Hi,
I have a MSI 645 Ultra (MS-6547) motherboard with 1 GB of DDR3200 RAM. This motherboard has three memory slots and can handle up to 3GB RAM. I bought another 2 x 1GB and filled the other two slots.
Vista Ultimate 32 bit wouldn't boot at all. I see some coloured rubbish on the screen and then a message comes up to say it can't boot, do I want safe mode. Safe mode also doesn't boot up. I tried booting from the Vista DVD but the same thing happens. I removed one of the new memory sticks and the system boots up although I still notice some odd things happening like the icons on the task bar not refreshing.
I checked for BIOS upgrades but there isn't one. Any thought on how I can use the memory I bought?
Thanks,
John

I suspect you'll need to slow the memory down, a lot of boards can't use all slots at full speed. You may also want to try raising the voltage a tad too (just remain in the specs).
Paul Smith, Yeovil, UK. Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User. windowsresource.net/
*Remove nospam. to reply by e-mail*
"John"

Unless memory is matched or very close, the system will not boot correctly.. try to get sticks that match the original..
"John"

Mike Hall MS MVP Windows Shell/User msmvps.com/blogs/mikehall/

"John"

Run Vista's built in memory diagnostic tool with 2 sticks installed and see if that shows anything. Got to Windows help and support and search "memory test", there's lots of good info and instructions. Bob

The memory got nothing to do with the OS if it works fine with 1 gig then it's definitely the memory issue. I last upgraded my laptop memory and I had to try 4 different brand in order to get the one that worked with my system, even though it said it's compatible with my laptop model.
Return and get a different brand, not all DDR3200 are equal, they do vary in timing and voltage.
"John"

Thank you for all comments. Because I am getting that strange coloured display for a few seconds, I thought it might be related to a conflict in memory addresses with the video card when the third stick is installed. I did read something somewhere about changing the video memory setting in the BIOS.
I'll try your suggestions and let you know the outcome.
John
"John"

Mike,
Vista is finicky regarding RAM. I normally run with 2 gig of Corsair PC3200. Last weekend I tried to install another stick of the same (same date - same lot code etc.). Being as how I dual boot with XP, I first booted into Windows XP. No problem.
I then tried to boot up into Vista after about 15 seconds I got a blue screen warning about newly installed devices. I then thought I would reinstall Vista with 3 gigs already installed. That way it would be picked up in the original install, right? Wrong! After about 15 seconds the system froze. This time there was no indication of any error what-so-ever.
I took out the 3rd stick and everything is fine again.
The Shadow knows, I sure don't.

Regards,
Richard Urban Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User (For email, remove the obvious from my address)
Quote from George Ankner: If you knew as much as you think you know, You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!
"Mike Hall - MS MVP Windows Shell/User"

Richard
I had two 1gb sticks on my board, and just added another, no matching or anything, and it worked.. normally, I would say 'match', but as you and others have found, that plainly doesn't work.. like you, I am at a loss as to what to suggest..
"Richard Urban"

Mike Hall MS MVP Windows Shell/User msmvps.com/blogs/mikehall/

"John"

just the two new sticks? Try reducing the speed from 200 to 166. I had to do that with an older Asus A7N8X motherboard when I filled the third RAM slot. You can also try each of the new sticks one-at-a-time with your old stick to see if one works and the other does not.
The one thing I didn't see in this thread was the possibility that one or both the new sticks is bad. It happens.

Thank you. I have just run the memory test with one old stick and one new. It reported no problems. I'll try it now with the other new stick.
John
"pvdg42"

"John"

stick? If that fails, you probably got a bad stick. It happens, even from Crucial.

I upgraded mine from 2 to 4gb (dual channel so everything has to be in pairs) and now I have an impressive (!) 2.9gb showing in both XP and Vista (32-bit). I should have done some research before wasting the money. Strangely, when I thought "to heck with it, I'll sell the new ones on eBay" and whipped them out again, the system took almost 30 minutes to get past the Intel bios splash screen! So they are sitting there back in place adding a little I suppose. Belarc tells me that all 4 slots are up and running at 1gb each.
Peter Toronto, Canada XP Pro SP2 x 2 + Vista Ultimate P4 HT 3.00ghz, 4.0gb RAM, 700gb HDD
"Mike Hall - MS MVP Windows Shell/User"

Thanks Bob. Ran it with one old, one new and no errors. I'll now run with the other new stick.
"Bob"

I tried to find where to reduce the speed to 166 in BIOS but 200 was the minimum I found there.
John
"pvdg42"

I can boot with any combination of 2 out of sticks. i.e. New/Old, Old/New & New/New. But as soon as I put the third one in it crashes. I tried to be clever and schedule a memory test then shutdown and put the third stick in. The memory test came up on the screen and disappeared very quickly, then the computer crashed.
Unless I find it's something to do with the graphics card memory allocation it looks like I'll have to stick with 2GB.
Thanks everyone.
John
"pvdg42"

Might well be the limitation that many of the motherboards which support PC3200 memory have 2x1GxPC3200 is fine, but with a third module, max speed is PC2700.
Barry Schnur

Hi,
Same problem with VISTA, 3 memory slots when I increased from 2 GB to three the machine won't boot. All of the memory is OK and reboots occur only when all three slots are filled. Any ideas??
EggHeadCafe.com - .NET Developer Portal of Choice eggheadcafe.com

try upping your ram voltage a touch, if it's 1,8, go to 1.9, if it's 1.9, go 2.0
"Ron Ruben"