Corsair DRAM, Gigabyte DS3L Combo caused an unusual problem

[Nagin6MD]

I built a system a couple of months ago and it worked from the start and with scores of hours of gaming it hasn't given me the slightest problem. It was my second build so I'm certainly not an expert. I decided to change the memory modules from 4 1GB Kingston 1.8V 800Mhz to 2 2GB Corsair XMS 1066Mhz modules requiring 2.1V. This is approved QVL memory for my GA-EP45-DS3L.

Idly thinking this would be simple upgrade I shut the power off to the computer, grounded myself, removed the 4 sticks and installed the 2 new sticks. Thinking on startup I'd enter BIOS and set the voltage and timing if the AUTO setting didn't take of this in the first place.

I was surprised when on first power up a message on the screen showed "recovering BIOS from the HD". A series of dots flowed across the screen and they stopped after about 10. The stopped responding. I waited patiently for 20 minutes and nothing happened. I shut the computer down by switching off the power switch and then attempted a restart. Nothing now on the screen. A series of long beeps started 9 or 10 followed by a reboot. This cycle continued many times until I shut down the system.

The MB manual says this means a DRAM error. I carefully checked the installation, reseating the sticks and repeated a startup. Nothing except beeps.

I removed 1 stick and tried a startup with it. Same. I tried the other stick. Same.

Hmmmm...I tried a CMOS reset. Same.

I put back in 1 of the original sticks. Same.

I tried one stick in each of the 4 slots. Same.

I removed the CMOS battery and waited 30 minutes, then repeated the memory test. Same.

I noticed that all fans are spinning each time it powers on.

So I'm stumped. What could I have done to render my computer inoperative by just installed those two sticks?

And why can't it recover to a default BIOS. The board advertises 2 BIOS chips supposedly a primary and a backup. The backup should have been accessed if the primary was corrupted?

Not knowing what to do next I've ordered another MB and guess I'll have to rebuild my machine.

If anyone has some insight to what could have gone wrong and something I could try to get a recovery I appreciate your comments.

Thankyou.

My System basics:

Antec 900 Case
Intel Q9550
Gigabyte EP45-DS3L
Windows XP SP3
Kingston standard 800Mhz 4GB
VelociRaptor 300GB

 

[mlc]

1) check to see if your board has a 3pin jumper ... to clear the bios... simply removing the battery may not be sufficient...
2) if you have spinning fans, but no post screen, you may have some sort of short occurring .. so try the following...
a) remove all device cables from the board (i.e. ide/sata drives, floppy cables, etc..).. and just try posting with nothing but your video card and 1 stick of ram... .
b) if that fails.. then try removing the board from the case, and see if it will then post, with nothing but a stick of ram and video card...
c) if that still fails, then see if you can your hands on another power supply to rule that out.. and try booting/posting with that...
d) if that still fails, chances are your board is defective ...

 

[Nagin6MD]

My board has a 2 pin CMOS CLR clearly marked and matching the MB manual. I've shorted that several times and no success getting a boot.

I thought about a short also. So I disconnected the harddrive and DVD drive, removed the MB from the case, set it up on cardboard.

Outside the case it had the CPU/fan, graphics card, 1 stick of my old memory and power connections. I used the switch from case to turn it on. Same effect, just 10 or so long beeps followed by automatically shutting down, restarting and beeping again.

I don't have another power supply available; however, the replacement board is coming via FedEx and I see it is supposed to be here today. So, I'm eagerly looking forward to rebuilding with it.

I'm hoping I can just install the new MB, reconnect the drives and boot up, then reinstall the MB drivers and not do a complete wipe of the HD nor need a fresh OS install. I've never done that before but it might be worth a try.

 

[Nagin6MD]

New MB arrived by FedEx from NewEgg.

I had dismantled the system the previous nite. This morning I removed the CPU fan assembly, used Arctic Silver Cleaning kit to remove the heat transfer compound and prepared the surface of the CPU and heatsink ready for Arctic Silver 5 application. First time for me and I was concerned about disturbing the bonding connection between the two and getting a reestablished connection.

Installed the MB. It was the same version as my previous one. Installed all the stuff, including the original memory sticks and fired her up.....really, really nervous at this time.

It passed the POST first time and to my complete amazement booted into Windows with no error messages or other glitches. I looked over the device manager for driver issues and didn't see any.

Went back into BIOS and looked over the settings. This was version 8, pretty up to date as only a version 9 exists on the Gigabyte site. CPU multiplier was correctly set and the memory settings were correct. I reset the boot order to have harddrive first and CD/DVD second. Other than that everything seems to working.

Watched the EasyTune6 Hardware monitor for awhile....CPU is idling at 29C at 1350rpm CPU fan speed. GPU is steady at 52C.

Ran a 3DMark06 graphics test and got 15228. Just about the same as I was getting before.

I am amazed. I really though I was in for days of OS clean install, getting device drivers working followed by software loading.

In hindsight I'm convinced installing that other memory caused something to go wrong with the BIOS. Oh well, that is the chance you take screwing around with these things. I'm not trying that experiment again with this board.

Now, of course, we will see if the system stays stable during some hours of gaming stress....crossing my fingers.