   PC Hardware issue.
  Now I have been building and fixing my own, and friends computers for years now. I would say my skills are getting a little dated, but I'm not totaly clueless under the front panel. However, I'm not real sure what to think about the latest event. A couple of weeks ago my computer suddenly died. I was playing Oblivion and piff. It was off. The power supply was real hot and seeing as how it died right when I started loading a new area, my first guess was the PS went. I thought the HD access may have been a little too much for the poor old thing to handle and piff. Its happened before, easy enough to fix. Not a free fix but there are worse things. Ahh but the new PS, while sexy, did not solve the problem. I was left with my second guess, the MoBo. Seeing as how my Athlon XP now qualifys as old news, I had to take what I could find for a passe SocketA CPU. First Time using and EPoX. Now the real issue occured after install. It starts fairly normaly until windows starts to load, Sudden reboot. Linux starts then locks up after a little use. So then I broke out the Ultamite boot CD and ran a memory test. Crash and burn. So I pulled one of the 2 DIMM sticks out and every thing started to work. Memory test checked out fine. Computer works fine, but sticks me with a whopping 256MB of RAM.  Since I'm going to want more than that I needed to know if A) it was a bad DIMM orB) it was a Bad DIMM slot.Both of which I've encountered before. Now this is where it gets interesting. As it turns out Both DIMMs work. It also turns out that both slots work. The problem is that I cant use them both at the same time, which is something new to me. The only thing I can think of is that the DIMMs are different enough that for some odd reason the MoBo cant juggle them both. This is fairly bothersome seeing as how I'm not sure of the best way to get more RAM. Will a new stick work with one of my old ones? Is the board screwed up and unable to access more than 256MB? Not sure what to think.   
  I'm not sure exactly what's wrong, but I have some suggestions.If you can pin down the exact model of one stick of RAM, I'd buy another and see if you can run 2 sticks if they're exactly the same. If not, it's probably  the motherboard.For clarification, you tested the RAM in the EPoX board, right?Oherwise, if both sticks work, and both slots work, it sounds like a motherboard issue. Looking at a few reviews, EPoX's Socket A motherboards don't seem too reliable. If you're willing to spend the money in your current system, I'd try a motherboard from a manufacturer that you know is reliable.I hope this helps.;Quote:Original post by Don QuioxteI'm not sure exactly For clarification, you tested the RAM in the EPoX board, right?Oherwise, if both sticks work, and both slots work, it sounds like a motherboard issue. Looking at a few reviews, EPoX's Socket A motherboards don't seem too reliable. If you're willing to spend the money in your current system, I'd try a motherboard from a manufacturer that you know is reliable.I hope this helps.Yeah tested them both in the new board. I would have like to go with a number of other manufacturers but the SocketA boards are starting to get kinda sparse.  You can still find them but the slection is thinning out alot. Newegg had a few I would have liked that were "Open Box." I just wanted to keep my system going another year or so before doing a major upgrade. If I could afford to pump real cash into it I would jump into something more modern. Seeing as how I just got married that isn't going to happen for all the reasons you can imagine. Plus I hate to put my Geforce6600GT(AGP) to sleep only a few months after getting it. I could give it to my wife but I dont think she would understand what she was getting.;  You could buy from somewhere other than Newegg. Mwave has socket 462 boards, though not many.http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813157046andhttp://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813186029 wouldn't be what you're looking for, then?Sorry I couldn't be more of a help.   ;  Well thanks for the links. However I don't think they are going to be much of a step up. I've never heard of either of the makers and one doesn't have an 8X AGP slot which I need for my Video card. The system as it stands now is running very stable. If I get an itch to do so I can juggle DIMMs from my wife's computer and see if I can find a combo that works. I am starting to kinda remember something like this before. I think I had a system that refused to take a set two before, and a different two worked without any problems. I probably will just try and get a single bigger stick or something.Thnks again.   ;  How big is your power supply? It's rare, but I've seen weak power supplies that are driven to high load that can't produce the amount of electricity they need, which fucks up the RAM big-time.Alternatively, is your computer connected to a surge protector or line conditioner? Weird rural power grids often have bizarre power fluctuations which aren't good for DRAM refresh.When Linux locks up, are your keyboard lights flashing? The panic dump file might give you more information about what's being screwed up.   ;  Have you tried checking for a BIOS update? Have you been overclocking or otherwise running above posted speeds and voltages? You say both slots work for both sticks of ram. Does that mean you tested both sticks in both slots, seperatly, with a complete scan of memtest? If so, my 3 guesses are: 1) Power supply is too weak, 2) one of the memory sticks really are going bad, or 3) your memory controller is borked (which is why I was asking about overclocking). Also please note that i've you've been running with a bad stick of ram, theres always a chance of your entire system being mangled, I've seen this time to time. Another thing to check for is rounded capacitors, those buggers cause VERY obscure errors.. I found one machine had rounded caps, which caused NERO not to install (everything else was working just fine). The pc repair dance is a strange one!   ;  Check for bios updates. Then check the mobo manual to see which ram slots they recommend you use in combination. Typically, some combinations are required for dual-channel, others may work in a single-channel setup, and some just won't work at all.   ;  Socket AM2 is out so what about larger computer upgrade?   