ABIT KG7 Motherboard RAM Problem

[golfnguy]

I have an ABIT KG7 motherboard (with an AMD Duran CPU) which has 4 slots for DDR PC2100 266MHz non-ECC RAM. Each slot will take up to a 1GB stick of RAM. I have been running with two sticks of 256MB DDR PC2100 RAM in dimm slots #4 & #3 with no problems. I tried to add two more sticks of 256MB DDR PC2100 RAM and the PC failed to boot. I have tried each of the new sticks separately in slot #4 and they both work. I was able to get the PC to boot once with just one additional new stick in slot #2 for a total of 768MB. When I then added the fourth stick, the PC would again not boot. When I took the fourth stick back out, the PC would no longer boot with 3 sticks. I had to go back to my original two sticks of RAM to get the PC to boot.

Any ideas how I can get the motherboard to recognize both additional sticks of RAM? By the way, one of the new RAM sticks is a PNY and I don’t recall what the other one is. Both were purchased at Best Buy.

Thanks.

[deddard]

I don't know hte particular details of this motherboard, but you really ought to try with just 1 stick of RAM in slot 1 (this is probably called bank 0)
see how that works.
It may be that although each DIMM socket can take a 256MB card, the overall RAM the system can use is less.

If everything is ok with the card in DIMM slot 1, add another to slot 2 and try again.
THen - guess what? if that works, try another in slot 3 and repeat for slot 4.

Computers like to find the RAM in the first slot - this is the way they like to play. DIMMs can be added individually, so if the limit has been reached with 768, then there's not much you can do about it (You could try a 128 stick in slot 4 if your motherboard allows that much memory)

[golfnguy]

This motherboard will handle up to 4GB of RAM. It also wants the sticks to be added to slot #4 first, then #3 then #2 and then #1. I have tried adding sticks one at a time and got up to 3 sticks to be recognized once, but adding the fourth caused a boot failure.

[mjc]

You may just be having a problem with the four different sticks not liking each other.

You can try setting the memory settings in BIOS to the most conservative levels before trying the new sticks. Also if the slots you are installing them into have been previously unpopulated then you may want try giving them a blast of air or circuit cleaner (there are several that are rated for computers, use one of these, not a generic "tuner" or switch cleaner).