TheDS
09-24-02, 10:18 AM
Yesterday, I received in the mail 4 sticks of 512MB PC2100 ECC Registered DIMMs for my Iwill MPX2 motherboard. Up till now, I was using a single stick of non-ECC, unregistered RAM, of the same characteristics. This board is capable of handling 2GB of unbuffered RAM and 3.5GB of buffered RAM. As I like to have all my memory as identical as possible, this was the best solution for me to have gobs of memory.
My troubles started when I pulled out the old stick and put the 4 new sticks in. First, I was careful to go into BIOS and return everything to normal timings. Set FSB back to 133, set RAM timings to auto-detect. I left the ECC turned off, because that probably would have messed up the stick that was in there, and ECC doesn't have to be enabled for ECC RAM.
I swapped out the RAM and powered on, and the monitor did not come on. The little light on it stayed yellow, to signify that nothing was happening. The speaker was way too quite to hear over the roaring fans, but when I listened really closely (had to put the thing against my ear to barely hear it) it was making a long beep every couple seconds.
GREAT! The RAM doesn't work! So I swap back for the old stick, and guess what? Now IT doesn't work either! WTF??? Same beeps too. So I did the only thing a good troubleshooter could do: I took all the RAM out and turned it on and listened to see what beeps it made. (What were YOU thinking?) That's right, the same beeps.
Well, I hop onto the web with a different computer and look up Award BIOS beep codes, and lo and behold, there is only one beep code that has been defined, and that is one that tells you your video is messed up. Any other beeping just means a "RAM problem". That was not helpful at all. (Couldn't there be a CPU problem?)
All right, so now I was really getting unhappy. I took the RAM out and examined the contacts, and examined the sockets they plug into, and found nothing wrong. Not even dust. I stuck the unbuffered stick back in, and made sure that not only were the locking mechanisms securely in place, as always did, but also that the stick was securely seated in the socket. I felt something slip. That's right, there was a little more room for the stick to slip into place! Power-on showed everything working just fine!
Ok, I took it out, and put the other RAM back in and this time I made sure to get that extra little slip each time. Apparently, the locks are not a good enough indicator that you have the stick in correctly, as the board must've flexed a little, and the center of each stick was not plugged in, making the BIOS believe that the sticks had not been plugged in at all. That's why I was getting all the same beep codes; none of the sticks had been put in.
LESSON LEARNED.
Now when I powered up, everything worked just fine. It took a few seconds to count up that much RAM, which was surprising, because it takes no time to count up 512MB. I booted upjust fine, ran a few benchmarks, folded a few frames, and all was right with the world.
Once I'd recorded all the banchmarks I wanted to, I rebooted and enabled ECC mode. This board has 4 choices available for ECC. Some quick checking revealed that each is a more intense variety of error checking. The four settings are:
Disable
Check Only
Correct Errors
Correct+Scrub
I imagine more boards have these settings than mine, but the two BIOS guides I looked at had no information other than ECC on and off. These people apparently don't use ECC, or their boards are not as option-laden as dual boards. (The answer came from a review of a Tyan dual board.)
Anyway, the only change I made was to turn ECC to Check Only. Upon saving the BIOS and rebooting.... it didn't even get to POST! The monitor turned off, and the little light was yellow, with an occasional blink to green. Well, I held my breath, and waited a few seconds, and then I hit the power button on the computer. Of course, I had to hold it down to get it to turn off, which usually means something bad.
I tried again. I hit RESET. This board likes you to hit RESET sometimes to get it working after power-on. I cleared CMOS and it POSTed right up. I turned ECC on again and same problems. NO JOY! Hopping back on the internet, ****ed that ECC mode didn't work, I searched for others who had this problem. Apparently, I am the only one on Earth to ask about this problem, and that's why I'm letting you all know about it.
Okay, well, I DL'ed the new BIOS jsut in case my next troubleshooting technique failed. I am hesitant to flash this BIOS, because things are working, and there are a lot of issues with the new BIOS.
Ok, now for the troubleshooting. First, there is no beeping, so the computer thinks things are fine. I take out all but one stick, power on, set to ECC, reboot, and it works. I let it boot up, just to make sure, then power down and swa for the next stick. I tested all four sticks this way, and they all worked just fine. So what was the problem? Next, I put in 2 sticks, and things worked just fine. So I put in 3 sticks, and here I noticed a difference. It took longer for the sticks to pre-POST... about 20 seconds. Hmmmm.... Makes me wonder. I notice that during this pre-POST, the monitor's little light is yellow, flashing green. Deja vu?
Okay, so I put the fourth stick in, expecting it to take no longer than 2 minutes. After waiting 5, I hit RESET, and then it only took a minute. The monitor's light had been doing the same flashy-thing all this time. BUT, it powered up. ECC takes longer to pre-POST than non-ECC, and larger amounts of RAM take longer to check too.
LESSON LEARNED.
Ok, so now everything works just fine. I got 2 GB (!!!!) of RAM, I turned off my VM, and things are lookin good. I do some more benchmarks, and notice no real difference in performance. Some tests were faster, some slower. My benchmarking is not all that methodical or excelsior, so I just have to say that my results were all within a margin of error of 1%. That's tighter than most people will give....
I haven't checked the other 2 ECC settings yet, but when I do, I'll let you know what I find.
Hope some day this helps some one who's also new to ECC RAM.
My troubles started when I pulled out the old stick and put the 4 new sticks in. First, I was careful to go into BIOS and return everything to normal timings. Set FSB back to 133, set RAM timings to auto-detect. I left the ECC turned off, because that probably would have messed up the stick that was in there, and ECC doesn't have to be enabled for ECC RAM.
I swapped out the RAM and powered on, and the monitor did not come on. The little light on it stayed yellow, to signify that nothing was happening. The speaker was way too quite to hear over the roaring fans, but when I listened really closely (had to put the thing against my ear to barely hear it) it was making a long beep every couple seconds.
GREAT! The RAM doesn't work! So I swap back for the old stick, and guess what? Now IT doesn't work either! WTF??? Same beeps too. So I did the only thing a good troubleshooter could do: I took all the RAM out and turned it on and listened to see what beeps it made. (What were YOU thinking?) That's right, the same beeps.
Well, I hop onto the web with a different computer and look up Award BIOS beep codes, and lo and behold, there is only one beep code that has been defined, and that is one that tells you your video is messed up. Any other beeping just means a "RAM problem". That was not helpful at all. (Couldn't there be a CPU problem?)
All right, so now I was really getting unhappy. I took the RAM out and examined the contacts, and examined the sockets they plug into, and found nothing wrong. Not even dust. I stuck the unbuffered stick back in, and made sure that not only were the locking mechanisms securely in place, as always did, but also that the stick was securely seated in the socket. I felt something slip. That's right, there was a little more room for the stick to slip into place! Power-on showed everything working just fine!
Ok, I took it out, and put the other RAM back in and this time I made sure to get that extra little slip each time. Apparently, the locks are not a good enough indicator that you have the stick in correctly, as the board must've flexed a little, and the center of each stick was not plugged in, making the BIOS believe that the sticks had not been plugged in at all. That's why I was getting all the same beep codes; none of the sticks had been put in.
LESSON LEARNED.
Now when I powered up, everything worked just fine. It took a few seconds to count up that much RAM, which was surprising, because it takes no time to count up 512MB. I booted upjust fine, ran a few benchmarks, folded a few frames, and all was right with the world.
Once I'd recorded all the banchmarks I wanted to, I rebooted and enabled ECC mode. This board has 4 choices available for ECC. Some quick checking revealed that each is a more intense variety of error checking. The four settings are:
Disable
Check Only
Correct Errors
Correct+Scrub
I imagine more boards have these settings than mine, but the two BIOS guides I looked at had no information other than ECC on and off. These people apparently don't use ECC, or their boards are not as option-laden as dual boards. (The answer came from a review of a Tyan dual board.)
Anyway, the only change I made was to turn ECC to Check Only. Upon saving the BIOS and rebooting.... it didn't even get to POST! The monitor turned off, and the little light was yellow, with an occasional blink to green. Well, I held my breath, and waited a few seconds, and then I hit the power button on the computer. Of course, I had to hold it down to get it to turn off, which usually means something bad.
I tried again. I hit RESET. This board likes you to hit RESET sometimes to get it working after power-on. I cleared CMOS and it POSTed right up. I turned ECC on again and same problems. NO JOY! Hopping back on the internet, ****ed that ECC mode didn't work, I searched for others who had this problem. Apparently, I am the only one on Earth to ask about this problem, and that's why I'm letting you all know about it.
Okay, well, I DL'ed the new BIOS jsut in case my next troubleshooting technique failed. I am hesitant to flash this BIOS, because things are working, and there are a lot of issues with the new BIOS.
Ok, now for the troubleshooting. First, there is no beeping, so the computer thinks things are fine. I take out all but one stick, power on, set to ECC, reboot, and it works. I let it boot up, just to make sure, then power down and swa for the next stick. I tested all four sticks this way, and they all worked just fine. So what was the problem? Next, I put in 2 sticks, and things worked just fine. So I put in 3 sticks, and here I noticed a difference. It took longer for the sticks to pre-POST... about 20 seconds. Hmmmm.... Makes me wonder. I notice that during this pre-POST, the monitor's little light is yellow, flashing green. Deja vu?
Okay, so I put the fourth stick in, expecting it to take no longer than 2 minutes. After waiting 5, I hit RESET, and then it only took a minute. The monitor's light had been doing the same flashy-thing all this time. BUT, it powered up. ECC takes longer to pre-POST than non-ECC, and larger amounts of RAM take longer to check too.
LESSON LEARNED.
Ok, so now everything works just fine. I got 2 GB (!!!!) of RAM, I turned off my VM, and things are lookin good. I do some more benchmarks, and notice no real difference in performance. Some tests were faster, some slower. My benchmarking is not all that methodical or excelsior, so I just have to say that my results were all within a margin of error of 1%. That's tighter than most people will give....
I haven't checked the other 2 ECC settings yet, but when I do, I'll let you know what I find.
Hope some day this helps some one who's also new to ECC RAM.