A7N8X and Corsair XMS3200

[Mzungu]

Hello. Just built a new system. The MOBO fails POST and the Winbond messages says Memory test failed (or thereabouts). System specs below. Could this be caused by faulty MOBO or is it possible for the graphics card to cause this(Radeon 9700 pro with huge power requirements). The reason i ask is that monitor beeps four times as soon as i switch pc on, suggesting, well i dont know what. Any help much appreciated. I suspect it may not be the RAM as I have tried both sticks in all 3 slots.

Specs:
Asus A7N8X
Athlon XP2400+
2x256MB Corsair XMS3200
Sapphire Radeon 9700 Pro
One HDD (till I can get MOBO to work)
Floppy
Samsung DVD-ROM

 

[HammerBot]

Your memory or mobo is bad or timed incorrectly. Check the timing settings in the bios. Try loading fail safe values. The graphics card or monitor beeps has no influence on this.

<i><b>Engineering is the fine art of making what you want from things you can get</b></i>
<A HREF="http://www.btvillarin.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=655" target="_new">My systems</A>

 

[Mzungu]

I tried a friends pc2100 stick and it worked fine. Are there settings I can change in the bios to get the pc3200 sticks to run? Please forgive me if im being a noob, its the first complete system build I have done. I thought that the mobo would autodetect the type of memory used.
Also, how likely is it that both sticks are faulty?, as they both fail the memory test. I received them both in the same delivery and I have my suspicions that Royal Mail (UK) may have something to do with it if they are both faulty.

 

[HammerBot]

The mobo should detect the timing automatically. Check if the bios has something like 'timing pr. SPD'. The SPD (can't remember what it means), is the small serial eprom on the memory module that contains the timing parameters.
Its possible that your mobo isn't able to run with this fast memory. You should try underclock it to see if that improves anything.

<i><b>Engineering is the fine art of making what you want from things you can get</b></i>
<A HREF="http://www.btvillarin.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=655" target="_new">My systems</A>

 

[tombance]

If PC2100 sticks worked and corsair pc3200 (like the best mem you can get capable of running at THE fastest timings) failed wouldnt it suggest that they were faulty?

 

[numlok]

I believe you'll find the answer here, but you may need to look a round a <i>bit</i>: <A HREF="http://www.nforcershq.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=13&sid=4bc31d553ed50150bd2f1d57907089d2" target="_new">nForcerHQ Forums</A>
Long story short, I don't think your memory is bad, only the timings you have it set at (in bios).

Good luck,

num-

Ps. I'm sure the info is <A HREF="http://www.asusnetq.com.tw/inside.asp?Ptype=Motherboard&Model=A7N8X" target="_new">here</A> (Asus A7N8X forum) as well.

 

[duckman127]

hi, also configured a similar system except i spec'ed
a ASUS Ti4200 card rather than the radeon. i haven't
received all my parts by mailorder, yet so i haven't yet
encountered the memory problem.

i wanted to ask, is the CAS2 memory of the corsair XMS
the same as the CL2 memory recommended by THG? i took a
chance and assumed it was.

-richard

 

[Oracle]

Download <A HREF="http://www.memtest86.com/" target="_new">Memtest86</A> and run a test on your modules.

<font color=red>That was my two cents!</font color=red>
<font color=blue>Now I'm broke!</font color=blue>

 

[Mzungu]

I got the ram working. I set the memory frequency in bios to 150% and this gave a frequency of 200mhz, which is what the sticks are rated for. So, its running a treat now. The thing that bothers me is that I had to use borrowed ram (pc2100) to get to the bios and change the settings. I didnt try resetting bios by removing cmos battery but if thats the way the mobo left the suppliers, not very good.

 

[Mzungu]

p.s. thanks for the help

 

[ebird]

Some more info here http://www.houseofhelp.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=128