Okay, this has been driving me nuts for months ... no, YEARS, actually (on a prior setup), and I've never figured this crap out yet. When upgrading the memory on my system, I have this intermittent problem with the thing not wanting to boot and just going "BEEEEEEEP! BEEEEEEEEEP! BEEEEEEEP!" when I try to power it on. I'm not mixing brands or speeds or types of memory sticks here. Just four 500 MB sticks of RAM (2 GB total) of the same brand and the correct speed (I forget exactly what number right off hand) for my system motherboard. Everything's clean, no dust, no scratched contacts, or anything like that. It just gets moody sometimes and decides it doesn't like the memory I've added. I've had this in the past and I wound up returning the memory two different times (thinking it was defective) before I finally just gave up and waited until I got a whole new motherboard and started over from scratch. When I built Lynn's new system with a new set of memory sticks and all, no problems, but when I took her old memory (which had worked flawlessly before) and plugged it onto my mother board, it would work fine for a day or two and then ... "BEEEEEEP! BEEEEEP! BEEEEEP!" the next time I tried to power up the system, or it would hang up on the initial RAM test portion. Take it out, put the old memory back in ... no problems. (Well, other than having less RAM. ) W'ssup with that? I've tried plugging in one memory stick at a time and letting the system "learn" each one, I've tried making extra-sure the contacts were clean, making damned sure everything is fully seated, and I've tried installing the memory sticks in difference sequences. Same problems, no matter what I do. Sometimes it's fussy, other times it's not. If I turn it on and it does the beeping thing, I just shut it off, wait about 10 seconds, and try again. Sometimes it takes 2 or 3 retries before it'll boot without any problems. When it works, it works beautifully and I have no problems with any of my software, and I can literally go for days without any issues as long as I don't need to reboot or if I have to shut it down and then start it up again at any point. It's just really bizarre that this stuff happens intermittently. Really freakin' annoying to deal with first thing in the morning, too. Anyone else ever had this sort of thing before? Any ideas on what else I should try? Or should I just ditch this old crap, get a whole new motherboard and CPU with a crapload of fresh RAM, and go from there?
Sounds to me like your memory slots on the MB may have issues. It's been known to happen. If all memory works fine in her system, but not in yours, that would be my guess. Also, to note, some MB have to have the memory installed in pairs.
Possibly a BIOS update? The beeping is your computer failing POST.. Here is a link that discusses the POST beeping codes for different motherboards. Computer Post / Beep codes
Well, the kind of beeping I'm getting is just a single long beep, over and over again, which would be a RAM failure/problem, according to that link. I'm doubting that it's the motherboard, itself, because again it works just fine with the old memory sticks without any problems at all. Hell, I even had two different-branded pairs of RAM in there before without problems for a year or so. But now that you mention it, I did originally have just one pair of memory sticks in there when I upgraded it previously with another pair, so maybe the install-in-pairs thing is where it's getting freaked out? I guess tonight I'll try yanking two of the sticks out, run it through a few reboots, and see if that changes anything. If that works, then I'll poke in the other two and see if it stays happy. Or should I pop out the little BIOS memory battery, let it sit for awhile, pop it back in, and then do the two-at-a-time thing? Does the BIOS need to "learn" the memory being stuck into it? I've never heard of such a thing before - I thought it was pretty much just poke-and-go when it came to RAM, and it either works or it doesn't. It's just kinda weird that it only does it every now and then, right now, and doesn't beep at me all of the time. Seems almost like a connection issue, but everything's perfectly clean and fully-seated.
What motherboard do you have? Manufacturer and model number? The extent of the bios learning the memory should be done during POST. Something that might be worth trying is locating, downloading, and burning a CD called Hiren's Boot CD. Use it to boot into dos and run one of the memory tests.
I'll give that a shot if the two-at-a-time thing doesn't work. I don't remember exactly what model of motherboard I'm running, but I'm pretty sure it's an Asus, if that makes any difference. I put it together back in mid-2005, I believe, and I updated it about 6 months ago with a new CPU and RAM. The CPU has never given me problems at all (AMD dual core), but the RAM is definitely what's being a turd. I've had a time or two when it'll go through the RAM test and not beep or hang up, but it'll only recognize 1.5 GB of RAM being present instead of the full 2.09 GB, so it's almost like one of the memory sticks is either intermittently being poopy or not getting connection or ... or ... whatever it is. Really wish I could just replace all four and upgrade to 4 GB of RAM while I'm at it, but from what I've seen online, I don't think they even make my kind of DDR RAM anymore (or at least not in a set of four 1 GB sticks). I think everything now is DDR2 or something else - the kind with a higher number of chips and mounting contacts per stick. Until I can afford to upgrade the whole motherboard, CPU, RAM, and other stuff, all in one bickety-bam sha-bang, I'm pretty well stuck with this. In the future, I'll need to just build a whole new friggin' computer, since damn near everything on my system from the CD drives to the video card to the OS and everything inbetween is in need of upgrading/replacement.
Have you ever updated the BIOS? I have an old Asus motherboard running my server and I know it shows the model number on bootup. You can get the current bios here. ASUSTeK Computer Inc.-Support- Something you just said makes me think. Is it intermittant in showing the 1.5 gigs instead of the 2.0, or is it a case of when it works, you get the 1.5? Perhaps your motherboard does not support 2 gigs. Or doesn't support the sticks you are using. On my server, I need to update the bios because while it does support 512k of ram, it currently does not support the 256k stick I have in there along with the pair of 128k sticks. It boots, passes post, but doesn't show all the memory and has some funky intermittant problems if I try to run it with the unsupported stick.
Sorry, I was wrong. Just got done sucking out the dust bunnies a minute ago to start playing with it and saw that it's an ABIT brand motherboard, not an Asus - specifically, an ABIT KN8. My memory sucks. The memory in my brain, I mean ... although it's just about as dysfunctional as the memory in my computer. The RAM test during startup will normally display 2.09 GB of RAM as good, just every once in a blue moon it'll show something like 1.5 GB, and the rest of the time it just does the "BEEEEEEEP BEEEEEEEP BEEEEEEEP" thing. The RAM that I presently have in there is DDR 400 (PC 3200) 184-pin RAM in four sticks of 512 MB. Other stats of the system, for whatever they're worth: CPU: 2.01 Ghz Athlon 64 Dual Core 3800+ (939 socket) Video: GeoForce 6200 LE 128 MB (wow, even worse than I remembered, I thought it was 256 MB - no wonder it can barely run L4D2!) Audio: on-board Realtek AC'97 (which actually doesn't sound bad at all) with an added Soundblaster Live 5.1 PCI card (I only poked it in there to use for the old-school serial port for a joystick, I don't actually use the sound card, itself) According to the manual, the motherboard supports up to 4 GB of RAM in DDR 400/333/266 modules, so I am definitely using the correct type of RAM for this board. Also, per the manual's fine print: EDIT: Never mind on the how-to-reset-CMOS thing. I figured it out. Going to try it now. Hopefully, it doesn't wipe this thing's brain to a point where it doesn't recognize any of my hardware... At this very second, I'm only rocking two of the four sticks, and I've rebooted it twice without any issues. Either one of the two other memory sticks sitting in front of me is crap, or my motherboard is just retarded. Or maybe I'm retarded. Probably the latter. On the plus side, apparently I can still get PC 3200 RAM, but it's about $30 a stick for 1 GB sticks, so that's outta my price range for the time being. Oh well. If these will work, groovy, and if not ... well ... poop.
I think I've figured out what the deal is, finally. Apparently, my motherboard sucks in that it doesn't like to let you run four DDR 400's in it at a time. You can either run two DDR 400's in DIMM 1 and 2, OR in 3 and 4, but not in 1, 2, 3, and 4. You can only run DDR 400 in two slots and NOTHING ELSE, otherwise you have to back down to like 333 or 266 in order to pack all four, which pretty much sucks nuts. Soooooo, long story short, I can either live with 2 GB of unstable memory that sometimes lets me boot up and sometimes doesn't, or I can ditch two sticks and only run around with 1 GB of stable RAM. Ugh. This blows. Being that they don't make 939 socket motherboards anymore, resolving this issue means I will have to invest in a new motherboard, new CPU, new RAM (because apparently everything is DDR2 or DDR3 now), and a new hard drive (because everything is SATA instead of ... whatever the hell they call the big fat ribbon connection kind), as well as a new graphics card because my puny little 128 MB turd is laughably inadequate for anything but basic Internet cruising. Sooooo ... yeah. Looking at saving for a whole new computer setup now, I guess. On the bright side, my crazy bastard setup does technically function right now after I reset the CMOS, but for whatever reason it "found new hardware" upon startup and now lists a "PCI bridge controller" as being an "unknown hardware" item that it never had before. Whatever the hell that means. Thanks for the info, all. Gave me a chance to re-familiarize myself with my system and finally get to the bottom of this stupid memory issue.
Just a thought....Alot of MB have "tested" recommendations of ram for use on their systems. I've had ram not work on my system just for the heck of it.(With correct specs) MB's can be really picky. Its happened to me a few times. Chris
Newegg.com - Computer Hardware,Memory,Desktop Memory,DDR 333 (PC 2700) This should be your memory I think. Well, something like this should work for you. Pretty good deal at that. $154 for a mobo and pretty good video card. It will work with your current HD, but it only has 1 channel PATA so you could run the hd and one other connection. Newegg.com - Computer Parts, PC Components, Laptop Computers, Digital Cameras and more! On top of that, you'd need a processor. This one will more than get the job done. $102. Fast dual core that you can unlock into a quad core. Not 100% sure if that mobo will let you unlock the other 2 cores though. Upon further review, yes, you can unlock the 2 cores with that mobo. Newegg.com - AMD Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition Callisto 3.1GHz 2 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 80W Dual-Core Processor - Processors - Desktops Apply memory as needed. Starting at $30 bucks or so for a 1 gig stick. Newegg.com - Computer Hardware,Memory,Desktop Memory,DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) If you do end up getting rid of it, let me know. I might be interested in the mobo/processor. Doesn't take much to run a server and that's a hell of a lot better than my p3 1ghz processor I'm using now. Last but not least, I hate to keep harping on it, but did you check to see if there was a bios update that addresses this?
You wouldn't need to change your HDD right away, most new mobos still have IDE connections on them. Basically you would need mobo, cpu, ram for sure. You may be able to get away with your old psu, dvd drive, etc...
Well, cheap as that may be, it's still out of my range. If I had that kind of money to throw about, I have a list of other things ahead of it in priority (tires for my DD and dental work, mainly). When I do get around to it, I'll probably keep my old system around as either a backup or for use in various offline applications (writing and whatnot) while the newer setup will become my gaming mule and Internet beast. I did check and the BIOS is already up to date. From some things I read about the KN8 motherboard, though, it's got a reputation among some as not being stable, but whether that's only for folks who do that overclocking thing or if it applies to all situations, I dunno. The system I pieced together for Lynn only had one IDE connection on it, which had to be used with the CD drive she had, so she wound up having to use a SATA hard drive, which turned out to be a lot faster anyway. I know I could technically reuse my CD/DVD drives, but they've been getting kind of flaky with age. Probably would wind up just putting in one DVD or DVD-R drive and using the other bay(s) for a panel of USB ports, since USB thumb drives are plenty cheap and handy for portable data storage, anyway. Only time I use a disc drive is for my old media and for the initial OS and driver installs - I probably haven't popped open either of my current CD drives in literally two months.
IDE cables have to connections on them, on for the slave and one for the master. I still use IDE for both of my optical drives, and then use all the sata ports for HDD's and stuff.
That's the thing. My hard drive doesn't have a SATA connection on it. It's just an old-school IDE connection. So, I'd either have to cut down to having one CD drive and one hard drive if the new motherboard only has one IDE connection, or just get a new SATA hard drive and transfer my essentials (via thumb drive or LAN connection) from my old system to the new one. Either way, the new setup is out of my price range for awhile. My next system will be the first I've ever had without a 3.5" floppy drive on it. I was reluctant to let go of that format for small-capacity portable data, but now that USB thumb drives are so cheap and they're pretty handy, I'll be going with those from now on. At $10 for a 2 GB thumb drive, they can hold a lotta crap for next to nothin'.
If I were doing that, I'd point out that you could take off $90 from the mobo and video card by using the onboard video, adding a video card at a later date when more money becomes available.
I already gave in to the urge today to invest in a newer video card. It's not the greatest, but it's a helluva lot better than what I've got... Newegg.com - Galaxy 84GEE6HDFEXN GeForce 8400 GS 256MB 64-bit GDDR2 PCI Express x16 Low Profile Ready Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards Oh yeah, and I still occasionally get the beeping issue, even after resetting the CMOS. So, it appears I'm either gonna have to just live with an unstable 2 GB of RAM, or pull two sticks and have 1 GB of stable RAM. If I could poke in four 1 GB sticks of 266 Mhz RAM (if they even make such things anymore), then I could have 4 GB of RAM, as my motherboard is rated to handle it. But because it's stupid enough that it can only handle two 400 Mhz sticks of ANYTHING at a time, I'm limited to what I have right now.
I like NVidia cards. Your one stop shopping for newest drivers for nvidia is NVIDIA & Laptop News | Latest NVIDIA drivers and related news | laptopvideo2go.com Go to the forum and look at the 190 releases for desktops. Here's 1 gig 333 sticks. Earlier you said that would work. If not, they have 266 sticks too. Newegg.com - Computer Hardware,Memory,Desktop Memory,DDR 333 (PC 2700) Here's a pair of 1 gig sticks for $60 bucks. Newegg.com - Kingston 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 333 (PC 2700) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model KVR333X64C25K2/2G - Desktop Memory Two of them would get you your 4 gigs of ram.
