ATI2DVAG bsod after memory upgrade

[David]

Hey guys,

I'm having a strange problem here after upgrading my system to 1gb
ram. I had been running 512mb on two 256mb Kingston chips and added
an additional 512mb chip to bring me up to a gig. However, when I
try running any 3-D demos or games, within a couple of minutes or so,
I get the ati2dvag infinite loop bsod. I then try to reboot, but get
an error stating that C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM is corrupt or
missing. At this point, I restore from a backup I have. I've never
had any problems before the memory upgrade. And when I revert back to
512mb, everything is fine. Below is my current setup and what I've
tried so far.

ASUS A7V266-E mobo w/AMD Athlon 1.4ghz processor
1gb PC2100 ram (1 stick of Kingston 512mb, 2 sticks of Kingston 256mb)
Radeon 7200 agp card
120gb Seagate HD
60gb Maxtor HD
Optorite DVD writer
DVD-ROM drive
Enermax 330w power supply

Okay, so here's what I've tried up to this point

1) Tried two different 512mb sticks. Had the same problem with both.
Ran MEMTEST-86 on them and everything checked out. Made sure the
512mb stick was in the first slot.

2) Completely uninstalled my ATI drivers (using the ATI utility) and
installed the latest drivers from their web site. Turned off
SMARTGART and AGP Fast writes.

3) Tried using the Omega drivers

4) Updated my VIA 4 in 1 drivers and then installed latest ATI drivers

Nothing seems to be doing much good and it just seems really odd that
I only have this problem with the additional 512mb. My case is very
well ventilated, so I don't believe that to be the problem either.

Any suggestions?

 

[First of One]

Try the most conservative memory timings first. Some mobos don't like tight
timings with more than two RAM slots loaded.

How big is the AGP aperture setting in BIOS? Try setting it to equal your
Radeon's onboard memory.

What happens when you remove one of the 256 MB sticks (i.e. running 768 MB)?

 

[Tony DiMarzio]

Hey guys,

I'm having a strange problem here after upgrading my system to 1gb
ram. I had been running 512mb on two 256mb Kingston chips and added
an additional 512mb chip to bring me up to a gig. However, when I
try running any 3-D demos or games, within a couple of minutes or so,
I get the ati2dvag infinite loop bsod. I then try to reboot, but get
an error stating that C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM is corrupt or
missing. At this point, I restore from a backup I have. I've never
had any problems before the memory upgrade. And when I revert back to
512mb, everything is fine. Below is my current setup and what I've
tried so far.

ASUS A7V266-E mobo w/AMD Athlon 1.4ghz processor
1gb PC2100 ram (1 stick of Kingston 512mb, 2 sticks of Kingston 256mb)
Radeon 7200 agp card
120gb Seagate HD
60gb Maxtor HD
Optorite DVD writer
DVD-ROM drive
Enermax 330w power supply

Okay, so here's what I've tried up to this point

1) Tried two different 512mb sticks. Had the same problem with both.
Ran MEMTEST-86 on them and everything checked out. Made sure the
512mb stick was in the first slot.

2) Completely uninstalled my ATI drivers (using the ATI utility) and
installed the latest drivers from their web site. Turned off
SMARTGART and AGP Fast writes.

3) Tried using the Omega drivers

4) Updated my VIA 4 in 1 drivers and then installed latest ATI drivers

Nothing seems to be doing much good and it just seems really odd that
I only have this problem with the additional 512mb. My case is very
well ventilated, so I don't believe that to be the problem either.

Any suggestions?

Enter your mobo BIOS. Try raising VDIMM by a tenth of a volt and also try
more conservative CAS timings. Try the CAS timings first.

Tony

 

[Gordon Scott]

Hey guys,

I'm having a strange problem here after upgrading my system to 1gb
ram. I had been running 512mb on two 256mb Kingston chips and added
an additional 512mb chip to bring me up to a gig. However, when I
try running any 3-D demos or games, within a couple of minutes or so,
I get the ati2dvag infinite loop bsod. I then try to reboot, but get
an error stating that C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM is corrupt or
missing. At this point, I restore from a backup I have. I've never
had any problems before the memory upgrade. And when I revert back to
512mb, everything is fine. Below is my current setup and what I've
tried so far.

ASUS A7V266-E mobo w/AMD Athlon 1.4ghz processor
1gb PC2100 ram (1 stick of Kingston 512mb, 2 sticks of Kingston 256mb)
Radeon 7200 agp card
120gb Seagate HD
60gb Maxtor HD
Optorite DVD writer
DVD-ROM drive
Enermax 330w power supply

Okay, so here's what I've tried up to this point

1) Tried two different 512mb sticks. Had the same problem with both.
Ran MEMTEST-86 on them and everything checked out. Made sure the
512mb stick was in the first slot.

2) Completely uninstalled my ATI drivers (using the ATI utility) and
installed the latest drivers from their web site. Turned off
SMARTGART and AGP Fast writes.

3) Tried using the Omega drivers

4) Updated my VIA 4 in 1 drivers and then installed latest ATI drivers

Nothing seems to be doing much good and it just seems really odd that
I only have this problem with the additional 512mb. My case is very
well ventilated, so I don't believe that to be the problem either.

Any suggestions?

how long did you run memtest for? 12 hrs would be nice.

 

[David]

Well, I'm not that familiar with memory timings. Looking at my bios,
here is how it's currently configured:

SDRAM Configuration - By SPD (other options are USER DEFINED, 7ns
(143MHz), 8ns (125MHz)
SDRAM CAS Latency - DDR:2.5T;SDR:3 (other option is 2T)
SDRAM RAS Precharge Time - 3T (other option is 2T)
SDRAM RAS to CAS Delay - 3T (other option is 2T)
SDRAM Active to Precharge time - 6T (other option is 5T)

The agp aperture was set to 64MB which is the same as my video card.
One thing of note though, I did take out one of the 256MB chips and
ran on 768MB with no problems.

 

[David]

I did not see an option in my bios to set VDIMM.

Enter your mobo BIOS. Try raising VDIMM by a tenth of a volt and also try
more conservative CAS timings. Try the CAS timings first.

Tony

 

[David]

I let the MEMTEST run for several hours on both chips. Don't think it
was quite 12 hours though.

 

[First of One]

Except for SDRAM Configuration, all the other settings are already at their
most conservative values. If you chose "USER DEFINED", what options are made
available to you?

Make sure your FSB and memory are running at the same clock speed of 133
MHz.

There should be a few more relevant settings in BIOS. Set "Bank Interleave"
to disabled and DDR 1T/2T Item to 2T. Also, any time you see anything along
the lines of "BIOS cacheable" or "ROM shadowing", disable it.

 

[It's me]

Any suggestions?

Some motherboards become unstable when three ram slots are filled.
That's why I always keep my configurations to two sticks only
(2x512mb). Not saying that's the issue but it could be.