is this bad RAM? A7N8X-VM/400 with XP Barton 2600

[Akshay]

Hii guys,

Finally have put my system togather
AthlonXP (BARTON) 2600+
A7N8X-VM/400
512MB DDR333 Single Stick Hynix

Seagate 10Gig ST310212A (on primary master)
Seagate 4Gig ST34321A (on primary slave)
Sony RW 52x32x52 (on secindary slave)
with 300w smps and other peripherals.

( Well I know, its running ferrari with wagon wheels as some said earlier but its an incremental upgrade for me..which will continue for some time)

I had win98 already installed on primary master, so i thought i would boot just by connecting, and it would detect new config and would just install new drivers. But while starting windows ( ie after autoexec.bat) it crashed with a BSOD. Wouldnt even enter Safe Mode would rather die of BSOD.

So tried installing win98 from the dump on the HDD, and the setup would crash, in the stage of "collecting information" giving a GPF in SUWIN.EXE.

If boot from the EBD and start windows, with command WIN, it would come back to command prompt saying "Bad fault in MS-DOS Extender" with register dump. (Same values in all the attempts).

Dont have Win2k and WinXP installers.

Tried installing RedHat 9. After initing TCP and Net4, it would give crc error<6> in initrd, next line stating vfs root could not b found "" or 48:05 and kernel panic mssg. Exactly same in 3 attempts.

Is this bad RAM? or anything else? Any thoughts?

Thank you in advance,
regards,
Akshay

 

[DieHardware]

Have you run memtest86+? You want multiple passes with no errors.

 

[thebestMAX]

Built a system for a friend last week with that very same board and 3200XP+.

Had similar problems and it turned out to be RAM. Didnt run Memtest or anything else on it but the ram he had ran perfectly in another machine for weeks but would not run on that board. Some off brand crap called Ultra in a copper colored heatspreader rated as 3200 from Tiger Direct.

Put in 2 sticks of crucial 3200 and all was well. It would run with only one stick as well. Hope this helps.

 

[Fern]

So tried installing win98 from the dump on the HDD, and the setup would crash, in the stage of "collecting information" giving a GPF in SUWIN.EXE.

If boot from the EBD and start windows, with command WIN, it would come back to command prompt saying "Bad fault in MS-DOS Extender" with register dump. (Same values in all the attempts).

I run win98se on nForce mobo's w/Barton cpu's. But sorry, I don't know what the above means. Just wipe the HD's (I've got Maxtor HDs and can use Maxblast3 to do a LL format) and start over with a fresh install. It'll ensure there are no chipset driver conflicts/problems.

I'm expecting you'll have a problem with mobo driver disk (small glitch in installer proggie). PM if ya need to.

You'll prolly need the sound patch so the onboard audio works nice with 98se. Go to the second post linked HERE and d/l it to a floppy.

Fern

EDIT: Welcome to the forums!

 

[Akshay]

Originally posted by: DieHardware
Have you run memtest86+? You want multiple passes with no errors.

Hey DieHardware,

Tried a installation again and failed.

ran memtest86+ upto 3 passes with a almost half a million errors in test 4, test 5 and test 6. Test resulting in 99% of the errors. booted after 3rd pass. dint go further as the error count was increasing a lot after each pass. So sure the ram is bad.

Just for the heck of it, started the machine and to my surprise ( or should i say horror ) the windows booted and found the new hardware......curiously when it detected ACPI Device and went into loop detecting it again n again......

so rebooted again and ran RedHad 9 installation, and it started successfully.....though i dint complete it further...as dint have enuf space on HDD.......and anyways am going to change the module...

but am totally stumped....how running the tests, changed the behaviour of the system?

what u say, DieHardware?

Also I am wondering if i run DDR400 with this Barton with FSB 333, will thr be any problems.

And Fern, thank you a lot, i wld surely see u once my RAM module is changed. and the link would certainly be help to me.


regards,

 

[DieHardware]

Also I am wondering if i run DDR400 with this Barton with FSB 333, will thr be any problems.

Shouldn't be a problem...with a good stick of RAM that is.

 

[Akshay]

DieHardware, any thoughts on the change behaviour?

 

[thebestMAX]

As to your change in behavior I noticed that often this boards voice post were wrong and also that it sometimes took more than 1 reset for things to start working correctly.


BTW, did you disable SATA with the jumper on the board?

 

[Akshay]

hii thebestMAX, VM/400 doesnt have Post Reporter and SATA Support.

 

[DieHardware]

Originally posted by: Akshay
DieHardware, any thoughts on the change behaviour?

Perhaps the memory module and/or memory controller is intermittent, or the bad bit cell(s) wasn't (weren't) accessed that session, or the memory timings were set too aggressively, or...

 

[Akshay]

my new module was reported by memtest86+ to be running at 2.5-4-4-8, while earlier was 2.5-3-3-7. and the memory transfer speed is less by 100mbps. Havent yet checked my modules with the memory datasheets by Hynix. Will be doing it once am home.....
I have two things on my mind
a. Will these latency affect hamper performance a lot?
b. Generally these timings are shown with higher FSB modules. Is it duplicate/refurbished module ?
c. any guide which would explain all the factors with DDR in details. A quick google hasnt helped much

 

[thebestMAX]

Akshay-

Of course you are right. I looked quickly at the post and the problem was so similar to one I had with the A7N8X-E Deluxe, the VM/400 just never registered.

Good luck with it.