Configuration Question

[kremer22]

Hi guys. Got an interesting issue here. I just finished building a system pretty similar to the Executioner model in the SBG on this site. Here's the setup:
Antec Sonata II case w/ 450W power supply
DFI Lanparty NF4 Ultra-D motherboard
OCZ Enhanced Latency 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Dual Channel Kit System Memory
AMD Athlon 64 3200+
Seagate Barracuda 250Gb SATA150

So I did a fresh install of Windows XP Pro before I noticed that the RAM was being detected as Single channel and clocked down to 333. After checking the mobo manual they suggested putting one chip on slot-1 and the second on slot-3. I did this and the BIOS detected it correctly. However, when I booted up Windows I started getting random restarts. After about an hour of that I started getting blue screens of death. They went by to fast to read but I saw something about it dumping the physical memory. Shortly thereafter I couldn't get XP to boot. It was saying that the config.sys file had been damaged. I couldn't even boot from the CD.

I switched the RAM back to slots 1 and 2 and finally got Windows to boot from the CD (it still wouldn't boot from the hard disk; saying something about pci.sys being corrupt). I had to reformat the partition where I had just installed XP for yet another fresh install. My question is this: Is there a way for me to get the faster configuration working without screwing up Windows? This is a new problem to me as its my first build with XP. The only other software I had on the drive were the mobo drivers, graphics drivers, Avast! AV, Zone Alarm, and Firefox. Windows had been updated with SP2 and all the updates available. Sorry to write so much but I'm not sure what caused the problem. This is my first build in a while and by far the most problematic I've ever had. Thanks for any help!

[kremer22]

Re: Configuration Question

Just a quick note to add. I did not change the FSB in the BIOS after re-arranging the slots which may have caused the instability in the first place but I still can't explain the corrupted files in Windows after restoring the configuration. I'd really like to use the full potential of this RAM but I'm afraid to try again until I know for sure this won't happen again. Sorry to be such a noob but I'd never had a mobo that was this customizable before. I'm still getting familiar with the BIOS settings.

[eat@joes]

Re: Configuration Question

Try these: Update the BIOS, and try different RAM. Don't try your ram in another computer because if it is bad then you don't want 2 bad computers. I had a gigabyte m-atx board that was bad, even after updating the BIOS. It had the same symptoms you are describing. Kept the ram (OCZ Platinum), psu (OCZ modstream), and blah blah everything else, but switched out the board and it hasn't had a problem since (knock on wood).

[kremer22]

Re: Configuration Question

Only problem I have is that I don't have any other RAM to try in it. The BIOS are up to date and the PC runs fine as long as the RAM is in slot 1 & 2. I also tried running with one chip at a time and didn't have any problems. My first thought is that this was some kind of FSB problem. I'm not sure if there's a lock on the PCI slots on this board (although I imagine there is). DFI actually recommends using slots 2 & 4 and not 1 & 3 as I thought (it would be nice if they put that in the actual manual and not just the online one).

My big problem right now is that I don't know if this was a RAM issue or just a Windows issue. Did the RAM corrupt Windows or was it the software I had installed? It seems like putting the RAM in the right slots shouldn't cause any hassle with Windows since it was correctly identified by the BIOS. Do I need to change any BIOS settings after putting the RAM into the correct slots or should that be automatic?