My First Boot Problem & How I Found Fix

[tumbleweed357]

To Rob and All:

This is my 2nd build:
Antec 900 Case
AMD 64 X2 6000 CPU
Thermaltake V1 CPU Cooler!
EVGA 8800GTS Graphics Card
Dell UltraSharp 2407FP Widescreen Monitor
MSI K9N SLI Platinum AM2 Motherboard
4GB RAM-Crucial Ballistix Tracer 2-2GB matched kits/with 2 1GB sticks per kit.
Antec True Power Trio 650W Power Supply

When I first pressed the power button all fans came on including the video card fan. But monitor went into power save mode and blank. Re-seated video card-nothing. Moved video card to the other PCI-E slot--nothing. Screen still in power save mode and blank. Moved video card back to the original slot and swapped the power supply connector with the other spare--nothing.

The tracer RAM had all the tiny red & green led's on.
I pulled all 4 sticks out and put them back in--nothing. The same.
I then pulled DIMM2 & DIMM4 and left DIMM1 & DIMM3 in place--it worked!!
I then swapped the RAM sticks with the ones in DIMM1 & DIMM3--it still worked!!

Concluded: All RAM sticks are A-OK. System WOULD NOT enable 1st boot
with all 4 sticks in the DIMM slots.

Questions: 1. Why wouldn't it boot up with all DIMMs filled with 1GB sticks?

2. Will I perhaps be able to install them after I continue with
the build and Vista is installed?

3. I read somewhere that a Microsoft bulletin # ???? stated
something like this: Vista will not recognize 4GB of RAM but
slightly less than 3GB...like 2.825GB or something around that.
And the MSI motherboard manual under 'Dual-Channel Memory
Population Rules' it's either a.) DIMM1/DIMM3 b.)DIMM2/DIMM4
or c.)all 4 DIMM slots. So I decided(perhaps wrongly) to buy
the 2 matched sets of RAM(even though 1GB would not be
recognized by the OS, but nearly 3GB would. Does anybody
have a clue as to why I couldn't get the 1st boot due to the
extra DIMM slots being filled?

It's not a show-stopper by any means and I'm continuing on with the build.
Thank you!

[tumbleweed357]

Installed floppy, Sony DRU-830A Optical Drive, and
WD 320 HD.
Getting the floppy into the adapter kit for the Antec 900
was a bit awkward but came out great nevertheless.
Pressed power button-----BIOS recognized all three!!

Continuing on from Rob's step-by-step book and setting the
BIOS parameters.

I'll be using Vista Ultimate instead of XP but I'm confident enough from
my 1st build with Rob's instructions that I can do it.

Rob: Thanks again!

[Rob]

Cool! Good job sticking with it! Thanks for keep us posted!

[tumbleweed357]

Thanks Rob. And I have a little more update for anybody using modems and
maybe this might help.

Vista installed like a breeze in less than an hour. I then installed the modem driver cd but Vista didn't take too kindly to it but I told Vista to do it anyway.
Installed the modem. Vista recognized it and all. It let me go on-line. It was getting late and I turned on Auto-Update and let Vista get itself updated while I went to bed.

The next morning it was off-line and I thought it odd. I got back on-line but limited! ?? Never encountered that before. I couldn't on the Net though. Swapped PCI slots with the modem-same thing. Re-installed modem drivers--same thing, even though Device Manager said it was working properly.

Went and bought an external US Robotics modem. Plugged it in and Vista recognized it and I let it install it's own drivers. Downloaded latest updated drivers for it for a Vista OS for it from another PC and installed. Same thing. Vista said to see your ISP provider. Brought the box to them. They were stumped. But they did determine the DNC converters that
the PC does is not working. So we Googled our problem. Lots of DNC issues and some fixes with Vista and XP. You could bring up the CMD prompt and type in the numeric address such as 1101.02.04 and such and get yahoo home page to come up. But you couldn't go anywhere from there. That's what DNC converters do. They convert all those addresses for us so we don't
have to manually enter in those #s!! Hell of a way to surf that is!

Getting late in the work evening. He suggested to re-install Vista but leave
modem out and bring it back Monday. Went back home and re-installed and even formatted the C drive partition again. This time I plugged in the external US Robotics modem and Vista again recognized it but I did NOT let Vista install it's own drivers 1st but directed it instead to get them from the CD with the updated drivers. It connected and I was able to get on the Internet too!!! No problem now for 3 days!

Conclusion: I believe the internal modem somehow developed a problem
that 1st night and disconnected itself. And it somehow made
Vista deep in it's code to somehow not let the DNC converters
work. Am probably wrong but it's out of my league.
To anybody that's going to use a modem on their buile:
MAKE SURE THERE ARE VISTA DRIVERS FOR YOUR MODEM
OUT THERE BEFORE YOU PURCHASE IT!!!!

Thanks again Rob! My confidence with this Vista build is high now. And I'll say
this: I'll never buy a retail PC ever in my life again! With
great confidence I can build one now. And if I can do it
anybody can do it!!

Jim
A tip coming your way soon Rob.

[The Wise Monkey]

Glad things are sorted, but I think you mean DNS - Domain Name Servers. They convert IP addresses into names. :)

[tumbleweed357]

Yes, that's it W.M. Thanks for the correction. I'm a little vague on that kind of stuff.
I do have one problem? though. I have to hit F1 in order for it to boot into
Vista. It says unknown processor 'press F1'.

Vista doesn't even recognize it either. Says it's an AMD, though but that the best it gets. Have a score of 5.4.

The MSI web-site for the K9N SLI Platinum drivers/Bios/Utilities doesn't do anything for me like it leads me to believe. Not even the live update. Vista wouldn't accept the disc that came with the mobo. Need to update the
BIOS/Drivers. But the ones for that board doesn't do anything when I unzip them. Sure wish they would make it easer for people like me. Vista's only been out for 7 months or so. And everybody known that microsoft was developing a new OS anyway. Sheesh. But I haven't given up, though.

[The Wise Monkey]

Some people have reported problems with the e6xx processors being recognised, but I've never heard it with AMD.

MSI are notorious for having poor customer services. I had a MSI board in the past and it put me off them completely.

[tumbleweed357]

UPDATE:

I ended up downloading Live Update 3 from the MSI website. Ran the utility.
It searched on-line for any updates. Found the Updated BIOS file amongst
other things. I only wanted the BIOS this time. So I left everything unchecked but that. It then told me what programs to shut down such as anti-virus, clock, etc. I did. It offered to make me a recovery boot disc floppy with the original BIOS prior to flashing!! Plus provided instructions. I wrote those down. After it made the floppy, it told me to take it out. I then pressed start. I watched as it removed and replaced the data(flashing). And in just a minute or two it was over. Pressed F2 to re-load the defaults and I saw the correct CPU identification come up! It proceeded to load Vista without having to press that F1! Yay!!
Vista even recognized the AMD CPU for what it was!

However I had to reload the XFI sound card drivers. Odd.
I clicked on start, computer just to see the info and it
stated that I had to activate Windows. What the??!
I ended up having to call Microsoft to re-activate it.
They said I have to do this when system changes such as
the BIOS flashing are done. Sucks. But oh well.
Everything's working great!
Thanks!
Jim

[The Wise Monkey]

Heh, Microsoft are strange sometimes.

Glad it all works now.