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#1
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Why would adding 2 new chips of memory cause Win XP Pro Not to Boot?
I have a Gateway Athlon 700 with 584MB of memory. 1 256MB SDRAM chip
with ECC, 2 128MB chips, non ECC. Got 2 256MB SpecTek Non ECC chips from my brother from his old computer. Replaced the 2 128 chips with the 2 256MB chips, figuring no problems would occur. Lo and behold, boot the system up and get: Windows could not start because of an error in the software. Please report this problem as : load needed DLLs for kernel Please contact your support person to report this problem. Take the 2 chips out, problem fixed, boots up fine. What about these chips would make the system fail? They should be compatible with my system. Any help would be appreciated thanks, Oscar |
#3
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Gateway is particularly evil about providing memory facts.
Better to go to someone like www.crucible.com to learn which types of 256 memory is required. For example, same size memory in nine chip or two chip configurations; and other differences. To you, difference should be transparent. But computer hardware accesses memories differently. BIOS should solve that identification for you. Memories have a single pin that tells computer what kind of memory it is. However many Gateway BIOSes are not properly programmed and will not be corrected by updates. Some Gateway motherboards only understand nine chip memory. Even worse, Gateway cannot be bothered to inform you which memory will and will not work. Look. Any decent computer vendor also provided comprehensive diagnostics for each machine - for free. Gateway does not. No diagnostics and their inability to even report which kind of memory works in their machines are but some reasons why Gateway is no longer on my recommended list. Add to this - even their technical support does not understand difference exists between two chip and nine chip memory! Goto to crucible.com to learn which type is acceptable for your machine. Don't even waste time with Gateway support or their 'tech unfriendly' website - that does not even provide diagnostics for your machine. Customer support tech claimed he had access to more information than I did. So I had him read from his screen. From memory, I interrupted his sentences and finished them. Gateway customer support is that technically ignorant. That website contained little useful technical facts. wrote: I have a Gateway Athlon 700 with 584MB of memory. 1 256MB SDRAM chip with ECC, 2 128MB chips, non ECC. Got 2 256MB SpecTek Non ECC chips from my brother from his old computer. Replaced the 2 128 chips with the 2 256MB chips, figuring no problems would occur. Lo and behold, boot the system up and get: Windows could not start because of an error in the software. Please report this problem as : load needed DLLs for kernel Please contact your support person to report this problem. Take the 2 chips out, problem fixed, boots up fine. What about these chips would make the system fail? They should be compatible with my system. |
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#5
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This morning I recieved a 256mb module of Spectek DDR333 (non-ECC), and
as soon as I got into Windows, the machine would crash. Sometimes it didn't even make it into Windows. I changed the speed of it from 333mhz down to 250mhz and it's running fine at the moment (I haven't had a chance to test it extensively in games or run MemTest86 on it, yet). I will be sending it back to the place I got it, though! Apparently Spectek memory is made by Micron (see http://www.spectek.com/menus/about.asp) and it's the stuff which has failed testing for Crucial memory so they pass it off as this Spectek ****. Before I send it back, though, I'll make sure it's not the fact that I'm running 2 different makes of DDR333 alongside it (TwinMOS and Samsung) so I'll take the TwinMOS and Samsung modules out and try it at 333mhz with just the Spectek (I hate the name already). |
#6
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On Fri, 06 Feb 2004 13:57:18 +0000, Anton Gysen
wrote: This morning I recieved a 256mb module of Spectek DDR333 (non-ECC), and as soon as I got into Windows, the machine would crash. Sometimes it didn't even make it into Windows. I changed the speed of it from 333mhz down to 250mhz and it's running fine at the moment (I haven't had a chance to test it extensively in games or run MemTest86 on it, yet). I will be sending it back to the place I got it, though! Apparently Spectek memory is made by Micron (see http://www.spectek.com/menus/about.asp) and it's the stuff which has failed testing for Crucial memory so they pass it off as this Spectek ****. Before I send it back, though, I'll make sure it's not the fact that I'm running 2 different makes of DDR333 alongside it (TwinMOS and Samsung) so I'll take the TwinMOS and Samsung modules out and try it at 333mhz with just the Spectek (I hate the name already). No, it did not "fail testing for crucial", it's not "****", it's simply the lower grade memory, which can't run at the faster timings. More often than not, when a motherboard won't run the lower grade memory, it's a flaw with the motherboard, not the memory. Many boards require higher-spec memory to run at lower spec settings to compensate for that motherboard's design, especially when multiplie modules are used. You're running 3 modules... it was pretty likely you'd have problems with most modules you try. Many boards required lowering memory bus speed or relaxing the memory timings to run 3 modules. In other words, it's "almost" always better to use the least number of modules possible, though that's 2 if you're running a dual-channel board. |
#7
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In article ,
says... On 5 Feb 2004 11:31:12 -0800, wrote: I have a Gateway Athlon 700 with 584MB of memory. 1 256MB SDRAM chip with ECC, 2 128MB chips, non ECC. Got 2 256MB SpecTek Non ECC chips from my brother from his old computer. Replaced the 2 128 chips with the 2 256MB chips, figuring no problems would occur. Lo and behold, boot the system up and get: Windows could not start because of an error in the software. Please report this problem as : load needed DLLs for kernel Please contact your support person to report this problem. Take the 2 chips out, problem fixed, boots up fine. What about these chips would make the system fail? They should be compatible with my system. Any help would be appreciated thanks, Oscar Unfortunately many boards aren't extensively tested with all memory slot populated, or perhaps those that are, are not redesigned if that's a problem. In other words, simply because your board has 3 slots, and can theoretically accept X amount of memory per slot, you can't necessarily assume it would run stable with all slots maxed out. You could try entering the BIOS and relaxing, rasing the memory timing numbers, or choosing "slower" or similar wording, but even that may not help enough. Test the memory with http://www.memtest86.com, ALWAYS, for several hours before ever booting to the OS, to avoid file corruption. You might also try different combinations, see if the system would even run stable with only the pair of "new" modules in it. By "run stable" I again mean running memtest86, not booting to the OS till it at least tests ok at that. Kony, I have tested with just the new modules in it and I get the same results. I took your advice and dowloaded memtest86. Both chips failed miserably on test 4, the errors just kept incrementing. Now, does this mean the chips are bad or that these chips just are not compatible on my system? Thanks for your help. |
#8
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On Sat, 7 Feb 2004 09:49:36 -0500, Oscar G. Carranza
wrote: In article , says... On 5 Feb 2004 11:31:12 -0800, wrote: I have a Gateway Athlon 700 with 584MB of memory. 1 256MB SDRAM chip with ECC, 2 128MB chips, non ECC. Got 2 256MB SpecTek Non ECC chips from my brother from his old computer. Replaced the 2 128 chips with the 2 256MB chips, figuring no problems would occur. Lo and behold, boot the system up and get: Windows could not start because of an error in the software. Please report this problem as : load needed DLLs for kernel Please contact your support person to report this problem. Take the 2 chips out, problem fixed, boots up fine. What about these chips would make the system fail? They should be compatible with my system. Any help would be appreciated thanks, Oscar Unfortunately many boards aren't extensively tested with all memory slot populated, or perhaps those that are, are not redesigned if that's a problem. In other words, simply because your board has 3 slots, and can theoretically accept X amount of memory per slot, you can't necessarily assume it would run stable with all slots maxed out. You could try entering the BIOS and relaxing, rasing the memory timing numbers, or choosing "slower" or similar wording, but even that may not help enough. Test the memory with http://www.memtest86.com, ALWAYS, for several hours before ever booting to the OS, to avoid file corruption. You might also try different combinations, see if the system would even run stable with only the pair of "new" modules in it. By "run stable" I again mean running memtest86, not booting to the OS till it at least tests ok at that. Kony, I have tested with just the new modules in it and I get the same results. I took your advice and dowloaded memtest86. Both chips failed miserably on test 4, the errors just kept incrementing. Now, does this mean the chips are bad or that these chips just are not compatible on my system? Thanks for your help. It could mean either, but it doesn't really matter... for your needs, they're not suitable. You may as well try to get them replaced. |
#9
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wrote in message
om... I have a Gateway Athlon 700 with 584MB of memory. 1 256MB SDRAM chip with ECC, 2 128MB chips, non ECC. Got 2 256MB SpecTek Non ECC chips from my brother from his old computer. Replaced the 2 128 chips with the 2 256MB chips, figuring no problems would occur. Lo and behold, boot the system up and get: Windows could not start because of an error in the software. Please report this problem as : load needed DLLs for kernel Please contact your support person to report this problem. Take the 2 chips out, problem fixed, boots up fine. What about these chips would make the system fail? They should be compatible with my system. Any help would be appreciated thanks, Oscar ALL of the Slot A Athlon mobos were very fussy about the quality of the memory used in them. Most of these boards will not support 3 sticks of memory. They also have some weird chip configuration requirements: they wont take double sided DIMMs or a certain number of memory chips, etc.. I have 3 Asus K7M Slot A mobos. One of them will only run with Micron Crucial DIMMs. It will take 2 PC100/128 ECC DIMMs or 1 PC100/256 and 1 PC100/128 ECC but nothing else that I've tried. Another K7M was running great with a mishmash of DIMMs until this past week, a Corsair PC100/256 DIM, a Kingston PC100/128 Value RAM DIMM and a Kingston PC133/128 Value RAM DIMM. All of a sudden it was posting 384MB instead of 512MB and I was getting Windows Protection Errors. I spent hours switching memory and testing with Memtest86 and DocMem. It only runs with 1 stick now, so it's a mobo problem. The 3rd board will only run 1 or 2 PC100/128 DIMMs. I use Micron Crucial memory most of the time and occasionally the best quality Muskin RAM. I got a "real deal" on some Kingston ValueRam a while back. It tested fine with Memtest86 and DocMem memory testing programs. This weekend I tested all of my systems and found 3 of the ValueRam DIMMs failed the memory tests! They have a "lifetime" guarantee but still it's not worth the hassle! BTW, the new version 3.0 of Memtest86 does a much better job with Athlons. earlier versions had some problems with AMD chipsets used on some Athlon mobos. There is a lot of junk memory on the market. The memory chips themselves are produced on 200mm (8") or 300mm (12") silicon wafers. All of the chips are tested before the wafers are cut up into "die" (chips). Chips near the center of the wafers are generally the best quality. To keep their yields per wafer up, chip makers market finished memory chips in several quality levels. A few chip makers like Micron, Samsung and Siemens produce finished memory products but most chips are sold to memory fabricators who assemble them onto the small printed circuit boards called memory modules (SIMMs, DIMMs SODIMMs, etc.). The best modules are made with premium quality matched memory chips. The worst are made from the bottom of the yield chips and are sometimes fudged to report that they are better quality products. Cheap memory sometimes isn't even tested by low end fabricators; it takes time and costs money to run these tests - it's cheaper to just replace the defective products ! Bad or intermittently defective memory is one of the biggest causes of Windows stability problems. Check out this site for a better explanation of chip and memory module manufacturing: http://www.crucial.com/library/manufacturing.asp ALL of the newer CPUs, both Intel and AMD have memory issues - and Power Supply problems. Athlon systems require a minimum of 300W output from a premium quality power supply. There have been PSs rated at 300W that actually put out only 195W ! -- Chas. (Drop spamski to E-mail me) |
#10
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"kony" wrote in message ... On Fri, 06 Feb 2004 13:57:18 +0000, Anton Gysen wrote: This morning I recieved a 256mb module of Spectek DDR333 (non-ECC), and as soon as I got into Windows, the machine would crash. Sometimes it didn't even make it into Windows. I changed the speed of it from 333mhz down to 250mhz and it's running fine at the moment (I haven't had a chance to test it extensively in games or run MemTest86 on it, yet). I will be sending it back to the place I got it, though! Apparently Spectek memory is made by Micron (see http://www.spectek.com/menus/about.asp) and it's the stuff which has failed testing for Crucial memory so they pass it off as this Spectek ****. Before I send it back, though, I'll make sure it's not the fact that I'm running 2 different makes of DDR333 alongside it (TwinMOS and Samsung) so I'll take the TwinMOS and Samsung modules out and try it at 333mhz with just the Spectek (I hate the name already). No, it did not "fail testing for crucial", it's not "****", it's simply the lower grade memory, which can't run at the faster timings. More often than not, when a motherboard won't run the lower grade memory, it's a flaw with the motherboard, not the memory. Many boards require higher-spec memory to run at lower spec settings to compensate for that motherboard's design, especially when multiplie modules are used. You're running 3 modules... it was pretty likely you'd have problems with most modules you try. Many boards required lowering memory bus speed or relaxing the memory timings to run 3 modules. In other words, it's "almost" always better to use the least number of modules possible, though that's 2 if you're running a dual-channel board. Good points but there is some real junk, untested memory on the market that wont work in fussy systems. Three memory slots create real electrical problems for motherboard engineers (Read they are too cheap to add some additional Caps) ! Intel reduced the slots from 3 to 2 on some of their mobos for this reason. Some of the early DIMM mobos only had 1 memory slot. -- Chas. (Drop spamski to E-mail me) |
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