memory upgrade rejected?

[Guest]

I just received two 512 chips 512MB 168p FC133 16c 32x8 SDRA. These chips
are supposed to be for a ABIT KT7A-RAID motherboard. My O/S (XP) will not
fire with these chips in place.

I have already installed them in the 0 & 1 positions by themselves and each
one separately in the 0 position. I have also tried them both and
individually behind and in front of my existing memory. In all cases the
machine boots but the O/S will not move past the intro screen. If I leave it
alone for about 30 minutes the computer trys to reboot on its own as if you
hit the reset button. When I pulled both chips and reinstalled my original
chip by itself in the 0 position everything booted normally.

 

[Guest]

With ram,they all need to be either 100 or 133,you cant install both types,try
putting the 133 where the 100s are now,start-up computer,then shut-down.
Now install the 100s where the 133s were,the problem should start again.

 

[Bob Knowlden]

Just out of curiosity, I checked the Crucial web site (www.crucial.com). I
see that the KT7A-RAID accepts 512 MB DIMMs, so you aren't dealing with an
incompatibility with high-density DIMMs. (I believe that low density DIMMs
are not larger than 256 MB. Corrections will be welcome if that is
incorrect.)

Crucial suggested setting the MD Driving strength (in the Advanced BIOS
settings) to low for more than 512 MB of RAM. (The default is Hi.) Is that
one of the things you've tried? It seems unlikely that it would be necessary
with a single DIMM in the machine, but it may be worth a try.

Otherwise, you could try using slower memory timings than the SPD chip
defines.

Also, you could try the Windows Memory Diagnostic:

http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp

(Its name is misleading - it doesn't run from within Windows at all. It runs
from a floppy or CD.)

Good luck.

Address scrambled. Replace nkbob with bobkn.