Assist with your Socket 478 retro setup, likely involving RAM issues.
Assist with your Socket 478 retro setup, likely involving RAM issues.
I acquired an older PC last week. It came with an AOpen Socket 478 motherboard, an Intel Celeron SL6RV processor, and a single stick of 512MB PC2100u RAM. When I powered it on, the system failed to boot (I verified the onboard GPU and two AGP cards worked). Therefore, I replaced the motherboard with a new MSI 651M-L MS-7005 model. I assembled everything with the existing CPU and RAM, but the PC still wouldn’t start, not even displaying beep codes. I then replaced the RAM (also PC2100u) yet the issue persisted. Later, I tried booting without any RAM and received an error beep. My concern is that the RAM might be too slow for the system to boot properly. I checked the MSI manual, which lists supported speeds as 200/266/333MHz, so 133MHz isn’t listed. (It probably should have been considered earlier.) This was my first experience with such an old hardware setup, and I completely overlooked those details. The CPU features a 400MHz FSB, which made me a bit uncertain about all the RAM and speed calculations. My question is: what RAM speed would be necessary for the system to boot correctly? Would any of the speeds mentioned in the manual work? I’m aware there are some settings you can adjust on motherboards, but I’m really confused right now and don’t want to waste more money. Current setup: MSI 651M-L MS-7005 with 512MB PC2100u RAM (Infineon DDR). Intel Celeron SL6RV @ 2GHz, Nvidia GeForce 2 MX 400. Thank you for your assistance beforehand.
In theory it shouldn't be an issue, but you're never sure with such old gear. I own a system from before your time, featuring a first-gen Pentium and 16MB of RAM—it's quite particular about memory. The best choice would be to visit a thrift store that carries vintage computers; you can usually find the right RAM there at a low cost.