Weird PCI Graphics + 4GB RAM Problem

[chickenbeef]

Greetings

I bought me another 2GB stick of DDR2 800MHz RAM yesterday with the intention of running all together 2x 2GB DDR2 800MHz RAM in dual channel mode.

Got home, installed the stick then proceeded to putting the pc on.

The PC loads windows fine (I hear the windows log on sound through the speakers and i am able to launch Winamp via the keyboard hotkey and also listen to music), the only problem is that when i have a total of 4GB RAM installed the PCI Graphics card that i have in the PC does not output anything onto the screen.

If i take out the one stick and boot only with the single 2GB stick then everything works great, i.e. the PCI card displays POST, the windows log on screen, the desktop etc.

I have tried installing the RAM into different slots and in single channel mode also but nothing seems to work!

I even tried moving the card around by putting it into different PCI slots and even this did not work!

Anyone know how i can get the PCI card to output video to the screen with 2x2GB sticks of RAM installed?

Specs of the pc are as folows;

Intel Q6600
Intel DP35DP mobo
2x2GB DDR2 800MHz Samsung RAM
500GB Seagate SATA HDD

oh, and BTW, the PSU is not the problem, even when i tried unplugging everything (DVD Drives, Case Fans, HDDs) it still did not work

The card is an S3 Virge DX, using it as a replacement card till i get a 4770

TIA

 

[cfvh600]

that is a strange problem! Did you try play around with the BIOS settings and the sharing of the memory between the MB and the graphics card? Is the PCI card selected as the first card to initialize in the BIOS?

 

[PostmanPot]

So when you boot with 2GB of either sticks at a time, it's working?

RAM conflict?

 

[werner]

vista in-box driver for ati firegl cards had the same problem...4gb or more of ram and system would do similar.

if you are using vista (you dont mention it in the post above) then please update the drivers to manufacturer specific ones.

 

[cfvh600]

So when you boot with 2GB of either sticks at a time, it's working?

RAM conflict?

I was thinking the same.

 

[cfvh600]

vista in-box driver for ati firegl cards had the same problem...4gb or more of ram and system would do similar.

if you are using vista (you dont mention it in the post above) then please update the drivers to manufacturer specific ones.

AFAIK it is Win 7. Silverlight please correct me if I am wrong.

 

[bboy]

most probably the pc is having a problem mapping the gfx card's ram into an addressable memory space. Normally the pc will map the gfx card somewhere into the 4gb range so you can access it, now with 2gb its fine, its just chucks it somwhere after the 2gb and its still within access, now with 4gb its supposed to put it before the 4gb and then put the extra ram after the 4gb, there may be a bios option to fix this

 

[chickenbeef]

that is a strange problem! Did you try play around with the BIOS settings and the sharing of the memory between the MB and the graphics card? Is the PCI card selected as the first card to initialize in the BIOS?

Yes, changed primary video adapter from PCI express to PCI and it still does not work

So when you boot with 2GB of either sticks at a time, it's working?

RAM conflict?

Both sticks are the same brand and timings, its Samsung 6-6-6-18 DDR2 800MHz, there is no confict because it boots up fine into windows, its just that when there is a total of 4GB RAM in the PC, the PCI card does not display anything onto the screen, not even the POST messages

vista in-box driver for ati firegl cards had the same problem...4gb or more of ram and system would do similar.

if you are using vista (you dont mention it in the post above) then please update the drivers to manufacturer specific ones.

Using windows 7 64Bit RC1

Bios version is 0517 (Latest version)

Board does support 2GB RAM sticks http://www.intel.com/support/motherboards/desktop/dp35dp/sb/CS-026645.htm

Can't find any Vista/Windows 7 drivers for the card, its 14 years old so i guess thats the reason why i cant find anything , Mobo also does not have onboard graphics

 

[bboy]

if you're using 64 bit the the 4GB address barrier does not come into play from windows side, however the pci card may not run if its mapped above the 4gb range