I have ASUS P4S533MX motherboard which supports PC2700/PC2100/PC1600 RAM. I had a PC2700 RAM of 256MB earlier. I bought a new 512 MB RAM of PC3200 and fitted it into the motherboard. As long as both the RAMs were working together (total 768) computer ran without major problems. Now I gave away my 256MB RAM to my friend, now I have only 512 MB RAM on the board. Now it doesn't work anymore. The problem is that bios detects it alright, it can boot from anydevice, but I cannot install any of the Operating System, niether can I use the present one. When I try to install Windows XP it ends in the blue screen of death (the blue screen doesn't stay even for 1 sec, i cannot read them). Windows 98 SE setup gets stuck inbetween. Redhat EL4 , Ubuntu 7.04 and Centos 5 gets stuck after installation has started. ubuntu 6.06 installs, but it doesn't run, KDE crashes as soon as computer starts. No problem observed or reported at POST or start of the computer. Is it because of RAM or some problem with the board... ????
I would'nt of bothered putting a PC3200 in your board if it is unsupported. It may look like your system ran without problems, but at the same time, you could of slowly damanged your mainboard and you wouldnt know until your PC suddently fails to turn on. Now, it seems that PC3200 is not properly supported in your system, and requires a lower feq. memory so that it will run along side it. I think you should get a cheap 128mb DDR2700 memory so that your system will run again, and then try removing it once Windows has installed.
