System Crashing after latest upgrade

[Varun]

Hello everyone

I have an Athlon 1800XP on an Asus A7V333 with 256MB PC2700. Also I have a GeForce 4 Ti 4200 128MB Video, Sound Blaster Live sound card, Antec 300 watt PS and a Maxtor 20GB 7200 RPM drive. I run Windows 98.

On Saturday I decided to upgrade my RAM to 512MB, my first stick is Generic Samsung ram, and it's been really good. It runs Cas 2 stable since June when I built the PC. I went to the same store and bought another 256MB stick, this time it was TMTC (TMTc DDR32M8-6). I case grounded myself and installed the second stick into slot 2. The PC wouldn't even make it to Windows. I turned the Cas to 2.5 and put the ram in slot 3, and rebooted. It made it to windows and I figured I was home free. Then the BSOD's started. After way too many crashes I removed the ram deciding it must be defective. I figured I would take the ram back on Monday. With my original stick in I booted and got some more BSOD's. That was strange, it worked 100% stable before the new ram went in. I figured the bad ram might have corrupted a system file and formatted and reinstalled Windows.

Same thing. I get crashes in games, and Internet Explorer errors all the time. BSOD's way too often. This with the extra ram sitting on the table beside me!

I took the ram back today, but they wanted to test it. I let them test it and it tested perfect. I took the ram home and tried it, but I still got BSOD's. I figured I would swap it with my old ram, and see what happened. With just the new stick in I can't even boot to windows. I get a windows protection error on boot up.

What the heck happened to my machine?!?

Why does the ram test ok and then not work?

Why does my system crash even with the ram out?

I'm really stumped here and getting frustrated.

This is the second time I typed this due to a BSOD half way through last time.

BTW there are no programs running in the background at all.

Thanks for any input here!

 

[Viper96720]

Try setting the bios to fail safe defaults. Maybe something changed accidently. When in doubt just format and reinstall.

 

[Varun]

I did format and reinstall, twice actually.

Nothing in the Bios is out of whack, but I'll go in again and check it out.

Any other ideas? Motherboard perhaps?

 

[Varun]

Bump, anyone have any ideas?

 

[Markfw]

I have an A7V333R, and I have several sticks of memory. The PC2700 512 meg stick I have will run fine in other MB's, but not in this one(actually I have two from the same place, same results). I have a PC2700 256 meg stick from my local store that is supposed to be the same mfg, etc.. and it works fine, but the 512 meg stick has all sorts of problems. I haven't tried under 2k or XP, but I suspect it is some sort of "quirk" with the mobo and 98. I wasn't even sure till now, but this almost confirms my belief !!

 

[Viper96720]

Whoa that is weird since it worked fine before. Plus you did format the hard drive. Have you tried clearing the cmos?

 

[Varun]

No I didn't clear the CMOS but I went in there and checked everything, everything is at auto just like it was when I bought it. RAM is from SPD, CPU is at default....

 

[Varun]

Markfw, I wasn't very clear I guess. Now that I reread it I can see what you read. I was upgrading to 512 from 256, so I just bought another 256 stick. No 512 stick for me

 

[Markfw]

I was ALSO upgrading from 256 to 512, first with one stick, then 2 256 to see if that memory was bad, and I have 5 other computers running 98SE with 512 meg, and this one is the only one that doesn't want to run with 512 meg ,and Win98SE in any combination !!!! It still sounds like some strange incompatability problem with this MOBO running 98SE !! Anybody else ???

 

[Duvie]

go ahead and clear the cmos...sometimes a board gets fubar'd and the reset sets it back to balance eventhough you don't see sometihng changed...there are several things in a bios you do not even see....

please when you are asking for technical support please have the courtesy to follow the suggestions and do not rule them out.

We want to help you out, but he is right and I think you should do it....

Plus just resign to the fact that many boards and thisis a true fact do not like running stable with 2 sticks even when there is no ocing going on or requires the lowest baord settings in all the timings no just cas speed...

I would take the 256mb back and claim mobo compatability...Then sell you 1 stick of 256 and get 1 stick of 512 and that should settle it...

 

[ZloyChuvak]

i had the same problem with a shuttle aI61 mb. it was so picky, it wouldnt get into windows if i didnt put the ram into its "prefferred " slot, which of course was the most unpreffered slot for me since it kept me from bolting my cd burner in... might have to got through several sticks to figure out what the board will let you do, and once you find one that works then match it. i just order cheap pricewatch stuff, adn then if it doesnt work you can ebay it off and make .80 cents on the deal. just keep trying, and mess around with sticking it in allthe diff slot combinations.

good luck

 

[Varun]

First off I appreciate all the responses. I took the computer in to where I purchased the parts and it was actually my old RAM. The new ram they gave me was incompatible with the Asus A7V333 I guess, and somehow messed up my old stick as well. Got it fixed today at no charge even.

Thanks again