Is this definitely memory problem - expert help needed please

Anyone who has seen my other post on these forums knows that I have had big problems trying to get my new 7DXR+ system to boot- although it ran well for four days, after initial build.
Once or twice it ran for a while, once when I re located the memory and once when I changed the FSB jumper to 100.
I've been trying again and now, with the case side off and the floppy cable unplugged i now see that as well as the single beep on the Award bios , I now see a LED on the board lit up!!!
When I look closely, it is the led marked" DIMM Led " near the floppy socket.
It is not mentioned or shown at all in the manual!! - Unbelievable.
I have been thinking PSU or video card reason for non boot, but now it looks like memory- especially as today, my mate tells me that Award bios say that such a single beep going on and on is a sign of RAM failure!!
What do you reckon - Is the led a sure fire sign that the fault is RAM.
In my sig please see the exact sort of RAM being used. I now need to know that is definitely the right sort to use on this board.
Doubts have been planted!

Thanks


__________________
Coolermaster ATCS 201 Case
Gigabyte 7DXR+ motherboard running Athlon 1800 XP OEM at 133 FSB setting.
Crucial 256 Mb DDR Ram, ECC, Registered.
Thermalright AX-7 HS with YS-Tech 80mm fan;
Seagate Barracuda IV 40 gig HDD
DVD/CDROM
CDRW Drive
Leadtek GTS 2 Video card with 23.12 drivers;
Santa cruz ( Sonic fury ) Sound Card;
Thrustmaster Cougar HOTAS controller
Naturalpoint TrackIR 2.11
Game Commander 2002.
Sennheiser HD 560 ‘phones
IIYAMA Vision master Pro 21
Windows 98SE
Enermax 350w PSU

not an expert but does your mb support Registered mem, or have u tried putting the mem in a diffrent slot?


just my guess, Digital

Yes the mobo does support that type of memory- but it seems that the default on the bios is for unbuffered, non parity , non ECC memory - and i should have enabled this feature in the bios with this sort of memory.
In my ignorance, i didn't - now i can't get into the bios!! to enable this!
I have tried all the three slots- same thing.

if the memory is preventing you from booting, why not goto your local computer shop and buy a stick of 64mb mem change the settings and then take it back saying it dident work in your comp (this WILL be telling the truth now that you've enabled ECC and Registerd mem )

or better yet,, just borrow a stick from a freind

Digital

re-initialize your system BIOS.
power down
unplug power cord
take out on board battery
there is a jumper to discharge any remaining current from the mobo. look in manual for right jumper.
reconnect everything.
you should start up with factory default settings in BIOS.

Cheers,
Mike

Thanks for the replies. However, i don't know if there is confusion or what but I see a problem where peeps are telling me how to get to default bios in order to get into bios.
My bios settings are and always have been at optimal default setting- except for disabling onboard sound and disabling raid.
I repeat- everything else is at default.
Apparently, according to Crucial, because the one stick of memory in the DIMMS is ECC Registered and not unbuffered, that is the reason the memory is not running right and is not allowing me to boot up. If I could boot up and therefore get into the biois, then I could Enable the chipset settings for the ECC memory and then hopefully the memory stick I have got could be used without problems!
So, it seems, to boot up I need to get a stick of unbuffered memory, put it in, boot up and then go into bios, set enable for ECC memory and then put back in the stick I now have.
No point buying any unbuffered memory though, 'cos apparently you cannot use unbuffered and ECC together.
If all the above is complete nonsense, please forgive me , 'cos a week of attempts at re boot , not knowing if the memory is buggered , or the PSU is knackered, or both- has left me somewhat confused and p....d off.
Not with you guys - all help is gratefully received - just with the situation. If I'd got unbuffered then It seems I wouldn't have had a problem.
( I haven't got anyone who I can borrow the unbuffered from - computers not a popular pastime round here).
BTW - Mike - If your suggestion is about clearing the CMOS?
Sods law - there is no jumper for that on this mobo - just three solder blobs on the board itself, marked "clear CMOS "- but how and which blobs to put the screwdriver across i don't know! And to cap it - the manual illustrates and talks of a jumper- But there ain't one !! What a way to make a product!!

just three solder blobs on the board itself, marked "clear CMOS "- but how and which blobs to put the screwdriver across i don't know!

Click to expand...

find a piece of thin wire and tape it across all the "blobs" this will clear the CMOS

"My bios settings are and always have been at optimal default setting- except for disabling onboard sound and disabling raid."

Doesn't matter...
Matter of fact, that is all the more reson to re-initialize your BIOS.
What happens is, in your case, the the BIOS/CMOS gets confused in reading the configuration and freezes (for a lack of better terminology.). Or you could say it got confused. I've never had this exact same thing happen to me, but I've read about it before.

Cheers,
Mike Lamb

Is there a battery on the mobo that you can remove? That should clear the cmos. Ive never heard of a mobo without a clear cmos jumper. Good Luck

Tismedt S!
Not many have - Seems its a new trend set by Gigabyte.
See this thread
http://www.amdmb.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=129566&perpage=15&pagenumber=1

cheers