Memory allocation

[MIke565]

I recently lost one of my 1Gig modules PC3200 VS so I've ordered another 2Gig(2x1). I was hoping to put the 2 new modules in and bring me up to 3Gig but from what I've heard that will slow my machine down or not work at all.

I'm now wondering what will happen if I put all 4 sticks in, including the bad one, my thoughts being that as I'm running a 32bit OS with 512MB of graphics a good portion of the 2nd set of memory won't get get allocated.(hopefully the bad parts)

I've ran mem test on the bad module for just over 3hrs and had no error's show, but when the modules in the machine I get frequent, random application crashes and the occasional BSOD.

Do you think this might work or am I just going to have to stay at 2GB with the new modules.

Thanks for your help

[blueball]

If the bad stick gives random crashes then fitting it will just give you random crashes. You can fit the 3G and see how it runs, the performance may not be as bad as you suspect - it will run in single channel mode instead of dual channel mode.

[ziyinwl3]

There must be a solution