(resolved)Install new RAM and Vista or XP won't boot

[mcornbill]

Hi all

I currently have a Winfast NF4K8AC mobo and 1gb of PC2100 DDR RAM. According to crucial my mobo will take up to 4gb of PC3200 DDR 400 RAM. So I bought two 1gb sticks and slotted them in.

BIOS registers the 2gb of RAM and all my hard drives are seen properly but when I choose to boot either partition (XP or Vista) I get a message saying something along the lines of "Your computers system or hardware has changed since last boot. Insert the windows disc, reboot and choose repair function". Then it says this:

\Windows\system32\ntkrnlpa.exe

Status: 0xc0000221

Info: Windows failed to load becasue the kernel is missing, or corrupt.

The file that is missing changed everytime I tried to boot but the message remained the same. On trying to repair with my MSDN Vista DVD I don't have a recovery option, only the usual safe modes, last good known configuration, debugger etc.

On putting my old RAM back in everything works fine again? I have a bios update for my mobo kindly found for me by mattlock138 but I need to get it onto a cd as for some reason my USB stick no longer is recognised by the bios (it was a few weeks ago) and my floppy drive doesn't work.

Any suggestions?

Cheers
Mark

[dai]

try a cmos reset
note your settings before you start as you will have to reoptimise
check the ram is set to auto detect

[mcornbill]

Ok resolved (I think).

Flashed mobo with new bios. This then gave me blue screen of death 10+ times in all sorts of modes with my old or new RAM chips in. Eventually restored old bios and found that slotting the new ram in ports 0 and 2 is working.

Cheers
Mark

[dai]

good news