A7N crashing with 2x DDR 512MB RAM works fine with 1

I have recently upgraded to an A7N motherboard to enable me to fit a
Zalman silent CPU fan. Since doing this I've had program crashes all the
time particularly in games (e.g. Americas Army, Half Life 2, Simcity 4).
I've checked MB and CPU temps and all looks normal. I found some dialog
about it being down to the type of memory and suggested removing one of
the sticks of RAM. I did this and it seems to have solved the problem.
However, I'm now down to a single 512MB DIMM instead of the usual DDR'd
1024MB. Before upgrading the 2x512 TwinMOS PC3200 DIMMs were fine and
I've run memtest86 and everything is ok. It doesn't seem to make any
difference if I put the second 512 into the DDR slot or the normal slot
I still get crashes. I've updated the MB BIOS to the latest version but
this has not helped.

Any suggestions?

Regards,
Phil

 

Eh? This raises a couple of confusing issues:

1) A7N motherboard? That's an Asus isn't it? If so, have you tried the Asus
groups?

2) You changed a motherboard simply to allow you to change the heatsink/fan
assembly?

That implies that high CPU usage, or associated high temperatures, are
causing a problem. When you say that CPU temperatures look "normal", what,
specifically, do you mean? Have you tried logging them during periods of
intensive utilisation?

Have you tried relaxing RAM timings? If you have changed boards, the optimal
timings on the new one bay not be the same as the old.

Have you tried both sticks running one at a time, to rule out a faulty
stick?

Small but significant point. You are still running DDR memory, even with
your single DIMM. The thing you get when you run the two together is called
dual channel memory.

Have you changed anything else during the upgrade?

Short of the above, giving us a full description of your system would help.
Plus, as mentioned above, if you do have an Asus, try the Asus group.
--


Richard Hopkins
Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom
(replace nospam with pipex in reply address)

The UK's leading technology reseller www.dabs.com

 

Sorry it was a typo. I meant AN7.

Yes, I was upgrading my brothers machine and he needed a new board so I
gave him mine.

Yes I have. Someone suggested using CPU Stability 6.0 which I have done
and the CPU temp peaks at 50C and if it was CPU temp problems don't you
think it would do it even if I only had one DIMM in?

No I haven't. Again someone has mentioned increasing the voltage by a
tenth or two but I don't usually play around with this stuff. I will
give it a go.

I ran memtest86 on both and didn't get any errors but I'll try the other
one by itself. Thanks.

Nothing has been overclocked.
Abit AN7 uGuru. Latest BIOS (date 2004-11-23)
AMD Athon 3200+
ATI Radeon 9800 (driver date 2004-11-30) (I'm currently downloading the
latest drivers. I downgraded the drivers just in case this was the problem)
2x512 TwinMOS PC3200 DIMMs (except one of them is on my desk at the moment)
SB Audigy Platinum eX
120GB Maxtor SATA Hard Drive
Pioneer 16x Speed 'slot-in' DVD-ROM drive
Floppy drive (not plugged in)
Zalman CNPS7000B silent CPU cooler
Zalman northbridge heatsink (minus a couple of fins so the CPU fan would
fit!)
Windows XP + SP2 (nLited - non-essential components removed)

I think that's it.

Thanks,
Phil