Saaby Seeks Some Supreme computer advise...

About 1.5 weeks ago my sisters motherboard went poop. I'm sure we'll get it replaced to have a spare around but I convinced her it was a sign she needed to upgrade.

Today I built her system with an ASUS A7V8X motherboard, AMD Athlon 900 Mhz (It was laying around from when my dads motherboard wen't poop and he upgraded), Crucial 256MB PC2100 DDR RAM, 8 gig HD, 32x CD-Rom, Iomega ZIP, some old video card (PCI) (Name escapes me at the moment).

The board fails the memory test. Repeatedly. The memory is listed on Crucials site as supported by this board. I tried both of my dads DDR sticks. Nadda. The Crucial stick is fine as I'm running it in my dad's system right now this moment.

I am pretty sure it's the board but I REALLY don't want to accept that fact because then I have to deal with her asking me each day when her computer will be fixed and, even worse, I have to completely disassemble the system...drives and all, as her case doesn't have a removable mobo tray (Last time we buy a cheap case...) and the board won't come out without me taking out the drives.

This really reeeeaalllly stinks!!!

Did you go into the bios and play with the memory settings?

Yes, that is some good advice, but first make sure you load the default BIOS settings and then see if it boots.

Also, double check with the Asus website to make sure the A7V8X can take the PC2100 DDR. It may also need a BIOS update to do so...

I can't GET to the BIOS. It's not posting at all. It has a feature that tells you what's wrong in plain english instead of beep codes, it says (over and over again) "System memory failed. System memory failed. System..."

I just got an RMA from NewEgg and eMailed them requesting them to cross ship.

Let the messy disassembly probess begin! I am going to try disconnecting the IDE and take out the video card, and then I'm going to take this thing back apart (Drives and all) so we can ship it off in the morning.

Changing BIOS settings really is a fine idea but, as I said, it helps if you can GET to the BIOS

Saaby, I had the same experience and it turned out that the motherboard was cracked where the memory sticks were installed. You did say that this motherboard was hanging around and not brand new, right? Just a thought.

Marty

Sabby, it's possible Crucial is wrong and their RAM doesn't match the chipset or BIOS.

RAM chips have surprisingly complex specs for operation and startup. In the days before Intel chipsets this was a big deal and you generally could not move RAM safely from system to system.

When Intel took over the market they greatly relaxed the chipset timing so that almost any RAM chip would work. This made it a lot slower but they had a monopoly so big deal. Now others do chipsets again and it's possible they're aggressive with timing once more and RAM is a delicate choice.

Good luck if it's a cracked solder trace. There are few problem more evil to track down.

PS. Even if the RAM specs match the chipset for operation there might be startup problems. RAM often powers up in test mode and needs to be brought out to operation mode - if the BIOS is testing system memory in RAM test mode then the BIOS will fail. It's unlikely the BIOS does that but I've made that ... I mean, I've seen that mistake before.

Some info for you from OEMPCworld.com

http://62.108.128.99/result.asp?mn=A7V8X&modelid=31091

For the mobo you mentioned.

What is the FSB on that 900 Mhz Athlon?? I'd bet it is 200 Mhz.

The best computing resource on the Net I know of is

http://computing.net/

I have seen a number of horror stories about the A7Vs on there.

My setup is a Giga-Byte GA-7IXEH 200 Mhz FSB mobo, 1.1 Ghz Athlon Tbird, and 2 x 512 MB PC133 sdram dimm. Memory is from OEMPCWorld. Runs like a champ.

Marty--No, this is a brand new board, arrived yesterday. We have 2 dead boards (Other than this one) that I need to get repaired. One is an ABIT-I think that all that happened in the OB drive controller went out, boots up until it's time to load your OS, then it fails to recognize your drive. It did this spontaniously and the drive was ok. I did lots of diagnosing before pronouncing it dead. The CPU was just laying around, but it's fine.

Then there's her old board, a SOYO that refuses to post no matter what you do. Can't get any beep codes, good OR bad. Also tried a multitude of things before pronouncing dead.

Heh, it sounds like I just can't build a computer...but I think I just have bad luck with motherboards.

James, several other people use this same memory sucessfully, it's a popular "model" if you will. The Crucial site just confirmed that it was good to go.

Charles, I'm not sure what the FSB is on it, I'll have to look into that for you. It's one of the earlier Athlon 900s.

Thanks for the ideas everyone but I got it RMAed and I think they're even going to cross ship for me, standby...

Saaby- If you haven't already, try removing and reseating the RAM. This "fix" is a recurring theme at another forum I hang out at.

Larry

Saaby (and everyone else)

Do yall know about this web site:

http://www.pricewatch.com/

GREAT for looking up prices and buying computer stuff IF you know EXACTLY WHAT you want!

Have you tried replacing the BIOS battery on the one that won't post???

Ummm...no

Thought about that after we had ordered the new board...

**EDIT**
BUT!!! This board had been having some problems long before it died. Sometimes it would not post unless you turned it on and off a few times, every now and then it would shut itself off. I know what you're thinking--not enough cooling--but believe me, this computer had overkill on the cooling...

many motherboard problems i see are due to bad caps.look for any with domed tops or leaking crud.
most likely to cause strange problems them death.
had an a7v with intermittant no post and it had several open caps that looked fine.
abit has a big problem with this.

saaby, it most likely is the motherboard. Sersiouly, if you have any problems with flakiness at all with your system aside from changing to extreme settings in the bios or overclocking. Return the board. Motherboards have so many fault prone areas. Of all the components on the computer if I were to buy one piece locally to avoid headaches it would be the motherboard. My uncle is notorious with his bad luck at fryes, once he had to take 2 motherboards back till he got one that worked. I've been lucky. The last 4 computers I have put together have had non problematic motherboards.