Bad Mobo or Bad RAM

[bobroo]

Hi, I had posted about this problem earlier in the Windows OS section. I figured out it's more of a hardware problem. So I have put it here:
I have a MSI motherboard (nforce2 chipset) with an Athlon XP2400+ processor. It was running with 1 GB RAM (2 x 256MB@266MHz + 1 x 512MB@333MHz) till one of the 256MB RAMs died. Now the problem is that XP won't boot with any RAM greater than 256 MB (tried with fresh RAM chips too).

Also setting memory timings by SPD (2.5 3 3 6) causes XP to fail even with 256MB RAM, so have set it to auto (2 2 2 5). I even had to reduce FSB to 100MHz. Memtest passed all tests on 256MB RAM.

Some people have suggested it's a memory controller issue. But I can't pin point it exactly. Could anybody please suggest some way to find out the exact cause. It would be a huge help..

Thanks

 

[kimsland]

Have you removed the ram fully and reset the bios (you may need to refer to your m/b manual on how to clear the cmos.

I find it strange that all memory modules fail

Do you have 3 memory slots (purple and green slots) on your m/b ?
To utilize DualDDR, you need to have one stick of memory in the green slot, and either one or two of the purple memory slots need to be populated.

 

[pdyckman@comcas]

The nForce 2 chipset is able to use PC-3200 (400 mhz) (No DDR2) Your chipset runs dual channel memory. 2x512 or 2x 1024 (of PC-3200) would solve the problems that you are experiencing. If you want to clear cmos on a computer, pull the mobo battery for about 20 seconds. Make sure the PC is unplugged first. Good Luck.

 

[Tedster]

you failed to read: https://www.techspot.com/vb/topic65114.html