MSI K7N2 Delta-L XP2600+ not overclocked, hanging in Prime95

I got a new machine with an MSI K7N2 Delta-L motherboard and AMD XP2600+ processor this week (running XP Home). I put two pieces of 256 DDR in it, one is K-Byte PC2700, the other K-Byte PC2100. It obviously steps the memory down to 266 when I put the slower memory in, which I can live with. I'm not overclocking anything.

Anyway, the machine is hanging when my son runs NBA Live 2001 in it. I wasn't overly concerned because the program doesn't claim to support XP and I believe it was hanging on occassion on my old system (AMD K6-450). However, I am now running Prime95 on it, and it's hanging with that and THAT has me concerned. Obviously the memory would be suspect but I've run Memtest86 v3.0 on it and it runs fine, which I would think rules out a memory problem. I thought it might be the CPU temperature, but I've got the monitor up when it hangs and it seems to be down around 42 when it dies. I had originally been running Prime95 in the connected mode and it hung during the testing procss, but not immediately. When I ran it in stress mode, it hung almost immediately.

I have not tried reseating the CPU, or anything else. I'm running Memtest again to make sure that's still ok. Should I be running the program in Safe Mode? Would that make any difference? What should be my plan to diagnose this? Try removing the PC2100 DDR first?

you might want to try 1 strip at a time but 90% of the time with MSI's K7N2 series its ram when it comes to locking up or restarting for no reason. I dont know if PNY is NForce 2 approved or not but check Here for ram that is confirmed working with these boards even though memtest says its good dont mean its compatible. Also what is your PSU brand and specks list combined watts, also list all your system details

Still not working

Thanks for the reply.. I just spent an hour trying different variations of memory in the machine. Bottom line is I can't get it to run with either of the sticks separately (although I did get optimistic a couple of times when it seemed to be running fine, only to die after a couple of minutes).

I checked the link you included and the K-Byte RAM is not listed as supported. I had read that there were problems with different varieties of memory with the NForce2 chip but I thought I read that it had been solved with the latest BIOS level (or maybe was that the cheap ASUS mobo I was considering before deciding to go with the K7N2 D-L)? I'm not real excited about going out to buy additional memory without knowing that that is likely the problem, but I see that the Kingston ValueRAM is listed and I think I can pick that up at OfficeMax for $10 AR this week so at minimum I can get that and try it out and see if it fixes my problem. It seems what you're saying is that MemTest-86 is not a good judge of memory problems for this board, which really sucks. Oh, and it's not PNY memory I have, it's K-Byte, but it doesn't matter since neither is listed. I may see if I can borrow something from work, or else open up my system (XP1800+) and see if I have decent quality RAM that I could borrow to test on the other machine. My mobo is an MSI-6390 which I am going to assume is more forgiving when it comes to RAM so if I have decent RAM in mine maybe I could just swap.

Oh the power supply is a Duro 400W, which I assume is a cheapo supplier. My configuration is pretty bare bones, the only card I have installed is an AOpen GeForce2 MX400 (?) 64mb AGP card. Network is a wireless Orinoco Gold USB.

I have that board and my system hangs with Prime95 no matter what cpu clock. I thought maybe it wasnt compatible with XP or something so I just quit messing with it. Hope you find your problem.

Interesing, that's good to know. I guess I could just see if it hangs with any programs other than NBA Live (and Prime95) before worrying about it. Although I might just try getting the Kingston RAM just to see if I can get it to run clean.

What kind of RAM do you have? Is it on the aforementioned list?

I have 2@512 running in dual ddr mode samsung 3200 made in Korea chip.
On that kingston ram you have to be careful down to the model number if you want it to work for sure.

As you can tell Nforce 2 is very picky as it just doesnt matter with just the brand it also matters down the the model number or even where it was made at.

I have 2 sticks of 256meg Geil PC3500 Cas 2 ram. I couldnt find any mention of Geil on nvidias list.

Kingrsl: Does anything else hang/crash other than Prime95?

sorry, all i can say here is

Well I am getting really ****ed. I went out to OfficeMax and picked up a stick of Kingston ValueRAM, which allegedly is on the list of "good RAM" and it's still hanging. Worse, Nascar 2003, which I thought was running ok, is now also hanging. I think my next approach is to try the memory from my other system to see if I can find something that works ok. Alternatively, maybe it's not really the memory and is something with the processor or mobo. I have not tried to reseat the processor.. should I? I have not contacted the place I bought from (mail order) but until I can say that it's definitely not the memory (i.e., that I've tried some good quality memory in it) I doubt I'm going to get much sympathy from them. Although I still don't quite understand how Memtest86 can run fine and Prime95 dies almost immediately.

How does Nvidia get away with selling a chipset that is so ridiculously picky about memory? And why was I so stupid to buy it? This is what I get for not buying the el cheapo ASUS I had been planning to get until I stupidly read a couple of upgrading articles in gaming magazine websites. I decided I wanted something that wouldn't give me troubles. Yeah, right... Already it's cost me a new gamepad because the K7N2-L doesn't come with a game port. Now it looks like it's going to cost me memory that I didn't want to spend money on.

Is there any reason to believe that downgrading the BIOS level would help me any? How about underclocking (I'm willing to give up a bit of speed for now if it makes the machine stable)? If the latter might work, what should I set? At one point I accidently ended up with the processor claiming to be something like 1250mhz, I obviously cycled through the choices some setting and did not come up with the correct default in the end (and I was changing another setting at the time, either power-on or numlock and so I wanted to save). I did a "reset to defaults" to get back to the correct ~2000 number. Is there something I should be changing to non-default that might affect this?

Sorry to hear you are still having trouble. My system only hangs with Prime95. I can run other cpu intensive things for hours (converting movies to svcd uses 100% cpu) and its fine. It doesnt sound like you its a memory problem if you tried different ram. Are you overclocked at all?

Nascar 2003 and NBA Live 2001 also hang. Haven't tried other games. I just installed the new beta version of Prime95 and it's taking a long time to get through the first test even, the memory size keeps going up slowly but CPU usage is almost zero. I'll leave it running overnight just for entertainment value as I don't think it's actually doing any valid testing at the moment.

SiSoft Sandra and both MemTest-86 and MemTest 2.0 run cleanly.

MisterBill said:

SiSoft Sandra and both MemTest-86 and MemTest 2.0 run cleanly.

Click to expand...

Its not bad ram just not fully compatiable. All kingston has really been hit or miss thats just the luck of the drawl. Take that ram back to officemax and go to Newegg and order one of these as they are confirmed working.

Corsair PC2700 LLPT (2*256MB)
Corsair XMS PC2700 CAS2
Corsair Twinx 3200 LLPT (2*512MB)
Mushkin PC2100 (2*256MB)
Mushkin PC2700 2-2-2 512mb
Samsung PC2700(Infineon chips ONLY!!)
Samsung PC3200 DDR400 (Made in Korea ONLY!!)
OCZ PC2400 (2*256MB)
OCZ EL DDR PC3500 cas2 (3*256MB)
OCZ Performance series (1*256MB)
Apacer PC2700 (2*512MB)
Geil PC 3200 ultra cl2 cas 2 (2*256MB) *Mixed reviews on these by users*
Crucial (Micron) PC2700 (2*256MB)
Crucial TWINX3200LL (2*256MB)
Kingston HyperX PC3000 (2*256MB)
Kingston HyperX PC3500 2-2-2-2 cas2 2&3, 1&2, won't do 1&3 160 mhz SYNC
Kingston Value Ram PC2700 (2*256mb) KVR333X64C25/256B (Infineon chips ONLY!!)
TwinMOS DDR400 512MB (TWINMOS chip)
TwinMOS PC3200 w/ Winbond (2*512MB)

The problem with ordering memory from Newegg is I don't want to waste money on memory until I am sure that it's not something other than memory.

Meanwhile I should have bought a cheap ASUS board and the cheap K-Byte memory I got for free at OM and Staples would have worked and I would not have had to put up with this kind of BS.

I have a couple of pieces of Micron PC2100/256mb in my other machine, I am thinking of opening it up and seeing whether it will work reliably in the K7N2. I did notice that Kingston lists a specific model on their site which they say is compatible with the board, it has a C25 suffix on the model #. I have heard people claim that PNY works but I'm assuming not with the chips that I have on the one I've tried.

I just realized I had not posted the list of memory I've tried (I have posted it elsewhere). Here are the details (I've curious to know the chip brands I was unable to identify):

PNY D256M6421OPT
Chips: "S" logo
AE 0314
S80032VMCTW-6A

Kingston KVR-PC2100DDR/256
Logo: circle with 9 dots making up a square in top left corner
V58C2256804SAT7
0308PL P050413IJALA

K-Byte PC2100 (DOUBLE SIDED)
Spectek sticker
Chips: "S" logo
FT 0230
S80016VH7TW 75A

K-Byte PC2700 (single sided)
Sticker: PMI DDR-333 256mb T286A-03B3 MD3456UPV
Chips: PQI logo
PQ3D328V6
0319

Kingston KVR333/512R
Kingston on chips
D328DL-60
0315-PT16 (also 0316, 0317, 0318)

Id try some micron if you have it, since it seems to be one of the major ones you havent tryed.

Here's the latest status. I ordered a piece of PNY memory PC2100/256mb at OD earlier in the week, they had a good deal on it. I then went to Staples and figured I'd pick up one there and see if it worked. Well it turns out the Staples memory was Spectek and did not work for me, but the OD order brought me a piece of Samsung, and apparently that is known to work well in NForce2 mobos. The good news is it's not hanging in the same way and I can run Prime95 for a half an hour now. The bad news is it's still hanging. I just tried underclocking it, I set it from 166 down to 133 so it's now showing up as an XP2000+. I'm ok with that if I can get it to run stable so I can work from that (at the moment the machine is useless). Also now that Prime95 isn't failing immediately I could go back to trying it in Safe Mode and see if that changes anything. I will also probably try the Micron memory in my other machine over the weekend.

i have a question? what kind of graphics card do you have in there? maybe that's why it's hanging. most all computers hang in prime95 so its not a good comparison tool. maybe you have an old or outdated card (or driver for it) and it cant handle the graphics. just a thought, curious to know

Mr Bill

Please go and buy good Power supply!

I'm not going to buy a new power supply when the guy just sold me this one as part of the case.

Quick update (I have to run out): I underclocked to 133mhz (XP2000+) and opened the case and it is running cleanly. So now I have to figure out what the cause is.

what graphics card do you have in there? or is it onboard? download 3dmark 2001 and post your score here if you dont mind...