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Random System Freeze

Celt68

Junior Member
I recently upgraded my motherboard from an abit w/ intel 815e chipset to an asus cuv4x-e with the via 694x chipset. The old abit wouldnt run a very common 256mb stick of sdram (133 mhz), something about it being double sided (which I didn't find out it wouldnt run till i looked around here a while). For some reason the abit only registered that i had 128 mb (which is what the old stick was) while i had 2x256 mb in.

Anyway, onto my point: My system currently locks up, and I had to pull out one of the sticks already (had 4x256 to start on the new board). The system kept crashing on boot and only registered either 1 stick or 3 sticks until i pulled it out. Once i did that i stuck the 128mb stick in it's place and the system seemed to work fine for a while, now it freezes while im doing anything that takes a lot out of the system (mainly video games, browsing the internet, dvd, multimedia, etc...). I tend to get a memory address every once in a while, but most of the time its a complete system lock, only way to get out is hit the power or reset button. I bought the memory off ebay (still kicking myself for that), but could I have fried some of it on the old board, or could i just have gotten some bad memory? I used a ground strap and never touch the transistors or connectors while doing all my work on the comp, but the environment wasn't completely static free (work station=kitchen table lol). Or is my problem something completely different like the power supply over-loading?

Celt

System setup:
1000 mhz P3 (socket 370)
Asus CUV4X-E
896 MB PC133 SDRAM (3x256, 1x128)
Creative Labs Encore DVD 5X (DxR3 Decoder)
Creative Labs SBLive xGamer 5.1
Creative Labs CD-RW Blaster 8432
GeForce^256 (Elsa Erazor X^2)
Iomega Zip Drive (LPT port)
Windows 2000 Professional
 
You might have to try running one stick at a time for a while. I doubt all 4 are bad, but one very well may be, and that would be the only way to narrow it down.

I just realized, you are running a whole lot of RAM there. You haven't mixed registered/non-registered or ecc/non-ecc have you?
 
I hope that 128 stick isnt the mismatch, lol. But the 256 are all samsung (dont remember at the moment whether ecc or non, but they're all the same). I hear they have a life-time warranty?

assuming they arent remarked garbage from ebay
 

did you buy all your 4 256 sticks at the same time and from the same dealer? if you did not it could mean that you are having a timing issue with mismatched ram. i would turn down your memory settings in the BIOS, then load the new INTEL i815e chipset drivers. Also, uninstall your video card drivers and reboot win2k and load standard VGA drivers. reboot again and load the nvidia reference drivers. if your RAM is mismatched then only put one 256 or 128 DIMM into DIMM slot 1 on your motherboard. if you are still haveing issues then load up the bios defaults and see if you get the same error in WIN2K. the last thing i would do would be to flash your BIOS to the lastest revision. Sometimes RAM comes with a sticker on it and peeling that sticker off creates static electricity that can damage or kill a piece of memory.
 
All the same dealer, all the same place, all with-in 1 week of eachother, and i checked the labeling to make sure they were all identicle
 
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