Motherboard and Processor needed

[Daryl Greene]

I was just wondering if any of you guys happen to have a C2D of some flavor and a motherboard for it that you would let go on the cheap. Hopefully we could work a payment option or something as well. Would be good if the MB had 2 IDE channels as well.

My wife's PC just decided to quit on us. It will begin to boot once in a long while, but stops when it should be loading windows. Mostly it just immediately errors with a single long beep every few seconds. I thought it might be the HDD and hooked up another, same thing. I changed the IDE cable and it tried to start but wouldn't load windows. Finally got a spare drive to start up and even went all the way through reinstalling XP. Soon as it was done I got a BSOD. When I rebooted it went right back to the immediate error.

She loves her PC and internet time and I can't give her that kind of time on my PC. I have work that I have to do on mine as well as the other things that I do. If anyone is willing to help I would appreciate it. Would give me a chance to finally give her the 7800GTX too.

Her current PC is a Athlon64 3200+, Gigabyte K8NSC-939, WD 200GB IDE HDD, WD 60GB HDD, some cd burner or other, cheap Kingston 1GB DDR400 (bought from Wally World and FSP 450watt? PSU.

If it comes down to it I am just as interested in a cheap MB to try out and see if it fixes the problem with this one. I get the feeling it has something to do with it anyway. I started wondering right off if maybe the IDE channel crapped out on it or maybe the BIOS.

At this point ANYTHING would be helpful.

[Bruce Normann]

Hi Daryl,

I may have what you need, either the C2D parts or a replacement for the AMD board. I'll let you know later tonight, when I get home and can give you details.

BR, Bruce.

[Bruce Normann]

Hi, Daryl,

PM Sent.

Hi Darryl,

I may have what you need, either the C2D parts or a replacement for the AMD board. I'll let you know later tonight, when I get home and can give you details.

BR, Bruce.

[Daryl Greene]

OK, I got my hands on an ASUS K8N socket 754 MB and an AMD64 3000+. I put this together with some Kingston value RAM (KVR400X64C3A/1G \1GB 400MHz DDR Non-ECC CL3 (3-3-3) DIMM). The problem is that when I try to boot to a HDD I get this... http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z278/kwikdrw/exception.jpg.

If I try to do a fresh XP install I just get a BSOD. It was suggested that it may be the RAM timings, but I had to flash the BIOS to even get started. Also I set it to default settings before I started as well. Then I went and looked up the above info on the RAM and tried to use it to no avail.

Anyone have any other suggestions? I hate to have spent the money and not figure out what is the deal here.

[Bruce Normann]

The manual is here (http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/sock754/K8N/e1868_k8n.pdf).

Is the memory module in DIMM Slot 1?
There's only one, right?

[Olin Coles]

When troubleshooting, remove/reduce the number of components to isolate the problem. Work with one single RAM module until you get this figured out, and if you suspect the memory settings are an issue then go loose and reduce speed and instrease latency. Better safe than sorry.

[Bruce Normann]

If we can't figure this out in a week or so, I'd suggest taking advantage of the money back guarantee. We're not trying to add to your troubles....

[Daryl Greene]

I just want to make an effort before worrying about sending it out. I mean, they are supposed to be good working components.

Yes, the stick is in slot one and there's only 1.

[Bruce Normann]

According to the datasheet, the RAM is spec'd at 2.6 V (+/- .1V)
Section 2.4.2 in the MB manual lists the possible DRAM Voltages as [Auto][2.5][2.6][2.7]. I'd try setting it manually to 2.6V or 2.7V.
Also, as Olin suggested, start with looser timings and/or lower frequency. On this board, CL3 is the loosest timing available, so we'll have to reduce the frequency.

I can't find any info for the RAM specs on DRAM Active Time (the last timing #), so I'll guess 12. Feel free to adjust this if you have better info.

In section 2.4.4, try: 333Mhz, 3-3-3-12.
If that fails, try 266MHz.

Also section 2.4.4, set primary display to AGP, if you're using that slot for the graphics card. [Auto] is PCI, which you're probably not using.

[Daryl Greene]

I think I actually had it set to 2.8v. I'll have to check that again though. As for changing frequencies.... I really don't like the idea of having to GIMP the RAM to get it to work.

[Bruce Normann]

We're just trying to isolate the issue at this point.

As for changing frequencies.... I really don't like the idea of having to GIMP the RAM to get it to work.

[Olin Coles]

Daryl, have you run MemTest 86+ or Microsoft Memory Diagnostic on this system yet?

[Daryl Greene]

Olin, it's kinda difficult to do that until you get it to boot up isn't it? Anywho, it seems that this MB just doesn't like the RAM! I dug out a dual channel kit I had (OCZ DDR400 2x512 3-2-3-6) and it tried to boot to the windows install on the HDD. Since there was a bit of an issue with it I am reinstalling XP now. So, we will see how it goes.

This is the first time EVER that I have had an issue with a new MB and perfectly good RAM that I already had and it sucks!