Tech support

or you could do it for me 😲! mother board is a foxconn 915gv7mh-s
and the ram im looking at buying is apacer 1gb ddr2 667mhz pc2-5300 cl5 240pin...

motherboard that i have -- qmb.co.nz/p.aspx?104254
ram that i want -- qmb.co.nz/p.aspx?106250

(obviously add w's and a "." in front)

:p im a lazy bugger i know. but like. i see no reason from that why they
wouldn't work, like they will fit.

but im thinking like, you have to change the freq in bios. but ititially
wouldn't the ram attempt to run at 667 mhz before you can change it? and seeings
as the motherboard doesn't run that quick, would it even work at all?

like it seems to me to be largely based around luck. i just want someone with a
definate yes this will work, and this is why.

deaths hereditary: i can't find any specific information regarding
incompatibility with the ram you have chosen, so it will probably work.

and no, the ram can't exceed the motherboards capability.

looking at your motherboard specs i see that it has both regular ddr and ddr2
slots - note that you can only use one type at the time.
also, if you are running two sticks of ram they have to be the same size for
dual channel to work.


n3l87: i agree, avoid pre-builts if possible.
asus boards are usually good, but from what i can gather they often seem to
skimp on the voltage regulators, causing vdroop which is bad for people looking
to overclock. gigabyte boards seem to be a solid choice at the time being.

yeah i knew about the ddr and ddr2 thing, thats why i intend to get another
stick of ddr2.

how ever i will give you credit for pointing out to me how dimm works. so due to
me having a 512 stick in using this extra 1 gig won't be optimal, but it will be
better.

another note for you chaps, yes i did build this computer. its not a pre-built.
its just cheap.

so you all think i should go for it and buy this ram?.

and if so, i have another *alot* more complex problem then this one.
like this is 5% of the next problem, literally. im stumped.

absolutely, especially seeing as ram is so cheap at the time being.

so you want to have a crack at my other problem?

be warned its super unbelieve-ably complex.

sure - no guarantees though. 😉

i bought gigabyte monday and wednesday, both died instant deaths, got a cheap
asus today works perfectly, frustration and anger have been replaced by
happiness and joy.

no problems overclocking my e6600.

also had to reactivate oem vista ultimate 3 times this week, easier than i
thought it would be.

sorry to hear that, super12. what model was it (the gigabyte)?

vdroop usually becomes an issue when you start pushing the limits of what the
cpu can do, moderate overclocking should still be ok.

ga-965p-ds3p (rev 3.3)

kept getting "check sum error"

must be a common problem, it's the first question they answer in the bios faq.

the checksum error usually shows up when cmos has been cleared, but is most
often resolved by entering bios setup and saving & exiting.
if the problem persists it's possible that the cmos battery is dead, but they
are easily replaced.

there may be deeper issues involved, but those are the most common ones.

thanks for getting back to me (kurai) & (pqed) and evryone else as well.

i didn't know i v would get it explained or if someone would tell me to go and
find the info in another forum.


i understood what you both had to say and will keep that in mind for the time
when i do get some more ram.

i went for asus as they had a good reputation but as i didn't know anything
about graphic cards i went for a built in vista ready 1 with the p5b-vm but
having put it together and hoping to overclock it a little (to the next chip
speed up from mine 2.66 gig but hey not to be this board is good at normal
speeds but as far as over clocking went it's very unstable at any over clock.
but hey it's much faster than my p4 1.7 gig i had before.

i must admit it is a lot faster than i thought it would be.

so thanks again and sorry i didn't get back to you all quicker this is the
first time i have had time to get back to you.

bye for now (si)(uk) :-)

ok then, this is going to require a huge amount of typing. but here goes.

overview:
windows will not boot properly from the hdd, in stead you have to boot from the
cd to get into windows.

in depth analysis / symptoms:
-turn on computer, (takes an age to load literally 5 mins to do the bios and
hardware checks even with "super boot"), eventually it will get to a "boot from
cd..." exactly what you get when you go to install windows.

-it will then boot from the cd, and do an initial load of data from the cd. (as
you normally get when installing windows).

-i have found you can now restart it to get to the next step in the process of
booting my system (you can restart immediately after the load of data from the
disk).

-the next step, it will now do exactly what it did in the 1st step, take another
age... 5 mins) to get to the "boot from cd..." this time it will then hand the
system over to the windows already installed on the disk. and from here it boots
into windows normally. just like any other computer would do after completing
its bios process and hardware check in about 5 seconds it would get here. my
computer? it takes about 15 - 20 mins from a cold start (power off)

-now if you turn the computer off you will have to repeat from the start (load
data from the cd) however if you just restart it you won't have to do that you
will just have to wait 5 mins to get to the "boot from cd..." before entering
windows.

problem solving attempts thus far:
-its not a boot priority issue
-its not the hard disk, i have tried several (both sata and ide) all with the
same issue.
-its not the operating system (while i haven't tried any unix based operating
systems, i have tried about 3 different versions of windows.

conclusion:
i believe it to be a wrongly placed / missing jumper on the motherboard. i have
never seen anything like this before it is unbelievable. while this is
embarrasing for me to admit, i did put this computer together, everything
functions except this boot process. in my lack of experience i may have taken a
jumper off the board absent mindedly.

if anyone has any other ideas, or any solution i would be most grateful, at the
moment, my computer hasn't been off in about hmm lets see 2 months.

i realise its complex, and if you have any further questions. i will do the best
i can to answer them.

anyone have anything?

sorry for the delayed answer, it has been way too hot to sit in front of the
computer these past days.


these are the things i can come up with from the top of my mind:

1. update your bios.
2. check your bios settings to make sure everything is set correctly.
3. go over your wiring and jumpers (reference them to the manual). make sure the
cmos jumper is not set to clear.
4. see if everything is inserted correctly on the motherboard. if you have any
expansioncards, make sure they are pushed all the way in.
5. rip everything out and try it outside of the case.

yeah i figured it'd probs be jumpers and stuff.

the problem is i didn't get a manual with my motherboard. just sort of used
instinct, got it all to work well cept the boot probs. i don't think bios
updating would help. all the bios settings are fine. all expansion cards are
fine. don't see why that would cause this problem anyways.

but i'm pretty certain its a jumper.
ill try and find something concerning it.

cheers.