2x512 dual channel kingston pc3200 ram
gigabyte x800xl silentpipe pci-e video card
audigy 2 value
amd 3000+ s939
pioneer dvr-109 secondary master
samsung 120gb ata hd primary master
seasonic s12-430 psu

anyone ever have a problem where it -stalls- on startup (bear in mind, disabled the splash) immediately before ram is checked, and right after cpu speed displayed. won't shut down unless i turn it off on switch.

fans keep spinning and fan on dvdrom (if seek has started up) keeps going
board shipped with 3.3 beta bios, just updated to 3.3 final as well. not sure if that caused it or some bios setting.

can anyone offer some insight or clues if they encountered this same problem?

weird thing is, this is random, 50% of the time, it was enough to boot twice to install xp-sp2 but the next startup after it freezes at that point.

(so far my silent system's off all the time so it's 100% silent!) using the mac mini more...

Going to try to do the following:

1) remove the x800xl, and try a few install rounds w/ the integrated video to see if it stalls

2) with the video card out (assuming i can get it out, it looks tough on this board) i will then try:

3) moving the ram from 1-2 to 3-4 and then trying 1 at a time

4) trying old non dual channel pc3200 corsair valueselect

run memtest, see if your memory is good.

I've seen one comment on the forums and one in a PM someone send me that this board is picky about the RAM it works with. I never had problems (two expensive sticks of Corsair CMX256A-3200C2). I know MSI has it own forums somewhere, maybe check those out.

brand new ram sticks, just opened, paired and matched, the kingston ones were on the approved list

Just because it is brand-new and approved, doesn't mean they sent you good stick. Run memtest for a few hours. You shouldn't get any errors at all.

I'll try the corsair valueselect back in there as soon as i pry the video card off and can get at the ram

I am having the same problem with my board It hangs up with my Kingmax DDR 466 memory all the time. As well as not reading DVD burner, not burning DVDs as it will lock the entire system up. It will also beep once announcing a DRAM refresh failure according to MSI's website.

Can ALL those problems be attributed to memory? Should I just put up with it and get a Gigabyte/Asus/Sapphire mobo when they become available? What is the freakin' holdup with the other manufacturer's versions? So far, this is the worst motherboard I have every used...except the last MSI board I had (VIA 266 chipset) it blew it's capacitors and died.

That board is picky about the RAM, I have 2 in the office right now, bot are being shipped tomorrow.

One has 2 x 512MB GEIL 3200 Value, works fine.
The other has 2 x Crucial 512MB 3200 Value, also fine.
......... and OCZ Premier 3200 2 x 512MB.

However, Kingston seems to depend on the actual chips on the Module, I had it running with 2 different PC3200+ 256MB Kingston modules perfectly, but the Samsung RAM was flaky.

I have nothing against Kingston, far from it I have used loads more Kingston RAM than any other manufacturer, however, Kingston use various RAM chip manufacturers, but all of the modules have the same code.!!! beware.

I would suggest GEIL, or Crucial as a replacement, as GEIL make their own RAM chips AND modules, and Crucial, use Micron RAM (parent company) and as such wont likely ship modules with other manufacturers RAM on.

I hope what I have said is clear, and understandable, it's not Kingston, not MSI, not AMD, it's the specific chips on the Kingston module.


Andy

PS: Great mobo, I have built using 4 boards, RAM problems on the first one, perfect on all others.

Well, I put two sticks of Corsair XMS Platinum series DDR CAS2 memory in... the MSI board still fails with the single beep "DRAM memory refresh error" and locks up. That does it! This POS motherboard is heading to the dump! The only other MSI mobo I have ever had ended up in the dump also... good to see they still make crap!

If I was going to do this HTPC build over, I would of gone with a FULL SIZE ATX mobo and the nForce4 chipset. Small size is nice but an unstable POS mobo just makes this much worse. My sons like it though, they now have 1 gig of dual-channel 466MHz DDR to overclock their nForce2 mobo with. Now I have a computer that won't play games or do any extensive computing... but it looks cool! I hope that Gigabyte or Asus board comes out soon... for now if I need to do any gaming or disc encoding... my son's XP2400M (O/C'ed to 2.1GHz) will do the trick.

Sapphire and MSI... never again (two blown MSI mobos and two blown Sapphire video cards...need I say more?)

it WAS memory.

old valueselect RAM has no problems whatsoever. new Kingston ValueRAM dies like I described.