TRYING TO DO A MEMORY EXPANSION ON P-III

[Wolfe]

I have a Pentium III 866 MHZ that we purchased some years back. Its
motherboard can take up to 3 SDRAM PC133 memory modules.

The memory configuration as it was the last time it was serviced was 2
modules of 512 MB each total 1.0 GB.

I was attempting to do a memory expansion to 1.5 GB by adding a 3rd memory
module, 512 MB SDRAM PC133 133MHZ

I ended up buying 3 new modules of the same brand name, as mixing and
matching one new with two old caused windows to bomb on startup

Tried to install all 3 new modules last night. Windows XP still bombs on
startup, get the dreaded old BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH (it's been instructed to
give me BSOD on critical error rather than auto reboot)

It works perfectly fine with two modules in, but as soon as I add the 3rd,
that's when it bombs.

Is there any reason why it would be doing that? I thought maybe it might
need a BIOS update. I ordered a flash BIOS update last night, receive and
ran it today, did not make a difference. Is there something else that would
be wrong that would be causing this? Doea anybody ever know of this to
happen?

Before I ordered a RAM upgrade, I ran Belaric Advisor. It told me I have
four memory banks, two occupied, two free. Opening up the case revealed only
three banks. Not sure why Belaric would think I have four.

Any ideas on the bomb outs?

+

 

[Pen]

I have a Pentium III 866 MHZ that we purchased some years
back. Its
motherboard can take up to 3 SDRAM PC133 memory modules.

The memory configuration as it was the last time it was
serviced was 2
modules of 512 MB each total 1.0 GB.

I was attempting to do a memory expansion to 1.5 GB by
adding a 3rd memory
module, 512 MB SDRAM PC133 133MHZ

I ended up buying 3 new modules of the same brand name, as
mixing and matching one new with two old caused windows to
bomb on startup

Tried to install all 3 new modules last night. Windows XP
still bombs on
startup, get the dreaded old BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH (it's
been instructed to
give me BSOD on critical error rather than auto reboot)

It works perfectly fine with two modules in, but as soon
as I add the 3rd,
that's when it bombs.

Is there any reason why it would be doing that? I thought
maybe it might need a BIOS update. I ordered a flash BIOS
update last night, receive and ran it today, did not make
a difference. Is there something else that would be wrong
that would be causing this? Doea anybody ever know of this
to happen?

Before I ordered a RAM upgrade, I ran Belaric Advisor. It
told me I have
four memory banks, two occupied, two free. Opening up the
case revealed only
three banks. Not sure why Belaric would think I have four.

Any ideas on the bomb outs?

If you post make and model of the mobo, maybe
someone can help. However, many older mobos
had problems with stability with 3 slots filled.
Have you tried backing off on the memory timings
if thjat is possible?

 

[kony]

I have a Pentium III 866 MHZ that we purchased some years back. Its
motherboard can take up to 3 SDRAM PC133 memory modules.

The memory configuration as it was the last time it was serviced was 2
modules of 512 MB each total 1.0 GB.

I was attempting to do a memory expansion to 1.5 GB by adding a 3rd memory
module, 512 MB SDRAM PC133 133MHZ

I ended up buying 3 new modules of the same brand name, as mixing and
matching one new with two old caused windows to bomb on startup

Tried to install all 3 new modules last night. Windows XP still bombs on
startup, get the dreaded old BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH (it's been instructed to
give me BSOD on critical error rather than auto reboot)

It works perfectly fine with two modules in, but as soon as I add the 3rd,
that's when it bombs.

Is there any reason why it would be doing that? I thought maybe it might
need a BIOS update. I ordered a flash BIOS update last night, receive and
ran it today, did not make a difference. Is there something else that would
be wrong that would be causing this? Doea anybody ever know of this to
happen?

Yes, it could easily, simply not be stable with 3 modules.
You might try going into the bios and manually setting more
conservative memory timings (higher numbers), something like
3,4,4,9 if possible.

BTW, don't ever try to boot windows before you know if the
memory is stable. What you've already done could have
easily corrupted windows files such as the registry and now
even if you get it stable it might continue crashing.

Run memtest86 (google will find it) for several hours prior
to booting the OS, and if it finds a single error, stop and
reconfigure memory then retest again w/memtest86.

Before I ordered a RAM upgrade, I ran Belaric Advisor. It told me I have
four memory banks, two occupied, two free. Opening up the case revealed only
three banks. Not sure why Belaric would think I have four.

Because the chipset logically supports it, Belarc can only
tell you what is supported, not how many plastic slots are
soldered onto any given board design.

It might help to have specifics of your motherboard make,
model, chipset... or it might not but it wouldn't hurt.

Generally speaking, it may be time to upgrade to a newer
system... anything needing 1.5GB of memory instead of 1GB
might benefit a lot from the CPU & motherboard upgrade,
especially considering the cost of adding 3 X modules
instead of just one.

 

[Wolfe]

"backing off on the memory timings"??

what does that mean and where and how do I set this?

not sure what the make & model is of the MOBO. I'd have to see if I can dig
that up somewhere/somehow/sometime

 

[Wolfe]

"manually setting more
conservative memory timings (higher numbers), something like
3,4,4,9 if possible."

where and how do I do this?

 

[Wolfe]

thank you, will give memtest86 a whirl

I did do a slow memory test at startup (disable quick test in bios), and
this checked out fine

 

[jaster]

"manually setting more
conservative memory timings (higher numbers), something like 3,4,4,9 if
possible."

where and how do I do this?

Maybe that's the problem. The board manufacturer added the 3rd memory
bank when the system bios thinks you have 4.

Anyway I agree with the others. You could probably get a newer low
end cpu/mb combo and 1gb PC3200 for the price you paid for the 3 PC133
512.

 

[kony]

thank you, will give memtest86 a whirl

I did do a slow memory test at startup (disable quick test in bios), and
this checked out fine

That is not sufficient to find memory errors... as you have
already seen by doing it but having windows crash.

 

[kony]

"manually setting more
conservative memory timings (higher numbers), something like
3,4,4,9 if possible."

where and how do I do this?

In your bios menus. Since I can't see your particular bios
menu I can't give exacting detail but once you get into the
bios there might be a page labeled something like "Advanced
Chipset Features", and something like an "auto" or "SPD"
versus a "manual" or "expert" mode, which allows the memory
timings to be set, so you have choices which vary per entry
but in ranges from 1-10, less wide a range for some.

CAS latency, 3
t(RP) or Row Precharge (time), 4
t(RCD) or RAS to CAS (delay), 4
t(RAS) or RAS (active), 10

If, for example, your bios didn't allow a tRAS setting of
10, you'd pick the highest number it did support.

It's highly possible that changing such settings will result
in the system failing to POST at all, no video. If that
happens you would unplug the system from AC (pull the cord
or flip a switch if present) and use the Clear CMOS jumper
to reset the bios to defaults.

It might also be useful to have a pen and paper handy to
keep track of the timings tried. After each change, be sure
to run memtest86 first- it's handy to keep the bootable
floppy in the drive and the bios set to try to boot floppy
first so it automatically boots memtest instead of there
needing to be user intervention to stop windows from loading
and load from floppy instead.

As soon as memtest finds even one single error, there is no
point in continuing the test, stop the test and change
memory settings. Goal being to spend as little time as
possible finding bad settings then test for several hours
(even a whole day or more for a system doing important work)
before using the system regularly. It takes a lot longer to
check your slower memory and 1.5GB of it than it would a
faster system with less memory. 24hours isn't unrealistic
at all, to have an instable system with only a few errors
every couple dozen hours if near the threshold for
stability.

 

[CBFalconer]

That is not sufficient to find memory errors... as you have
already seen by doing it but having windows crash.

However no memory test will protect against such random events as
cosmic rays. The only cure for that is to insist on ECC memory.

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More details at: <http://cfaj.freeshell.org/google/>

 

[Wolfe]

I cannot find the memory speed settings that you are talking about

Could I please have your real email address. You already have mine. I would
like to forward to you some screen shots to your email address (can't really
forward it to the group, this being a non-binary group). I've got some
pictures taken of my CMOS Setup Utility Advanced Chipset Features.

 

[kony]

I cannot find the memory speed settings that you are talking about

It's possible your board manufacturer hid them from you, or
that they're hidden until you toggle another setting such as
an "auto" to manual or expert mode.

Could I please have your real email address. You already have mine. I would
like to forward to you some screen shots to your email address (can't really
forward it to the group, this being a non-binary group). I've got some
pictures taken of my CMOS Setup Utility Advanced Chipset Features.

ok, done