errors on a new pc...anyone have an idea whats wrong?

[lee191]

ok so i built a computer with the basic components first:
athlon 64 3500 and a
ECS NFORCE3-A939 (1.0A) Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce3 250 ATX AMD Motherboard
512 mb ddr ram
nvidia geforce 6200 video card
a 80 gb hard drive
and a 52x32x52 cd drive

i first built this i put everythiing together fine and started it up. it would work fine until trying to boot windows and before the loading screen loads the system would crash and reboot with a tiny glimpse of the blue screen.
i also booted of a cd that contained memtest86, a ram testing program and evry test would fail, but when i ran it on another computer with that ram, it would pass.

so i sent back my parts to newegg.com and amd figuring they were faulty but when i got them back, and assembled them, the same errors are occuring. i even traded sticks of ram with a freind, which mine worked in his computer but his did not in mine. and still the same problems. i also took evrything out of the case incase it was shorting but stil the same errors.
the only weird thing was when i ran memtest86 on a dvd drive it would pass... ????

any ideas? could i have misbuilt it twice? or is there a hardware conflict?

[jayb1234]

Could be incompatible RAM. What specific brand, model, and part number is it?

[lee191]

do you want specific brand, model, and part number of the ram? its ddr ram and ive tested 3 sticks of ddr and they all failed...
also i forgot to say, this motherboard has 2 ram slots and when the stick it placed i one there is no boot, and in the other slot it boots as described above

[blue60007]

Yes, what brand and model is the RAM? Have you checked the manufacturer's website? Any decent brand will list what modules are compatible with your motherboard.

ECS isn't a good brand (unless they've changed), so the chance of a dead on arrival (DOA) mobo is higher with them... Also, I tend to see that cheap RAM and motherboards tend to have less compatibility. If that's Corsair RAM, they are practically compatible with everything, but if it's a cheap brand they tend to be compatible with less motherboards. Same thing goes for cheap mobos - they tend not to like such a wide range of RAM.

[lee191]

hmm well i dont have any invoice for the ram, is the info on the little sticker on the stick contain the info?
i could not find a list of compatible ram, it just stated ddr 400...is that different that ddr dimm? are there types of ddr that are incompatible because one of the sticks said ddr dimm and the other did not specify the type.

also do you suppose theres any chance it cold be the processor?

if all else fails i think sence the RAM only works in one RAM slot theres a problem with the motherboards RAM slots, i think i am going to try for a refund and get a new motherboard. also i have a pib processor that i want to keep, but dont want to damage the processor or heatsink, can i just put it back in the case it came with?, and do i have to somehow install new thermal compound than what came with the heatsink?

[blue60007]

Well, all DDR RAM should work with all DDR motherboards, but sometimes it doesn't. That's a good question, I'm not really sure why sometimes RAM is compatible with boards that you would otherwise think it should be compatible with.

You got two different types of RAM? You might be able to find the brand on the RAM itself.

I doubt it's the CPU - they usually work, or they don't.