Need help...RC415ST-HM R1.0

[SPEED94]

Hi, Recently I recieved a Transcend 1 gb ddr2-667 RAM and a PATA DVD-RW from my friend as a gift.Since both are incompatible with my gaming PC I decided to fit it in my old bedroom PC- a hp pavillion a1510y.Before starting I wanna say that both are in excellent condition-far away from calling damaged.

Now that PC is used only for reading .doc/.pdf documents and doing office job...so it was never updated from the 512 mb ddr2-667 ram that it came with.
It supports upto DDR2 PC5300 2GB Ram.The mobo for your help is RC415ST-HM 1.0 with Bios version of 8.00.13.It supports 2 PATA drive as well as 2 SATA drives.
It was running with a SATa 160 Gbps 3.0 Gbps seagate HDD and a Moserbaer SATA DVD-Rw.However When I plugged in the PATA drive it won't boot at all.I checked all the cables and PSU power.Its all okay.Power is coming to all drives but with the Pata data cable connected with the mainboard the computer would just not boot (i.e monitor display is not coming...all power coming and no beep tune unlike usual).As I plug out the Pata cable from the mainboard it is as usual...fine with boot.However there is no problem with power.The power is coming to both dvd-drives.And yes I have tried with only the PATA drive on...no solution found.Bios settings checked too.Everything related are enabled.

Now the RAM. The old 512 mb differ from the new 1 gb one in none other than the hieght.The new one is compact and slim...and the older one is bulky large.The problem is the 1 gb does not detect the presence of other unless and until it is plugged off. Then the system detects 512 mb (448+64 shared).and when both are on the system detects 1024 mb(896+128 shared).I have tried interchanging as some systems are comfortable with bigger ones close to CPU.So of course both rams are fine but still the system doesn't detect both at a time.

Please help.

 

[SPEED94]

please help someone please....I've checked the cmos jumper replacement but is not working.....please help

 

[rolli59]

Pata drive or cable most likely broken, ram sticks might have different specs, other than speed, and not want to run together.

 

[SPEED94]

Pata drive or cable most likely broken, ram sticks might have different specs, other than speed, and not want to run together.

Thanks for the reply. I found the ram part. Damn !

both slots are black in colour.....it was a dual channel configuration.Both had to be identical twins.
Anyway , I could not find out the PATa drive's part.The DVD-RW/cable are perfectly alright and tested on other machines. I just can not figure it out.
One thing I observed which might help you to detect my problem. With the cable connected to the mainboard the system won't boot....immatter of the fact that whether the other end is connected with a drive or left open.Now thats odd. In that slot few months ago a PATA HDD was used.That means that the slot is okay...no pin broken...or damaged I guess....I can not just make it out.

Please help.

 

[rolli59]

That points to short in your IDE board connector or cable.

 

[SPEED94]

That points to short in your IDE board connector or cable.

Well I guess that what you said above was to change the cable. I replaced it with an old cable and it worked.Its working now...though the speed of reading is much less than the SATA one.

2 LAST QUESTIONS ...PLEASE

Help me determine my PCI x16 version in my mobo (hp pavillion a1510y / RC415ST-Hm rev1.0 ).....Nowhere including the manual has anyone mentioned the version of PCI x16...1.0/2.0/2.1 or whatever...

And last is there no way to fit different sized stick in a dual channel mobo as mine...? Frequencies are same

 

[rolli59]

PCIe is version 1.x. The board only offers single memory channel your problem with the ram is the sticks are not compatible with each other (other specs rather than the size)
Your board http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?cc=us&lc=en&docname=c00864922#N253

 

[SPEED94]

PCIe is version 1.x. The board only offers single memory channel your problem with the ram is the sticks are not compatible with each other (other specs rather than the size)
Your board http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?cc=us&lc=en&docname=c00864922#N253

Yes you are right about that. I found the 512 mb ram to be a 64*64 device (high density I guess) and the new one is obviously low density...Bad luck indeed...But I can't remember when and who changed the ram because obviously hp won't deliver the pc with a high-density ram.....

Anyway, thanks for your reply.I am taking your precious time again for one last question...
You now know my mobo of course...Is Pentium D 960 the best it can handle ?

And yeah, I forgot about the PCIe...It is 1.0 right ? Oh well, I was attempting to fix a cheap 1 gb HD 5450 in it...Will it work at half the bandwith as it should be ?

 

[rolli59]

Yes Pentium D is the highest and PCIe X16 ver 1.x is not going to bottleneck a lower range card like HD5450

 

[SPEED94]

Yes Pentium D is the highest and PCIe X16 ver 1.x is not going to bottleneck a lower range card like HD5450

No I mean thats given in the manual like Pentium 9xx series....but I found many sites about this board stating some exceptions like it supports till d960 and also supports E series till E4400 Core2 Duo....is the FSB 800 mhz all thats matter to be compatible ?

 

[rolli59]

Pentium D9xx is the highest on HP site in my link. BIOS support for the board from them possibly does stop it for supporting anything else I searched for your board on http://www.cpu-upgrade.com/cgi-bin/SearchMB.pl?MB=RC415ST-HM+&ACTION=Search and nothing pops up.
LGA775 is the most complicated socket doing CPU upgrade since the support is all over the place many boards only support Pentiums some Pentiums and early c2d some of the newer boards not the early c2d and so on.

 

[SPEED94]

Pentium D9xx is the highest on HP site in my link. BIOS support for the board from them possibly does stop it for supporting anything else I searched for your board on http://www.cpu-upgrade.com/cgi-bin/SearchMB.pl?MB=RC415ST-HM+&ACTION=Search and nothing pops up.
LGA775 is the most complicated socket doing CPU upgrade since the support is all over the place many boards only support Pentiums some Pentiums and early c2d some of the newer boards not the early c2d and so on.

Okay then I guess I am safe with the D960 only .Actually this is the first pc my mom gifted me...so when my friend gifted me the ram and drive I decided to give it a slight upgrade so that it lasts a few more years as far as basic tasks are considered............. I have a friend who uses a E7500 (Core2Duo 2.93 Ghz)/ 2 gb ddr2-667 and a low end 1 gb Nvidia card ( much lower than the 5450) to do jobs much complicated than basic tasks like playing prototype 2/cod 8.

SO, I thinking whether this D960/2gb ram/5450 can perform upto that machine as far as basic tasks and Hd movies are related.

 

[SPEED94]

Best answer selected by SPEED94.

 

[SPEED94]

Pentium D9xx is the highest on HP site in my link. BIOS support for the board from them possibly does stop it for supporting anything else I searched for your board on http://www.cpu-upgrade.com/cgi-bin/SearchMB.pl?MB=RC415ST-HM+&ACTION=Search and nothing pops up.
LGA775 is the most complicated socket doing CPU upgrade since the support is all over the place many boards only support Pentiums some Pentiums and early c2d some of the newer boards not the early c2d and so on.

Sorry for replying so late. I have bought another 1 gb ram / a 5450 1 gb / a Pentium D960 and fixed it all......after some boot failures everything got fine....The pc with 2 gb Ram and a D960 changed the entire thing of my basic pc........Thanks to you for your rigorous help. But now I REGRET about the RAM part ...the Radeon 200 chipset is said to report 4 gb ddr2 support........Anyways I had asked help on this on another thread