XP works with PC133 SDRAM, but not with DDR unless I pull CMOS battery

[gbrainerd]

Hi All,

I just started a learning project with an old computer (a case and a mobo) I got from a friend. I don't know much about hardware and I thought this would be a good way to learn. I'm getting my money's worth. It has:

Matsonic MS 8157E mobo
AMD Athlon XP 2400+
2x 256M PC133 or 2x 1G ddr400 (not at the same time)
2 standard 80G hard drives
Sony DVD
USB pci card
clean install of XP Pro SP3
AMBIOS from 040201
300W power supply

The machine runs fine with with the PC 133 memory, but when I put the DDR memory in, the machine won't boot. I get to the splash screen sometimes, then BSOD with "driver irql not less or equal" or "page fault in non paged area" errors or it acts like it has booted, but the screen is blank. I say it acts like it booted because I have to hold the power switch for 5 seconds to shut it off. The screen is blank, but the power light on the screen goes from green to orange as though there is no signal. I did let it sit overnight with the dark screen once and it made it to the welcome screen by morning.

Here's what I've tried that didn't work:

1- tried each ddr individually in each slot
2- memtest86 says the memory is good, memory check on boot is good
3- boot XP from CD- same result as from the HD
4- reload XP- same result again
5- reset the jumpers to clear the CMOS and pulled the battery to make sure
6- pulled the USB card

I thought about getting a BIOS update, but Matsonic doesn't support this board anymore. I'm not sure they support anything form the looks of their site. That might also be a bit of a challenge for my skill level.

Here's what did work- I pulled the battery and set the jumpers to clear the CMOS. I got sidetracked and didn't get back to it for a couple of hours, but when I did, it fired right up and ran like a champ. Right up until I had to restart it, then it was back to the same thing. I went through the drill again and let it sit for a couple of hours and it started just fine, but it wouldn't restart. I can immediately swap the DDR for the PC133 and it will start right up.

The simple solution is to get 2x 1G PC133 memory and continue with life. If it were a machine for work, I'd probably do that. Since it's a lab project for me, I want to figure out what the deal is. I took screen shots of the BSOD, that I'll attach.[img]H:\DCIM\100_FUJI\Mats1[img]H:\DCIM\100_FUJI\Mats2[/img][/img]

Any help you could give would be greatly appreciated. I'd pull my hair out, but there is hardly any left as it is.
Thanks!

[Quasim]

As per the specification of this motherboard it supports two 184-pin DDR DIMM maximum size up to 2GB. Supports two 168-pin SDRAM DIMM maximum size up to 2GB. It would be better if you can find bios update for this motherboard. I think after that it might be possible to run the ddr rams. This product is discontinued. There is a option to work with sd ram also on this board. You can try some of them.

[gbrainerd]

Hi Quasim- thanks for the response. The machine works fine with SD RAM. I borrowed 1x512M DDR from a friend and it works fine in both slots. That leads me to believe that you are right about the bios update, but Matsonic doesn't support this board anymore and I haven't been able to locate another option. AMD doesn't offer any support either. It would be nice if I could find that.

I did talk to the company I got the ram from and they thought it might be a memory problem and asked me to return them for exchange. We'll see what happens then and go from there.

Thanks again!