GA-7N400 Pro 2 M/B with AMD Athlon XP 3200+

[Aboonah]

Two issues have come up within a month of each other...maybe not related:

     1) Last month video card died and a week later the motherboard began a high-pitched whine. It's irritating, but we can live with it.

Second problem: two days ago we replaced the system's two 512M Dimm chips with two 1G chips. System booted and ran. But both operating systems (XP on C: and Win7 on K:) go Blue-Screen after being up and running for a while. Win7's trouble-shooter suggests a RAM issue. We took out the new sticks and replaced the originals and everything works fine again.

So it must be a RAM issue: but what is likely? The new sticks are 1GB PC3200 DIMM 400 MHZ DDR (LD).

And advice appreciated.

[absic]

Hi,

Do you have latest BIOS for your Mobo?
Which slots are you putting the 2 new sticks of RAM into?

Can you post a few more details regarding your PC components (CPU, GPU, PSU, HDD's etc.) to help out a little more and also your Mobo Rev no.

[Aboonah]

>Do you have latest BIOS for your Mobo?

No...but that's another problem. I tried to update just now using the _@bios_  utility that came with the mobo. Got an error: "Write Protect Error"
So I downloaded the latest version of _@bios_ and ran it. With the new version I get the error: "BIOS partnumber (AWARD) is not correct"
So no update.

>Which slots are you putting the 2 new sticks of RAM into?
1 and 3 as per the manual. As I mentioned, the old 512 sticks still work fine.

>Can you post a few more details regarding your PC components (CPU, GPU, PSU, HDD's etc.) to help out a little more and also your Mobo Rev no.

CPU = AMD Athlon XP 3200+
GPU = Matrox Millenium II PCI
PSU = 450W Logisys

[absic]

Hi

Have you tried updating the BIOS using the QFlash utility from within BIOS itself?

If you use the QFlash utility you will first need to download the correct BIOS for your Motherboard. Be careful as there are 2 versions of your Mobo  and the latest versions of BIOS are F11 for Rev.1.x and FK for the Rev 2.x
Check out your Mobo Manual for full details how to Flash BIOS with QFlash.

The new sticks are 1GB PC3200 DIMM 400 MHZ DDR (LD)

Can you also post further details of your new memory, Manufacturer, Voltage, Part No.?

Thanks

[Aboonah]

>Can you also post further details of your new memory, Manufacturer, Voltage, Part No.?

Memory is: HYNIX 1GB PC3200 DDR 400 MHZ 184PIN 1 GB DDR400 MAC PC CL 3

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS: 184 PIN Memory 400Mhz DIMM (DUAL IN-LINE MEMORY) Non-ECC
     Non-Parity Voltage 2.5V Unbuffered Cas Latency 3

[absic]

Hi,

Looking at the specs for your RAM I think it should work OK unless it is faulty. (which can happen even with new sticks)

Did you manage to update BIOS using QFlash?

[Aboonah]

Was finally able to update BIOS successfully to F11.

System still works normally with the 2 original 512 memory sticks. Still crashes after start-up with the 2 new 2GB sticks instead of the old 512's. Have tried different slots and tried using only one or the other of the 2GB sticks. Still crashes after a while.

I pretty much feel that it's not worth the time...just going to return the sticks and keep what worked.

Thanks for efforts to help.

[absic]

Hi,
originally you posted:

Memory is: HYNIX 1GB PC3200 DDR 400 MHZ 184PIN 1 GB DDR400 MAC PC CL 3

Now you are saying that your memory is:

Still crashes after start-up with the 2 new 2GB sticks

Your motherboard will only support 3 gig of RAM in total, trying to put 4 gig into it (2x 2 gig sticks) is the problem. You can only run with 1.5 gig of RAM per channel on your motherboard.

If you do have 2 new 2 gig sticks of memory (not 2 x 1 gig as you originally stated) replace them for 2 x 1 gig sticks and your motherboard will support this.