Finding DRAM

[Zhambah]

I have just built my a pc, and I have a minor problem. Every time the computer powers on it tries to find DRAM then shuts down, it does this 2 times, then boots normally.

Does Anybody know what would cause this and how this can be solved?

 

[tsnor]

Do you have any overclock settings? This might be the MB falling back to safge settings after trying more aggressive settings???

For memory, you have two sticks? Swap them out one at a time and see if the problem stays with one stick or the other (or one dimm socket or the other)

Consider also that the bios fail might be AFTER memory an onto the next thing. Set the BIOS to verbose or debug or whatever causes all the messages to appear. When is the next message after memory on a good POST ?

 

[Zhambah]

new system, for for the most part, so nothing is overclocked as yet.

I have 6 sticks, would it still be worth trying to swap them around?

And to be honest I think its the DRAM causing the issue, because when it boots up correctly, it doesnt mention DRAM in the boot up

 

[tsnor]

"I have 6 sticks, would it still be worth trying to swap them around? " oh yes.

If one stick is bad it should be really clear which one if the " shuts down, it does this 2 times, then boots normally. " pattern is consistent. Should be shooting fish in a barrel.

 

[Zhambah]

I have thought of another solution, which could be the cause of the problem, I'm running 32 bit, and have recently found out that it restricts to 4gb of ram, could this be causing the problem... i.e. if i buy the 64 bit would this be the solution to the problem?

 

[tsnor]

I have thought of another solution, which could be the cause of the problem, I'm running 32 bit, and have recently found out that it restricts to 4gb of ram, could this be causing the problem... i.e. if i buy the 64 bit would this be the solution to the problem?

No, the PC does not even know whether you have a 32-bit or a 64-bit Operating System at BIOS time when you are failing. Buying win7 64-bit will not help.

32-bit Windows is quite happy to run with more memory than it can use. People (including me!) put 4GB in 32-bit systems. Windows can only use about 3.4GB of the 4GB (the rest of the address space is used for memory mapped IO I think).