Problem with New Computer

[NateKingCole]

I just recently built my sister a new computer with some average components. The components are:

AMD barton 2600+ cpu
Asus A7N8X - VM/400 - UAY motherboard (with on-board video)
Samsung 512MB
Western Digital 200GB Hard Drive (8MB Cache)
Antec Sonota case with true 380W power supply.
Lite-on DVD +R/Rw -R/RW burner

Now I set up the system according to the instructions and everything, however the system is really unstable and windows crashes often. A blue screen comes up with some writing on it, but it flashes to fast for me to read. But I did catch the words Physical Memory in there somewhere. The onboard video card is give 64MB of the RAM. Could this be the problem? or is my RAM possibly bad, unfortunatly I don't have any spare DDR at this house to test it. Anybody here have any thoughts on this?

Thanks all.


Rig:
XP Barton 2500+, A7N8X- Deluxe, 1GB OCZ pc3200 (2.5-3-3-7)
Volcano 7+ with OCZ ultra II paste, XP professional, ATI 9600 pro
Antec 400W w/ 4 case fans installed. [No Bragging Here]

 

[pat]

is the memory pc3200 or 2700? if it is 3200, try to run both the CPU and the memory in sync at pc2700(ddr333/166MHz)

-Always put the blame on you first, then on the hardware !!!

 

[NateKingCole]

Its pc3200. But this motherboard dosn't let me change the fsb settings. Should I maybe look into flashing the BIOS?

Rig:
XP Barton 2500+, A7N8X- Deluxe, 1GB OCZ pc3200 (2.5-3-3-7)
Volcano 7+ with OCZ ultra II paste, XP professional, ATI 9600 pro
Antec 400W w/ 4 case fans installed. [No Bragging Here]

 

[pat]

or a jumper on the motherboard?


-Always put the blame on you first, then on the hardware !!!

 

[NateKingCole]

Hmmm. Ok I was just reviewing the Specs and it says:

"-Dual Channel Memory Architecture
-Supports up to 2GB of 2700/PC2100 DDR memory
-2 DIMM sockets "

Correct me if I'm wrong but could this be a problem? Or should Pc3200 run fine?

Rig:
XP Barton 2500+, A7N8X- Deluxe, 1GB OCZ pc3200 (2.5-3-3-7)
Volcano 7+ with OCZ ultra II paste, XP professional, ATI 9600 pro
Antec 400W w/ 4 case fans installed. [No Bragging Here]

 

[pat]

this could be a problem... maybe a bios update might improve stability with pc3200

-Always put the blame on you first, then on the hardware !!!

 

[NateKingCole]

Well I could exchange the RAM, would that be the best course of action?

Rig:
XP Barton 2500+, A7N8X- Deluxe, 1GB OCZ pc3200 (2.5-3-3-7)
Volcano 7+ with OCZ ultra II paste, XP professional, ATI 9600 pro
Antec 400W w/ 4 case fans installed. [No Bragging Here]

 

[pat]

Well, since your CPU is ddr333, then having the memory running in sync with it may just improve the performance, so I guess that it couldnt be worse. If you ca do that, do it and test the system again.

-Always put the blame on you first, then on the hardware !!!

 

[NateKingCole]

Nevermind, I actually don't think that I can exchange my RAM. Damn, I thought I had checked the specs before ordering the parts. So you thing that a BIOS flash might help my stability?


Rig:
XP Barton 2500+, A7N8X- Deluxe, 1GB OCZ pc3200 (2.5-3-3-7)
Volcano 7+ with OCZ ultra II paste, XP professional, ATI 9600 pro
Antec 400W w/ 4 case fans installed. [No Bragging Here]

 

[pat]

I dont know..look at Asus site for update. maybe that issue is being adressed with a new bios.

-Always put the blame on you first, then on the hardware !!!

 

[NateKingCole]

Hmmm, alright. That really sucks. Anyway, thanks alot for the help man! I appreciate it.

Rig:
XP Barton 2500+, A7N8X- Deluxe, 1GB OCZ pc3200 (2.5-3-3-7)
Volcano 7+ with OCZ ultra II paste, XP professional, ATI 9600 pro
Antec 400W w/ 4 case fans installed. [No Bragging Here]

 

[pat]

my pleasure

-Always put the blame on you first, then on the hardware !!!

 

[endyen]

If you can, try running with an agp graphics card. I understand that the spd on pc3200 only causes trouble when using onboard graphics.

 

[slvr_phoenix]

Its pc3200. But this motherboard dosn't let me change the fsb settings.

PC3200 should work just fine. RAM can always run slower than it is clocked.

A few things that you might try however are relaxing your timings, especially if your RAM's timings are being obtained automatically (from spd). Sometimes the timings stored on those things are just wrong. So try taking it off of automatic and raising the delays a bit.

Also you can try raising the DIMM's voltage slightly.

Should I maybe look into flashing the BIOS?

That in itself could solve any number of problems. That's why they post updates to flash to.

<pre><b><font color=red>"Build a man a fire and he's warm for the rest of the evening.
Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life." - Steve Taylor</font color=red></b></pre><p>

 

[NateKingCole]

This particular BIOS does not let me change any of the processor or RAM settings, not the timmings or the fsb. I'm really not impressed with it. I've read the comments on the asus website and it dosn't appear as if they've fixed the pc3200 problem with the new BIOS updates.
I have read however, as previously mentioned, that an seperate graphics card does take care of the pc3200 problem. I'll need to locate a graphics card to try this theory however. Thanks, for the help. I'll keep you posted in respect to my progress. Thanks again.

Rig:
XP Barton 2500+, A7N8X- Deluxe, 1GB OCZ pc3200 (2.5-3-3-7)
Volcano 7+ with OCZ ultra II paste, XP professional, ATI 9600 pro
Antec 400W w/ 4 case fans installed. [No Bragging Here]

 

[NateKingCole]

I'm home from school for Christmas. I got nothing here except a bunch of old ass computers with PCI video cards and SD Ram.

 

[NateKingCole]

Yeah I actually contacted Asus and they confirmed for me the fact that I cannot run pc3200 with this motherboard, using the on-board video. Stable operation is possible with Pc3200 if you use an AGP graphics card. So my options are buy a video card or find someone who wants to trade me some pc3200 for pc2700. Any takers? haha. Thanks for your help everyone.

 

[pat]

that a known limitation of the nforce2 IGP. Some manufaturer got it working with BIOS update, other didnt.


-Always put the blame on you first, then on the hardware !!!

 

[Flinx]

whats wrong with the memory in your machine. Also there is a program called "memtest86" available everywhere on the internet to test memory

The loving are the daring!