posted February 07, 2005 03:46 PM         

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posted February 06, 2005 11:48 PM         

I did a clean install of XP, installed all drivers,applications, reinstalled my second video card, and all works fine.
I've restarted, and shut down and started, at least 10 times now, and it boots back up fine.
I've even made some big video changes, back and forth, using nvidia's options, and still no sign of any instability.

very pleasant

I also learned a big lesson about RAM. I hope these posts can help others if they have the same prob.

Thanks Josh, and thanks for creating this site too

posted February 06, 2005 02:01 PM         

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posted February 06, 2005 12:51 AM         

So you'd probably want SS 256 (32MB/chip) with DS 512 (32 MB/chip). It would be slow, but probably not as slow as SS 512 (64 MB/chip) & DS 256.

What happens when mixing SS & DS is that the mem controller has to work twice as hard on the SS (since it cannot use an address bit to access both sides. It can only access one side of the DIMM). Instead of using 1 algorithm (which uses 4 interleaving bits, 2 upper and 2 lower) it makes up two algorithms (1 upper bit and 2 lower bit addressing).

So if you have one size in channel 0 and another size in channel 1 it will interleave differently. And if you you have DS in channel 0 and SS in channel 1 it will again interleave differently.

In your case that comes out to a 20% drop. I can only surmise that you have mixed DS and SS DIMMS."

posted February 06, 2005 12:35 AM         

Here is the url of my exact description http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=dim_harddrive&message.id=82844

and I'll post the text.... if it's better to edit out the text for space reasons, please do.. appreciatively...

text:

System: Dimension 8400, XP Home SP2, 2Gig DDR2 @533 (2 512's are single-sided, 2 are double-sided)

The Problem:
Upon booting up, a blank screen comes on, with a blinking cursor in the upper left corner. No keyboard keys or mouse movement cause any response. The CD-ROM doesn't cause any response. If I leave the cursor blink for ~10+minutes, this has successfully gotten it to boot correctly twice. The system had worked fine for weeks prior to attempting the 2nd RAID array, and the defragging.


When the Problem Started:
This system had XP Home (reduced using XPlite) installed on a RAID1 array (same brand,model,size drives - WD Raptor 36.7 10k rpm).

I then added 2 more 512's of DDR2 @ 533MHz, ordered thru Dell using their memory-search from my 'service tag'. When it arrived, I noticed it was double-sided... the factory installed RAM is single-sided. I installed it, and then I also set up a second RAID1 array on 2 additional drives (same brand,model,size - Seagate Barracuda 80 7,200 rpm). After setting it up, I initialized and partitioned the array, and confirmed that the array was seen in My Computer. There was no indication of any problems.

I also went into Defrag and analzed my RAID array that had XP on it. Defrag told me I should defrag, so I did. There was a lot of spaced data still, so I analzyed and was told I should defrag again. I defragged 3, or 4, times, maybe 5.

The problem started the next time I rebooted. I received a blank screen with an error message that
windows root>system32\hal.dll. not being found, and I was prompted to add/install/etc it.

I restarted 2 times and the error message was still there. The 3rd restsrat resulted in a normal set-up. And the next restart after that resulted in the blank screen -blinking cursor.

The Power Light is Steady Green
The Diagnosis Lights are A,B,C=Green D=Yellow (I had my floppy drive removed)
(Diagnosis) http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/dim8400/SM/adtshoot.htm#wp1052313
I have removed and firmly replaced all cords to all drives and ROMs, and the cursor-blink state is the same.

Leaving the cursor blink for 10+minutes, and then restarting it has so far resulted in a normal start-up.

Since the CD-ROM would work, I did a clean install of XP on the Raptor RAID1 array.
Same problem... I did the clean install and separated the array into 2 partitions, with XP in it's own partition. Everything went fine and I added the drivers for the mobo. Then when I went to format the other non-XP partition on the RAID1, I got a BSOD error...

0x0000008E (0x0000005, 0xBF8010F0, 0xAB11DA48, 0x00000000)
win32k.sys - Adress BF8010F0 base at BF800000, DATESTAMP 41107f7a (btw, anyone know where to go to decode these types of errors?)

and a message about to check I had the latest BIOS version, video drivers, etc

and upon restarting, I got the blank screen-blinking cursor (sounds like crouching tiger, hidden dragon lol)

The first time the error started, it happened after:
installing double-sided RAM to the single-sided factory installed ram
multiple defrags
and
setting up a 2nd RAID1 array

This second time, it happened after:
formatting the 2nd partition on the OS drive RAID1 array

What got it to boot after the problem started:
leaving it in blinking-cursor state for 50+minutes, and restarting
leaving it in blinking cursor state for 10+minutes, and restarting
removing the newly added RAM, and removing 1 video card (and connecting my floppy drive... (connecting the floppy drive and removing a video card didn't work alone tho)

Possible Causes/Fixes

Q: Should the new RAM be identical to the factory installed RAM? (single-sided)

Q1: Can it cause problems to have one RAID1 array using 10k rpm drives, and another RAID1 array using 7200 rpm drives?

THANK YOU

Jon

"Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, you'll find one at the end of your arm. As you grow older you will discover that you have two hands. One for helping yourself, the other for helping others." - Sam Levenson

Dimension 8400
P4 3.6Ghz
2Gigs DDR2 @ 533MHz (1 gig factory installed)
2 nVidia Quadro4 NVS400 quad video cards with 8 monitors
RAID1 for XP Home and programs (WD Raptor 36.7's @ 10,000 rpm)
attempting 2nd RAID1 for a few other programs and data (Seagate Barracuda 80's @ 7,200 rpm)

-Reply from person with very similar problem-
:
I can't help you with the RAID stuff, but I had an experience with single sided vs double sided RAM that might be useful to you. I went to a popular computer parts & supplies retailer and told the sales person what kind of RAM I wanted and he sold me a stick that had a factory printed label on it that stated that it was indeed the size, speed and type that Belarc and Sisandra had reported I already had in the machine I wanted to upgrade. When I opened my machine, I found that the existing RAM was single-sided while the new module was double-sided. When I popped the new module in and fired the machine up, I too saw the lonely blinking cursor as you did. Also like you, after a couple of attempted boots and pounding every key on the keyboard, I finally let the machine set with the cursor blinking and went off to fix myself a sandwich. When I returned to the room where the machine was, I was ecstatic to find that Windows had finally booted up and things seemed to be running normally. However, when I went into sysinfo, Windows only showed *half* of the newly installed memory! I took the new module out, and the machine booted up normally, so I took the new module back to the salesman and told him my story. He said that he had heard of the problem before in that some machines don't work well, or at all with double-sided memory. He gave me a refund because he didn't have a single-sided version of what I needed so I went online and ordered direct from Crucial only after making sure that what I was ordering was single-sided. The new single-sided module worked fine.

posted February 06, 2005 12:16 AM         

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posted February 05, 2005 04:53 PM         

I've also uplugged the hard drives, and then started the system, and get the same blank screen-blinking cursor.

This problem started after I installed the 2nd RAID array. I first got an error message that windows root>system32\hal.dll. not being found, and I was prompted to add/install/etc it. After 3 restarts, the error didn't come, and windows loaded fine. So I reinstalled XP Home via CD. I put XP on a separate partition. After windows installed completely (with both RAIDs functioning), I initialized the other partition on the XP drive. Then I started it formatting, and I received a BSOD. And a restart restarted the blank-screen blinking cursor.

I may have not installed the RAID drivers after the XP install, both times.
IMO, it seems that the 2nd RAID array is most connected with the timing of the glitches.

posted February 04, 2005 11:46 PM         

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posted February 04, 2005 10:59 PM         

Upon booting up, a blank screen comes on, with a blinking cursor in the upper left corner. No keyboard keys or mouse movement cause any response. The CD-ROM doesn't cause any response. If I leave the cursor blink for ~10+minutes, this has successfully gotten it to boot correctly twice, but i can't get it to work again, and i can't get into BIOS or anything now. The system had worked fine for weeks prior to attempting the 2nd RAID array, and the defragging.

it's a Dell Dimension 8400
P4 3.6GHz
XP Home SP2
RAID on mobo
1st RAID1 is 2 SATA WD Raptor 36.7's @ 10k rpm
2nd RAID1 is 2 SATA Seagate 80's @ 7,200 rpm

I need the first RAID, and the second RAID would be helpful, but I'd forgo it if it'd make my system work