just recently put together a new computer with a GA-K8VT800 mobo, Athalon 64 3000+, and two sticks of 512 MB DDR 400 Crucial Brand RAM. It was working for a couple of days but it will no longer boot windows XP and re-install freezes after all the drivers are loaded and it says "Windows is setting up...". After looking at some symptoms, my friend and I determined it to be a RAM problem since originally Windows just cut out on me and now won't boot (as if there isn't enough RAM to load it).
Here's the real kicker, The system will try and load windows XP if the RAM is located ONLY in DIMM slots 2 & 3 (right most ones), any other combination (including just one stick) makes the system lock up after the initial RAM check (before the IDE is even checked).
Can anyone offer any help here? I didn't even try overclocking anything yet. Do you think it's a mobo problem? or a RAM problem?
Could the RAM I'm using just have crapped out? Is Crucial RAM notorious for not working on this board (GA-K8VT800)? or is has my board's RAM controller gone on the fritz? all other components work and I've tried a BARE MINIMUM system, (CPU, board, RAM) but the same RAM behavior occurs. I also have updated to the latest mobo BIOS, but to no avail.

Any help would be appreciated, thanks in advance!

So when you insert the modules in slot 2 & 3 it goes a bit further in the install process but it's still not stable ?

Try a memtest & let it run for a few hours ( letting it run during the night wouldn't hurt ).

Thanks, I'll try this and let you know if anything comes of it.

Hardware, and especially memory, errors are quite a headache.

alright, so I tried the memtest, however it freezes exactly the same way when memtest tries and tests the DDR RAM. I have still yet to try a different brand of RAM (it should come tomorrow), so we'll see. Someone suggested to me that my board could be shorting out. Should I try and operate the motherboard outside of the case on a piece of wood or cardboard? Or do you think that the board shorting out is highly unlikely?

If the motherboard was shorted, it probably wouldn't even power on. What puzzles me is the fact that the Ram seemed to work for the first couple of days. It's quite odd that it would get faulty after a few days of use.

I think when you pop in that new RAM, you will have a much clearer idea of what is screwed up on your system...please let us know what happens...this is rather interesting (I know it sucks for you dude - I meant from a troubleshooting standpoint - I never wish this stuff on anyone)

Alright, so i got my new kingston brand ram stick (512 PC3200). and now if all three sticks are in the DIMMS I can get a little farther in the booting process (actually goes into the WinXP loading screen), however then the computer just reboots by its own when it gets here. I ran memtest for a long while and got no errors in memory. I assume this to either be a board or ::groan:: processor problem (as the Athalon 64 RAM controller is in the CPU, or so I am told) any more thoughts/input on what I should do next?

Also Memtest reports that the memory is only DDR 333, any reason why this would be?

Try using the Kingston Ram by itself. If you're trying to pinpoint a problem, mixing Ram brands won't really help you & sometimes mixing them can result in the mainboard setting the Ram to a failsafe value ( PC2700 for example ).

Install the Kingston Ram by itself, reset it to PC3200 / 200mhz ( 400 DDR ) & run memtest again. If that works fine, try booting Windows & using it as you usually do ( you should be fine with 512mb of Ram ).

If all works well, then you can start thinking the Ram is the culprit. Not that it's faulty, just that maybe your mainboard is picky & doesn't like those Crucial DIMMs.

If I put the Kingston Brand RAM in the first DIMM slot by itself, the computer locks up at memory check, and if I put it in the second slot or third slot, I don't get any video or anything. Can't run Memtest or anything unless those two Crucials are in slots two and three. what could this possibly mean?

I think I'm just going to RMA the board to New Egg, should I just exchange? or should I get another brand/board?

The board is supposed to be good, check out user reviews on newegg & see if it's known to have problems with certain brands of Ram.

BTW, you should stand clear of mixing Ram brands, that's just putting more chances of a smooth running system on your side.

I have the same problem

I bought the exact same motherboard (GA-K8VT800) a few weeks ago, along with two Kingston KVR400X64C3A/512 DIMMS. These are the exact parts recommended by Kingston for this particular motherboard.

My new machine worked for about 4 days without a problem, then died. It would reboot repeatedly, make it to the Windows login screen, then die and reboot. After a short time, it would only go into the BIOS. Then it wouldn't even make it that far. I tried all the standard troubleshooting steps, such as using one DIMM at a time, removing all extra peripherals, etc.

I returned the Motherboard and RAM for exchange and tried again, this time with a high quality Antec case and power supply. Again, the system worked perfectly for three days. Now, tonight, Windows XP gave me the BSD, then my system won't reboot. I can get it into BIOS setup maybe one in ten times. All other reboots take me just past the memory check, where it says "OK", then it locks up.

I cannot run memtest. It either locks up before making it that far, or it reboots as soon as memtest starts running.

I'm at a total loss. Don't know what to do.

Bad batch of boards? Since it's happening to 2 seperate people with the same gear...please post the resolution to these issues when you have it figured out. I'm definitely interested, as a Gigabyte board and AMD CPU user...

Make that 3 people. I just had my third board failure in the past month - all K8VT800 boards, two sticks of 512 MB Crucial RAM, AMD 64 3000+ CPU, ATI Radeon 9800 Pro graphics card. None of the three boards worked for longer than 2 weeks, and the last one failed after less than a day. Symptoms are identical to everyone else's. I've verified that all the components except the CPU and motherboard work in other computers. I also replaced the power supply thinking that might be the problem, and RMA'd the CPU with the previous motherboard, just to be sure. I'm planning on getting a different board from Newegg.

Dude make that 4, same problem, had the PC 2 days. Its pissing me off. The shop is closed over easter so I cant take it back until Tue

I also built a system and had the same problem. It's an Athlon 64 3000, 2-512 sticks of matched OPC DDR-400 memory,Radeon 9800 pro video card, 2-Maxtor sata hard drives configured in a raid array 0, with the Giga-byte GA-K8VT800. Put it together and loaded Win2000 Pro,Mobo drivers, video and all the other drivers needed. Everything worked great for two days then when rebooting the next day, it came up and said error file corrupt of missing for win 2000. Rebooted the computer several times with same message. Finally decided to reformat hard drives and try again, re-formatted drives and started to reinstall win2000. It kept getting to the point where it is loading windows files, it would get to about 40% to 70% of the files loaded and stop and say it could not load one of the win files. Well I also thought it might be a memory problem so I installed(in the first slot) a single stick of DDR 333 out of another computer I have, that has ran fine for about 2 years, and it still would not load all the windows files. The next day I configued the hard drives in a raid 1(mirror) array. Reformatted and tryed to install the operating sys. it loaded and so far has worked ok. I had one screen that said hard drive failure, but when I checked the array it showed both to be ok and in working oder. You never mentioned what type of hard drive you are using, and if you are using raid. I'm wondering if on mine one of my drives connections on the sata to the motherboard is bad and losing connection. Its had me confussed, and I really wanted the raid array 0 for performance. If it stays working mirrored I think I might try a differant mobo. Let me know if you figure something out.

Mine has been running for 3 days now and I have had a message 4 times that a hard drive has failed in my raid 1 mirror array. After checking my drives with MaxBlast 3.6, and finding no problem, I have fixed the array and it keeps on running. I bought a new SATA cable and installed it on the drive it said failed, thinking it might be a bad cable, but I doubt it. I still belive it's the mobo, or could it be the via 8237 south bridge. I still have not heard what type of drives ya'll are using and if you are using sata.

I've got 2 Maxtor drives installed - a new 200 GB and a 40 GB from my old PC. I haven't gotten any hard drive failure warnings, but they're connected by IDE, not SATA.

I've got an ECS mobo with a different chipset on order from Newegg. If it gives me better results I'll be sure to let you guys know.

same problem...........

Hi everyone, this is my frst post on this forum.
Well, having run my nice shiny new ath64 system for 3 weeks, i notice a degradation in stability, it crashes randomly, etc..
well yesturday morning i come to switch on to do some important work and it decides not to post. As several people have said, now and then it will, like 1 in 10, but mostly not. So i tried the obvious, unplugged all drives and cards, reset the BIOS, tried new ram, NOTHING. so i BUY a new (the same) motherboard today, and BLING! it works!!!!!!.
Well i tried to call gigabyte today... apparently the clost thursday, very usefull...

so i think we can all agree that they have let loose a useless motherboard.

good lick guys, RAM's not the problem, it's the board.