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Here it is:

I had 256 PC2400 (micron) in my EPoX 8K7A+. It wasn't enough so I ordered 512 PC2400 (micron) from memorylabs.com (only this time it is red PCB [??] and came with RAM sinks). Well, I figured this would be a simple thing: (1) open case (2) add ram in open DIMM (3) close case

Of course not. If somethin' is gonna go wrong it's gonna go wrong with me. I put both sticks in and BIOS sees them both. I boot up Win2k and it hangs after the loading bar and even after scandisk. The screen goes black and the light on my monitor turns amber.

So I try one stick at a time. Put my 256 in DIMM 1. Works. Put it in DIMM2. Works. Put 512 in DIMM 1. Doesn't work. Put it in DIMM 2. Doesn't work. Odd. Well, I tried again not to long ago and it WORKED. In BOTH slots. Computers can be gay--and that is exactly why I tried it the second time.

So now I'm pretty convenced both sticks work perfectly fine. They just don't like eachother. My motherboard only supports PC2100 but it has been running PC2400 fine in the past and I don't think it should make a difference. Should be just like running PC133 on a PC100 slot. I tried to get into safe-mode as well and no luck. I poked my head around in BIOS and couldn't really think of much to change. I changed the cas setting and that did nothin'. I booted with fail-safe settings and again nothing.

So... what now?

I take back my statement of both of the sticks seeming to be perfectly fine cause my new RAM doesn't mind windows but it surely doesn't like it when I start up a game of JK2.

[edit]
I take it all back! My computer is 100% homo JK2 just locked now with my old RAM. Grrr

Welcome to the world of the 8K7A and XP processors...

It's been a good board though.... ....sigh. I am $130 in the hole and I have no PC improvement. I'm all about accomplishing NOTHING Should I lay arond with the voltage? Currently it's at 2.6V (default) says the book.

Although I just read this little tid-bit from sharky so I better not:

The standard DDR voltage is 2.5V and moving it above 2.6V-2.7V is where the real risks start coming in.

[edit]
Well, I tried putting the voltage <i>down</i> to 2.5 instead of the default 2.6 and that didn't do anything. And now my new RAM won't get me anywhere. I can't even get into windows with it anymore. Now it's time for bed, only to wake up with some bum RAM I'll probably have to ship back

Woe is me........

Well if the old ram used to work by itself it should still do so. Blow out the ram sockets with some compressed air - you might have some dust in there.

Make sure you're fully seating the ram - it's SOOO easy to have it lock in there but not be fully seated (careful not to press TOO hard though or you could crack the mobo). If the ram slots are close to the edge of the board, I like to wedge some of my fingers under the mobo to support it while I press down on the sticks to seat them.

I think you might just be tired and cranky and getting a bit careless. Might work better tomorrow with a clear head. I'm certain the old ram still works by itself, but it's real possible the new ram doesn't. I would recommend you try getting it working with the new stick by itself first.

Also keep in mind that it's not a good idea to mix sticks when overclocking.

Those bozo's who run sharky's i wouldn't believe anything they say. I've ran my pc2700 at 2.9v's for the last 6 months. Its still running just fine. Try 2.7 or 2.8. 2.8 is pretty much the limits average users would want to run the ram at. Me i like to blow stuff up and push it to its limits so i'm not real conservative.

Logic would tell me though that there would be no dust in the slot that my old ram was previously in. So if I put in the new ram, and BIOS counts it, yet it still doesn't work then something else is the matter. And I don't know if voltage has anything to do with it (sorta doubt it but I can try a little higher) especially considering the specs on memorylabs.com says to run it at 2.5 (instead of the 2.6 which is default).

I think what I'll have to end up doing is taking the new stick to a friends house and putting it in their machine to verify that it does in fact work and I'm just having problems with my machine. And I guess if all else fails I can take it back, but that really sucks. I was hoping to have it for the LAN party up north. Dunno if thats gonna happen now.

I'll fiddle with it more when I get home.

I've tried upping the voltage, I blew out any dust that might have been in there... ...no go. Only other thing I can think is to try the new RAM in a buddy's machine to verify that it does in fact work.

Something odd though. When I came home my PC wouldn't wake up (actually only my monitor goes to sleep, I keep everything else active). When I hit reset I still couldn't get any video and it almost sounded like it was restarting over and over again. I shut it down and waited a minute and booted 'er back up and now she's workin' fine. Possibly the PSU? And if it is going bad, would this cause the problem I might be having? (maybe it's not getting enough juice to run both sticks??) I have no clue really, just throwin' ideas out there.

I don't believe in coincidences. I'd suspect maybe you knocked something loose (CPU, heatsink, card, power cable?) while mucking around in there or (God forbid) you dropped some small metalic particle on the mobo. Try blowing the whole thing off and checking everything.

Outta of all ideas. At first I thought it was power, but I took out everything except two hard drives (I have RAID) and the vid card and it still gave me a black screen after about a min of gaming. It still may be the PSU, but I dunno.

There is nothing else I can try. I can't even get my machine to function correctly with my OLD ram!!! Screw the new ram, I just want it to run and it doesn't look like it's going to. I even bought some compressed air and sprayed the shit out of my case and made sure that all dust and foreign objects were blown out. No go... something I did notice is that there is a really high pitched "scream" when it locks. It comes and goes throughout booting though

I guess I can look on the bright side....









my case is now dust free Now I'm going to go back up over my computer a couple times with my car, brb.....

This is a Radeon or a Geforce?

Total shot in the dark:

- AGP clock multiplier set wrong?

- You might be right about PSU - vid card draws a lot of current.

- Is this an overclocked system? Have you tried it without overclocking?

- Makes sure the AGP Aperature in BIOS is set to 64.

Yep, I have a Radeon 8500 and my machine, nor any other part of my machine is overclocked. I've had bad experiences The AGP Aperature in BIOS is already at 64. And I don't even know how to change the AGP clock multiplier (if I even can?)

The only weird thing is though, if it were the PSU, don't you think if I unplugged a harddrive and basically all other cards it, would have enough juice to power a single vid card? After I try the GeForce I have in my second machine and if this problem continues, I'm probably gonna have to pick up a 350w PSU from BB or somethin'. (currently running a 300w that came in my addtronics case)


[edit]
Looking through the manual and I found something called "Vagp" which allows you to select the voltage level of power supplied to the agp card. 1.52v for 4x AGP cards and 3.3v for 2x AGP cards. Funny though, I've been in my BIOS quite a few times and I don't remember seeing ANY of these options nor the screenshot it has in the book. Maybe my newer BIOS actually hid these options?

[edit2]
Well, the reason I never saw it was because it was grayed out, unlike in the book it has brakets around the numbers so that it looks like you can change it (maybe they did this to take a clearer screenshot). Anyway, it lists this for the voltages I should be getting compared to the voltages I am getting:

3.3v - 3.33v
5v - 4.8v
12v - 11.8v

Do these numbers sound a little low?

The 4.8 is at the bottom of the 5% tolerance and when you put it under a load it will go lower. The 8K7A is still using a 2 phase power design. And its is really hard on the 5v rails of PSU's.

So are we stayin' its time for one of these

http://www.bestbuy.com/Detail.asp?m=488 ... e=11166942

Every time I get a little $$$ in the bank, somethin' goes wrong and I have to spend it. I guess I should always spend all my money like I used to.... ....then nothin' would blow up on me

That should do the trick. I'd recommend a 400W supply. Things are starting to consume more power might not be bad investment for the future.