Inserted Kingston 400Mhz mem chip in Asus A7N8X-LA MOBO HELP!

[dtpoolman]

H.P. Pavillion 061
Asustek A7N8X-LA
AMD Athlon 2600+ CPU 2.08 Ghz
Duron MB, Athlon MP/XP, Sempron Thoroughbred Rev/Stepping 8/1/(0) AMI Bios Rev. 3.71
FSB 2x166Nhz
nForce2 AGP Cont., max FSB speed/max mem speed 2x200Mhz/2x200Mhz
2 memory slts: 256mb (pc 2700) @ slot 0, 512mb (pc 2700) @ slot 1 BOTH 333Mhz Nvidia GeForce 4MX Integrated GPU Primary HD 40gig, secondary HD 40 gig, Both XP Pro sp2 formatted and bootable (just in case)

Sooo,
I acquired a 512mb, Kingston 400Mhz chip (from a "computer shop") to set next to my 512mb, 333Mhz fry's pc2700 (my computer exists just for me to improve on it, and hummed real nice at 768mbs). The two combined caused constant freeze-ups and the infamous blue-screen "page_file not_equal_whatever" computer-killer kept appearing.

I replaced it with another Kingston, 512, 400Mhz. Same thing. So I tried a stick of 256 400Mhz with the Kingston. My computer booted, graphics came up like drawn by crayon and froze the computer. I put my old chips back in and now it just reboots, blue screen, reboots, etc. I've change the primary boot drives in bios and my second HD gets all the way to the XP logo, then the same thing. I can access my CD/Rw and DVD drives, and floppy. I've tried my Maxtor boot disk, accessed c: prompt and my files are there. It won't boot into safe mode or any other mode. I've loaded defaults and tried other tricks in my useless, barebones bios, but to no avail. THIS is a pickle.

Interesting side note: I flashed bios a month ago, but it never changed until after hours or rebooting and messing with this problem. Out of the blue there were all of my extra options (I'm a big fan of overclocking)! I made a few adjustments I thought might help, increased the CPU fan voltage and rebooted, and a warning came up saying my fan wasn't working (it was) and kept shutting me down so fast I had to reset the bios by pin settings just to access it. You guessed it, my revision is gone again. What is it with a bios flash upgrade that kicks in six weeks later?

Interestingly, when I had the 400Mhz, memory installed, the bios still saw it as 333Mhz.

This system is loaded, streamlined and well-maintained, and I need it up and running quick, no time for the usual research. I suspect the bios. Does anyone know what happened, and what's my next step (please, no wise cracks)?

 

[FlashDude]

ok that's a lot to take in first...this could happen if you flashed the bios with the wrong file. Reason it took a few weeks?? you are supposted to go into the bios after the flash and load setup defaults to apply the new changes so when you where messing with this you loaded the new flash file. now where did you get the file? If you got it from asus wrong place because your rev version of that board should only be available from HP, not asus. Download the latest from HP and reflash it and follow "ALL" the instructions. If you got it from HP then oh crap I don't know. lol

Ok now the ram. You should never miss match the ram as far as bus speeds go best case senerio is it will derate to the lowest speed of the ram modules installed Your case 333. worst case senerio,, BSOD ! Now if you tryed just the one 400 It may still run at 333 becasue you need to have a faster bus speed 166 x 2 = 333 (roughly) The board might support ddr400 but your fsb won't. As you probably know that's better for o/cing anyway when you raise your fsb speed the ram would have no problem's It will still be close to or less then stock speed.

Let me summerize the root case as I see it. you caused crashes by having unsupported miss matched ram modules in an OEM system you then loaded the bios defaults which loaded a bum flash file and its messing everything up. Or you fried the board trying to install the ram.

 

[dtpoolman]

Well, it all started when I was five...
My Bios flash was not with a diskette, it was an executable file run from xp. And it was from HP, Asus had so many and none were specific to the LA version of my mobo.

I tried my 2700 memory on another computer this a. m. Interestingly, only my 512 booted it up. I put that one back in my computer by itself, but no change. My Maxtor drive never gets to xp, whne I change the boot sequence my other drive boots to xp, I get the logo and it looks good, then the logo flashes in and out, blue screen for a split second and reboot, reboot....

This was my flash:

Release Date: 2005-12-07 Version: 3.21

Description

This is an update to BIOS 3.21 for A7N8X-LA motherboard.

Purpose: Critical Update

Operating System:
Windows XP Home
Windows XP Professional
Windows XP Media Center Edition

Fixes

# Resolves Send/Don't Send error message after resuming from suspend mode.
# Adds support for new AMD microprocessors.
# Resolves issue causing intermittent detection of a HP external USB hard drive.
# Improves reports of information for large RAM memory modules.
# Resolves issue occurring when CD-ROM and floppy drives are removed from boot order in Setup Utility, causing the PC to attempt to restart from CD-ROM on resume.
# Resolves issues with floppy drive detection.


My Bios still reads ver. 3.17. There are no other HP Bios upgrades available (maybe in archives). Both HDs having the same problem, I just don't get it.

Any other ideas?

Dan the PoolmanLA LA

 

[FlashDude]

LMAO, That's to funny, For sure do the bios update from HP, That will be the only one that will be correct. Asus doesn't support it on purpose it's part of the deal with HP, That's why I said OEM, With an OEM board you have to get the updates from them. Asus has the crash free bios and that's why it keeps coming and going. If it post crashes it "Should" revert to the old settings. If you can get her running long enough to flash it do that first, Then let us know how it works then. OR The other option This is a sweet board MSI - KT880 But its atx and the LA looks to be MATX so you would need a new case as well. Did you know that the board is only supposed to support pc2700?
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...roduct=330086&lang=en&cc=us&docname=c00006476

 

[dtpoolman]

Thanks, FD, for the links. I have a modified case, three fans and front panel usb support, a slot for digital camera mem0ry chips, I think it might be big enough to handle that upgrade mobo. Thing is, I do need to get out estimates, etc. (not like I'm overly attached to this one or anything ).

The HP upgrade is executable from xp, which is currently a problem. I tried my 2700 memory on another computer this a. m. Interestingly, only my 512 booted it up, my 256 triggered beeps and nothing ele. I put the 512 back in my computer by itself, (with expectation!) but no change. My Maxtor drive never gets to xp, but when I change the boot sequence my other drive boots to xp, I get the logo and it looks good, then the logo flashes in and out, blue screen for a split second and reboot, reboot....

I'm going to see if I can load the upgrade from cd. If you think of anything else, let me know? Otherwise, guess I'll look into that ATX.

Many Thanks.
Dan