RAM problem, but not the DIMMs

The issue: I'm getting blue screens that lead me to think I have a RAM problem with my PC. So... I run Memtest86, and sure enough, lots o' errors.

System specs:
* ECS PT800CE-A, SATA Raid, S.478, 533/800FSB, 6Ch-Audio/LAN, DDR333/400
* Intel Pentium™ 4 3.00GHz HT 800FSB 512K L2 Cache S.478
* 2x 512Mb DDR400 PC3200 Non-ECC Samsung (1Gb Total)
* 80Gb Western Digital ATA100 8Mb Buffer 7200rpm Hard Drive OEM
Running Windows XP Home Edition

So, thinking that I have an easy fix (HA!), I remove one of the DIMMs and run Memtest again - no problems after 10 runs. Assuming it's the other DIMM, but hating to make assumptions, I remove the good DIMM and put the other one in and re-run Memtest - no problems after 10 runs, so I let it run overnight, and no problems after 50+ runs.

I have run 4+ hour Memtests on each DIMM, in each RAM slot, with no problems whatsoever. But, when I put both DIMMs back in, Memtest shows RAM errors on the 1st run, every time.

Anyone have a clue as to what could be causing both RAM boards to fail together, but not singly? Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

- Humpy

 

Welcome to the MG forums Did you buy the sticks together in a pack,if so i'd return em,if nay are you sure they are identical exactly?

 

Thanks for the welcome! I've been downloading here for a long time, figured if any knowledgebase can figure this one out, it's all you guys.

Anyway - they came as part of a barebones, and they're exactly the same. Both 512Mb DDR400 PC3200 Non-ECC Samsung.

I even examined the boards to make sure the company I bought 'em from didn't pull a switcheroo on one of 'em.

 

Its either the dimms or the mem controller,try upping the voltage by the smallest increment your mobo will allow

 

Hey - I just used AIDA32 so when y'all inevitably ask me for more info, that I'll be able to provide it, and something caught my eye (though I haven't a clue what it means):

Supported Memory Interleave 1-Way
Current Memory Interleave 4-Way

I don't know what that means, but it basically says it's doing something that isn't supported. Could that be the problem, and if so, how would I go about fixing it?

 

OK - I'll give that a shot. I'll have to run Memtest again afterwards to see if it worked, so I'll be back in an hour or so. (I'm also supposed to be hanging trim instead of diagnosing my PC, so I may get wifed away).

Thanks for the suggestion! Off to try it.....

 

Try disabling it,its the comp staggers the way it reads 2 dimms for better performance ,you could have solved your own problem

 

I hope so - if you could tell me *how* to disable it. I assume in BIOS, but where would I look?

Also, I increased the voltage to the RAM and it didn't help - although I left out what could be some very important data in my 1st post.

With both DIMMs in, it *always* fails at Memtest test #6 "Moving Inversions - 32 bit pattern".

Thoughts?

 

It should be in advanced chipset features,there should be disable,2 way,4 way,try them all.

 

OK - I can't find anywhere in BIOS where it allows me to change the "Memory Interleave".

Under "Advanced Chipset Features", I have the following:

(Note: items in [] are set, with items in () what they *can* be set to. Items without [] or () aren't changeable).

DRAM Clock/Drive Control
Current CPU Frequency 200mhz
Current DRAM Frequency 200mhz
DRAM Clock [By SPD] (100, 133, 166, 200mhz)
DRAM Timing [Auto by SPD] (Manual, Turbo, Ultra)
x SDRAM CAS Latency 2.5
x Bank Interleave 4 Bank
x Precharge to Active (Trp) 4T
DRAM Command Rate [2T Command] (1T Command)

AGP & P2P Bridge Control
AGP Aperture Size [128M] (32, 64, 256M)
AGP 2.0 Mode [4x] (2x, 1x)
AGP Driving Control [Auto] (Manual)
x AGP Driving Value DA
AGP Fast Write [Disabled] (enabled)

CPU & PCI Bus Control
PCI Delay Transaction [Disabled] (Enabled)

System BIOS Cacheable [Enabled] (disabled)

Init Display First [AGP] (PCI Slot)



Let me know if any of that stuff might be it, or if you know, let me know what else it might be called under any other BIOS Menu option. I checked every option and didn't see any 2 Way, 4 Way, Disable options.

 

This is it are you able to change it?Before you do though will you try knocking the sdram cas latency down to 3 if your motherboard will allow it then run memtest



EDIT also try all the settings with this option

DRAM Timing [Auto by SPD] (Manual, Turbo, Ultra

 

It doesn't let me change either the SDRAM CAS Latency, nor the Bank Interleave. Any clue how I would get it to allow me to change something it currently doesn't?

 

I'm not familiar with ECS mobo's to be honest they are crap,try pressing control and f1 simultaneously see if it unlocks them or check out ecs's website,I will go and have a look in a minute

Edit If I were you I would seriously be considering returning the bundle you shouldnt have to go through this

 

OK - ctrl-F1 doesn't work, so I'm not able to modify the "Bank Interleave" in BIOS. But, I went to ECS's website and found a BIOS update that mentioned fixing compatability with some 400mhz 512meg RAM.

So.... I *think* I ran the update (it's in Chinese, I believe, so I'm not even sure if I got it installed - I open it, hit enter a couple times, then the window goes away - so I really have no clue if it worked or not), and ran memtest again. The results are now a bit different, as the errors have now become consistent.

Meaning: on each and every failure, it says "Good: ffffffbf, Bad: ffffffff". Is that a clue as to a way I can work around the problem? Although the good/bad are now all the same, the Failing Addresses are all different. They all start with 000200 and here are some of the endings:
0d588
19b88
2a388
59248
5c3c8
78988
7fd08
a9948
bb1c8
fe248

I really want to avoid sending back the whole package for RMA if I can avoid it.

Does any of the above info help diagnose it further?

Thanks again for all the help.

 

Hi m8 sorry I didnt have time to check the site last night,but found your problem

http://www.ecs.com.tw/ECSWeb/Downloads/ProductsDetail_Download.aspx?CategoryID=1&Typeid=1&detailid=423&DetailName=BIOS&DetailDesc=PT800CE-A(1.0)&MenuID=35&LanID=8

Update your bios to this one as you can see in the fixes,it fixes the problem you are having with with a 3.0ghz+ p4 cpu and x2 400mhz dimm modules being unstable and incompatible.

Let me know how you do!



EDIT read the bios flash guide its pretty simple you will need to allow pop ups to read the guide as I have just found out after 5 attempts.lol

 

Yep - that's the one I found, but I didn't use the flash file, I used the other.

Question: how do I locate my BIOS file to be able to update it? It wants me to choose a path, but I don't know where to look.

 

Download the bios file,put it in a folder on your desktop,name it my bios,if you have done this once before do it again,this way you know where the file is,then just locate it when the win flash utility asks for it.

 

I'll go through it again step by step next to the bios file there is a blue go tab,select usa,go, name the file "my bios" it can be named anything and save to the desktop.

Next to the winflash select usa,go leave the file name as awardflash and save this also to the desktop,right click award flash on your desktop extract all then run the program,when it asks for the file direct it to the bios file you have just downloaded and placed on your desktop.

I think thats everything?

 

OK - downloaded it to desktop, and it saved as 11e. So, I do as instructed and go to File-->Open-->(desktop path)/11e, and it says "Bios File Size doesn't match with Mainboard BIOS!"

Any thoughts? =/

 

Yes they kind of missed this bit out,download this

http://www.rarlab.com/

The file is a zip file what we need is a binary file bin. file,install winrar,extract the file to the desktop,it should extract 3 files the bin. file is the one you want then direct the bios flash utility to it.let me know

EDIT the bios bin. file name is ptcea120 and in winrar go to downloads and download version 3.50 beta 6,its just the latest version but any should do.

 

OK - got the file with Winrar, successfully updated the BIOS to 1.1, and I'm still getting the same memory failure as I was before (see 7 posts down, from 11:06am 7/4/05). Is there any program out there that can ignore the bad "ffffffff" thingy ('cause I have no clue what that actually is). I really don't want to be without a PC for a week or so to RMA the whole thing, so I'm kinda at a loss as to where I should go from here.

I still say it's totally screwy that it only fails when both DIMMs are in, and is fine when one is out. I'm hoping (but highly doubting) that AmericanComputech will send me a 1gig board and I can return them the two 512meg ones. Other than doing that, I'm, at this point, totally at a loss.

Thanks for all the help, though, Rikky - I learned quite a bit even though I'm almost a total PC noob.

 

Well, just got me an IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL blue screen, which I believe (correct me if I'm wrong) is usually a RAM problem? Ima yank one of the chips for now and see how she runs on 512m.

/sigh

 

They have released two bios fixes for that problem,it should have been fixed in update D but the fix has been again adressed in update E,when companies do this it means 2 things,they dont know how to fix it and are stalling for time or it cant be fixed by a bios update,EVER.

There may be a ray of hope,whichever bios you installed D or E,try the other one.

Fingers crossed X

 

Well......

I had installed D as stated yesterday, and the problem was not fixed, so I latched on to the ray of hope and installed E. Now the PC doesn't work at all.......

It doesn't even boot. I turn it on, and it gives me the 1st screen telling me the BIOS version and all that, but doesn't even get to the RAM test, nonetheless loading device drivers and whatnot. Says "Hit Del for setup", and hitting Del doesn't do anything. At all.

Firstly, please please PLEASE put my mind at ease and let me know that if I swap the HD into this PC (my old crappy one that I mostly stripped) that the hard disk isn't touched by a BIOS update, and that all my crap will still be OK. (I can test it by just switching it out, but I figured hey - doesn't hurt to ask first......)

Secondly, is there a way to undo a BIOS change when the PC won't even let me enter setup? I'm a-feared that I'm now grade-a screwed and can't do anything but RMA the whole thing (and if they don't/won't rectify it to my satisfaction, just challenge the charge on my credit card), but I'd like to know if I can at least keep what I've done on the hard drive.

Thoughts?

 

First I want to say I feel your pain ,most of the people in this forum will too. ,this stuff can get you really stressed out,dont let it the only thing you have to lose is time,the worse case is you have to rma the board.

Updating the bios is as serious a mod you can do a motherboard,if it goes wrong it can render the board useless,unless it has a ROM backup chip,its a spare copy of the previous bios that you can switch to if you screw a bios update up,check your manual to see if it has one and how to use it.The bios can be updated without getting into windows but you must have access to a working floppy drive and keyboard,if your bios wont let you use them,you cannot flash the bios

It looks as though the flash went according to plan,I'm not sure why it hasnt worked though,the first thing to do is to reset the cmos jumper or remove the cmos battery,it should show you where they are located in your manual and how to reset it,this will load the failsafe bios OPTIONS it wont undo the flash and go from there.

The data on your harddrive should be fine,but the data can get corrupted if the mobo is telling it to do crazy things,if you want to you can take your hd out and test it,you do not need to put it back in until we are able to get into the bios again,dont put one in from another computer though unless you are sure it is formatted and empty ready for a windows install because it will load drivers for your other hardware,which may damage components.

I honestly would return the whole lot and exchange it for a good mobo,if you have had the bundle for less than 30 days you should be able to return it to the retailer,but after that the mobo will have to be rma'd if you cannot get it to work,but all they'll do is send you another one anyway with the same memory problems,you will have to explain the problem and see if ecs are prepared to give you a different model,which they probably will as they already know the dam thing doesnt work.

Typical to fix one problem you first have to solve all the problems your fixes have caused,good luck I'll hang around until you have it sorted

 

Well that was fun....

Had no PC access because the HD on my old PC fried less than 30 seconds after I sent my last message.

I RMA'd the whole thing ('cause I had no other choice) and after waiting over a month and dealing with a total prick of a tech support guy, I have it back. I haven't tested it yet, but I'll let you know how it turns out. =)