Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.abit (More info?)
Hello all,
I recently decided to get some more ram for my system (which is based
on a KG7-Lite). This is the story of what happened, how I found help
here without having to ask, and how YOU get to have a say in the
ending
The original system:
KG7-Lite mobo
Athlon 1400
2x512MB sticks of ram, maker unknown
Main HD: Seagate ST380021A 80GB
Video card: MSI GeForce3 Ti500
The plan: This system probably wants replacing, as it's getting on a
bit, but I thought I would try and wring one last upgrade cycle from
it. So the plan was to go to 2x1Gig sticks of ram, take the video card
up as high as mobo compatibility will allow, and stick with it for
another 6-12 months.
So I go over to Crucial and tell their configurator I have a KG7-Lite.
Wonderful, it says, here are 2 1Gig sticks of unbuffered ram goodness,
350-ish pounds, thank you kindly. These arrive (as is Crucial's wont)
within a few nanoseconds of the order being placed. Then the fun
begins...
Old sticks out - new sticks in. System won't boot, beeps like this:
long on / long off / long on / long off. Memory problem, I says to
myself. New sticks out, old sticks back in. Same thing. Oops.
Research time! And I find out (too late of course - if I had known
this then I wouldn't have started this malarkey) from here (mostly)
that
The KG7 has the tightest RAM slots IN THE WORLD.
Trip to Maplins to buy squirty air in can, and contact cleaner /
lubricant in can. Quick squirt, quick spray, shove memory in and then
give it a little extra push - you can feel it going another step in! -
and it boots!
Might as well get the BIOS up to date while we're here. Flash from 4J
up to the latest DS. Still boots ok, memtest is happier than it's ever
been, job done, right?
Wrong.
Try and boot into Win2K - missing or corrupt ntoskrnl.exe
For a long while I struggled with the idea that perhaps I had lost
some vital BIOS setting for my hard disk while doing the BIOS upgrade
(this was partly becuase I know that I was a fool for not manually or
otherwise recording all the BIOS information before flash upgrading
it!), that perhaps Windows' idea of the disk geometry was disagreeing
with the BIOS' idea, that some setting should be Auto instead of
Disabled or vice versa. Played around with a few of these.
Then I landed on a thread in aus.computers (of all places!) containing
this remarkable quote:
<http://groups.google.com/groups?threadm=400d1e24%40news.comindico.com.au>
"Compatibility issues with different types of ram. motherboards and
operating
systems is nothing new."
This thread was started by someone who was getting this same error
message following the installation of some new Kingston ram. So very
similar to my case.
The final test was obvious. 2 new sticks out, 1 old stick back in -
give it a shove, boot up. Into Win2k. No problem. No escaping the
conclusion.
So what do I do now? I have 2 gig of not-exactly-cheap ram - Crucial
no less! - which seem to break Win2k on this machine. Return this, get
kingston, pray? BIOS fiddling? Like the OP of the aus.computers thread
says, "I still can't understand how dodgy RAM would affect an OS file
like this."
Thanks for reading, and sorry this has been so long. Any advice?
--
Larry Lard
Replies to group please
Hello all,
I recently decided to get some more ram for my system (which is based
on a KG7-Lite). This is the story of what happened, how I found help
here without having to ask, and how YOU get to have a say in the
ending
The original system:
KG7-Lite mobo
Athlon 1400
2x512MB sticks of ram, maker unknown
Main HD: Seagate ST380021A 80GB
Video card: MSI GeForce3 Ti500
The plan: This system probably wants replacing, as it's getting on a
bit, but I thought I would try and wring one last upgrade cycle from
it. So the plan was to go to 2x1Gig sticks of ram, take the video card
up as high as mobo compatibility will allow, and stick with it for
another 6-12 months.
So I go over to Crucial and tell their configurator I have a KG7-Lite.
Wonderful, it says, here are 2 1Gig sticks of unbuffered ram goodness,
350-ish pounds, thank you kindly. These arrive (as is Crucial's wont)
within a few nanoseconds of the order being placed. Then the fun
begins...
Old sticks out - new sticks in. System won't boot, beeps like this:
long on / long off / long on / long off. Memory problem, I says to
myself. New sticks out, old sticks back in. Same thing. Oops.
Research time! And I find out (too late of course - if I had known
this then I wouldn't have started this malarkey) from here (mostly)
that
The KG7 has the tightest RAM slots IN THE WORLD.
Trip to Maplins to buy squirty air in can, and contact cleaner /
lubricant in can. Quick squirt, quick spray, shove memory in and then
give it a little extra push - you can feel it going another step in! -
and it boots!
Might as well get the BIOS up to date while we're here. Flash from 4J
up to the latest DS. Still boots ok, memtest is happier than it's ever
been, job done, right?
Wrong.
Try and boot into Win2K - missing or corrupt ntoskrnl.exe
For a long while I struggled with the idea that perhaps I had lost
some vital BIOS setting for my hard disk while doing the BIOS upgrade
(this was partly becuase I know that I was a fool for not manually or
otherwise recording all the BIOS information before flash upgrading
it!), that perhaps Windows' idea of the disk geometry was disagreeing
with the BIOS' idea, that some setting should be Auto instead of
Disabled or vice versa. Played around with a few of these.
Then I landed on a thread in aus.computers (of all places!) containing
this remarkable quote:
<http://groups.google.com/groups?threadm=400d1e24%40news.comindico.com.au>
"Compatibility issues with different types of ram. motherboards and
operating
systems is nothing new."
This thread was started by someone who was getting this same error
message following the installation of some new Kingston ram. So very
similar to my case.
The final test was obvious. 2 new sticks out, 1 old stick back in -
give it a shove, boot up. Into Win2k. No problem. No escaping the
conclusion.
So what do I do now? I have 2 gig of not-exactly-cheap ram - Crucial
no less! - which seem to break Win2k on this machine. Return this, get
kingston, pray? BIOS fiddling? Like the OP of the aus.computers thread
says, "I still can't understand how dodgy RAM would affect an OS file
like this."
Thanks for reading, and sorry this has been so long. Any advice?
--
Larry Lard
Replies to group please
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