Paging the IT bods

I wanted to upgrade the memory on my PC, so I went to the dabs website
to make a purchase. I used the facility available in order to obtain a
compatable DDR RAM to replace the SDRAM I currently have, which is a
bit slow.

Unfortunately, when I installed the memory and re-started the PC, the
PC doesn’t boot up at all. Nothing. Not even any beeps or error
messages to say that the memory is incompatible.



I’ll try and give you as much info as I can…



Motherboard: ECS K7S5A, V1.0

Current Ram: 2 x 256mb SDRAM

Motherboard capable of up to 1GB of RAM, either in SDRAM or DDR (2
types of slots available). Cannot run system with mixed types of RAM.

I used the facility on dabs.com to ascertain the type of memory that
would be suitable for my motherboard, and chose 2 x 512mg, 184 pin DIMM
PC3200 DDR Ram, non-parity CL3.

I took out the SDRAM and installed the DDR, the system failed to boot
and only seemed to be seeking out the two CD slots without going any
further (ie, checking IDE and other boot systems). I’ve checked the
motherboard manual and all the settings in the BIOS are as per the
manual.

Does anyone have any ideas as to what may be the problem?

Yes, I know it's an old system now, but apart from running slow it
works fine, I just want to be able to run it a bit faster.

--
Lesley
Residing in the Capital of Culture 2008
CBR600FW
Peugeot 206 S
SBS#11 (with oak-leaf cluster)
BOTAFOT#101A UKRMHRC#12
BONY#54P BOB#18

 

Wot 'e said. Go back to your original setup and see if it works. If it
does then reinstall the new memory and try again. If it fails a second
time get the memory replaced.
--
Richard

XJ900S
BOTAFOT #138, YTC#18, OMF#12

Email-remove insult to reply

 

Heh. If I hadn't re-installed the original memory, I wouldn't have
been able to make the posting )

--
Lesley
Residing in the Capital of Culture 2008
CBR600FW
Peugeot 206 S
SBS#11 (with oak-leaf cluster)
BOTAFOT#101A UKRMHRC#12
BONY#54P BOB#18

 

The options to identify the 'correct' sticks on the dabs website are
those for Crucial and Kingston, not dabs themselves. I spent quite a
long time using different websites and their facilities in order to try
to ascertain that I would actually purchase the correct item(s).

The K7S5A board takes up to a maximum of 1 gig of memory, there are two
slots available on both types of memory, which is why I chose 2 x
512mb, especially as I used the check facility on a couple of websites
and they came back with the same answers.

I'm wondering if, possibly, there is a problem with the motherboard as
it cannot read the new memory?

No idea how to check that side of things, so I may have to splash out
on a new m/b too.

--
Lesley
Residing in the Capital of Culture 2008
CBR600FW
Peugeot 206 S
SBS#11 (with oak-leaf cluster)
BOTAFOT#101A UKRMHRC#12
BONY#54P BOB#18

 

Will it work in theory with just one stick, & if so, have you tried
that? Could be a DOA stick. Or it could be the mb slots have got too
match crap in if they've been open for yonks - give 'em hell with a
paint brush & hoover.

Most small 'puter shops should be able to test both the mb & the RAM.

--
Krusty

'03 Tiger 955i
'02 MV Senna (for sale) '96 Tiger (for sale)
'79 Fantic Hiro 250 (for sale) '81 Corvette (for sale)

 

I can't see your original post so I'm answering here:
It looks like your motherboard is rather finicky as there seem to be several
people with similar issues. A couple of solutions suggested are to remove
all PCI cards (particularly ones made by Creative ), reset the bios, upgrade
the power supply or fiddle with the CMOS chip/battery.
http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=ecs+K7S5A+ddr+post&btnG=Search&meta=

Much as I like fiddling with my antiquities, as you do, I don't think it's
worth spending ca.£30 on new memory for such an old computer, when you can
get a cheap twin-core processor, motherboard and 1GB of DDR2 for approx £75.
The performance-improvement-per-pound ratio should be much better in the
second case.


Geo

 

Oh joy, thanks for that. Guess I'll have to wait until Wednesday
before I can start playing about with things then.

Yeah, but I was (a) trying to save on cost (albeit a small amount) and
(b) as the system itself is working fine, I'm reluctant to get rid of a
perfectly working (but slow) system.

Mind you, there is a motherboard bundle that was bought last year by my
Mum, who actually ended out being given a very nice working system
which runs 2GB RAM...she'll want paying for it though.

--
Lesley
Residing in the Capital of Culture 2008
CBR600FW
Peugeot 206 S
SBS#11 (with oak-leaf cluster)
BOTAFOT#101A UKRMHRC#12
BONY#54P BOB#18

 

Oh I really know what you mean, until recently my main desktop at home was a
500MHz Slot-A Athlon, with upgrades like a GeForce2 GTS, 250GB HDD, DVD
burner and WiFi. It finally lost the will to live three months ago, so I had
to use my K6-II until I bought a new computer (for the first time in 8
years).


Geo