2 Types of Ram in Shuttle mobo

**marko731** · March 22nd, 2002, 12:59 AM

I've got a buddy who tried to put both 72 pin simms and 168 pin dimms in a "HOT 591-P Shuttle Spacewalker" motherboard. Sinc it has slots for both I guess he thought it would work. However, now it won't boot. Using one kind or the other it still just beeps. I even tried some new ram and no joy. I guess my question is, would doing that screw up the board? It says right in the manual for the board not to. I made a big point of showing it to him but all he wants is for me to fix it. I haven't run into this before. Is there a fix? I doubt it but I have to ask.

Thanx

marko

**Garak** · March 22nd, 2002, 05:11 AM

yeah, this could be something to do with the different types of ram working at different voltages, possibly shorting the board, i think someone like Ruslan will be able to give u more info.

**MacGyver** · March 22nd, 2002, 08:54 AM

One of my friends did exactly the same thing, had a mobo with two types of RAM slots, filled them all (this is a BIG NO-NO), then his computer wouldn't boot after that, even if he took all the RAM out. Fried his mobo, and had to get a new one. For somebody on a fixed income, this guy sure likes to fool around with expensive computer equipment a lot.

**Cygnus** · March 22nd, 2002, 09:18 AM

At the very minimum your gonna be dealing with minor memory errors bugging you all the time. Worst case scenario would be what Macgyver gave ya.

**Ruslan** · March 22nd, 2002, 10:04 AM

Here is FAQ about that motherboard:
<a href="http://www.spacewalker.com/english/faq_e/591p_.htm#hd001" target="_blank">http://www.spacewalker.com/english/faq_e/591p_.htm#hd001</a>

Although VIA chipsets allows to mix both type of memory,I would not recommend to mix them. It will slow down chipset-to-memory-read/write perfomance.
As addition, some of motherboards have weak voltage regulators (especially if they are is analogous voltage regulators).

[off-topic]
Officially Intel TX motherboards doesn't allow to mix different types of memory, but personally have seen quite a few motherboards with mixed config worked fine.

Even more,everyone knows, what it is impossible to mix EDO and FPM memory in the same memory bank, but I recently saw PC (Acorp-5TX29 i430TX motherboard) with that config. Unbelievable - but it worked!

Keep Your eyes OPEN

[/END of off-topic]

About subject...I would recommend to check memory slots - may be, some of slot's pins were broken or shorted when You did insert the SIMMs. Then check 3,3V voltage regulator - may be transistor-regulator is fried.

Besides that, it is worth to update BIOS to the latest one - it can also solve some of memory compatibility problems.
Good luck!

**Raffaz** · March 22nd, 2002, 12:36 PM

My motherboard(k7s5a) also has slots for 2 types of ram DDR and SDRAM. The book says not to mix them, just curious if anyone has done it with success.

**Ahcoraj** · March 22nd, 2002, 01:56 PM

I had a lot of experience with that board when i first started a few years ago, but i never tried mixing memory. There are a lot of jumpers on that board, and memory is one of them if i recall correctly. Make sure the jumpers are set properly for the type of mem youre using and also manually set the CPU voltage (take off that big 5 wide jumper set and use individual ones) instead of leaving it on auto. If that doenst work, take the battery out for a while then put it back in. If youre still dead then, you know you've got problems.....

**marko731** · March 22nd, 2002, 02:47 PM

Just want to say Thank You to everyone for your assistance and especially to RUSLAN !!!! It turned out to be a bent pin in one of the simm slots just like Ruslan said it could be. It's something I should have thought of myself but didn't. The board works fine now (I'm using it to type this). I'm not going to try to populate both types of slots so I can't say if it would work or not.

Thanks Again,

marko

PS. Gawd,I love this place!!!!

**Budd** · March 22nd, 2002, 04:03 PM

[quote]Originally posted by marko731:
Just want to say Thank You to everyone for your assistance and especially to RUSLAN !!!!
<hr></blockquote>

yep, Ruslan is the man

**TrackMan** · March 22nd, 2002, 09:19 PM

[quote]Originally posted by Raffaz:
My motherboard(k7s5a) also has slots for 2 types of ram DDR and SDRAM. The book says not to mix them, just curious if anyone has done it with success.<hr></blockquote>

um hey im a tweaker myself, but i gotta ask, what's the point? it would at least slow it down. and possibly do real bad to your mobo

**Garak** · March 23rd, 2002, 01:35 AM

[quote]Originally posted by marko731:
Just want to say Thank You to everyone for your assistance and especially to RUSLAN !!!! <hr></blockquote>

Told you so!