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DRAM Error (continuous beep)

1K views 2 replies 2 participants last post by  Eluzion 
#1 ·
I just upgraded my system with a new Gigabyte K8NS Ultra-939 motherboard and a AMD Athlon 64 3000+. I have two DDR-2100 256mb sticks (planning on upgrading sooner or later). I placed them in slot 1 and 3 at first (read the manual wrong about running dual channel DDR). Just gave me the "Memory not optimized" at start-up. Well I installed windows and got the computer up and running. Turned it off and switched the ram stick in slot 3 to 2. Started the computer and got the nice "DDR dual channel enabled". Neat. Well, right before I got to the Windows loading screen the computer starts a long, continuous beep. It lasts for about 5 minutes then turns off for 2-3 minutes, then does it again (keeps repeating). I look up the beeping code in my book and it says 'DRAM Error'. I did a little bit of research on the internet and supposedly that error means the DRAM is not installed correctly. It is installed correctly though. hehe

I checked dxdiag and it is showing 512 ram. Everything runs fine but I just have that long beep which is extremely annoying.

Any ideas?

Thanks!
 
#2 ·
I'm confused, does the beep occur while the system is otherwsie operating normally and recognizing the full size of RAM? Or does this happen during POST?

Most dual-channel motherboards have more than one way to activate dual channel, you might be able to try more than one combination to get it working.

For DDR to work in dual channel they need to be matching pairs of sticks - same brand, model number, speed, and timings. Much like running dual processors. Sometimes you can get two different brands working but not usually...even then, sometimes two generic sticks of RAM or certain brands just don't run in dual channel. It isn't an industry-wide tech by any stretch.

The only other thing that I could think the motherboard might be complaining about is the frequency or maybe the timing of the RAM. Both of those these can be adjusted through the BIOS.

Good luck and keep us posted!
 
#3 ·
Doh, I forgot about this thread. I fixed the problem. Turns out it wasn't the RAM. By default, SmartFAN is enabled in the BIOS. I enabled CPU fan off warning because I figured it would be pretty damn important to know if my CPU fan stopped working. Well, turns out my fan was turning off due to SmartFAN (was cold enough at idle I guess) lol. So that long continuous beep was the warning letting me know my fan was off. I just turned off SmartFAN so the CPU fan always runs.

Appreciate your help though! Sorry I didn't reply sooner.
 
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