I just bought two identical rigs and I am putting them together, here's the short version of the parts list...
CRUCIAL TECHNOLOGY BL2KIT12864AA1065 Ballistix 2GB PC2-8500 (DDR2-1066) DDR2 Memory Retail
ASUS EN8800GT/G/HTDP/512M/A Geforce 8800 GT 512MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card Retail
INTEL Core 2 Duo E8400 3.00 GHz 1333 MHz 775 6MB Desktop Processor Retail
Western Digital Caviar SE 16 WD5000AAKS 500GB 7200RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s
MSI P35 Platinum Combo Intel Core 2 Quad/Core 2 Extreme/Core 2 Duo/Pentium Socket 775 1333 MHz PC3-8500 (DDR3-1066) ATX Motherboard Retail
I have a total of 8 gigs of ram in single gig sticks. The plan was to put 4g in each computer. I'm having trouble though and think it might just be something dumb that I'm missing...
This motherboard can take either DDR2 or DDR3 memory, but not both at the same time. As you can see above I am using DDR2. This motherboard comes with "memory turbo sticks" that are (as far as i can tell) essentially fake ram sticks that you place in the unused DDR3 slots.
I've noticed that sometimes the computer will power-on for a very short time (like a quarter second, the lights on the motherboard come on) and then it will power back off again. It then comes on a second time by itself, and boots normally. I'm guessing this is some kind of detection process.
Here's a link to MSI's page for the motherboard.
http://global.msi.com.tw/index.php?func=proddesc&prod_no=1250&maincat_no=1
--- Computer one ---
Fill all four DDR2 slots with ram, place the turbo sticks in the DDR3 slots.
Boot hangs at the Memory Detection Test...
Place one stick of ram in the green area, and one in the orange area as per the manual's suggestion for taking advantage of both memory channels. Place the turbo sticks in the DDR3 slots.
Boot hangs at the Memory Detection Test.
Place two sticks of ram in the green area with the turbo sticks in place...
Computer boots with 2gigs ram.
In fact, the computer never gets past the Memory Detection test if there is a stick in the orange DDR2 area.
--- Computer two ---
Won't get past the Memory Detection Test no matter what I do. I've tried just about everything from one stick of ram (tried in each slot) to all the slots filled to everything in between. I've tried it with and without the turbo sticks. I've taken ram from the computer that works and put it in the computer that doesn't -- nothing. I've tried clearing the CMOS (via the little red button). That didn't do it either.
I've noticed that this second motherboard never (or hardly ever) seems to do the "boot twice" thing I mentioned above. Is there something about this motherboard that I need to know concerning RAM? I'm thinking it isn't auto-configuring right somehow...
Thanks a lot for reading this far. I'm happy to provide any more info you need.
CRUCIAL TECHNOLOGY BL2KIT12864AA1065 Ballistix 2GB PC2-8500 (DDR2-1066) DDR2 Memory Retail
ASUS EN8800GT/G/HTDP/512M/A Geforce 8800 GT 512MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card Retail
INTEL Core 2 Duo E8400 3.00 GHz 1333 MHz 775 6MB Desktop Processor Retail
Western Digital Caviar SE 16 WD5000AAKS 500GB 7200RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s
MSI P35 Platinum Combo Intel Core 2 Quad/Core 2 Extreme/Core 2 Duo/Pentium Socket 775 1333 MHz PC3-8500 (DDR3-1066) ATX Motherboard Retail
I have a total of 8 gigs of ram in single gig sticks. The plan was to put 4g in each computer. I'm having trouble though and think it might just be something dumb that I'm missing...
This motherboard can take either DDR2 or DDR3 memory, but not both at the same time. As you can see above I am using DDR2. This motherboard comes with "memory turbo sticks" that are (as far as i can tell) essentially fake ram sticks that you place in the unused DDR3 slots.
I've noticed that sometimes the computer will power-on for a very short time (like a quarter second, the lights on the motherboard come on) and then it will power back off again. It then comes on a second time by itself, and boots normally. I'm guessing this is some kind of detection process.
Here's a link to MSI's page for the motherboard.
http://global.msi.com.tw/index.php?func=proddesc&prod_no=1250&maincat_no=1
--- Computer one ---
Fill all four DDR2 slots with ram, place the turbo sticks in the DDR3 slots.
Boot hangs at the Memory Detection Test...
Place one stick of ram in the green area, and one in the orange area as per the manual's suggestion for taking advantage of both memory channels. Place the turbo sticks in the DDR3 slots.
Boot hangs at the Memory Detection Test.
Place two sticks of ram in the green area with the turbo sticks in place...
Computer boots with 2gigs ram.
In fact, the computer never gets past the Memory Detection test if there is a stick in the orange DDR2 area.
--- Computer two ---
Won't get past the Memory Detection Test no matter what I do. I've tried just about everything from one stick of ram (tried in each slot) to all the slots filled to everything in between. I've tried it with and without the turbo sticks. I've taken ram from the computer that works and put it in the computer that doesn't -- nothing. I've tried clearing the CMOS (via the little red button). That didn't do it either.
I've noticed that this second motherboard never (or hardly ever) seems to do the "boot twice" thing I mentioned above. Is there something about this motherboard that I need to know concerning RAM? I'm thinking it isn't auto-configuring right somehow...
Thanks a lot for reading this far. I'm happy to provide any more info you need.