In article ,
Callas writes
wrote:
A7N8X-VM/400 - it's official, Asus' most memory fussy mobo

Careful when using this mobo with integrated graphics (which was probably
why you wanted to buy it). Memory timings when system memory is
shared with the integrated graphics processor are far tighter than when a
plugin agp card is used.

I'm running cheap & cheerful 400MHz ram at 333MHz and figured the
underclocking would leave me a healthy timing margin. It does, 24hrs of
memtest86 and 12hrs of Prime95 suggest it's solid, but run anything
graphics intensive, like a movie, and it falls flat on it's face. Symptoms are
typical of interaction between graphics & system accesses, corrupted
stripes in the display, then the inevitable crash as a crucial area of system
mem is corrupted.

I have the same problem.

I very recently bought the parts to build a budget PC for a friend. I
am using the integrated graphics card on the motherboard.

I bought two sticks of 256mb 333 MHz Corair Value Select RAM. Using
both or either of these sticks gives memory corruption on the display
and either a lockup or a BSOD after a short time - a few minutes.

I then took a 256mb 200 MHz Crucial Technology stick out from my PC and
tried that; no problems. (However, I've not tried running video; just
installing software.)

I think it unlikely that *both* sticks of Corsair memory are broken. It
may be that this is indeed a motherboard issue. This will be extremely
annoying because I have already built the PC, installed and configured
Windows and application/network/utility software. If this is a
motherboard issue, ASUS' reputation with me will have taken a serious
knock - I used to think they were reliable and I bought their boards,
accepting their ASUS' generally higher prices, because of this.

Anyways, I will return the RAM and try replacements. If they also fail,
then I will be confident the RAM is not at fault. Then it will be a
case of returning the motherboard and buying an alternative.

--
Callas

Sorry to hear you have the same problem, but relieved that I am not having
finger trouble. This guy is a system builder and has still had major probs:
http://www.abxzone.com/forums/showth...5fbfc26ad5abcc
675c4bbae45e1&threadid=67997

You may wish to copy my quick fix of the video card as mine cost only
31GBP - it won't take long in time expended to pay for that. I used a
generic GeForce4MX 440 8xAGP which I think uses the same engine as
the onboard video. I hated to make the onboard video redundant but now
that I have it working, those qualms are completely forgotten. Just to be
sure though, my system was rock steady with video acceleration turned
off, memtest86 clean for 12hrs & prime95 crash free for about the same. I
wouldn't rely on this fix otherwise.

HTH
--
fred