Computer power cycles/won't boot if both RAM slots are filled

I just tried that, no such luck

I'll check that out now, thanks

Sorry for the delay. I've gotta say, there's a lot of really great information there, but I've now tried almost all of it now, to no avail. This is really stumping and frustrating me.

The system appears to now be stable, my issue with my PSU seems to have gone away (for now) but 2gb RAM just isn't gonna cut it for my games.

If all else fails I could look into maybe buying a single 4gb stick of RAM to counteract this but I'm a little strapped for cash at the moment, and it would bother me I didn't fix this anyway. I tried looking for errors in my event log for clues, (dumb idea probably since this is an issue when the computer is off), but came up with nothing.

Again, sorry for the slow reply, I really appreciate you sticking with me.

An interesting new development... I went to BIOS and tried to find where to increase the voltage but didn't find it. I did, however find the "Dram Frequency" feature under the "Performance" tab, with the options of Auto (which it was on), DDR2 533, 667 and 800 MHz. Below that was the "Configure RAM timing by SPD" option which was enabled. I tried changing the frequency to DDR2 800 (since this RAM is *supposed* to be 800MHz). I waited for it to boot up to desktop so I could shut down and try the other ram stick but it didn't make it that far. It instantly reboots just before loading the desktop. So then I went back to BIOS, changed the "Configure RAM timing by SPD" part to disabled, and tried again. Same thing. I then went back to BIOS a third time, and changed the settings i had switched back to the way they were. STILL the same thing. Finally, I went back and did "change to optimal defaults" or something like that and once again, rebooted before loading desktop. Finally, I tried booting from safe mode (w/networking) and made it, I'm typing this from there now.

I also want to make it clear I didn't change any other settings in BIOS at all other than the ones I described.

This is definitely really weird, you'd think that after changing those BIOS settings back to the way they were when the computer worked would make it so...

I checked my event log again and I don't know if they're because I'm in safe mode or what (or are even relevant) now, but I have these errors:

DCOM got error "1084" attempting to start the service ShellHWDetection with arguments "" in order to run the server:
{DD522ACC-F821-461A-A407-50B198B896DC}
DCOM got error "1084" attempting to start the service EventSystem with arguments "" in order to run the server:
{1BE1F766-5536-11D1-B726-00C04FB926AF}
DCOM got error "1068" attempting to start the service fdPHost with arguments "" in order to run the server:
{145B4335-FE2A-4927-A040-7C35AD3180EF}
x2 DCOM got error "1084" attempting to start the service WSearch with arguments "" in order to run the server:
{7D096C5F-AC08-4F1F-BEB7-5C22C517CE39}

and then this about 20 seconds after these:

The Computer Browser service depends on the Server service which failed to start because of the following error:
The dependency service or group failed to start.
The following boot-start or system-start driver(s) failed to load:
Avgldx64
Avgmfx64
BIOS
spldr
VBoxDrv
VBoxUSBMon
Wanarpv6

I'm starting to think this problem is somehow related to my hard drive. If I let the computer power cycle enough times, it starts to continuously run, but nothing else will happen - no beeps, no video output, nothing. If I shut it off by holding the power button and turn it back on, it will *seem* to work correctly (i.e. fans spin, LEDs turn on inside, etc), the green power LED on the front of the case will light up continuously, and the red hard drive activity light will also light up, but only for about 1 or 2 seconds, then turns off. Normally, it should be solid red.

I looked around in the case and realized I was not utilizing a SATA power cable from the new PSU, I still had it hooked up to a SATA-Molex adapter (apparently my old OEM PSU didn't come equipped with SATA connectors). I ran a SATA power cable directly from the PSU to the hard drive, but with almost no change. Instead of powering on for 5 seconds and then off continuously, it would power on for about 7-8 seconds and then power down. Almost like it was closer to working, but not enough.

The second I remove one stick of RAM, any stick from any of the two slots, the computer will start working perfectly. Am I on to anything here, or is this just an aberration? Please, if anyone has any ideas short of, say, replacing a component entirely, please run them by me. Thanks.

I know it's been a couple days, I've been busy with midterms stuff lately.

I tried just that, but with the same results. It still power cycles until I pull the power cable out the back.

It's ok, its stumping the hell out of me too. Thank you for trying though, I appreciate it

Not sure if you're still following this thread but I've been struggling with this thing still. However, I have made -some- progress.

If I turn my RAM frequency down from 800 (what it's supposed to be) to 667 in BIOS, power down and then remove and re-insert both sticks of RAM, I can get it to boot past BIOS to my OS screen (I have dual-boot Windows 7 Professional and Vista Home Premium, both 64bit and 7 being primary). As soon as it starts loading the OS, it crashes and does the reboot thing.

If I do all those above steps and instead boot into safe mode (w/ networking), I can get it to successfully boot and recognize all 4 gigs of RAM.

Is this some sort of hardware-OS issue you think? What could I try?

*EDIT* I also just tried a sfc /scannow, but it said all was good.

I can now boot normally into Windows 7 with all 4 gigs of ram using onboard video instead of video card. The card is a weird/crappy OEM Radeon 7570 I got off ebay but it is just fine for my purposes. I had it working just fine with the 2gb but it doesn't work with 4gb. I would really like to get that working again. Any ideas anyone?

Holy crap, I think I fixed it! Windows booted, with RAM and video card all together! I'm so happy! I hope this is permanent. Not 100% what did it but the last things I tried was going to BIOS and changing ACPI from 1.0 to 3.0, enabling the PCIe high priority port to enabled and enabling PCIe Port 0 IOxAPIC enable on (whatever that is lol). Then after that, I removed the panel on the other side of my case (the back side, which I NEVER open), and noticed when my video card is inserted, the tab on the end of the faceplate goes through a slot on that side. It was really dusty so I cleaned that out. I'm going to try restarting the computer just to make sure it's working, crossing my fingers. I have been battling with this for weeks and I really hope this is it!

*EDIT* Nope, as soon as I rebooted the same thing happened again. Great, now I'm back to square one... I don't understand why it can work once but not again. To hell with this, I give up.

Hey I haven't been to TomsHardware in quite a while so I didn't see your message. You probably have already fixed your issue but the way I resolved mine was just simply replacing the motherboard.

Sorry for thread necroing...