Problem with memory

marcanthony

marcanthony

marcanthony

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Joined
15 Jan 2006
Posts
20
Hi

When i built my PC 2 years ago, it was the first time i had ever built a PC before and the only problem i encountered was when reading the instructions, i installed the memory (Dual 512Mb modules) into the wrong sockets on the motherboard. I thought I read in the instructions that to achieve Dual speed memory the memory modules needed to be placed in sockets 1 & 3 from the 4 available. I thought this was wrong at the time as 1&2 and both purple in colour, and 3&4 are orange, but going by what i thought was right I installed them into positions 1&3 - and began to install windows.

For the last 2 years i have been getting the message on boot up 'memory not optimised'. Originally back when i first built it i tried moving the module in position 3 into position 2 to achieve the dual speed but my PC wouldn't boot, it just beeped at me. So i moved it back and run it how it was.

Now ive just bought 2 further modules which are also dual 512mb modules which i want to put in to my pc, but again, im faced with the same problem. as soon as i move the memory from position 3 to position 2 and add the new memory i have just bought into positions 3&4 again, my pc wont boot and just beeps at me.

can anyone tell me why it will not boot up and how i can get around this, as i really dont wanna have to take it to a shop to do it.

i hope ive made myself clear on the problem and i hope someone can help me

thank you

marc
 
by the way, i forgot to mention i did go through the sticky post about fixing computers and established that my BIOS was beeping about the memory so i know its an issue with memory, but how come simply moving the memory module to another slot causes so many problems when booting?

How do i get it to boot when i move the memory modules

please help guys, i really cant afford to take it in to PC world to look at it

marc
 
Explicit said:
Have you tried the old memory modules in slots 3 & 4? If that works, then chuck the new sticks in slot 1 & 2 and see what happens.

edit: also it would be helpful to list the mobo and memory specs...
Click to expand...

Hi, thanks for your help

I hadn't tried that but I just have and again, i get the single long beeps with large gaps between them.

Ive tried every compination but it wont boot at all

Someone had told me to reset the BIOS? will this work and if so how do i do it if i cant get onto my PC.

Sorry but im really amature when it comes to PC stuff, im amazed i managed to build one on my own

cheers

marc

MEMORY

Old modules - 2 x Corsair 512Mb modules XMS3200
New modules - 2 x Corsair 512Mb modules XMS 3200

MOTHERBOARD - Gigabyte GA-K8NSNXP-939
 
Last edited:
Hi

I did as you said, and flashed the BIOS with the latest release. It seemed to go well and so, like it said, i restarted the computer to make the affects active - which I did and it booted up fine.

So i shut it down and moved the memory module from position 3 to position 2 again and hey presto - smile on my face - it booted up, but!!!

Where it had previously told me that memory was not optimized it now said running dual mode or something like that which was the good thing, then later in the boot up process it suddenly restarted and at the same point again where it restarted before, it stopped this time and said (as best i can remember it):

windows could not be started, this coule be due to a hardware change blah blah blah, it then gave me 5 options to choose from. 3 of them were to enter windows in safe mode, one with networking and one with something else, then another option to enter windows as normal and another one to enter windows as of the last time i had been into windows successfully, or something along those likes.

I actually went through and choses all of them but nothing would put me into windows. So i turned it off and replaced the memory where they were before (positions 1&3) and restarted and was again stopped at the same point above with the 5 options. This time i chose 'enter windows as normal' and fist time it let me in and here i am now writing this message.

Any ideas? was the BIOS thing a good idea? How can i get it to enter windoes with the memory in the right position? When do i put in the 2 new memory modules I have just bought?

Cheers for your help. Pretty bummed if its a corsair/gigabyte issue as this build setup was actually recommened by the OcUK guys on the phone, but if they didn't know of the gigabyte/corsair issue i guess we all make mistakes.

Marc
 
xirokx said:
so this msg was displayed after you a) flashed the bios b)
I am assuming you recieved the above error msg with the new RAM sticks...
Click to expand...

With only the 2 old memory modules, in the none Dual speed setup (like its been for the last 2 years) I flashed the BIOS - all went ok

I then shut down and moved one of the old memory modules from position 3 to position 2 to make them dual speed - i then rebooted and got to the message I wrote above.

I haven't tried the new memory yet at all.

So if I make sure the 2 old modules are in positions 1&2 and add the new modules to positions 3&4 and get to the message screen listed in my previous post, you think that I just need to re-install windows?

To do that what do I do, i cant quite remember. Do i go into the bios and make sure the PC boots from CD when it starts, then put my windows CD into the drive and restart and follow the instructions?

everything was backed up before i started messing with it so im good to go really, if u guys think its the right thing to do

cheers

marc
 
Guys

I have booted the PC up with all 4 memory modules in and it gets to the same point with the same message.

I went into the bios and changed the 1st boot drive to 'cd rom' and put my windows cd in there and rebooted. But now, what happens is that it says on screen during bootup that its booting from CD rom and it kicks me into windows, i type my logon id and go into windows like normal, but it wont do this when i boot from the HDD

wht the hell, how come i cant re-install windows, why does it just boot up normally from the cd and not with the hdd.

marc
 
yes, windows XP

on startup it says press 'del' to go into BIOS or 'f9' for express recovery. I tried 'f9' just to see what it does but it said later in the boot up that hpa or something not detected and just booted up from the disk as normal
 
yes i saw that, i pressed a key and nothing happened for about 5 minutes so i turned the PC off, i then moved the windows cd to my other CD drive (cos I have 2) and it boots through to windows

I thought maybe my 2nd CD drive is the one refered to in the BIOS and it got stuck when the cd was in my 1st cd drive
 
that was the case, but ive just tried it again and it boots fine now into windows with no CD in and all 4 momory modules in place

but i tried again where it says press any key to boot from cd rom and again it just gets stuck. The curson still flashes when i press a key and it reads from the disk cos i can hers it spinning, but it wont go into setup
 
Yes i still want to do a re-install of windows

The LED on the drive comes on, the cd does have a large scratch on it which is worrying.

i can borrow a friends XP disk and try that. First time i installed windows was with my main cd rom which was the only one i had at the time. thats the one i am using this time

u recon its the disk being scratched? its a pretty bad scratch about 1 inch long

However in windows, if i go into my cd drive and auto run it it opens a window which has a button to install windows. can i do an install from there?
 
yikes its one bloody thing after another with this PC!!

Disconnecting the 2nd CD rom worked. It asked me to press any button to boot from the cd, which i did and it put me into setup. Yay

Then...

Blue screen, says at the bottom press f6 to install sata drivers, press f2 to do something else then it goes through installing drivers i think. It then grinds to a halt!

Tells me there are no hard drives installed in my computer, press f3 to quit! I have 2 x 250Gb hard drives in my computer which are working fine.

Am i missing something really simple here? why wont it work

cheers for your help explicit, you have been a life saver so far

marc
 
This is getting very annoying now!

I found the SATA drivers, they were on a floppy disk that came with the MOBO.

I booted up again like normal and it booted from the cd, went into setup and said at the bottom press f6 to install SATA drivers like it did before, so i press f6 but nothing happens, it then goes on to say press f2 for whatever and goes all the way through to where it did before with the following message:

Setup did not find any hard disk drives installed on your computer.

Make sure hard disk drives are powered on and properly connected and that any disk related hardware configuration is correct. This may involve running a manufacturer-supplied diagnostic or setup program.

What on earth is wrong with it. Why does it do noting when i press f6 in setup when it asks. Grrrrr

Any more ideas guys, much appreciated

marc
 
Yeah i use the SATA ports on the outside of the MOBO.

I dont understand why its being problematic as when i first built the PC windows installed easily, I managed it without any problems or need for help

I will try the drives tho, cheers again explicit

I'll owe u a pint after this

marc
 
Explicit, Im back!!

and its another problem.

I can now get to where i press f6 to install SATA drivers, i then get a screen coming up telling me to enter the floppy with the drivers on. I enter the floppy and press enter and it gives me 2 selections to choose from:

one saying blah blah SATA windows XP 2003 and another saying blah blah windows NT 4.0.

So naturally i choose the XP 2003 one, it then reads from the floppy and give me the following error (exactly as it says cos i wrote it down):

File si3112.sys caused an unexpected error (4096) at line 2108 in d:\xpclient\base\boot\setup\oemdisk.c.

I then went into windows to look at what this file is, and there is no such file on the D: drive (the CD rom), there isnt even a folder called 'xpclient'

Ive had a quick look on google too but cant find any answers

any ideas

marc
 
Ive checked in BIOS and there is no raid set up, but i disconnected the 2nd HDD just in case, i ran the link u sent me onto a floppy and went through the windows setup again but i get the same error.

any ideas what im doing wrong?

marc
 
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