Presume you have already checked the caps. Have you tried installing the "Unofficial Service Pack"? - I am assuming that it is WIN98-SE you are running here. 98 won't use more than 256 meg without the "Unofficial Service Pack"; but I've never heard of it not booting on account of too much ram; except where like I said some very early Super 7s were limited to 384 Meg. Anyway that is a long shot you could try.
Last edited by Jim on Wed Jun 21, 2006 10:25 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Superpuppy 3
K6-3+ 450 ACZ (6x100)
DFI K6BV3+/66 Rev B2 (2 Meg) w/ 2x28mm Chipset Fans
2x256 Meg PC 133 Hynix SDRAM
1x 20G Maxtor (7200)
2x 80G Maxtor (7200) Ducted w/ 2x486 Fans Mount
52/24/52/16 LG CDR/RW/DVD
8/4/3/12/24/16/32 LG Super Multi
ATI 9000 aiw Radeon AGP
SB Audigy 1 MP3 Sound
CMD 649 IDE Controller
NEC USB 2 Card
The 384 mb ram is stated as 3x128mb above, but if I install 1x256mb with a 128 mb stick everything works fine. So the dimms will accept 256mb sticks it is just that the system as a whole will not take 512mb or more in any combination and boot into Windows.
Do you think I should try a fresh install of Windows?
I know it sounds crazy but could it be a power supply issue?
Possibly the processor. You have probably used it successfully at this speed before in other boards, so it shouldn't be; but for what it is worth not all 400s will go that fast. Though why more ram should make a difference is beyond me. Another thing you could try, (sometimes helps) is blow out your ram slots w/ compressed air. Also try clearing the bios before you install the extra ram. Assuming the board posts and runs DOS ok with 768 meg installed, if clearing the bios doesn't help then maybe a reinstall is a good idea. Don't know anything about ME cause I don't have it and never have. Still it sounds like a software - bios issue rather than a hardware problem. If you have not already tried it definitely try clearing the bios before installing the ram.
Superpuppy 3
K6-3+ 450 ACZ (6x100)
DFI K6BV3+/66 Rev B2 (2 Meg) w/ 2x28mm Chipset Fans
2x256 Meg PC 133 Hynix SDRAM
1x 20G Maxtor (7200)
2x 80G Maxtor (7200) Ducted w/ 2x486 Fans Mount
52/24/52/16 LG CDR/RW/DVD
8/4/3/12/24/16/32 LG Super Multi
ATI 9000 aiw Radeon AGP
SB Audigy 1 MP3 Sound
CMD 649 IDE Controller
NEC USB 2 Card
A follow-up to my earlier post--see the linked document at Microsoft's site (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/q253912/) and note its comment about system boot problems with "large amounts of RAM". Maybe the vcache upper and lower limits could help.
Sylvan thanks for the tip. I will try it out at home tonight. By the way I think that I have got the AGP mapped out at 128MB so I might try just reducing this to 64mb first.
Tried to set vcache to max and min values and still no joy. reading the article states memory configurations over 512mb can cause problems not 512mb itself as I read it.
Put another 64mb into the memory giving 1x256 1x128 1x64 total 446mb.
This boots into windows ME fine.
This is a pig of a problem. I know windows me will take 512mb and more because I have this loaded onto other machines in the house.