Help - Troubleshooting new build

duffman85

Hi,

I decided to build a pc.I bought all the parts and made sure they were compatible(or so I thought!).

This is the build:

MSI P43 Neo-F,Socket 775 motherboard
Intel E7300
G-Skill PC8500 4GB (2 x 2GB) CL5-6-6-18,2.0-2.1V
Seagate Barracuda 500GB 7200.11 (32MB cache)
Samsung Sh-S223Q
Sapphire Radeon 4670 512MB
Seasonic S12-II 500W PSU
Antec 300 case

I tried installing Vista,XP, 7 beta and it kept failing with different errors.

I think its a ram problem but I want to be sure before I send them back.
I have tested each of the sticks of ram together and separately.

When I test them on the new build I get lots of errors - 1000s
When I test them on my four year old dell - no errors
The dell can only take ram up to ddr2-pc6400.

This makes me think there is something wrong with the motherboard.
I tested the RAM using Memtest86 on a Ubuntu live CD.

I tried RAM from the dell - 1GB PC4200 and the new pc wouldn't even start.it turns on,fans spin,turns off and repeats until I turn it off using the switch on the PSU.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

James

Inquitus

I'd create a boot floppy / boot usb drive, flash your mobo to the latest bios and try again as a first step.

duffman85

what program/utility would you recommend to make a bootable usb stick?

Inquitus

http://tw.dficlub.com/tw/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=1837&forum=27&post_id=6679#forumpost6679

Adder1

duffman85 wrote: »

Hi,

I decided to build a pc.I bought all the parts and made sure they were compatible(or so I thought!).

This is the build:

MSI P43 Neo-F,Socket 775 motherboard
Intel E7300
G-Skill PC8500 4GB (2 x 2GB) CL5-6-6-18,2.0-2.1V
Seagate Barracuda 500GB 7200.11 (32MB cache)
Samsung Sh-S223Q
Sapphire Radeon 4670 512MB
Seasonic S12-II 500W PSU
Antec 300 case

I tried installing Vista,XP, 7 beta and it kept failing with different errors.

I think its a ram problem but I want to be sure before I send them back.
I have tested each of the sticks of ram together and separately.

When I test them on the new build I get lots of errors - 1000s
When I test them on my four year old dell - no errors
The dell can only take ram up to ddr2-pc6400.

This makes me think there is something wrong with the motherboard.
I tested the RAM using Memtest86 on a Ubuntu live CD.

I tried RAM from the dell - 1GB PC4200 and the new pc wouldn't even start.it turns on,fans spin,turns off and repeats until I turn it off using the switch on the PSU.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

James

make sure that the memory speed settings in the bios is set to the same as the memory modules you have. See your manaul for the relevent settings
slower setting in bios should work for faster memory but if set faster in bios then memory is rated at then system may not boot

Inquitus

Adder1 wrote: »

make sure that the memory speed settings in the bios is set to the same as the memory modules you have. See your manaul for the relevent settings
slower setting in bios should work for faster memory but if set faster in bios then memory is rated at then system may not boot

The BIOS should come with all defaults enabled, one of which will be to set the RAM Speeds etc via SPD, so the RAM should not be being run at speeds or voltages it is not designed for.

Clear the CMOS to make sure the bios doesnt have someone elses settings as default (you never know) or go into the bios and ensure the RAM settings are being defined by the SPD.

If that doesnt work, I'd still defo flash to the latest bios.

Inq

duffman85

Well I changed the SPD Timings in the BIOS and managed to get Windows XP installed. I flashed the BIOS using the MSI Utility to get the correct bios update for my motherboard.

However,the pc rebooted itself several times during normal operation.
This resulted in blue screens of death with error messages like STOP and IRQL_NOT_LESS_EQUAL.

This is sounding more like a motherboard issue.

Any Thoughts? Thanks for all the help so far.

Solitaire

You could try setting more conservative memory latencies and see if that improves things, but I think this is probably a bent mobo Could be a bad HDD but then you should be getting other symptoms to boot.

uberpixie

duffman85 wrote: »

Well I changed the SPD Timings in the BIOS and managed to get Windows XP installed. I flashed the BIOS using the MSI Utility to get the correct bios update for my motherboard.

However,the pc rebooted itself several times during normal operation.
This resulted in blue screens of death with error messages like STOP and IRQL_NOT_LESS_EQUAL.

This is sounding more like a motherboard issue.

Any Thoughts? Thanks for all the help so far.

You have a SATA harddrive?

Check was setting SATA is set at in the bios.

Make sure its set to compatibilty mode or IDE.

XP doesn't support native mode for SATA hard drives unless you installed the SATA drivers during install. One to cross off the list.

Adder1

It could also be the power supply this can cause all sorts of errors. Can you test it with the dell psu maybe. Also on the same vein are all the psu leads to the mother board plugged in I know this sounds obvious but it is easy to over look. I did it once putting together a pc for friend

blackgold>>

My guess would be one of your ram slots is not working.
I know you said that already but i seen this so many times same symptoms.

duffman85

ok, I tested my ram in a pc that's less than 1 year old and it passed with no errors.
I then took the ram from that pc - 2 x 1GB DDR2-PC5300 and placed it in the new build.I ran Memtest86 and it passed with no errors.

I put the 4GB back in and had the same problems as before.
I ran memtest now and there are errors.

I managed to get in to windows and it gave an error of PAGE_Fault in non paged area.

I tried the dell PSU and it didn't make any difference.

It is a SATA harddrive and dvd burner.They are both showing up as sata devices in the bios.

I was using the power supply and hard drive with the dell pc without problems.Although the hard drive is one of the drives affected by the seagate fault. I'll try upgrade the firmware on the hdd before I go back to komplett.

Inquitus

Some boards dont like 4 sticks. I have a DFI Lanparty UT X48 TR2 and I had to dial up the NB voltage from 1.291 to 1.4 to get stability when I upgraded to 4 x 2GB. Google your mobo and see what people who have had similar problems did. My NB is watercooled, so the extra volts isnt an issue.

Inq

Adder1

check the voltage for memory in your bios. Your memory is 2.1v (from your original post) but the motherboard default is 1.8v got this on MSI website see following copied from website

Main Memory

• Supports four unbuffered DIMM of 1.8 Volt DDR2 667/800/1066* (OC) SDRAM, 16GB Max (To support 16GB max, please check the criteria at Intel website)

ps please be cautious when increasing the voltage as I don`t know much about this maybe seek futher advice on this score

blackgold>>

Adder you seem to be in the dark on this.

1.8 volts thats the ddr2 specification motherboard default has nothing to do with it.
The spd on his ram chips will tell the motherboard what the ra is to work at not the other way round.
http://www.jedec.org/download/search/JESD79-2E.pdf

The reason the memory is 2.1 is it's (higher frequencey mhz...) memory and needs to have a higher voltage to work. Lower voltage memory at higher frequencies is always better.
Look up page 72 and you will also see ddr safe temps are from 0 - 100 degrees (inside the case) celcious. So those heat sinks you see on ram are gimicks.
Just thought i'd add that little fact for readers.

Now you know more about ddr

duffman85

adder and blackgold - Thank you!

I changed the RAM voltage in the BIOS to 2.1 Volts,ran memtest - no errors,and installed Vista without any problems.

I'm posting this from my new build.

Thanks for all the help.

Adder1

good to hear you got it working at last!

blackgold>>

nice one