SK8N ECC memory problem

[Willem]

I installed two identical Kingston Valueram DDR400 REG ECC memory
modules (KVR400X72RC3A/512) on a SK8N motherboard with a AMD Athlon 64
FX-51 CPU. As soon as I enable the ECC feature in the BIOS I get a
blue screen when Windows XP is started with the message
MACHINE_CHECK_EXCEPTION. Without the ECC option enabled the mobo works
perfect. I received new modules from Kingston (good and fast service
by the way) but the problem is still there.
Did anyone encounter the same problem and is there a solution for it?
Kingston is not aware of people with the same problem.
I have installed the latest BIOS and drivers.

Thanks.

Regards,

Willem

 

[Paul]

I installed two identical Kingston Valueram DDR400 REG ECC memory
modules (KVR400X72RC3A/512) on a SK8N motherboard with a AMD Athlon 64
FX-51 CPU. As soon as I enable the ECC feature in the BIOS I get a
blue screen when Windows XP is started with the message
MACHINE_CHECK_EXCEPTION. Without the ECC option enabled the mobo works
perfect. I received new modules from Kingston (good and fast service
by the way) but the problem is still there.
Did anyone encounter the same problem and is there a solution for it?
Kingston is not aware of people with the same problem.
I have installed the latest BIOS and drivers.

Thanks.

Regards,

Willem

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;329284&Product=winxp

http://groups.google.com/groups?q=w...m=%[email protected]&rnum=12

It doesn't sound too encouraging. Memtest86 from memtest86.com now has
limited support for testing memories equipped with ECC, but the support
is specific to individual chipsets. If the program doesn't support your
chipset, then unfortunately it will only test the normal datapath.

This could be as simple as a busted memory data bus signal on the
motherboard, but it would be pretty hard to debug. It could even be
the processor itself has a problem, but the testing processors get is
much more thorough than the testing of a motherboard.

I don't see an alternative but to swap a piece of hardware at a time.
Since you say the motherboard runs perfectly without ECC enabled, then
changing the memory timing or raising the DIMM voltage a bit probably
won't help. Let memtest86 test the datapath just to verify that the
rest of the memory bus is perfect - if it shows errors while testing,
then perhaps some fiddling with memory parameters will help.

Registered memory, after all, is supposed to be bulletproof :-(

HTH,
Paul

 

[=?iso-8859-1?q?Bj=F8rn_Ola_Smievoll?=]

I've not got much to add to this, but I had exactly the same BSOD
problem with my SK8N and have seen similar reports from others too.

After a couple of weeks of testing different configs I gave up and
returned the card. I was given an SK8V card instead, and it's working
perfectly with the same memory and cpu.

So as the previous poster noted, your best option probably is to swap
the mainboard for another.


(bo)