MS-1029 Build + woes!

OK, just comleted my first MS-1029 build. Components i used are as follows:

Turion MT-40 CPU
1gb OCZ PC3200 Ram (1 module)
MSI Wireless b/g network card
Hitachi Travelstar 7200 RPM - 60gb
Windows Professional XP64 Edition

Build went ok, very quick compared with a desktop, duh! Removed any trace of supplied therrmal compound and replaced with Artic Silver 5 as advised, this wasnt a problem and before long i was ready to install windows.

Booted up and went straight into bios to see what settings needed changing to boot, not much to do here, just swap the boot sequence and windows was installing.

After installation i got the 64bit drivers from MSI's website, most were easy installation files that just needed running, however, the Wireless LAN, LAN and modem were not, folders just contained files that i really had no idea what to do with! Any efforts to install/update drivers from device manager and pointing to the relevant folder didnt work, so for now, ive left them as the default windows drivers. This is the noob in me, not everyone knows everything! IMO, this sort of thing shouldnt be like this, a simple exe/install file would have been ideal..

So, i have vga, audio and ready to go for windows update, after some initial teething not finding my wireless network, it did and i set about installing all windows updates, until, 'initializing installation'. There it just hung, for ever, Tried to kill the program after 30 mins of waiting and nothing was happening, only thing left to do was to shut down via the power button. Tried to reboot, but system wouldnt, got to windows loading screen and watched the scroll bar cycle several hundred times!

So next, i decided to flash the bios and update to 2.50, this all went fine and i made the appropriate changes in bios, tried to reboot, nothing, still hanging. only thing left was to try re-installing windows, but thought i'd try a repair first. This went great, repaired and i was back in, for another couple of hours! Then, you guessed it, hung again! Thought i'd try switching the memory slots, this worked on next reboot, im now using the Dimm 1 slot and seems to be ok, for a little while! Then i get the same problem, hangs on me, although this time a simple shutdown and removal of all power (mains power and battery) sorts everything and i can get back into windows...

This is where i am right now, so the dialemma is this, is it the memory causing the problem, i suspect that it is, or some driver/64bit issue that keeps locking me up?

I have tried setting to 333mhz, doesnt seem to help, so im still runnnig at 400mhz for the time being. I'll see how it goes for the minute, but may have to try out another memory brand if this persists...

Has anyone got any other ideas? Anything that i could try that might work??

Thanks in advance...

 

I would first suspect the RAM - again, the 1029 is very picky about RAM And only SuperTalent and Kingston are officially supported by MSI.

You should have no problem at 400mhz with 1gb on RAM.

 

Yeh, i had read several reports of people using the OCZ, thats why i went for it, maybe should have used Kingston. Couldnt find any 1gb PC3200 on Newegg though, thats why i went for the OCZ. I'm running a stress test (BurnIn Test V4.0Pro) atm to see if i can simulate the lockup again, ill see what happens.

Thanks for your help

 

Well, as an update, everything is working perfectly now. Moving the memory to DIMM slot 1 seems to have done the trick, at the same time i did an extra 1/4 turn on the screws for the GPU side of the heatsink, i'm pretty sure i was getting a good contact, but maybe due to the small rubber washers, due to initial heat buildup they softened and reduced the torque pressure..??!

So, my advice to anyone, definitely use AS5, and after an initial 'burn in' re-tighten/check the screws on the GPU to ensure full contact..

The OCZ memory is working just great BTW.. and i'm loving this laptop..

 

glad everything is working for you now - the gpu heatsink has a hard thick thermal pad which may have compressed slightly.

 

Nope, i removed the thermal pad and replaced it with AS5, that was the recommendation in several other threads i read?!!

 

definitely, on the 1029 you should use AS5