Ram Upgrade problem

[Nemesis_aw]

I have an older P-200 MMX machine with an Asus motherboard which supports up to 128Meg of Ram. I currently used to have 64 meg in 4 16 meg SIMM configuration. I did some horse trading and swapped them out to 2 32 meg simms in order to free up slots for an upgrade to 128. I purchased 2 more 32 meg simms of the exact same make/model as the two installed in my machine. When I install them in the 2 open slots, the PC will boot fine, run windows fine, but half the programs will lock up or reboot the computer whenever I try to run them. If I re-install re-install the program, it will run fine until I shut down or re boot the pc, then it will hang up again. The simms have been changed around and mixed up several ways so I know I do not have a bad simm. The onlky way to resolve this problem is to remove the two additional Simms from the motherboard. It used to runn with all 4 slots filled with 16's, why won't it run with 32's? It has been suggested that a low level format and fdisk/re-load may resolve my problem, but I have been told by someone else that low level formatting is not a good idea on IDE drives. I have a Fujitsu 6.5 Gig EIDE drive. Please help!!!! This is very frustrating! Oh by the way I use 72 pin EDO Ram

[Roy]

Yours is a great example of something that is not supposed to happen. I don't see how the HDD could possibly be involved. Reinstalling the OS might help, but maybe not.

My first instinct is to flash the BIOS with the latest update and see if that cures it.

[jadison]

If u can provide the make and model of the motherboard, that'd be great!
Also, try to see if there are any jumper or DIP switches that u may have to set in order to get the new memory load working. All of the memory is the same speed, right?
Check the mobo. for jumpers or DIP's and let me know...

-=jd=-

[Nemesis_aw]

Thanks for responding so quickly! I have already Flashed the Bios so I know its not that. My motherboard is an ASUS model VX97 for the 75 to 233 MHz P55C-MMX processor.It has the Intel 430VX PCI chipset on board. I also do not see how a low level format could help, but I have already re-formatted the drive several times (I am getting quite quick at it...mutter mutter). The PC serviceman who suggested the LL format said a regular format will not wipe out the boot sector on the drive and perhaps this is where my problem lies. I run the first edition of Windows '98, I have been told the second edition has corrected many problems and is a much more stable platform. Could this be an answer? Thanks again

[daverme]

GOOD LORD !!! How the hell is reformatting your hard drive gonna fix a MEMORY problem ??? Man, you got some BAD advice!

I don't really have a solution for the memory problem; I'm trying to avoid having you get into even MORE trouble. Yes, I read long ago that a LL format of an IDE drive is a bad idea. But, beyond that, it will NOT solve the memory problem, thus all it will do is add to your already considerable headaches. Just forget it and focus on the real issue.

What is the max memory the board is supposed to support? If you are pushing the limit then my guess is you just have a quirky board that is unhappy at the extreme end. As Roy says, it should not happen, but lots of things do that shouldn't.

[DanU]

Perhaps you are maxing out the memory driving capabilities of your motherboard. 32MB SIMMS have a lot of chips on them. Try reducing the memory timing. If there is anything in your bios called memory drive strength, set it to the highest value.

Good Luck

[Nemesis_aw]

Thanks again! I know a LL format doesn't make any sense to me either, but I'm grasping at straws here. I agree however and will not risk a LL format on my drive. The max memory the Mobo will support is exactly what I am trying to install...4 X 32 Meg EDo Simms. There are some timing settings I can play with in the BIOS but they are set to default values for either 60 or 70 ns ram. I can adjust them but have no idea what they are or what they do. I will list them here:
DRAM Read burst timing :X222
DRAM Write Burst Timing :X333
RAS to CAS Delay :3T
DRAM R/W Leadoff Timing :10T/6T
DRAM RASH Precharge Time:3T
MA to RASH Delay :1T
Refresh RASH Assertion :4T
Fast EDO Path Select http://www.sysopt.com/forum/biggrin.gifisabled

There are a couple of other settings dealing with SDRAM which I don't have and the motherboard does'nt support anyway. The rest deals with 16 bit or 8 bit I/O recovery time whatever that is and is set a 1 busclock. It doesn't talk about what these setting mean or do in the manual so its all greek to me. the timing settings are what varies when you pick 70ns ram, the above is for 60. I do not know what I have but have tried both with no success (or no notable difference either). I like what I'm hearing from you guys. I'm open to ANY ideas you can come up with.

[Bovon]

Lord God...I have read this thread several times and considered any possibilities you could have possibly overlooked. I finally downloaded the manual to read for myself what it says for ram installation. From what I see in the manual, it SHOULD work, just as you have it with 4 simms of the same kind/type. (EDO) [hopefully it IS the same speed for both sets, which I'm sure it is]

The only thing I see, which to me would be too far out of the realm anyway is, the manual says not to use a module with more than 24 chips per module. I have never seen a ram module with 24 chips. The manual also says "IMPORTANT: Memory speed setup is required in BIOS Chip Setup 'Auto Configuration'." Sence you do not know the speed, and have tried both 60 and 70 ns...I would certainly think you have covered that base pretty good.

Other than this, it should fire right up and work. The ONLY other thing I can even think of is, it will only recognize 128 mb...and for whatever reason, your mobo won't allow that much ram right at the max limit.

If it was me, I'd fire off a note to Asus tech help ppl. Asus is pretty good about trying to help with their products. It has been awhile sence I have used Asus, but I have written them, and got some answers.

I presume you have the manual, if not...you can D/L it at the site...or, I can email you the one I D/l'ed.

This one is a real head scratcher!!

[This message has been edited by Bovon (edited 03-21-2001).]

[DanU]

It's me again. I just re-read what I wrote above and I mean to say the opposite about the timings! Duh!

Don't decrease your memory timings, increase them. Setting the BIOS to use 60ns won't work reliably if you have 70ns modules. Pick 70ns or higher if it's available. Otherwise use manual configuration and set the memory timing to their highest values. For instance, set read to x333 and write to x444 instead of read x222 and write x333. Set all of the other memory timings to their highest too.

Leave 8bit/16bit I/O to 1 unless you have an ISA card that is acting weird. This doesn't affect DRAM timings.

Good luck

[Nemesis_aw]

Hello all again. I seem to have resolved my problem, but still have some questions. I formatted my drive and installed the second edition of Windows '98. Guess what...my problem disappeared! I only had to load Half my hardwares drivers as the SE version had them all built in. After running for a few weeks (until today) I decided that i missed a few features of the Matrox software which I didn't install. As soon as I installed it, the problem was back! I started to poke around the advanced options within the Matrox selection in Control Panel and turned off something called "Bus Mastering" The problem disappeared. What is "Bus Mastering", and what does it do for me other than screw up my gaming on my PC? Thanks for your feedback, you guys have been great!