RAM problem?

[dannyboy83]

Hello there. I had some major PC problems this week.

First off, Windows crashed, and after a reset, failed to boot. All I got was a flashing underscore in the top left of the screen after POST.

So I re-installed Windows, and it was going ok.

I had taken out 3 of my 4 RAM sticks (I have 2 matched pairs of 512Mb Corsair TwinX stuff = 2Gb), before the Windows re-install, to see if it made any difference. The PC was running fine on a single 512Mb stick.

When I put all four in, Windows failed to load. I resorted to putting in one matched pair - 1Gb - and it worked fine. Do you think I have a dodgy RAM stick?

Maybe I should swap them all out for a matched pair of 1Gb sticks, rather than 4 x 512Mbs.

Do you think my RAM is knackered? Cheers

[kalniel]

Could be a couple of things.

1) you have a dodgy stick of ram
2) you have a dodgy/dusty ram slot
3) your timings are too tight for 4 sticks

The amd memory controller cannot do tight timings with all four banks populated - make sure to run 2T command rate, and possibly DDR333 as well.

Download memtest86 and use that to test your RAM for faults. If the RAM is fine then try with looser timings and speed as mentioned above.

[dannyboy83]

I run 2T, but run at DDR400.

Cheers for the answer. I think, when I can afford, I will swap to a 2 x 1Gb matched pair.

You have any recommendations on RAM to get. Stick with Corsair, or try Crucual Ballistix or OCZ?

[MSIC]

A number of people can experience problems when filling all 4 slots with RAM, seemingly more so if it's a dual channel motherboard (Intel P4 or 939 type A64). In fact my motherboard works great with 2 sticks but when i got another 2 found out that 1 of my channels is just plain knackered (18 months after i bought the board, so no RMA'ing).
Even on fully working slots, as was suggested above by Kalneil, faster / tighter timings can just be too much for 4 sticks. Sometimes a BIOS update can help, sometimes not.
No one easy answer, but i'd say you'd do well to get 2 x 1GB RAM from Corsair. I just got some Corsair Value Select, and am happy with it for my needs.

Scan have this for £124.55, free delivey for hexus people. Done a quick bit of checking, this is about the cheapest i can find.

[dannyboy83]

thanks very much MSIC for having a look for me.

I actually was looking at this, but I can't afford right now, so maybe your suggestion would do.

Is there a huge difference, or would i be paying £50 fopr the heat-spreaders?

and I have set up the free postage offer already

[MSIC]

I'm no authority on RAM settings, but it seems to me that you'd be paying £50 for some heat sinks and going from CAS 2.5 to CAS 2. The Value Select still has some overclocking headroom, just not as much, and in reality i'd be surprised if the same system with the two swapped would show a difference of more than 2 or 3 % under benchmarks.
Would like to know if anyone here has any experience in this.

£50 can buy you a whole new hard drive. Or a date with a really hot girl. Or boy for that matter.

[dannyboy83]

lol, u got a burd on offer for £50?

I do want a new PSU, so cud use the money for that. There's always something on my PC list to buy, if only I won the lottery...

OK, I'll take ur advice and get the value select! I'm gonna sell the 2 pairs of 2x 512Mb Corsair sticks with the silver heatspreaders, so that may pay for the new RAM.

[sawyen]

Im running 4 sticks of memory as well... Loosen up ur timings and run 2T, that shud do the trick... I was hell lucky for 2-2-2-6 2T to work on both my AV8 and MSI. drop the timings to 3-3-3-8 see if it helps.. There's always 3-4-3-10 as a last resort.

Timings aint that crucial in A64.. changing the timings on my micron from 3-3-3-8 to 2-2-2-6 only gave me like 2~3fps (ppfftt..) extra in HL2 stress test.

EDIT: My rig did BSOD twice when I did a BIOS update.. cleared the CMOS and its up and running again.

[dannyboy83]

ok cheers for the input

[kalniel]

*nods* It's a winchester chip you're using - so it is definately the DDR 400 - winnies need DDR333 with 4 slots.

Agree on the value select - you won't see a noticable difference in real terms between the memories. Spending the money on a PSU would be good

[dannyboy83]

thing is... it worked on 400 mode with 4 sticks for as long as I've had the processor. It only stopped working this week. Anyhows, I'm swapping for 2 sticks.

I fancy the Tagan Easycon SLI ready PSU. 480W proberly