Ram Cas

[TempReg]

I recently bought some RAM that's CAS 3. The (older) BIOS on my motherboard only supports settings for CAS 2 and CAS 2.5 (as I found-out AFTER I had bought the new RAM ... sheesh.)
:o
I'm having goofy, inconsistant problems installing XP on this system, and thought this might be the culprit (though I've run MEMTEST86 a few times with no errors ...)

Thanks for your help!
:)

[chrisbliss18]

What are the manufacturers and model numbers of your motherboard and RAM?

What problems are you experiencing while installing XP?

[TempReg]

First of all ... thanks for the assistance.
:)
I'm intermediate-to-novice in my computer hardware knowledge.

What are the manufacturers and model numbers of your motherboard and RAM?

It's an older mobo: Giga-byte GA-7VTXE rev 1.1 w/ 266 FSB.
Latest BIOS: F9 (AMIBIOS)
The mobo RAM specs: 3 184-pin DDR sockets accepting 2.5v DDR DIMM DRAM PC1600 or PC2100 in 64, 128, 256, 512, and 1GB sizes.
RAM I bought: 2 sticks of "Shielded DDR 512MB PC2100 266Mhz" from ULTRA. (Totaling 1 GB for two sockets.) I bought this RAM becasue I thought all I needed was to ensure that it was PC2100 spec. I got a good deal on this RAM, and it included it's own RAM heat sheild covers, too. BUT ... it's CAS 3 rated.
I'm not colverclocking the FSB or CPU or anything, just running on standard spec 266 for RAM on 133 FSB. I tried using the 1xT and 2xT Command settings in the BIOS, each with the same result. I'm not entirely sure that it is the RAM (might be something else) just justing trying "process of elimination."

What problems are you experiencing while installing XP?

I'm installing a fresh copy of the OS to a brand new HD. It gives me the blue screen with different errors at different points in the setup process halting all it all together. I don't get past the first phase of the setup where it copies everything it needs to the HD and restarts to the GUI to complete the installation.

It's an original WinXP Pro CD (pre-SP1) (that I've used before), once it installs, I patch it to SP2. I thought it might also be something like the chipset needing a driver this original pre-SP1 XP disc can't provide. I got this system from a friend of mine who said he ran/installed/re-installed XP Pro on it many times before ...
Again ... thanks for yur help ... just exploring different options to troubleshoot.
:)

[chrisbliss18]

I don't think your RAM is the issue, but I could very well be wrong.

Can you give us any specifics that the blue screen errors provide? It could give us some ideas about what is actually happening.

[TempReg]

Can you give us any specifics that the blue screen errors provide? It could give us some ideas about what is actually happening.

Sometimes it's an error message about "PAGE DATA" (which I believe is RAM related :?: ) and sometimes about "IRQ values invalid" ... as well as others.

Since I last posted, I did finally get XP pro to install by trying a few times in a row, then patched it to SP2. Occasionally (once every few hours) I still have these blue screens pop-up while in Windows ... also sporadically as when trying to install it. I've updated the BIOS to it's latest version, as well as the Windows mobo drivers to their latest version. I've heard that AGP 4x mobos (like this one) can sometimes cause problems. Could that be it perhaps? I'm expereimenting with different BIOS settings, too ... just "one-setting-at-a-time" to see if the messages stop.

I'll keep a short tally of the messages for a few days, then post some of them here. Should I post the full Hex info of the errors, or just the error-type (i.e. "Page Data")?

Again, thanks for all your help.
:-)

[chrisbliss18]

Just keep track of the error descriptions. Make sure that you record the whole description and not just parts of it. The data would take a long time to record and wouldn't mean a whole lot to most people.