ASUS P4S800D-X Memory Configuration Problem

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I just installed a new ASUS P4S800D-X motherboard and I am experiencing some problems with the memory which are affecting boot ability of the machine.

I have two 512MB 400MHz DDR Ram chips and one 1GB 400MHz chip installed. All chips are PC3200.

The motherboard has 4 memory slots and they are color coded, two blue and two black. I have installed the two 512MB chips onto the two blue slots and the 1GB chips onto one of the black slots as you are supposed to.

When the machine boots I get the boot error beep and can't get all the way through the BIOS boot. If I shut down and reboot or press the restart button a few times I can eventually get a boot that gets as far as a BIOS error message that says "Overclocking failed! Please enter setup to reconfigure your system. CPU Fan Error! Press F1 to Run Setup. Press F2 to load default values and continue."

I normally proceed by pressing F1 because I don't want to erase all my BIOS settings. Then I click the "Exit and Discard Changes" option from the BIOS menu and exit out of the BIOS.

Then the machine will complete the boot through the BIOS and into Windows XP and all 2GB of RAM runs no problem.

Obviously though something is wrong if I have to power up and down 2-3 times before I can get a boot up that brings me as far as an error message from the BIOS.

Also, getting a BIOS error message on every boot is obviously not right.

I am thinking hopefully there are some settings in the BIOS I can make to get the Motherboard to accept the RAM configuration as such on the first go without pause or error.

I checked the ASUS web site to be sure and I am already running the latest BIOS.

I checked the CMOS jumper and it is not in the reset position.

I am running a 400 watt power supply so I think I have enough power.

I have tried setting the CPU speed and RAM speed manually, but it seems to have no effect.

I have also tried various different RAM configurations using the 4 RAM slots. If I run either the two 512MB chips or the one 1GB chip alone it boots fine on the first go without any problems. Any other configuration of either 2 or 3 of the chips together placed in the RAM slots in configuraiton it doesn't work properly.

What is odd is that prior to installing this new motherboard I was running a ASUS P4P800S-X motherboard, which has only two RAM slots. On that board I had installed the 1GIG chip and one of the 512MB chips together for a 1.5GB RAM configuration and it worked perfectly. It would seem this more elaborate board with 4 RAM slots should be able to handle at least a 1.5GB RAM configuration.

Anyway, thank you for reading about my troubles. At the moment I am back to running only 1GB of RAM since it boots that way without any error.

If you have troubleshooting thoughts or BIOS settings ideas you think I might try in order to get these 3 RAM chips to get along together so I can run the 2GB of RAM without any BIOS boot errors I would appreciate hearing from you.

Best wishes,

marc
 
What brands are the modules? are they the same brand and timing just different sizes? if you want to run dual channel smoothly you need matched memory, not just PC3200, differnet brands, different timings.

first thing I would do is set the bios to defaults. this is the mode for the greatest compaitability.
 
Thank you ISS

The 512MB modules are made by Ram Bo and the 1GIG one is made by Jet-RAM. Maybe you never heard of these brands, but I am in Thailand and these are ones they sell here.

I had the BIOS set to default when I first installed and it did not help anything.

Sounds like the problem may come down to the difference in brand issue, but was hoping there was some way to sort it out.

Thanks again.

marc
 
it is probably a compaitabiltiy issue between the two different brands, when run in dual channel. most likely the timings are quite different on each brand.
 
Thank you. It would seem that way, except that I was able to sucesfully run one of each brand chip (a 512MB from on brand and the 1GB from the other brand) without any difficulty on the other ASUS board. I have tried the same one of each configuraiton on the newer board and it didnt work though. Why would they get along together on one ASUS board and not another?
 
well the New board is an Asus with a SIS chipset. puke:

is the other board a sis chipset or different?
 
The old board is an Intel chipset.

I was wondering if I went back to the shop and asked them to exchange the 1GIG chip for two 512MB chips and then put in all four 512MB chips, two of one brand and two of another, do you think it would run?

This is opposed to what I have now, which is the two 512MB chips and one 1GIG chip.
 
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