in anything.

yeah, re: the cmos thing, after the flash I reset the cmos, can't get back into the bios settings to save settings at the mo

Well that error message is normal for reseting the cmos however if you are getting it without resetting it then it could be caused by a weak battery or the cmos is corrupt.

Yeah, I can't get into the BIOS, it hangs before going into config or before booting, it was solved as normal the one time I managed to get into the bios settings so it can be ignored :)

I really am at breaking point with this rig, dunno wtf is actually wrong with it and I don't know anyone with an AMD64 board so I can isolate components (i.e. the cpu heh)

Err try another mobo yet ?

Well, the thing now posts, and gets into windows. :woowoo:

Had to bump the ram up to 2.8v to do this though, and it'll only take 1 of my 1gb sticks :O_o1:

trying a single 256mb stick doesn't work, 2x256mb in dual chan will let me get to the bios config but goes into a reboot loop when windows trys to load, same thing with 2x1gb sticks

My thoughts are either:

Power supply issue
The CPUs memory controller
Motherboard being on smack

Either way I don't care right now, it works, I'm vaugely happy.

Although when I've got more time I would like to get the rest of the ram in there!