Windows won't boot after new RAM

J

jpl517

New Member
Hello all, I'm new to the forums so excuse me if I'm posting in the wrong section. I tried searching quite a bit for my problem, but haven't found anything of use to my situation.

So I have 4 slots for dual channel on my mobo. Two of the slots have 2x1GB (OEM DDR2 240 pin 800Mhz CAS 6) sticks that came with the comp. I changed out the other two slots which had 2x512MB sticks and replaced them with 2x2GB (Patriot DDR2 240 pin 800Mhz CAS 5) sticks. Now when booting, everything POSTs fine, but Windows fails to boot (Details on the error message and my setup are below).

I have tried resetting the jumper, testing each individual stick and slot (they are all good and the BIOS registers all 6 gigs), and resetting the BIOS settings. I also took out the two new sticks to see if it would boot with only the other two, and it worked fine, which leads me to believe something software-ish with Windows is disagreeing with the amount of RAM. Any help or tips are greatly appreciated. Thanks and sorry for the novel!

Dell XPS 630i, slowly upgraded with the following:
Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
Western Digital 750Gb
EVGA GeForce 9800 GT 1GB
Asus P5N-T Deluxe
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 @ 2.4GHz

Error Messages:
Windows Error Recovery
Windows failed to start. This may be due to a recent change in the system's hardware or software, etc.

After running the Windows Repair Utility, the Blue Screen o' Death says this:
A problem has been detected and Windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer, etc...
 
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Most likely you have ram that don't play nice together or you may have to increase the memory voltage in the bios.
 
I wouldn't even begin to know what to set the voltage at... with my terrible luck, I would set the mobo on fire. I plan on taking out the old RAM when I get off work to see if it boots with the 4GB of new RAM only. I suppose if that works, then you'd probably be right about the memory not playing nice with each other, and I'd have an excuse to buy even more memory and maybe bring it up to an 8GB total :D. I was also wondering if the difference in CAS latency would have anything to do with it. My understanding is that it won't hurt anything, it just goes as fast as the slowest latency stick. Thanks for the reply and if anyone has anymore tips, let me know.
 
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So I tried booting with only the new RAM, and the same error message came up. Then I tried switching back the old RAM, and unlike yesterday, I was unable to get into Windows as it showed the same error message. The BIOS still shows that it is detecting the RAM, so maybe a boot file or something with Windows got corrupted? I'm not really sure what's going on now and my only thought is to reinstall Windows, but I REALLY don't want to lose all my data, especially since I have a feeling that this probably won't fix the issue. If anyone has any other suggestions please help. Thanks.
 
Try removing the cmos battery to reset the cmos to see if it will let you boot. Remove the power cord from the psu, remove the cmos battery, press the power button on the case a few times to discharge any remaining power on the motherboard, then reinsert battery, reconnect power and try booting up.
 
I tried that as well. Also, I tried a clean wipe and a clean install of Vista as well as Windows 7, and neither one would install, so it's not a conflict with Windows or any software for that matter. It must be the RAM. My only thought is that it isn't compatible with my mobo. Tomorrow I'll probably take back the new RAM and look up a list of memory that is compatible with my mobo and see if that works. If not, then I'm fresh out of ideas. Thanks again for your reply. I'll post again later once I've tried new, compatible memory. Once again, any other suggestions are more than welcome.
 
So your system is failing to boot with your old or new RAM? I think it's unlikely that you got 4 sticks of bad RAM. What is the error code on the blue screen? It will look like 0x00000000 (0x00000000,0x00000000,0x00000000,0x00000000).

It looks like you've been doing a lot of upgrades, are you sure the PSU Dell shipped you can handle all your new hardware?
 
Figured out the issue(s) over the weekend. The new RAM was incompatible with the mobo and somehow corrupted some boot files in Windows. After using only the old RAM and running the startup repair utility, Windows worked fine. Checked with the mobo manufacturer's QVL (qualified vendor list) and bought some approved RAM, and now everything works great. So a lesson to myself and any others with this issue: Check the QVL before buying new memory. Thanks again to everyone for their input.
 
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