I think it's a memory problem... help!!

From start to finish....

First time building without my dad, using an Abit VT7 mobo and P4 2.8Ghz with a 400w power supply. Originally I had a stick of 512MB DDR Crucial RAM in there and a nVida G-Force 4 video card. The first time I got everything hooked up on Friday, got started up beautifully and as expected. Made the mistake of hooking up the CD-R, floppy drive and sound card all at once before installing Windows, and after that it wouldn't boot up, even when I went back to the original setups and just processor, mobo and memory. No sync with the monitor (when I had the video card in) and I got nothing but a long beep, then a pause, then the long beep again - which I discovered by reading the FAQs here a few minutes ago is most likely a memory problem.

Abit tech support today said it's the memory beep code, so I was told that if moving it to a different slot did nothing my Crucial memory was probably incompatible. Ok, that's fairly simple to fix, I say to myself. My boyfriend suggested I try powering up without any RAM in there (so it's just processor and mobo) and I got the same beep code - and neither of us was sure if that was supposed to happen or not. Tried the Crucial again, same problem. Ran out to Circuit City to get a 256MB DDR Kingston stick, thinking it's a compatibility issue. Doesn't work. Humor myself by trying the other slots, no luck. Looked online right now and see yes, my Crucial WAS compatible with my mobo.

So now I'm horribly confused on what's wrong. I doubt I killed <fill-in-the-blank> by popping in those devices way back when (after tech support lines closed ) but if it's the memory like the beep suggests, what do I do to fix it? It's in the all the way with the tabs snapped and down, so I know it's not not fully connected. And if it's not a memory problem, then what IS wrong? I'm slightly frantic because I leave for school on Thursday, and it's going to be Tuesday when I can get ahold of more tech support people - going to call Intel, Abit and Crucial and talk to whoever is open earliest.

Clear the CMOS and try the module again with everything plugged in. Could be your power supply can not handle the load. Is the power supply a top name brand or a generic? Make sure the module is fully seated or you might fry the motherboard.

Crucial Performance Lab

www.crucial.com
The Memory Experts(SM) at Crucial Technology is now on board to give you straight answers to your memory-related questions.
cpl@micron.com

RichPLS - The manual doesn't list ANY beep codes, nor does the Abit webpage even LIST the VT7 in its help section

CrucialLabs - I've cleared the CMOS every time I tried something new. I thought it wasn't seated right in the case as well, so this afternoon I took it out and powered it up when it was on some cardboard. Same beep The power supply is Enermax, which I've had recommended to me by other builders so I don't think that's it (unless I just have a bad unit?)

labbbby - Yeah... right now I'm pretty sure it's either the mobo or the CPU, but the board's light goes on and I'm still getting that beep so I doubt it's fried completely... I'm currently trying to see if I can test either my boyfriend's or my dad's processor (they both use Athlon, would that work?) on my board and see if that works to rule something out.

The actual memory slots... yeah that might very well be it since it'd explain everything, but I'm going to try to narrow it down as much as I can. What's the minimum power supply I'd need to run a Abit VT7 with a P4 2.8Ghz? If it's more than 200w *my dad's case* looks like I'll be carting over to my boyfriend's place and testing it there.

So if it works in another case... it's the power supply in mine that's the problem. And if it doesn't... how do I narrow it down further, since everyone I know has an Athlon system? I leave for school on Thursday so I'd really like to have my computer all fixed up before that...

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Marivel on 08/24/04 06:42 PM.</EM></FONT></P>