Asus A7M266-D Memory Problems

[rkoenn]

I am still trying to get this new system up and running as planned. It has the Asus dual MB, 2 Athlon MP 2200s, Radeon 9700, WD 80 GB IDE HD, Toshiba DVD, HP DVD/RW, SB Audigy, USB 2 card, 3Com Ethernet, and trying for 4 Samsung generic GB ECC/Registered memory. However, after many problems getting windows XP to install, including the system shutting off when starting the HD format, I finally got WinXP installed using 1 GB of memory. Since then, I have that anything above 2 GB and the system won't run, with 3 GB it starts windows but as the desktop fires up, it emits a high pitched tone and shuts down and with 4 GB the POST never gets past the CPU checks. With an older Rage card, the machine will POST with 4 GBs but will not run windows.

One thing to note, the MB manual says that only 18 chip DIMMs are allowed. It appears that the memory I am using are 36 chips being double layered on each side. Could this be the problem and are 18 chip 1 GB DIMMs available? I checked with Crucial and they said their modules recommended for this board in the GB size are also 36 chips. This machine is desperately needed for real work and any help or similar experiences are greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Buz2b]

No real experience with this board but a good deal with ASUS. I think that, even though Crucial says that their memory (recommended for the board) has 36 chips, you'd be better off staying within what ASUS recommends. They don't do this just for the heck of it; they do it after testing. I have seen similar instances with their boards before and found the rule of thumb is that usually ASUS has the habit of omitting some critical information so if they ever do mention something, it is better to take it to heart.
It would also appear that you have confirmed this with your own results, using RAM with 36 chips. Any chance to return the ones you have for some of the "recommended" Dimms?