Help with Installing Memory

[colinbar]

Hi,

I have a System Intel P4 2.53 system, with an MSI 648-Max mobo. currently have 512mb stick of memory in (P2700 2.5 cas). Tried installing today another 512mb stick (same spec) and on boot up see 1gb loaded, but when XP home tries to load, It stops and says that it had trouble loading windows, click on loading windows normally or safe startup. trying either, it gets so far, reboots and get the same window. I have tried either stick separately and boots up fine.

I have tried various combinations with both sticks and get the above or I have got the error
missing or corrupt file:
windows\system32\config\system.

But try any one of the sticks and it boots up with no probs

Any ideas........

[Paul K]

Have you tried a memory tester on boot up to see if the sticks are ok?
http://www.memtest86.com/
One other thing is to check that you haven't adjusted any settings in the bios that might be upsetting it.

[Gareth]

I'd check your memory is OK. Try running Memtest86 and see if it shows it is borked* or not.

(*that's a technical term for broken memory ....honest!)

[Gareth]

D'oh, beaten to it! By 1 minute. Damn my slow typing skills!!!

[colinbar]

Hi Paul,

Using either stick by themselves are fine, but with both in at the same time, the system stops because it either goes into the reboot loop or says that a file is missing or corrupt.
I have not touched the bios as yet.

[colinbar]

Hi agen,

I made a memtest boot disk and tried it with one stick, all ok.
But with 2 sticks it recognised 1gb memory, but got loads of errors.
So, I dont understand, by themselves they work fine, but together, they are
crap. I bought the 2nd stick from crucial, giving my mobo details, so it should be a compatible stick.

I havent touched the bios yet, but the advanced chipset settings are:
Cas latency - by SPD
DRAM timing - Fast
MA IT/2T - MA 1T
AGP - 128

Any ideas.....

[Strzelecki]

What's the 1st stick though? Different brand, different timings? Mixing memory is not normally a good idea, because of the problem you're getting. Also worth checking the MSI website for bios update/memory compatibility.

[colinbar]

Hi StrzeleckiThere pretty close to being the same:

Memory Module Properties:
Module Name Samsung M3 68L3223CTL-CB3
Serial Number None
Module Size 512 MB (2 rows, 4 banks)
Module Type Unbuffered
Memory Type DDR SDRAM
Memory Speed PC2700 (166 MHz)
Module Width 64 bit
Module Voltage SSTL 2.5
Error Detection Method None
Refresh Rate Reduced (7.8 us), Self-Refresh
Highest CAS Latency 2.5 (6.0 ns @ 166 MHz)
2nd Highest CAS Latency 2.0 (7.5 ns @ 133 MHz)

and

Memory Module Properties:
Module Name Micron Tech. 8VDDT6464AG-335D1
Serial Number 6A0C722Bh
Manufacture Date Week 43 / 2004
Module Size 512 MB (1 rows, 4 banks)
Module Type Unbuffered
Memory Type DDR SDRAM
Memory Speed PC2700 (166 MHz)
Module Width 64 bit
Module Voltage SSTL 2.5
Error Detection Method None
Refresh Rate Reduced (7.8 us), Self-Refresh
Highest CAS Latency 2.5 (6.0 ns @ 166 MHz)
2nd Highest CAS Latency 2.0 (7.5 ns @ 133 MHz)

[Feenix]

Have a look at your motherboard manual. It might let you know of the RAM slot config/layout. You may need to put the sticks in certain slots for it to function correctly.