Memory count goes up in little "jumps"

[eyeofthefly]

When I boot up my computer, for some reason the memory count goes up in little "jumps". e.g. counts up to about 8MB, pauses, counts up to 16MB, pauses, counts up to 24MB and pauses, etc. I have just replaced both DIMMs (I had no free slots and wanted to upgrade) but it hasn't made any difference (so not related to specific size/brand of memory). I have a total of 256MB RAM (two sticks of 128MB). It will count and pause up to about 64MB then continue counting smoothly to 256MB, but this is random - sometimes it will do its little jumps and pauses up to a different amount before continuing smoothly. Any ideas what is causing this bizarre behaviour?

 

[shathal]

Hrm ... it's either the peculiar way in which your BIOS is checking through your memory, or it (the BIOS) is having difficulties checking the memory, thus the little hops. If you know that your memory is fine (memory benchmarks & test progs), simply disable the memory-test in the BIOS.

Makes for faster boot-times too .

The BIOS POST is just a very crude test - so it isn't a very high-quality memory-check. If you're wondering whether your memory is faulty, I would recommend using propper programs rather than relying on the BIOS.

Think that's it for now . Hope it helps .

 

[eyeofthefly]

Is it possible that my Intel EX chipset motherboard isn't 100% compatible with PC133 SDRAM? When I built this computer I started off with 64MB of PC66 SDRAM. Then I added 64MB of PC133 SDRAM (and it started behaving funny during the memory check). Then I replaced both 64MB DIMMs with two 128MB PC133 DIMMS (and it still behaves funny). My applications run fine, so it's probably not much of an issue. I'm running the latest BIOS (which is two years old).

 

[Jorrit]

maybe you should check you memory timings in the bios; if you've set them to aggressive this behaviour can occur. it will also happen while running windows, but you just notice as a little decrease in performance. best to set memory timings 'by spd'.

 

[eyeofthefly]

I have the memory set to "auto configuration" in the BIOS.

 

[shathal]

Hmm - could well be your PC133 memory being the problem.

Just checked Intel's archive mobo site - the 440EX chipset boards I found there only supported 66MHz DIMMs. That, and the fact that the supposed "backwards compatibility" doesn't always (or - as a matter of fact - rather rarely) work properly, this could be causing your problems.

Looks ilke a definite thing. What happens then if you pull the PC133 memory? Hmmm ... also - what happens when you pull the PC66 memory & just leave the PC133 DIMM?

Might be interesting to observe .

Edit:In case you want to check the site out yourself, it is linkified - . In the "System Memory" parth of the 2 440EX boards, both state that they only take 66MHz DIMMs.

 

[eyeofthefly]

Like I said in the third message in this thread, I started off with just 66MHz memory (no problem), then a mixture of 66MHz and PC133 (problem), and now just PC133 (still a problem).

The specifications for EX boards will say they only take 66MHz DIMMS because PC100/133 didn't exist when that chipset came out.

Apart from this little memory test issue at startup, everything runs fine.