Second and third DIMM slots not responding

L

Lyrids

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jul 19, 2004
Messages
320
I've been getting a lot of BSOD's lately that suggested memory errors, long story short I opened my case to swap my RAM modules between slots and now the only DIMM slot that works is the first one (the one closest to my CPU). I've tested every conceivable combination of RAM modules and DIMM slots, the only thing that will allow my computer to boot is one module in the first slot. Any other combination yields continuous beeps from the motherboard and a blank screen. According to my motherboard's manual it's a memory error (big surprise). For now, I'm stuck with only half a gig of RAM and no solution in sight, hopefully you guys can help me out on this one. My specs are:

MSI K8N Neo Platinum
AMD Athlon 64 3200+
2x512 Crucial PC3200 DDR400
Nvidia Geforce 6800 GT
 
yay! someone else who still has a working k8n neo! :D:D

take a can of compressed air to the ram slots, blow out all that dust. i'd be surprised if there's a real problem. ;)
 
yup. after all the crap i've put my k8n neo through, it's still rock solid at 200mhz, 1T with 3 sticks of ram in. the board is almost 2 years old now too :eek:
 
I'm still trying to figure out what could possibly be causing this. I don't think I had taken out the RAM since I put it in over two years ago and I was as careful as possible. The only thing I changed was switching what module went into which slot.
 
..did you try cleaning it out with canned air yet? ;)


also, what bios are you running, just out of curiosity?
 
I couldn't find any canned air in my dorm but I did do some extensive blowing, still no progress. I have noticed that when the sticks are in the first and second slots there are beep warnings, but when I try the first and third it boots to the windows loading screen and then hangs.

It's interesting that you ask what version of the BIOS I have, I actually flashed it to V2.1 of the Phoenix Award BIOS the same day I got the memory problems. The problems didn't occur until I handled it with my hands though . . .
 
hm, i assume you cleared the bios?

try flashing back to an older bios?

messing with voltages do anything? or the drive strength?
 
I cleared the CMOS a handful of times when I was trying different combinations of modules and slots but nothing changed . . . I havent tried changing any settings and I haven't rolled back to an older BIOS yet.
 
hmmm.. one other thing. what did you handle with your hands.. the ram?

have you tried running memtest?
 
All I handled with my hands was the RAM, both sticks still work when there's only one in the first slot.
 
It's conceivable that a solder joint to the #2 mobo memory socket had fractured before the modules were removed and was causing bit errors. Then, it fully failed due to mechanical stress when the modules were removed and now it's dead. Just a guess...
 
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