I am having RAM problems with my new board. Pentium III 600MHz - Running Windows ME with a clean install(for now-hope to dual boot when I get the system stable with W2K) With 3 128 MB pc 100 DIMM's installed, having random system hang ups, and system almost imediately hangs when running any type of graphics or games other than basic windows(Media player 7 hangs when playing music CD's). Thought maybe I had a bad memory stick(the memory was free from a "friend"who works for a major computer manufacturer in their tech department-gotta love friends like that!!!), so booted the machine with 256 MB RAM installed, and the system seemed more stable. Ended up loading Norton Utilities to try and diagnos problem and sure enough, with 3 sticks of RAM memory would test bad, with 2 sticks memory tested ok(using slots 1,2,3-all sequential). Thought, ok, bad memory. Just to be sure, I started swapping memory around, always using slot 1,2. Always tested ok with 2 sticks. Started to think I had a bad slot 3. So, started all over, reformatted drive and reinstalled Windows Me with only 2 sticks of memory. Loaded 4 in 1 drivers, and Nvidias Detonator drivers for my AGP card. Everything seemed to load ok, but games still locked randomly. Started thinking I had a bad video card(TNT Ultra) so I installed an old ATI PCI video card and nearly all of my system problems went away. I thought great, now I've got a bad video card too! So reformatted C: drive AGAIN(just to be sure!!!), reinstalled Windows Me, 4 in 1 drivers and everything worked great with the crappy old video card. Installed a free burn in program(BurnInTest) and proceded to run the burn in program. FAILED! Memory had several random failures(this with 2 sticks in slot 1&2), did the memory swap and all memory tested bad with 2 sticks in slots 1&2, all ok in slot 1 only(damn). Just for grins I installed 2 sticks in slot 1 & 3. Memory tested OK!!! Any combination of the 3 DIMM's using slots 1 & 3 memory tested OK!!! So, I was having random system hangs and my AGP card would not run so just for kicks refomatted C: AGAIN, reinstalled windows Me, 4 in 1 drivers with the AGP card and memory in slots 1 & 3. Everything loaded flawlessly except for my $29.00 Generic modem from Compusa, it installed ok from it's start up CD and the machine runs flawlessly now.
My question. Do I have a bad motherboard with a bad DIMM slot and is there any good diagnostic programs out there for me to trouble shoot my system with? This is the first system I have built from scratch, and after a week of dorking with the damn thing after work I think I got it finally figured out. Sorry for the long post.
Giga-byte GA-6VX-4X board
Pentium III 600 MHz
NEC PC 100 128 MB DIMMS(3)
Maxtor 7200 RPM 20 gig IDE HD
TNT ULTRA Pro AGP video card
TEAC 1.44 FD
32X HP 588 CD reader
Windows Me(don't know if I like it yet)
My question. Do I have a bad motherboard with a bad DIMM slot and is there any good diagnostic programs out there for me to trouble shoot my system with? This is the first system I have built from scratch, and after a week of dorking with the damn thing after work I think I got it finally figured out. Sorry for the long post.
Giga-byte GA-6VX-4X board
Pentium III 600 MHz
NEC PC 100 128 MB DIMMS(3)
Maxtor 7200 RPM 20 gig IDE HD
TNT ULTRA Pro AGP video card
TEAC 1.44 FD
32X HP 588 CD reader
Windows Me(don't know if I like it yet)
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