I purchased a memory set to upgrade my old PC from 1GB to 2GB and now am getting a strange error. Here is the RAM i purchased.

http://www.newegg.com/product/prod [...] 6820144114

My current PC MoBo is an old ASUS P4S800D-X w/ a Pentium 4-3GHz. I'm currently running Windows 2000 (auto update enabled) on this PC. Previously, the PC had 2-512MB DDR 3200 (for a total of 1 Gig) in the blue DDR slots. The new RAM has been put in the black slots.

After I installed the new RAM, the PC would not POST, and gave off several beeps. Reset did not help. However, doing a full power off of the PSU, then turning the PC back on, allowed the PC to POST.

However, during POST, I get a MoBo error message saying "Overclocking failed". I have never OC'ed this board on purpose, and pretty much have relied on default settings. I'm giving the option of F1 - SETUP, F2 - Load Default Settings and continue. After mucking around w/ the setup and not knowing what to do, I went to "F2". Strangely, the PC now will fully boot, run properly (tested web surfing, a quick game, etc) and seems to register the 2 gigs of RAM under System Properties.

HOWEVER... once I do a Restart, the PC once again will not POST. I have to do another PSU power cycle, then again, I get the message "Overclocking failed". Doing the "F2" option again, will bring the PC back up and again, seems to run stable.

Has anyone seen anything like this? Any suggestions? Turning the PSU off and on doesn't seem like a good idea going forward.

If I remember correctly, you have to place the ram in from "Left to Right". That is what I had to do with my old Asus P4P800-E Deluxe, otherwise you will get the error you posted. Since I do not have the Asus manual handy, which should be the same settings for Ram as your motherboard. I would suggest you go to Asu site and download the Manual for it, it will be in Adobe Acrobat PDF form.

Link for Model: P4S800D-X
http://support.asus.com/download/d [...] =P4S800D-X

Look in Section 1.7 from the link below on placement of ram.
http://dlsvr03.asus.com/pub/ASUS/m [...] 800d-x.pdf

example: A1 & B1 (Blue color) and then A2 & B2 (Black color) in that order when using Dual channel DDR Ram. Also you need to remove all Ram dimms first before filling up the dimms slots.

Hope this helped.

I think I might have found the problem. I got lucky and found the old RAM packaging. The old RAM are Kingston HyperX, KHX4000 CL3/512mb (x2). The new RAM are Kingston HyperX, KHX3200 CL2 AK12/512s (x2). So I take it the "4000" vs "3200" are the problem?

So my best best is to RMA the new RAM and get PC4000/CL3s instead?

Looks like your original ram, the Kingston HyperX KHX4000K2/1G (CL3/512mb (x2)) has been discontinued. Did find some bt doing a google search, but prices are very high. In the upper $100 to mid $200 range.
http://www.kingston.com/hyperx/products/khx.asp

You would be better off getting another set of the new Kingston HyperX KHX3200 CL2 AK12/512s (x2) or RMA them and get either 2gb kit set at CL2 or a matched set below.

Kingston HyperX 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model KHX3200AK2/2G - Retail $129.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820134039

For DDR Dual channel ram, CL2 is better then CL3.

If you could use PC-4000 why add slower PC-3200?
I would have ordered a 2X1GB set of PC-4000.

Unless the OP could find that ram at a reasonable price, I would agree. Here are some prices and links for the ram he has now.

$292.99 at Onsale.com
http://www.onsale.com/shop/detail. [...] bwbfroogle


$314.99 at BestBuy
http://www.bestbuybusiness.com/bbf [...] BB10319794

$334.00 at Rubyskytech.com
http://www.rubyskytech.com/Product [...] 000K2%2F1G

The cheapest that I found it at was at Directron.com but they are out of stock of it. Was onsale at $129.00
http://www.directron.com/khx4000k21g.html

Still believe that if OP goes with DDR 3200 ram would be best choice pricewise. Unless he considers using different brand name, like from link below.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] +(PC+4000)

The new ones were 83.98. Regarding PC-4000 vs PC-3200, I didn't remember my old RAM specs until I dug the packaging out. I kind of loathe throwing the old RAM away, especially since this PC is already nearing the end of its lifespan.

I'm probably going to return these, since I can't return the old RAM. I wouldn't object to a different brand name, as long as it's compatible with the Asus MoBo. In theory, would any CAS-3 DDR RAM (from a reputable company) work with the RAM I already have, or do I need to match it exactly (ie, PC4000, CAS3, etc)? Granted, CAS-2 might be better, but I'm trying to keep my upgrade costs down (this upgrade is solely to extend this PC out a little longer).

They could work as long as they have same CL rating and use they same voltage. Here is another option in getting same ram you have. Go to Ebay, I did find the ram you want and you probally can get it cheaper.

Kingston HyperX PC4000 KHX4000K2/1G ram

This is a brand new Kingston HyperX 1GB memory kit with heat spreader for desktop PCs. The wrapper was peeled off but the modules were never used or installed. This was originally for use at my job, but was never needed.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Kingston-Hyper [...] dZViewItem

or go for used ram.

Kingston HyperX 512MB DDR500 184-pin KHX4000K2/1G
http://cgi.ebay.com/Kingston-Hyper [...] dZViewItem

Since I do not think you want to spend $100 to $300 for set.

Thanks for the reply. How about these?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820141423

I went to the Kingston site you linked earlier and confirmed my old RAMs are 2.6 v, CAS 3. The Latency timings listed are 3-4-4-8-1. The new ones I linked are 2.6 v, CAS 3. However their Latency timings are 3-3-3, and these are PC3200 while my old ones are PC4000. Would these discrepencies create the same problems?

EDIT: Disregard above for now; I'll go ahead and bid on the ebay. For $25, I'm willing to take the chance.

You could go into bios and set the ram frequency manually to the slowest pair being the pc-3200.
I think the o/c error message happens because the bios is set to auto and it sees your pc-4000 and then sees the pc-3200 and can't set both to the same frequency.
Hope this helps.

Well if you going to OC the system the easyest way is to just use faster ram and run it at a 1:1 ratio (thats for AMD...not sure what ratio Intel uses).

I have some Corsair XL 2.2.2.5 PC-3200/DDR1-400 but the G.Skill 4.4.4.8 PC-4000/DDR1-500 beats it.
You can live with the ram taking twice the "cycles" when the CPU has -millions- of extra cycles every sec.

The systems in my profile are all overclocked 50% with everything on stock volts and even though it is DDR1 they have -alot higher- Read/Write/Copy scores than the fastest DDR2 sold.

The problem nowdays is DDR1 is not being made often if at all and the prices are high...a 2X1GB set of PC-4000/DDR1-500 is just over $200.

PC-6400/DDR2-800 is on sale every other month for 2X1GB @ $29 with rebate.

Just following up; the E-bay'ed RAM solved the problem. Popped them in, turn it on and booted just fine.

Thinking forward, it's annoying that a common consumer has to be so picky about the CAS timings and stuff like that; I remember back in the old days of SIMMs where it almost didn't matter. Oh well, one learns something every day. Thanks to everyone to responded to this post.