so i'm using a Gigabyte GA-8PE667 Ultra 2... heaps old now but legendary when it came out. my friend got a new computer, and his old one had a Gigabyte GA-8VT880. seeing that he didnt need the ram from it anymore, i took it and went on home to install it into my own pc.

little did i know that this ram was DDR400 and my mobo only supported DDR333. so i shoved it in, turned it on and BAM. absolutely nothing. just a blank screen. i took it out and turned my pc back on... still nothing but a blank screen. nothing loads at all. theres not even power running to my peripherals. i have a dead pc. does anybody know if theres a way to fix this or is my motherboard completely dead now?

any help will be greatly appreciated! ;D i have assignments due in a couple of days lol.

I guess yes, you killed your motherboard, usually that just happens when your motherboard has long time of life, and if you installed something that wasnt supossed to be supported then there was made an error on some chip. When my old PC messed up, it was not turning On anything, like my monitor, mouse, keyboard, etc.. it wasnt sending power to all of those components, does that happens with you? and nothing but your black screen of your monitor can be seen.
If your motherboard was not so old (i mean, used for long time) then it may be another thing that messed up your BIOS.

This post has been edited by MIGUE2k7: Sep 9 2006, 02:42 AM

I doubt it was the ram itself that caused the problem but maybe static electricity? If you have your manual, look for a bios reset jumper.

Also check the power supply. Check the plugs that go to your hard drive or cd-rom to see it there is power there. You will need a volt meter.

Check this site for a copy of your manual if you don't have it: http://motherboards.mbarron.net/index2.html

Here is a troubleshooting site: http://www.msicomputer.com/support/sup_tshoot.asp (It is MSI, but it should help some.)

Another troubleshooting site: http://arstechnica.com/guides/tweaks/troubleshooting.ars

Hopefully a CMOS reset will fix your problem. Good luck and remember, in the future to unplug the cord from the computer and press the power button to discharge any capacitors that may be holding a charge. Also, touch a metal grounded object before reaching into your computer.

Take care.

if none of that works id take out your harddrive and plug it into a friends computer and get your files off

This is scary, lesson learnt always check the compatibility of your RAM, when purchasing new memory modules, I always call my vendor; Sony and checked my specifications paper to make sure everything is right.

thanks for all the tips and advice. i tried everything, but i really think that its dead. something must've been physically damaged while trying the new block of ram. i've gotta bye a pc now, its too old to upgrade alone. atleast i learnt a thing or two from this haha.

Is your power supply still good ?
Because even when the PC has no RAM on board the harddrive must be spinning.

Another option is use only 1 piece of RAM (DDR 333) on your mainboard in one of the slots.
Try starting your computer and then do a bios upgrade.

After the BIOS upgrade most likely the RAM will work , but in the BIOS you can block the speed to DDR333.

I found one remark for your mainboard on a dutch site :


I think the last remark is importand for you if you use the 3rd slot , you have 2 banks that use the same interface , so that bank could be damaged on your mainboard.
Most of the times only that part will be damaged.

RAM module couldn't have killed your motherboard... My motherboard also supports only upto DDR333, but I have one memory module DDR400 512MB inserted, and it works just fine, only with reduced speed... Also, I have 3 slots, and slots 2 and 3, share bank 1 and 2, so, I have my 3rd slot disabled... I tried I inserted a module, and it didn't work, motherboard just beeped RAM error, and halted... When I removed the module, my computer worked just fine...

Most likely cause for this "murder" is static electricity, or simply old age... Though I would bet my money on static electricity...

Follow those guidelines posted by others, and see what happens...