Solved (mostly) Did I bork my PC ? (ram related)

[nightrnr]

So, I have an extra computer that was going to use as a Windows 7 PC. I bought some extra ram for it (4 1gb sticks) to replace the 2x 512MB sticks it came with.

For reasons unknown to me, it only could use 3.25 of the ram, even thought the bios recognized all 4 gigs.
Yes, this PC has Win 7 64-bit (not 32-bit). Yes, I have a dedicated (not integrated) video card installed (so it shouldn't be sharing any extra ram there).

I did some searching for answers and the best I could come up with is that the bios has a setting that was holding the full ram capacity back.

Well, I resorted to some trial and error with settings in the bios, and eventually tried some kind of "Aggressive" option for the ram (sorry, this was a couple weeks ago and that's all I remember of it).
So I save settings and reboot, ... and that's the last time my PC could boot up. I can't even get to the bios anymore.
I tried resetting the bios through jumper settings, even took the cr2032 battery out for several hours with the PSU unplugged from the motherboard and hooked everything back up with the same results: No video, no nothing, just 3 beeps (which is a code that means the there is a problem with the 1st 64k of ram, at least, that's what my research has lead me to believe, and makes the most sense, given my tampering.

I cleaned contacts, reseated the ram several times, even put the original 2 sticks back in (after the bios reset attempt), with no luck or change at all.

So yeah, I think I somehow borked the PC.
Remember, this WAS working fine in Windows 7 before I did my meddling. Worked fine with the new ram I got, minus 0.75gb that has been bugging me.

If it really is just fried, I'll use the housing, video card, power supply, HDD, and cables to build my own more updated PC (hopefully wiser for the wear). But It's really vexing me that I could have destroyed it so easily and spare PC's are handy to have. It would be an unfortunate loss to me.

Specs: (inc. a few upgrades)
Gateway GM5407E
Pentium D 3.2ghz processor (yeah I know, it's getting pretty old)
AMD Radeon HD6670 512MB video card
Lepa G650-MAS 650W power supply
1 or 4gb ram (installed correctly in corresponding slots for dual channel)
I think this motherboard: Intel (Council Bluffs) 945G Viiv Motherboard
http://support.gateway.com/s/MOTHERBD/I ... 0Rnv.shtml
...and of course, my own ignorance...

[Hazerd]

Does your Motherboard have onboard video? if so maybe try disabling it even though your using a dedicated video card, the onboard video card could be utilizing some RAM.

Also try running memtest:
http://www.memtest86.com/

[nightrnr]

Well, I can't do ANYTHING with it now. Can't run a single thing, can't even get to the bios. Nothing will boot, not a CD, not a disk, not the bios, nada.
I'm pretty well stuck on the software end of things.

I could try those things if I were to buy another motherboard, but not sure it'd be worth it unless it were super cheap (less than $20, and even then, I may as well upgrade, right?).

As a side note, I did try disabling the onboard, but it really doesn't have a choice to, it's either AGP (onboard), PCI-E, or PCI in the Bios. If I remeber right, I DID uninstall the drivers for the onboard before I upgraded, but I don't believe it loads the drivers when PCI-E is active either.

[Hobie-wan]

Video stuff won't matter yet. Drivers don't matter until you're nearly at the desktop. Bios and start stuff uses basic stuff.

Some BIOS resets, you need to remove the battery and set a jumper to the 2 reset pins and leave them there for a few minutes, the put the jumper back to the normal position. Try that with the machine unplugged and just leave the battery out for now next boot attempt. See if that gets you anywhere. Also just try single sticks of memory in at a time. Disconnect all drives too. Just want to try with mobo, processor, memory, and onboard video first.

[nightrnr]

I'll give it another go. I already took the video card out, but I'll try a single ram stick.

The reset jumper, I was a little unsure about, as the manual didn't actually say it was a reset for the bios (called it something else having to do with updating the bios, I'll have to look it up again). Nor is it labeled.

Thanks for the advice so far, I'll keep you posted.

--Update--

Okay, it's up and running again
I needed to have it in the correct reset setting while I powered it on (thought I had tried that, but hey, it worked.

Anyways, I still can only use 3.25GB of my 4GB of Ram. the .7x is reserved for the system for some reason, but I don't think that it's the on board video. The bios lets you specify what your main video adapter is and I have the integrated driver uninstalled.

I've gone through as many options as I could and still no answers there.
I have no idea how to tell my PC to stop being selfish.

...but I guess I can live with it. Given my humble processor, there's not too many programs/games that would benefit from the full 4GB.