Building a rig with an A64 3000+ on an ABIT KV8 Pro motherboard. Using a 512 meg DIMM of Crucial ram (PC3200) and a Geforce 6800 128mb card (from eVGA).
I put it together, and when I try to boot it cancels itself after giving me a 1-long, 3-short beep code. I've googled this and it seems there are different beep codes depending on the BIOS! One version, the sequence means faulty vidcard; one means faulty memory. (The BIOS for this board seems to be Phoenix which isn't supposed to use these kind of beep sequences at all, but rather a different 3-set sequence. Which all sort of puzzles me.) Well I have swapped in other vidcards -- including one I know works because I am using it on the PC on which I'm typing this message -- and same error beep comes along. I'm thinking it's probably a memory issue, which would be odd because it's Crucial and ya know, supposed to be very high quality etc.
My tentative plan at this point is to go down to Fry's tomorrow and snap up another DIMM but this time make sure it is one on the "certified" list from the ABIT website for that board. The list doesn't include Crucial but that's just too damn bad (any recommendations for good second brands, like Kingmax, Corsair, etc. would be appreciated).
What worries me is that I might be throwing away another 80+ dollars on a fool's errand. Because again I can't think of any reason why this RAM wouldn't work. There's always "bad RAM" but this is Crucial we're talking about. But I can't think of any other option at this point either.
By the way, do the little USB doohickeys (the tiny plugs) that go from the case to the mobo have to be plugged in, or are those optional? I haven't plugged those in yet though I did plug in the other little deals (LEDs, speaker, etc.). i highly doubt this is what is wrong but you never know.
Kinda wondering if there is anything else diagnostically I can be sure of at this point. If the PC has the "presence of mind" to do an error report like that, does this mean the CPU is probably functioning adequately? Or is that something I can't take for granted either? If I could rule out mobo or CPU error then it would really narrow things down to memory. But then if I plug in another DIMM and get the same error message I will really be out of ideas and will probably have to get a new mobo and try to RMA the current one if Newegg will take it back.
(BTW, when transferring a CPU from one mobo to another, I assume you need some kind of solvent to clean off the thermal interface material? Any insight on that process?)
Building PCs is always a bit of an adventure but in this case things are going worse than the last time, which is too bad.
If I have to, i'll throw another couple hundred dollars at the problem -- I'm committed now and really want to have a stonking machine for when Half Life 2 comes out.Any thoughts much appreciated, thanks.
