"No Signal" after upgrade from 1GB to 2GBs with D845GLAD MB

[Sertorius]

[Moderator, if this is in the wrong place please move with my apologies.]

Hello, there.

I’ll start off with what I have. The computer I use has Windows XP Professional as the OS. The hardware information came from the Belarc Advisor scan I did for my problem. It shows this.

1.70 gigahertz Intel Celeron
8 kilobyte primary memory cache
128 kilobyte secondary memory cache
Not hyper-threaded

80.02 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity
45.56 Gigabytes Hard Drive Free Space

LG DVD-ROM DRD-840B [Optical drive]
LITE-ON LTR-52246S [Optical drive]
3.5" format removeable media [Floppy drive]

ST340014A [Hard drive] (40.02 GB) -- drive 0, s/n 3JX33BS3, rev 3.06, SMART Status: Healthy
ST340015A [Hard drive] (40.02 GB) -- drive 1, s/n 5LAMXQL2, rev 3.01, SMART Status: Healthy

Board: Intel Corporation D845GLAD AAA86713-203
*removed personal information*
Bus Clock: 100 megahertz
BIOS: Intel Corp. LY84510A.86A.0043.P17.0306270645 06/27/2003

http://downloadmirror.intel.com/15325/eng/D845GLLY_D845GLAD_ProductGuide_English.pdf

1022 Megabytes Usable Installed Memory

Slot 'J6G1' has 512 MB
Slot 'J6G2' has 512 MB

Intel(R) 82845G/GL/GE/PE/GV Graphics Controller [Display adapter]
Acer V193W [Monitor] (18.6"vis, s/n ETLC1081472430C4624203, October 2012)

The make of the computer itself is called “Megtron”. I bought this as a special from a local computer sales and repair shop. Other than three incidents caused by malware and other assorted people created pests I’ve never had a problem with it.

The software I use to combat Internet pests are Malwarebytes Pro and MS' Security Essentials.

If I left something out you need to know from Belarc or Intell, I’ll find it for you. I’ve looked through this material posted by Intel, so I know where the bodies are buried:

http://www.intel.com/p/en_US/support/highlights/dsktpboards/d845glad
http://downloadmirror.intel.com/15325/eng/D845GLAD_SpecUpdate08.pdf
http://downloadmirror.intel.com/15325/eng/D845GLLY_D845GLAD_QuickRefGuide.pdf

This computer is old like I am. I got in back on 28 April, 2003. I got a new monitor for it as this computer meets my needs for what I use it for, so I have no need for 500 MBs, much less than a TB.

While I was at it I decided to add more memory to it, going from 1GB to 2GBs. These are the cards I purchased:

“2 of Crucial Technology 103486 1GB 400Mhz PC3200 DDR RAM - CT12864Z40B”

Crucial has a system scanner that brought up this information:

http://www.crucial.com/systemscanner/viewscanbyid.aspx?id=29BCB4F631D926C3

The Crucial memory card utility claims these cards will work. Centom’s tech support wrote me back saying the same thing about the 1 GB Centom card I already have.  The 512 MB cards in there now are made by Kingston.

After I installed the 1GB cards in the computer according to the manual the new Acer monitor said "no signal". I pulled them out and only installed one in the Zero slot to see if the computer would boot up. It didn't. I did the same with the other one and got the same result. Each time I put the cards in I let them seat themselves, which is, put enough pressure upon them so the end clips snapped in place on their own. When I put the old 512MB cards back it fired right up. My video card connection is good, so it isn't that. In fact, I hooked up an old monitor and checked the cards against it with no change. There were no beeps. I don't believe the cards are bad, either, because I used the Centon memory card of the same specification as a check as well. This Acer monitor does work with the old 512 cards. The reasons I have three 1 GB cards is that I wasn't sure about the Centom, the Crucial were on sale and I wanted a matched set.

My next step was to go to Intel’s website and see what they had on this problem. As this board is obsolete there is little there, but I did run their utility to see if I had any upgrades missing for this motherboard.

http://www.intel.com/p/en_US/support/detect?iid=dc_iduu

BIOS Version/Date   Intel Corp. LY84510A.86A.0043.P17.0306270645, 
6/27/2003

LY84510A.86A.0043.P17.EB.EXE 10/08/2003

As best as I can tell the BIOS are current. I found this too, from the Intel site.

"This desktop board has been designed to support DIMMs based on 512 Mbit technology for a maximum onboard capacity of up to 2 GB, but this technology has not been validated on this board.
...

Solution ID: CS-008720
Last Modified: 16-Nov-2012
Date Created: 25-Jan-2004"

http://www.intel.com/support/motherboards/desktop/d845glad/sb/cs-008720.htm?wapkw=intel+desktop+boar...

I consider these to be weasel words from Intel. As old as this board is they should certainly know by now, judging from the date from this post. The board came out in 2002.

I then went to Crucial’s forum to see if someone there had encountered this. There, a helpful technician had me do certain things that later I learned is called CMOS. Those things were to disconnect the power and remove the battery and set it aside for 15 minutes.

http://forum.crucial.com/t5/Standard-DRAM-Memory/quot-No-Signal-quot-after-upgrade-from-1GB-to-2GBs-with-Acer/td-p/121900

I followed his steps using the old memory cards as instructed. When I turned the computer back on it went to something I thought might be F mode instead of starting up normally. It did change the time to 12:00 AM and I believe the year back to 2002. Now I believe that instead of F mode I was looking at I believe I was actually looking at the BIOS setup. The page had a grey background with blue fonts. I wasn’t sure what to do at this point so I either hit a key or escape to go into Windows normally. My opinion based on research is that this is a setup issue and if I’m correct the BIOS or whatever isn’t recognizing the new memory cards. I believe I can be walked through the procedure to get these cards to work if I am correct. I’ve read through the information here about CMOS and BIOS to familiarize myself.

http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000707.htm
 
One other website claims what I really need is something like these cards:

1GB 128x64-266MHz DDR266 PC2100, 184p DIMM, 2.5v, Sync, CL=2.5Standard Memory   
0 MB (removable)
Maximum Memory   2.0 GB
Memory Expansion   2 sockets
Memory Comments   PC2100 SDRAM DDR DIMMs
CPU Type   Intel Celeron or Intel Pentium 4
Model Comments   400MHz FSB, Intel 845GL Chipset, micro ATX Form Factor

The technician’s comment about this was they didn’t carry these, but have had few returns with their 2700 and 3200 cards with more sales with the 2700s..

In short, my problem resembles the one found on this thread:

http://www.computerhope.com/forum/index.php/topic,14241.msg74245.html#msg74245

Could this be a speed issue?

A search here using the keyword “D845GLAD” only turned up two hits and they pertained to audio issues. Any ideas you might have on this I would be grateful to hear.

Thanks,

Ryan

[patio]

The MBoard was never tested with anything larger than a 512M RAM stik according to the iNtel info posted...that should have raised a red flag right there that the Crucial info may be innaccurate.
Also the RAM speed recommended is listed at 200/266...the RAM you are trying is 400.

I think your only solution if indeed you want to increase the RAM would be 2 more 512M stiks at the recommended speeds listed...or match the ones you have in there as close as possible.

[Sertorius]

Thank you for the reply, Patio.

I was afraid this was the case and the reason I included the information from Intel. Too bad I didn't see that first instead of taking at face value the claim by Crucial and Centom.

Caveat emptor.

I do have one more question while I have you.

I really hate to return these cards, so I have something else I'm looking into. I was given an old computer a while back with the HD removed but with a Pentium 4 processor that came out of an office building. It was to be a future project for the learning experience.

I looked at the motherboard and found it is a Biostar.

http://www.biostar.com.tw/app/en/mb/export/spec_export.php?S_ID=91

The specifications look like this is, comparatively speaking, a newer Motherboard. I know it dates back to 2007 from a blog post. Too bad the spec sheet above doesn't have a date. Anyway, I'm going to check the MB and the other components to see if they are still good. If they are I'll probably move my two hard drives from this one to that one, using the new memory cards. If feasible, I'll do this instead. I have more research to do here on the board, etc., and the manufacturer.

Do you have an opinion on whether these cards will work here, assuming everything else works? If these cards won't work here I'll return them for something else. Thanks.

[patio]

You will have to do research on the Biostar...the info page is a table of contents...nothing else.
To sum up whenever considering a CPU or RAM for purchase the MBoard is the key factor as they determine what style and size/speeds are supported...
So it should be the 1st thing to check before looking to purchase either.

I'm moving this to the proper section.

[Sertorius]

Thanks for your time with these questions, Patio.

[patio]

Anytime...it's what we do.
And Welcome Aboard...

[Computer_Commando]

Intel Corporation D845GLAD was an early DDR memory adopter because the manual says the D845GLLY was the same board except used PC133 SDRAM.

If it didn't work with what Crucial provided, I would return them & just use the 2-512MB modules.  DDR memory is very expensive compared to DDR2 or even DDR3.

[patio]

Kinda what i suggested above.