NEED HELP!

[Nicolette]

So my aging computer, which runs on an asus A8N-SLI board desired a RAM upgrade. I faithfully ordered 4x 1gb high density pc3200 400 RAM and installed them, and it wouldnt boot. So... I took 1 out, and it would boot, then crash. So I took another out and It would stay up 5min, then crash with one of those random errors that tells you something is screwed up that isnt, but which really means your ram is screwing an IRQ up. IRQL_IS_NOT_LESS_OR_GREATER or PAGE OUT OF PAGEFILE or somesuch. So then I returned to 1GB and it was fine. I think... hmm. ok.. maybe my bios is retaining the settings for 1gb, or maybe it cant support >3 gig's of ram, since I know the board itself can. I do some digging, come up with a way to flash the bios to 1302 premium, and 1604 custom bios's both of which claim to fix problems with the original bios that caused errors like those above.
Put the ram back in. still problems. Keyboard doesnt work. I move the port around in bios settings, since the ram is causing USB problems since the bios is setting the IRQ/USB. Anything more then 1GB of the new ram still crashes. BUT 1GB of the old memory, and 1GB of the new memory works.
2 GB of the new memory, and 1 GB of the old memory works, but is unstable and crashes 10-20min
3GB of the new memory, and 1GB of the old memory crashes on winxp x64 load or shortly thereafter
and 4GB of the new memory continues to not boot.

Help?

 

[Moink]

Is this Vista or XP?

 

[masterorion]

more than likely its incompatible/unsupported memory. its obvious that the memory is causing the issue. what is the brand name of the memory?
"if" the ram is going to work at all, it may take messing around with the ram timings to get it to work.

most ram should be "plug and play". issues like this, i dont even bother with. i return the memory for another brand that i know will work.

 

[Acks]

It might be your setup REALLY wants to have an equal memory setup. So in each channel, I'd try 1 stick of old and 1 stick of new.

 

[iaredrew]

I was gonna say first thought is something with bus speed as well.

 

[Nicolette]

is it possible to downspeed the ram? Only other thing I can think of other than returning it (and its cheap ebay ram anyway - not even traditionally samsung chips so that I can be certain its either high or low density) is that its a heat issue, but the case is running low 50's.

 

[Tribalinius]

more than likely its incompatible/unsupported memory. its obvious that the memory is causing the issue. what is the brand name of the memory?
"if" the ram is going to work at all, it may take messing around with the ram timings to get it to work.

most ram should be "plug and play". issues like this, i dont even bother with. i return the memory for another brand that i know will work.

That's not necessarily a problem with the "brand" of the ram, but more a problem with the chipset on it. Take for example Kingston, you're going to have a batch with "Kingston" chipset, the week after you're going to have a batch with "Hynix" chipset. The latter may not work on a computer but the other one might run top notch but both are still tagged under "KVR400xxxx".

It comes down to 2 things:

1) The chipset is not supported by your motherboard (you can verify on your manufacturer website (in this case Asus) to see the compatible list for your A8N-SLI, which I highly doubt even exist as I have a old manual of A8N laying around and it doesn't mention anything about it, even the one found on their site tells nothing Oo)

http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/socket939/A8N-SLI/e2068_a8n-sli.pdf (Page 22)

2) The chipset can't work together perfectly with the other DIMMs for no good reason and cause access conflicts, go figures it's "eBay rams" lol.

I highly doubt there is a conflict with the dual channel too.

If I was you the first thing I would try is an another set of DIMMs from a regular brand (not Major, Made in China, or other BS companies) like Kingston. Just make sure you don't have the same chipset as the "defects" one. You can clearly see the name of the company making the ram since it's always "carved" on it.

But again you're having an A8N-SLI with a reputation of having major problems with RAM.

As far as I know, even if you have updated your BIOS if the DIMMs can't co-exist they will have the exact same behavior in the end.

For the speed thing here how it works:

If you have DIMM A (DDR400) and DIMM B (DDR400) on a mobo supporting DDR400, your RAM will run at 400MHz (I'm skipping the latency part).

If you have DIMM A (DDR400) and DIMM B (DDR333/266) on a mobo supporting DDR400, your RAM will run at 333/266MHz, since DIMM A need to match the speed of the slowest DIMM (DIMM B). So in the end DIMM A will run at 333/266MHz to be able to run with DIMM B.

If you have DIMM A (DDR400) and DIMM B (DDR400) on a mobo supporting, for example DDR333 at most, both DIMM A and B will be readjusted to run at 333MHz since both of them need to match the speed of what the board can offer. So in the end both DIMM A and B will run at 333MHz since the board can't allowed the RAM to go faster. Problems may occur too, but that's not the case since we're talking about an A8N-SLI here fully capable of supporting DDR400.

I don't rule out the heating problem out, but it's highly not plausible. If your RAM needs heatsink, don't worry they'll be attached to them. And beside, the only DIMMs equipped with heatsinks because of heat were high-end low latencies modules. It's more common to see that today, but back then it was less spread around.

One last thing before I stop writing, you mentioned running xp x64. If you encounter problems after you solve your problem like if xp shows up only 3GB RAM, there is a function in the BIOS to change it. It sounds like memory remapping so go take a look if you happen to have that option.

Hopefully you will find this useful!

P.S.: it's 2:30am here I may not sound coherent at all in some paragraphs lol.

P.S.2: my personal inputs are based out of situation happened to me irl.

P.S.3: I'm a frenchy, so bear with the fact that my syntax/grammar is not good ty ^^

 

[Nicolette]

Any single chip in the bunch runs 400 mhz 128 bit dual channel, but two force it to 333mhz 64 bit single channel. The bios change to get over the 3gb limitation of 32bit systems I already addressed, but other than paying twice as much for ram and hoping that particular chipset works, the only thing I can think of is replacing the MOBO, which id rather not do since windows would then probably force me to reformat my hdd!

argh.

 

[Tribalinius]

Your choice, but at least go to your computer shop and just try different modules with different chipsets. You would be able to see which brand/chipset is the best for your pc and track those modules on the internet if you don't want to pay the full price at the shop.

I won't lie to you, but the longer you will wait the more they will cost. Currently where I work we sell 1gb DDR2 modules for 20$CAD and something like 55$CAD for DDR400 modules last time I checked. We starting to have some problem to put the hand on them too since they're not produced as much as before.

One last thing, if you change your motherboard, yes you will need to format your HDD but you'll have to locate a board with the similar specs. That, might be tougher than you think since companies (ASUS, Gigabyte, etc.) have stopped the production of those boards a long time ago.

 

[masterorion]

you much better off just getting different ram then buying a new MB. your going to spend alot less money and alot less time on new ram then a new MB. if you prefer to go the new ram path, just ask the computer shop what they know works with it.
however, i have found the qualified vendor list for your MB as referring to ram. now, these brands arent written in stone. other brands "might/could" work, but these are the ones that asus supports and typically "knows" they work with the asus boards...

its the first topic on that page under
http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx?SLanguage=en-us&model=A8N-SLI

then to manual(furthest right tab)-->A8N-SLI Memory QVL

 

[Nicolette]

Nice find. My google searches werent nearly as productive. I'll check on getting some new ram over the weekend and see how that goes. At least for now my system is relatively stable in time to work on CoP with friends tomorrow and maybe do some ZNM stuff!