Motherboard RAM Problem

[Torchizard]

I have recently built a PC, when I tried it on a barebones setup I had RAM problems and have not been able to get it to work.
This is a ECS P4M800PRO-M V2 motherboard with a 2.2GHz Core 2 Duo and 512Mb of DDR2 (I plan to upgrade it to 2Gb later)

Whenever I turn it on, it beeps (it actually buzzes in this case), the CPU fan spins up and then keeps single-beeping again with a few seconds of delay between each beep. Various internet sources, as the manual does not include beepcodes, say that it's a DRAM refresh problem so I tried many different combinations of RAM (as this board supports both DDR and DDR2) with different sizes and speeds but they all have the same effect.

Any ideas about how I can get it to work?

[Ponch]

Was the board "known good" before you "recently" built a PC with it (this is obviously not a new board unless it's been left in a cupboard for a long time).

With more sticks tried in both slots and still nothing (I guess you've already tried a Bios reset), you might be out of luck.

[Torchizard]

I bought it over the internet like two weeks ago, aside from the time that it has been inside the PC, it was inside its antistatic wrap inside the box it came in. It did appear to be new when it came out of the box. So since I don't think that I can do much with the board in its current state, do you think I should just try to get a replacement and retry with another?

[Tripredacus]

Which CPU do you have? ECS' website shows it only supports the E4500 CPU, not the T7500 for example. Also there is a minimum BIOS requirement for a Core 2 Duo CPU.

Regarding the support, the spec says it supports the use of either DDR or DDR2, but not both at the same time.

If you have any cards in the slots, remove those. Also remove all storage devices from the board (HDD, ODD, etc) and see if it will POST without those.

Also you can try to boot the board without any memory installed and see if the beeps are the same.

[Torchizard]

So I should get a S775 P4, install the BIOS update and replace the P4 with the Core 2 Duo?

Still, it's a bit strange how a unsupported CPU gives a RAM error...

EDIT: I replaced it with a Celeron and it boots. So I'll just have to do the BIOS update and it should work with the Core 2 Duo.

Edited October 5, 2013 by Torchizard