Installing memory loses video card

memoryman · 10-29-2009, 04:59 PM

I have a packard bell imedia 2415. UK spec. According to what I can find about this PC it should support 8gb of memory (2 x 4gb).

Just after I bought the machine I replaced the weak Nforce 7050 video card with a PNY 9600GT pci express card. All worked fine though vista 32 was rubbish.

I just upgraded to 64 bit windows 7 and all was well but it seemed wasted on 3gb memory. So i decided to replace the 1gb dimm with a 2 gb dimm giving me 4gb. the plan was to upgrade slowly to 8gb as money allows. I bought a 2gb non ecc pc2 5300 dimm and installed it. After doing so the 9600gt video card disappeared from device manager. On doing some more digging it seems its hit a resource conflict as did one of the many pci express standard root port entries. Does this mean I wont be able to add any more memory to the system? How can I get around this?

One thing I notice is it has 11 pci standard ram controller entris in my device manager. and 4 pci express root controllers. I don't know if this is right. when I was able to access the display adaptor data in said it was VGASave. I don't know what that means. Perhaps a default driver. I did manage to switch back to the on board graphics with the new memory installed and this seemed to work but defeats the point of upgrading the video card. DOes anyone have a solution to this. any suggestions greatly appreciated

**Tyree** · 10-29-2009, 05:24 PM

You have 2 sticks of 2GB RAM installed? Is the RAM identical in brand and specs? As I understand it, that Mobo supports up to 4GB.

*DDR2 400 / DDR2533 / DDR2 667, 4 banks with Dual Channel support
Support for up to 4 GB system memory*

What Brand & Model is your PSU?

memoryman · 10-30-2009, 02:03 AM

identical in brand no. identical in spec yes. bare in mind this ram DOES work if I remove the 9600GT and just use the onboard 7050 graphics and the ram DOES work even with the 9600 installed. its the graphics card that doesn't get detected correctly. the card still runs the display but as VGASave not with the nvidia drivers. The motherboard I have has two slots only and the packard bell site clearly states it supports up to 8gb (2 x 4gb). Even if it does only support 4gb thats all I have in there so shouldn't be an issue.

The spec os the PSU again shouldn't matter. it's a resource conflict issue as I said. the card itsself has been working in this PC for 8 months. Install extra memory and I get a resource conflict.

More detail about the PC. Off the shelf its a Core2Quad 6600. 3gb 667 ddr2 ram. 500gb sata disk. NVidia Nforce 610i chipset. Realtech networking and sound. Accroding to the Packard bell website it's an ECS Denver 10 motherboard. It's an imedia X2415 model. the only extra cards I have in it are the 9600gt card and a PCI firewire card. Both of which have worked fine for 8 months. the firewire card still works fine in device manager after the extra memory is installed.

I did read somewhere else someone having this problem but they had 32 bit vista installed. the last post in that thread was "I'll install 64 bit" I already have 64 bit windows 7 installed. It was a clean install. I didnt upgrade I wiped the disk.

Hope this helps.

**greenbrucelee** · 10-30-2009, 02:14 AM

"The spec os the PSU again shouldn't matter. it's a resource conflict issue as I said. the card itsself has been working in this PC for 8 months. Install extra memory and I get a resource conflict."

I have heard of this happen with older AGP graphics cards (and were talking old here, about 15 years or so) but not with newer equipment. Never heard of it happen with PCI graphics cards.

Firstly it could be a power issue, never disregard a psu issue regardless of what the problems is. I have seen too many random errors that look software and hardware related that actually end up being a power issue.

Secondly if your using a brand of ram that isn't compatible for your board then this will cause issues. If the ram is not a matched pair (same brand) then this can cause issues.

Third that driver is ok that's not an issue.

Third your using a 32 bit OS so there is no need to have more than 4GB RAM. Windows will only see 3.25-3.5 anyway.

**greenbrucelee** · 10-30-2009, 02:27 AM

your are disabling the onboard video aren't you when using your card?

memoryman · 10-30-2009, 07:09 AM

guys,
im using Windows 7 64 bit. it says that in the first post.

A bit of research suggests this is not an uncommon occurance in Vista though not directly related to memory upgrades in most cases. While I don't totally discount the PSU it would seem rather unlikely given the fact that the video card is not newly installed but has been there for most of the life of the PC (8 months). I doubt 4gb of ram uses much more power than 3gb though.

I can't manually turn off the onboard graphics card, however it appears to turn off automatically on installation of the 9600 card as it is gone from device manager. The Bios is VERY locked down and the only options I can find relating to the video card are to search either PCI express or PCI first.

I hear you about the different makes of memory perhaps causing a problem however the memory does work fine with the 9600 taken out of the pc so it at least works. It even seems to work with the 9600 in place just the PCI express standard root is messed up. Should there really be 4 of them in device manager by the way?

If a reinstall of windows with the new memory in place will fix it I'm not averse to that. It was only installed last weekend anyway but I didn't have the memory then. I have a free weeked

There is a link below to the specs of my motherboard. The photo matches what I have so I assume it's correct.

http://www.e4allupgraders.info/dir1/motherboards/socket775/ecsMCP73VT-PM.shtml

I appreciate all the help guys

memoryman · 10-30-2009, 07:22 AM

oh I have yet to check the bios to see if there is a newer version. I will do that when I return home

**Tyree** · 10-30-2009, 08:00 AM

That's not the Mobo I found.
ECS Mobo with Nvidia chipsets and an Intel CPU aren't a good working situation.
What are the brand(s) & specs of the two RAM sticks?
Brand & Model of the PSU?

memoryman · 10-31-2009, 04:01 AM

memory sticks from factory are samsung pc2 5300 1 x 1gb 1 x 2gb. extra memory installed brand is integral (from pcworld)spec is pc2 5300 single stick 2gb. When I don't have the memory installed there are three PCI express roots in device manager. when I have the memory installed from what I remember there are 4 which could be the issue. I have no idea about the PSU, I'll open it up and have a look later but I repeat, this is a common problem with vista regardless of PSU and I can assure you the photo I posted IS the motherbaord installed. I suspect the UK has a different spec for some reason. I too have seen the 4gb max denver 10 but that is not whats in the X2415 according to PB's own website and all the research I've done online. the image of the denver 10 on the PB website is however wrong for my machine. The one shown had 4 slots however I believe it to be an old model. I would very much prefer not to replace the motherboard if I can help it however. I wonder would disabling one of the other PCI express roots make this work?

10-29-2009, 04:59 PM	#1 (permalink)
memoryman Registered User Join Date: Oct 2009 Posts: 5 OS: windows 7	Installing memory loses video card I have a packard bell imedia 2415. UK spec. According to what I can find about this PC it should support 8gb of memory (2 x 4gb). Just after I bought the machine I replaced the weak Nforce 7050 video card with a PNY 9600GT pci express card. All worked fine though vista 32 was rubbish. I just upgraded to 64 bit windows 7 and all was well but it seemed wasted on 3gb memory. So i decided to replace the 1gb dimm with a 2 gb dimm giving me 4gb. the plan was to upgrade slowly to 8gb as money allows. I bought a 2gb non ecc pc2 5300 dimm and installed it. After doing so the 9600gt video card disappeared from device manager. On doing some more digging it seems its hit a resource conflict as did one of the many pci express standard root port entries. Does this mean I wont be able to add any more memory to the system? How can I get around this? One thing I notice is it has 11 pci standard ram controller entris in my device manager. and 4 pci express root controllers. I don't know if this is right. when I was able to access the display adaptor data in said it was VGASave. I don't know what that means. Perhaps a default driver. I did manage to switch back to the on board graphics with the new memory installed and this seemed to work but defeats the point of upgrading the video card. DOes anyone have a solution to this. any suggestions greatly appreciated

10-29-2009, 05:24 PM	#2 (permalink)
Tyree Mentor Hardware Team Join Date: May 2009 Location: Illinois Posts: 5,719 OS: XP Pro-7RC-Mandriva My System	Re: Installing memory loses video card You have 2 sticks of 2GB RAM installed? Is the RAM identical in brand and specs? As I understand it, that Mobo supports up to 4GB. DDR2 400 / DDR2533 / DDR2 667, 4 banks with Dual Channel support Support for up to 4 GB system memory What Brand & Model is your PSU? __________________ Posting your PC specs will help us to help you quicker and more efficiently.

10-30-2009, 02:03 AM	#3 (permalink)
memoryman Registered User Join Date: Oct 2009 Posts: 5 OS: windows 7	Re: Installing memory loses video card identical in brand no. identical in spec yes. bare in mind this ram DOES work if I remove the 9600GT and just use the onboard 7050 graphics and the ram DOES work even with the 9600 installed. its the graphics card that doesn't get detected correctly. the card still runs the display but as VGASave not with the nvidia drivers. The motherboard I have has two slots only and the packard bell site clearly states it supports up to 8gb (2 x 4gb). Even if it does only support 4gb thats all I have in there so shouldn't be an issue. The spec os the PSU again shouldn't matter. it's a resource conflict issue as I said. the card itsself has been working in this PC for 8 months. Install extra memory and I get a resource conflict. More detail about the PC. Off the shelf its a Core2Quad 6600. 3gb 667 ddr2 ram. 500gb sata disk. NVidia Nforce 610i chipset. Realtech networking and sound. Accroding to the Packard bell website it's an ECS Denver 10 motherboard. It's an imedia X2415 model. the only extra cards I have in it are the 9600gt card and a PCI firewire card. Both of which have worked fine for 8 months. the firewire card still works fine in device manager after the extra memory is installed. I did read somewhere else someone having this problem but they had 32 bit vista installed. the last post in that thread was "I'll install 64 bit" I already have 64 bit windows 7 installed. It was a clean install. I didnt upgrade I wiped the disk. Hope this helps.

10-30-2009, 02:14 AM	#4 (permalink)
greenbrucelee Mentor Hardware team Join Date: Apr 2007 Posts: 1,875 OS: XP SP3 My System	Re: Installing memory loses video card "The spec os the PSU again shouldn't matter. it's a resource conflict issue as I said. the card itsself has been working in this PC for 8 months. Install extra memory and I get a resource conflict." I have heard of this happen with older AGP graphics cards (and were talking old here, about 15 years or so) but not with newer equipment. Never heard of it happen with PCI graphics cards. Firstly it could be a power issue, never disregard a psu issue regardless of what the problems is. I have seen too many random errors that look software and hardware related that actually end up being a power issue. Secondly if your using a brand of ram that isn't compatible for your board then this will cause issues. If the ram is not a matched pair (same brand) then this can cause issues. Third that driver is ok that's not an issue. Third your using a 32 bit OS so there is no need to have more than 4GB RAM. Windows will only see 3.25-3.5 anyway. __________________ Microsoft certified professional, Network +, A+ certified Last edited by greenbrucelee; 10-30-2009 at 02:17 AM.

10-30-2009, 02:27 AM	#5 (permalink)
greenbrucelee Mentor Hardware team Join Date: Apr 2007 Posts: 1,875 OS: XP SP3 My System	Re: Installing memory loses video card your are disabling the onboard video aren't you when using your card? __________________ Microsoft certified professional, Network +, A+ certified

10-30-2009, 07:09 AM	#6 (permalink)
memoryman Registered User Join Date: Oct 2009 Posts: 5 OS: windows 7	Re: Installing memory loses video card guys, im using Windows 7 64 bit. it says that in the first post. A bit of research suggests this is not an uncommon occurance in Vista though not directly related to memory upgrades in most cases. While I don't totally discount the PSU it would seem rather unlikely given the fact that the video card is not newly installed but has been there for most of the life of the PC (8 months). I doubt 4gb of ram uses much more power than 3gb though. I can't manually turn off the onboard graphics card, however it appears to turn off automatically on installation of the 9600 card as it is gone from device manager. The Bios is VERY locked down and the only options I can find relating to the video card are to search either PCI express or PCI first. I hear you about the different makes of memory perhaps causing a problem however the memory does work fine with the 9600 taken out of the pc so it at least works. It even seems to work with the 9600 in place just the PCI express standard root is messed up. Should there really be 4 of them in device manager by the way? If a reinstall of windows with the new memory in place will fix it I'm not averse to that. It was only installed last weekend anyway but I didn't have the memory then. I have a free weeked There is a link below to the specs of my motherboard. The photo matches what I have so I assume it's correct. http://www.e4allupgraders.info/dir1/motherboards/socket775/ecsMCP73VT-PM.shtml I appreciate all the help guys Last edited by memoryman; 10-30-2009 at 07:25 AM. Reason: misspelling

10-30-2009, 07:22 AM	#7 (permalink)
memoryman Registered User Join Date: Oct 2009 Posts: 5 OS: windows 7	Re: Installing memory loses video card oh I have yet to check the bios to see if there is a newer version. I will do that when I return home

10-30-2009, 08:00 AM	#8 (permalink)
Tyree Mentor Hardware Team Join Date: May 2009 Location: Illinois Posts: 5,719 OS: XP Pro-7RC-Mandriva My System	Re: Installing memory loses video card That's not the Mobo I found. ECS Mobo with Nvidia chipsets and an Intel CPU aren't a good working situation. What are the brand(s) & specs of the two RAM sticks? Brand & Model of the PSU? __________________ Posting your PC specs will help us to help you quicker and more efficiently.

10-31-2009, 04:01 AM	#9 (permalink)
memoryman Registered User Join Date: Oct 2009 Posts: 5 OS: windows 7	Re: Installing memory loses video card memory sticks from factory are samsung pc2 5300 1 x 1gb 1 x 2gb. extra memory installed brand is integral (from pcworld)spec is pc2 5300 single stick 2gb. When I don't have the memory installed there are three PCI express roots in device manager. when I have the memory installed from what I remember there are 4 which could be the issue. I have no idea about the PSU, I'll open it up and have a look later but I repeat, this is a common problem with vista regardless of PSU and I can assure you the photo I posted IS the motherbaord installed. I suspect the UK has a different spec for some reason. I too have seen the 4gb max denver 10 but that is not whats in the X2415 according to PB's own website and all the research I've done online. the image of the denver 10 on the PB website is however wrong for my machine. The one shown had 4 slots however I believe it to be an old model. I would very much prefer not to replace the motherboard if I can help it however. I wonder would disabling one of the other PCI express roots make this work?