Quick synopsis:
PT800CE-A - Bios 1.1A
Prescott (P4) 3.0 GHZ
ThermalTake Pure Power 420 Watt
KingMax - 2, 512 sticks of PC3200
===========
Update - got two replacement Kingmax 512MB DDR-400 sticks and the same
problem. Put two sticks in, run memtest32 and watch the errors fly by
on test #5 (5 digit error count to be exact).

They werealso tried on a machine that could only access at 333 MHZ
speed and no errors. I'll be trying two 512, PC2700 instead and see
what happens.

Looks like a sync problem?

BTW - PT800, not PM800 on my end.

plmcguir wrote:
What PCB version do you have? I see 1.1e is for PCB:1.0. I have 1.0A
and want to ensure the BIOS upgrade won't hose my computer. I did
e-mail tech support just now asking if the BIOS was OK to flash.

I'll post the results.

My M/B shipped the the 1.1A, and I flashed it with the newer 1.1E
thinking that would fix the problem. it didn't. didn't hose the
computer either though.
Took the two 512 3200 DIMMS back and exchanged them for 2 512 MB 2700
DDR's and have had no problems since!
Definately a problem the the board and/or the BIOS for the board.
ECS won't admit to it though. I went through their tech suppt, and
all I got was "It's Windows problem" I told them the mem tests were
failing from a direct booted disk. had nothing to do with Windows.

Bottom line here is: if you want faster ram, pay more money for a
better board to run it on. Last time I'll go with ECS (EliteGroup).






--
-+

plmcguir wrote:
I did receive an e-mail from tech-support stating I can flash the BIOS
for the PCB: 1.0A but no guarantee it will solve the memory woes. I
probably won't have access to the PC-3200 chips until the week of the
week of March 2nd. Hopefully I won't be stuck with the PC-2700 also
;-(

OZ

I bought the same board from Fry's. I had problems and thought it was
with overheating of the CPU. Bottom line, I found the problem was
with my generic memory.

Unde Advance Chipset Features I found something called DRAM Timing
(Auto by SPD). From what I read, the BIOS has a table listing
memory by manufacturer and model. Since my memory was not listed, it
assumed (wrongly) I had 200 MHZ memory. When I set it correctly for
DDR333 (166 MHZ) manually in this area, I had no problems!!

No go after the BIOS upgrade to 1.1e. 5,000+ errors on pass 5
(memtest32), back to slower memory.

I have the same problem. Fails on Test #5 (Block Move test, 64 moves)
with both memtest-86 v3.2 and memtest-86+ v1.55. I have GEIL memory
2 sticks of DDR400 512MB, CL=2.5-8-4-4. I am running at Pentium 4 at
3.0 GHz. I bought it at Fry's Electronics in Georgia. Bit pattern is
random, but it fails on 16MB memory address boundaries. Also I
updated to 1.1E of the BIOS.

It was part of a $159 Fry special, Pentium 4, 3Ghz and ECS PT800CE-A
board. I also bought the GEIL memory there too. I have always had
problems with VIA technolgy chipsets.

Is it a problem with the memory tests, DDR memory modules, ECS
motherboard, VIA PT800CE / VT8237 chipset, or the BIOS?
....
later...

Now I tried BIOS version 1.1d, and its locked up.


The BIOS fix says:
BIOS Name BIOS for PT800CE-A(PCB:1.0)
Version 1.1d
Release Date 2005/01/10
Update Description
1.Fixed Prescott CPU 3.0G + DDR400 512M(X1 or X2) unstable.
2.Update micro code
3.Fixed some prescott CPU with DDR 400 not compatiblity.

I have tried "downgrading" to 1.1d, but now my system locks up, and it
will not finish booting. It displays the logo, but it does not respond
to
pressing DEL to enter setup. I used a floppy for the update.

BTW I believe it's a hardware problem. Checking the stats on the board
it only supports up to 2.5v DDR400 RAM, while most of what we're using
requires 2.7v. The BIOS allows tweakin the RAM up 6%, or about 2.65V,
which is still not quite enough (but a little more stable IMO).

site.[/quote:e8dece7aa2]

Has anyone tried using this PM-800 BIOS for the PT800CE-A? The
PT800CE-A BIOS v1.1e solves nothing at all, in fact destabilizing
some systems, so I'm still at 1.1b. Is this even recommended? I
don't want to throw away this mobo just yet.

BTW I believe it's a hardware problem. Checking the stats on the board
it only supports up to 2.5v DDR400 RAM, while most of what we're using
requires 2.7v. The BIOS allows tweakin the RAM up 6%, or about 2.65V,
which is still not quite enough (but a little more stable IMO).

So long as that happens we ALL will have problems with test#5 of
memtest. Our other option is to use much slower RAM in single
channel.

site.[/quote:77c9e4922f]

Has anyone tried using this PM-800 BIOS for the PT800CE-A? The
PT800CE-A BIOS v1.1e solves nothing at all, in fact destabilizing
some systems, so I'm still at 1.1b. Is this even recommended? I
don't want to throw away this mobo just yet.