turkeybacon
Member
+50|6894|Dragon Valley
If I could get some help figuring this out that would be great.

I was running 1GB of dual channel memory in my computer, corsair value select., 2x512MB modules. The modules were running perfect in slots 1 & 2 (ch. A & B). I went to the store hoping to find more of the same memory but I bought it a while ago from a shop which closed down recently. So I went to this other shop, and they had no matching memory, but the guy assured me I could run dual channel with this new kind he sold me (dual channel ocz premier, 2x512MB). So essentially I had 4 modules of 512MB and was looking to run my system with 2 gigs of RAM so I could load maps quicker, hopefully boost my settings a bit etc..

Anyways I put the new memory in, BIOS checked it fine, I was happy, until I booted to windows. Right at the welcome screen my mouse was going nuts, I had no control over it, the slightest movement would send it in a random direction across the screen. It seems like buttons were clicking, trying to click whatever was on the screen but I wasnt controlling them. The keyboard was also slow and unresponsive, but I managed to log my way into windows and start firefox without a mouse. Typing was slow, my PC was a bit unstable, although I could launch firefox so long as I didnt touch my mouse.

I thought it was a memory compatibility issue, so I removed my old corsair ram and left the new ocz running in slots 3 & 4 (which is a legal dual channel configuration on my motherboard). I booted up, same exact problem. I scratched my head and got a beer. For the heck of it I tried the new memory in slots 1 & 2 which I know works on my machine, same problem. I took out the OCZ memory and put the old corsair back in slots 1 & 2. Still same problem

I came home thinking I would be loading BF2 faster, and now I cant even PLAY BF2 after dropping almost 200 bucks after tax. The memory is refundable, but my machine is still screwed. I made no real changes other then some BIOS tweaks (disabled the floppy drive controller since i dont even have one, set memory settings back to safe defaults) and sitll nothing works. I cant use my mouse, I cant log in, my system is unresponsive and I have no idea what to do. The shop charges $45.00 per hour but I could barely afford a 1GB ram upgrade. I'll probably have to return it, but the last thing I want to do is spend the money I was saving for RAM just to get my computer back up and running to its original condition.

Any help, questions about my setup is welcome and appreciated. I really hope I can figure this out for free, but I have never heard of this before.

BTW the keyboard is logitech media keyboard which has always worked fine (with no drivers). The mouse is a fairly new (~1 month) logitech MX-518 which also worked fine the second I bought it. I just plugged it in, and it worked perfect. I didnt even install the software to access the addional button that windows didnt pick up (I was planning on it soon). My point is they should work whether theres a driver or not. I have tried 2 types of memory in all dual and single channel configurations I could think of, and they all result in the same error. I unhooked every component and re-wired my system from scratch and still same problem. I loaded all the fail safe defaults in the BIOS, still same problem. I browsed over the changes to the best of my ability and saw nothing that I could see causing this. The system worked perfect until I turned it off and tried to upgrade to 2GB. That didnt work, and now I cant even get my original configuration back.
King_County_Downy
shitfaced
+2,791|7045|Seattle

Is it just the mouse wigging out now?
Sober enough to know what I'm doing, drunk enough to really enjoy doing it
FrenziedAU
Member
+6|6895|Australia
Did you completely unplug your computer before you installed (and pulled out, and reinstalled) the new RAM?  Check that everything in your computer is still securely in place.
Agent_Dung_Bomb
Member
+302|7184|Salt Lake City

Reset the CMOS.  There should be a jumper on your board for doing it.  If you don't know where it is, remove the battery for a few minutes.

Last edited by Agent_Dung_Bomb (2006-10-03 14:27:50)

turkeybacon
Member
+50|6894|Dragon Valley

King_County_Downy wrote:

Is it just the mouse wigging out now?
The mouse and keyboard. I cant tell if the actual computer is unstable or just the keyboard. The mouse is completely unusable, the keyboard is very slow. I can press the windows key and scroll through the start menu, I started firefox and it seems to run OK, but the system does feel unresponsive.

King_County_Downy wrote:

Is it just the mouse wigging out now?
Yes, I completely unhooked while I did all this. I must have unhooked and rehooked up my computer 6-8 times now. The last try I decided to unhook all components and start from scratch. I put my old memory into the original working configuration and carefully reconnected everything. I made sure it was all hooked up again and secure and I'm very confident everything is sitting in place properly. The system is now in the same working configuration I had it in before the upgrade. New RAM is in the box ready to be taken back to the store...


Agent_Dung_Bomb wrote:

Reset the CMOS.  There should be a jumper on your board for doing it.  If you don't know where it is, remove the battery for a few minutes.
I'll give this a shot tonight. Actually one thing i havent tested is trying only a single unit of memory (single channel, 1 stick of 512MB). I dont see what this would accomplish or why dual channel would be broken all of a sudden, but I will try both tonight and hopefully come up with something.



---------------------------------------
Thanks for the help so far everyone. I'm typing all this off an old linux computer. I'm itching to play BF2 again :p

I have to leave now for school and I cant test anything for 4 more hours. Hopefully when I get back I'll be able to get this working again.

Just curious, if you had 2 types of memory, 2 sticks of each, same module size, how would you set them up? The tech support from the store said what I thought -

A-1) corsair
B-2) corsair
A-3) ocz
B-4) ocz

But right now I'm more concerned with just getting my system back to its initial state. I cant see if resetting the CMOS would work, because my motherboard has "reset to default" options in the CMOS menu. I'll still probably give it a shot though, just tell me if I'm wasting my time since I have this option.
Agent_Dung_Bomb
Member
+302|7184|Salt Lake City

turkeybacon wrote:

King_County_Downy wrote:

Is it just the mouse wigging out now?
The mouse and keyboard. I cant tell if the actual computer is unstable or just the keyboard. The mouse is completely unusable, the keyboard is very slow. I can press the windows key and scroll through the start menu, I started firefox and it seems to run OK, but the system does feel unresponsive.

King_County_Downy wrote:

Is it just the mouse wigging out now?
Yes, I completely unhooked while I did all this. I must have unhooked and rehooked up my computer 6-8 times now. The last try I decided to unhook all components and start from scratch. I put my old memory into the original working configuration and carefully reconnected everything. I made sure it was all hooked up again and secure and I'm very confident everything is sitting in place properly. The system is now in the same working configuration I had it in before the upgrade. New RAM is in the box ready to be taken back to the store...


Agent_Dung_Bomb wrote:

Reset the CMOS.  There should be a jumper on your board for doing it.  If you don't know where it is, remove the battery for a few minutes.
I'll give this a shot tonight. Actually one thing i havent tested is trying only a single unit of memory (single channel, 1 stick of 512MB). I dont see what this would accomplish or why dual channel would be broken all of a sudden, but I will try both tonight and hopefully come up with something.



---------------------------------------
Thanks for the help so far everyone. I'm typing all this off an old linux computer. I'm itching to play BF2 again :p

I have to leave now for school and I cant test anything for 4 more hours. Hopefully when I get back I'll be able to get this working again.

Just curious, if you had 2 types of memory, 2 sticks of each, same module size, how would you set them up? The tech support from the store said what I thought -

A-1) corsair
B-2) corsair
A-3) ocz
B-4) ocz

But right now I'm more concerned with just getting my system back to its initial state. I cant see if resetting the CMOS would work, because my motherboard has "reset to default" options in the CMOS menu. I'll still probably give it a shot though, just tell me if I'm wasting my time since I have this option.
Resetting the defaults in the BIOS doesn't always work.  Some times you just get some buggy data in the CMOS and need to clear it.  As a network admin that works on servers and workstations all day long, I can assure you that I have corrected more than one odd problem by doing this.

Last edited by Agent_Dung_Bomb (2006-10-03 14:43:41)

Twist
Too old to be doing this sh*t
+103|6971|Little blue planet, milky way
Just a "dumb" question here.... But is the mouse and KB USB ? Or PS/2 ?
'Coz you CAN run the risk of messing up your USB settings when fiddling with your hardware config. REmoving the USB controller from your hardware list and rebooting (thus reinstalling it) will USUALLY fix this.
The Stillhouse Kid
Licensed Televulcanologist
+126|7090|Deep In The South Of Texas
What are the timings for each set, particularly the CAS latency? If they're different then that could be the problem(I know from personal experience). Manually setting the timings in your BIOS might clear it up.

Also what are the specs on your power supply? Might be that running 4 sticks is more than it could handle.
Ki][mE
OMG H4XOR!
+51|7011|I'm a Viking....Norway
Is "set 1" of RAM is faster than "set 2"? the speed is the"CL" number..TwinMOS PC3200 DDR-DIMM 1024MB CL2.5 64M*8/16chip, 184-P (for DDR-PC400MHz)
turkeybacon
Member
+50|6894|Dragon Valley
Solution

Thanks for all the replies so far. I was sitting at school (got out early tonite) thinking of how I was going to fix this problem. A few notes

- I had my computer hooked up to a KVM switch

For those that dont know, its a little device that you plug 1 keyboard, monitor and mouse into (input), then it feeds out 2 cables for all the above (output). So you only need 1 keyboard, mouse, video and you can run 2 or more computers. I have a spare linux machine which I use. Anyways I thought that had nothing to do with it at that stage of troubleshooting, I was more concerned with memory setup and stuff.

So I got home planning to simplify the test system, stripping everything that wasnt needed to run hardware tests. I decided to use only my mouse, keyboard, monitor and power cord, everything else was unplugged. I figured after this I would unplug the battery or try to locate the CMOS jumpers before trying other things. Anyways I unplugged and created a "test bed", and it worked first try!! That was with my old memory (1GB corsair). I smiled and ran windows (with no internet, sound, ie: bf2) and it was good. I unplugged, took a deep breath and plugged in my new memory. Booted up, perfect. Now running in dual channel with 2GB. After that I tweaked some BIOS settings to get my computer running how it used to be, and its still working. It seems like somehow my KVM switch messed up, I dont know how, and I dont know if its still messed up. I'm just happy A) my computer works, and B) I have 2 gigs of ram. I'm about to try BF2 for a few hours, tweak my settings in there. The final thing I'll do is hook up my KVM switch and see if thats still working,but its alot of running cords through my heavy desk and its not critical right now. I can even get by without a monitor on linux, I really just need power and network for it.


Anyways just wanted to update. It was a weird error, but I guess that just happens sometimes.

Last edited by turkeybacon (2006-10-03 18:46:52)

swedge
Member
+23|6907|haggis hill
u cant have dua channel in four slots btw lol, good to hear ure pc is workin
MECtallica
Member
+73|6952|jalalabad
u cant have dua channel in four slots btw lol, good to hear ure pc is workin
liek lol yee u cn


In all seriousness, good to know the problem was some cable thing

resetting the CMOS also fixes a lot of hardware problems

Last edited by MECtallica (2006-10-03 23:58:31)

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