Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.asus (
More info?)
In article <6V_Lc.723$V75.462@newsfe4-gui.ntli.net>,
"total_computing@hotmail.com" <total_computing@hotmail.com> wrote:
> I had two 512MB sticks of memory in my Asus P4PE. One was a
> PNY PC2100 and one a SpecTek PC2700. They worked fine for one
> day and now the computer refuses to boot unless I remove one
> of them. I've tried various settings in the Bios SPD but nothing
> works. Any pointers?
Set the memory back to "By SPD". You have two sticks, which
I'll call "A" and "B". You have two slots to use, slot 1 and slot 2,
as slot 3 is reserved for the case of using single sided RAM in
slot 2 and slot 3. So, slot 3 is out of the picture right now
(slot 3 is furthest from the processor, so you will be using the
two nearer the processor).
Try "A", "B", none in the DIMM slots.
Or "B", "A", none in the DIMM slots.
I think you will find one works better than the other.
My guess would be, sticking the PC2100 in Slot 1, next to
the processor, will work the best. This is because the BIOS
reads the SPD EEPROMS sequentially, and as far as I know, it
starts with slot 1. If that is true, then if it reads the SPD
from the slow DIMM first, it will use that to set up both
sticks. In theory the order shouldn't matter, but some of the
BIOS are lazy, and don't check for all possible conditions.
You might also find that flashing to a later BIOS could influence
the quality of the BIOS code, but it isn't worth the risk, when it
is easy to just swap the two DIMMs.
Test the results with memtest86 from memtest.org. The downloadable
code from memtest.org contains a floppy formatter, and will
format and prepare a blank floppy for use as a memory tester.
The floppy will be self-booting, and contain no OS or recognizable
file system. Memtest86 tests all of the memory, lifting its own
code out of the way while testing. Set your boot order so the
floppy disk is first, and wait until the test has run for at least
a couple of passes. If too many errors are detected in the DIMMs,
the display may scroll off the screen, making the results hard to
read.
memtest.org also has a version suitable for burning an ISO CD.
That is for people who don't own a floppy drive.
HTH,
Paul
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram