Please help newbie. 1st build attempt goes horribly wrong.

[Petty Blue]

Originally posted by: sandorski
Give the ram more juice. If that doesn't work, try lowering the timing settings.

I used memtest86+. It found that particular stick of RAM to be defective. The other one checked out fine.

Would upping the voltage and/or lowering the settings over-ride the fact that the module is a POS? I wouldn't think so, but...

 

[Petty Blue]

So the final verdict appears to be DOA RAM. Now a couple questions for anyone who may have experience with RMAs:

Will Newegg let me RMA one stick even though I bought them in a twin-pack?

Wouldn't ya know I threw away the plastic pack they came in just yesterday? Figures. Wonder if they'll take back the RAM without the original packaging.

If they won't let me send only the defective stick back, and require that I send them BOTH back, I think I'll just send them back and not ask for replacement. I'm not going to go another week without my PC (even though I have this backup that I'm using now). I've arranged to sell this one to a co-worker next week.

I guess I could always pick up a couple sticks from Suckit City or WorstBuy and return them when Newegg returns good ones to me.

Last question, will two different brands of RAM work? What if I went out to a B&M and picked up a 512? As long as it was the same type as the Mushkin, would it not work (considering it's compliant with Asus, of course)?

I can't thank you all enough for the help.

 

[Waylay00]

I knew it would probably be RAM. As I said earlier, I was having the same type of problem. Then I took out one stick and all seemed well.

 

[Petty Blue]

Originally posted by: Waylay00
I knew it would probably be RAM. As I said earlier, I was having the same type of problem. Then I took out one stick and all seemed well.

So, Waylay00 -
what did you do? Buy an identical stick (same brand), or put in any ol' PC-3200?

TIA

 

[The Godfather]

You guys are scaring me. Im having doubts about building my 1st pc now

 

[Waylay00]

Well the PC was a Gateway that had a stick of 256MB Kingston PC133 (Yes it's old lol). So I put in two other sticks of some Centon 256MB PC133. I also needed a reformat at the time. So I got Windows to install but I kept getting all these errors and PAGE_FAULT errors. So I just took out one of the Centon sticks and then I tried another reformat. All went well and has been stable since. It's just a chance you take when buying memory.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: BonzaiDuck
These are the pitfalls of DIY computer "building". But we accept this, and we cross our fingers that things go forward without puzzling problems.

Perhaps I learned something from this. ALWAYS run MEMTEST86 and any floppy-bootable test programs on your hardware before proceeding to install your OS and format your hard disk. It is imperative to determine any defective hardware as soon as possible before moving on.

Excellent advice. I usually run an overnight cycle of memtest86+ whenever changing/tighting RAM timings or adding/changing memory too. For HDs, I use the mfg's diag boot disk, and run a full surface-scan, zero-fill, and then another surface-scan, before using the drive, and don't put anything important on it for a few weeks. (Well, you can only do that if it's not the only drive in the system, I guess.) I've seen too many people that assume that "new" HDs are always flawless, and that's not always true, and moving the *only* copy of something important from the old to the new HD, and then having it fail, can be a painful experience. Ghost 2003 is your friend.

Originally posted by: BonzaiDuck
The advice you have above from others is also "right on". Test a memory module at a time. It is less likely that the motherboard is defective, and for that reason just moving both modules to different slots may be useful, but not as useful as testing the modules in "single-channel" mode.
I can also guarantee this statement. You should ALWAYS install your chipset drivers AS SOON as the OS is installed. I would not do it AFTER installing the service pack update. Do it right away. THEN, install the service pack.

Correct. For some "flaky" chipsets (Via, mostly), you need to install the chipset drivers to make things stable, and you want a stable system before doing a major OS upgrade like installing a service pack.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: sandorski
Give the ram more juice. If that doesn't work, try lowering the timing settings.

Yes, manually bump the vdimm to 2.6v, and set timings conservatively, CAS 3, etc., and see if Memtest86+ passes a 24hr cycle on those settings.

 

[sandorski]

Originally posted by: Petty Blue

Originally posted by: sandorski
Give the ram more juice. If that doesn't work, try lowering the timing settings.

I used memtest86+. It found that particular stick of RAM to be defective. The other one checked out fine.

Would upping the voltage and/or lowering the settings over-ride the fact that the module is a POS? I wouldn't think so, but...

Just because Memtest found an error it doesn't mean the ram is defective. What it means is that the ram made an error. The error could be caused by a lack of Voltage or too agressive of Timing Settings.

 

[Insomniak]

Originally posted by: Petty Blue

Originally posted by: sandorski
Give the ram more juice. If that doesn't work, try lowering the timing settings.

I used memtest86+. It found that particular stick of RAM to be defective. The other one checked out fine.

Would upping the voltage and/or lowering the settings over-ride the fact that the module is a POS? I wouldn't think so, but...

No. Go ahead and RMA it.

This is very unusual for Mushkin. I'm using that exact same memory, precisely because it comes so highly recommended.

 

[walkure]

Slightly o/t... would Memtest86 run faster from a CD-ROM (by burning the ISO image) than a bootable floppy?

 

[Regs]

Originally posted by: walkure
Slightly o/t... would Memtest86 run faster from a CD-ROM (by burning the ISO image) than a bootable floppy?

CD-ROM is the slowest component in the computer.