OK, this is going to take some explaining. When I started, I had 2 sticks of pc-2100 256 MB. I decided to buy another gig of the same kind. My mobo has a max of 4 GB. it has 4 slots. I bought 1 gig off of an ebay power seller. When I added it in the third slot, it booted. It got to windows and it still said I had 512 MB when I should have had 1.5GB. I used AIDA32 to see what it could see, it saw the gig stick but it didn't have it as part of my system memory, it just gave stats about it. It said it was a 1GB stick of pc3200. I emailed the seller and said he sent me the wrong RAM, he said PC3200 was backward compatible to PC2100. He said to set my CL to 3. When I did this in my bios, it refused to boot. I took out the stick of 1GB, it refused to boot. I put just the 1GB stick. It refused to boot. I cleared the bios. It refused to boot. After 2 hours of switching jumpers and a little luck, it booted with just the 2 sticks of pc2100. Any idea what could have happened and how I can get my 1GB stick to work?

Current PC config....

Computer:
Operating System Microsoft Windows XP Professional
OS Service Pack Service Pack 2

Motherboard:
CPU Type Intel Pentium 4EE, 3400 MHz (4.25 x 800)
Motherboard Name Intel D865PEMA
Motherboard Chipset Intel Springdale i865PE
System Memory 512 MB (DDR SDRAM)
BIOS Type AMI (01/04/05)

Hi there and welcome to PC Help Forum.

When was the last time you upgraded (flashed) your bios on your motherboard?

Never. I can't seem to find bios for my specific model. I found bios for D865PE** but not any with MA at the end. Could I use a different bios for a different motherboard and have it still work?

sorry double post.

My current bios version is

MR86510A.44T.0040.P11

I found a bios on some foreign site that was

MR86510A.44T.0045.P12

Should I use that ot update? If so, how?

anyone?

Several things wrong here. I would not mix memory speeds. The P4 EE is an 800 mhz bus chip so PC 2100 is slow for it. While it ran for you you are hold back the EE 's max speed.
It is strange the PC 3200 won't run by itself...maybe that stick is bad. If you can try memory speed controlled by SPD in bios with just the 3200 and see if it will run. I doubt the bios upgrade would help, but it might. BTW where did you find it?

Bernie

Most of the eBay sellers make a distinction about the the type 1GB DDR memory they sell. It's either high or low density. The high density type doesn't work with most intel motherboards. That may be why it's not working for you. The 1GB high density memory is less expensive than the low density.
I don't think you should use a BIOS upgrade unless the only difference in version number is in the last three digits (the P number).
I just got one of these D865PEMA motherboards myself. There have been a lot of them for sale, but very little information about them on the web. Intel seems to deny any knowledge of them on their site. I wonder where where they came from. Manufactured for some OEM?

Tim