# Computer crashing after installing new memory



## ewakio (Jul 16, 2009)

So... 

I decided to upgrade my memory from 2x1GB to 4x1GB by adding two more identical sticks of ram. As far as I can tell, the installation went normally - I turned off the computer, unplugged everything, opened the case, and inserted the two sticks into the open memory ports, then plugged everything back in and started the computer up. I didn't mess with voltages or timings since my BIOS has that stuff set to Auto and the motherboard manual didn't have anything on it. During startup, the amount of memory flashed the appropriate 4GB on the screen and everything seemed ok. 

Almost immediately, I began to see some problems. Windows loads up slower than usual, navigating Windows and using programs seemed more sluggish, random freezing would occur, and I think pretty much every time I use the computer it ends up freezing and crashing. Web browsers routinely crash the system, especially when using iTunes at the same time. The standby function on the computer doesn't work anymore either - it just says "Windows is preparing to stand by..." and never does. Some heavy flash-oriented websites also tell me that my computer might have trouble running them, even though I never had that problem before. 

One thing that's worth noting is that Windows only detected 3.5 GB of memory. I read that XP only has the capacity to detect that much, but I don't know if that has anything to do with the instability. 

The thing that really bugs me is that even after I removed the two new sticks the computer still crashes every half hour and I don't know what the problem is. 

In some cases the problem is repeatable, but it's probably best described as semi-random. When watching videos on hulu or vimeo, the entire system will crash after a few minutes, but I don't think it happens while watching a DVD or a video on the hard drive. While doing a virus check a couple times, the computer froze and crashed, with a blue screen with something about memory. I don't have the exact error message, but it suggested that I download some windows memory diagnostic utility, which I did to no avail. Firefox and Chrome both cause the system to crash after half an hour of use or so, and even less time if I'm using iTunes at the same time. 


I already tried these steps: 

I ran memtest86 but it didn't show any errors. I also did a few full virus and spyware scans and got only minor threats that were dealt with. I've since taken the new ram out to have just the original two sticks, but I still experience system crashes and freezes after about a half hour of use. Thinking the timings might have been messed up somehow, I used CPU-Z to see if my memory timings were correct (the sticks say 4-4-4-12 on them) but they were different (5-5-5-16 or something). I then used this program called memset to change the timings of my memory in Windows because my BIOS apparently does not give me that option. That didn't fix anything. 


My software: 
- Windows XP Home with SP3 
- Symantec AntiVirus 
- AVG antivirus 
- Windows firewall 


My hardware 

-Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R 
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16813128050 
-CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 Conroe 2.66GHz 
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16819115029 
-Video card: EVGA 640-P2-N821-AR GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB 
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814130071 
-RAM modules: 2 of Corsair XMS2 2GB (2x1GB) 240-pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) 
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16820145034 
-Power supply: OCZ GameXStream OCZ600GXSSLI 600W ATX12V 
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16817341001 


At this point I've tried pretty much everything I know how to do and it still crashes. Would something in the registry be messing it up and if so is there a way to correct that? What about resetting the BIOS somehow? Those are the only reasons I can think of right now that I haven't really explored. Any help is much appreciated. Thanks!


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

The sticks are rated at 2.1v the auto setting most likely sets them at 1.8v Try bumping the voltage to 2.0v, when you fill all the slots on a motherboard you usually need to bump the ram voltage up to cover the extra load, FYI 2, 2Gig sticks draw the same current as 2, 1 gig sticks so when ever possible 2, 2gig sticks are easier on the system then 4, 1gig sticks.


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## ewakio (Jul 16, 2009)

wrench97 said:


> The sticks are rated at 2.1v the auto setting most likely sets them at 1.8v Try bumping the voltage to 2.0v, when you fill all the slots on a motherboard you usually need to bump the ram voltage up to cover the extra load, FYI 2, 2Gig sticks draw the same current as 2, 1 gig sticks so when ever possible 2, 2gig sticks are easier on the system then 4, 1gig sticks.


Cool, I'll try that out. Would I need to mess with resetting the CMOS at all? I didn't do that when I added the new sticks.


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

No it found and reported the correct amount of ram.


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## ewakio (Jul 16, 2009)

Well it looks like there's no option to change the voltages in my BIOS. The closest thing is this thing called MB Intelligent Tweaker, which has an option for DDR2 Overvoltage control, which the manual says "allows you to set memory voltage." Do you have any idea what JEDEC #1, JEDEC #2 and EPP#1 mean? They're in the Timings Table in CPU-Z and the EPP#1 column has the right timings and voltages, but JEDEC 1 and 2 do not. I don't really want to change the voltages if I should be looking at the EPP#1 timings and voltages for reference.


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

In the Main Bios screen press Control + F1 for the advanced settings, EPP profile is what you want.


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## ewakio (Jul 16, 2009)

Hmm... nope, that didn't do it, my computer crashed again after a few minutes watching hulu. I changed the timings in the BIOS to the correct ones and the voltage is at 2.1v normally, so it doesn't look like that did anything. Any other ideas?


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

Different Ram.


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## ewakio (Jul 16, 2009)

Really? Even when I removed the new ram so that it was back to how it was before?


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

Are you saying you went back to 2 gig and the system still crashes?
Enter the Bios and load optimized defaults (Hit F7) save and reboot with the 2 original sticks installed.


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## ewakio (Jul 16, 2009)

Yeah, I think I said that in the original post. I took the two new sticks out and loaded the optimized defaults but no dice.


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

What are you seeing for Temps and Voltages in the Bios PC health page?


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## ewakio (Jul 16, 2009)

The PC Health Status page reads like this:

Reset Case Open Status [Disabled]
Case Opened Yes
Vcore OK
DDR18V OK
+3.3V OK
+12V OK
Current System Temperature 36*C
Current CPU Temperature 31*C

Doesn't look like it's overheating and I don't think I can change the voltages.


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

What slots do you have the sticks installed in?
The health page is just to read the sensors you can't make any changes there.


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## ewakio (Jul 16, 2009)

The two 1GB sticks are in slots DDRII 1 and DDRII 3. I'm pretty sure those sticks have not been moved since I started having problems. When the computer boots up it says its running in dual channel interleaved.


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

Lets see some screen shots of the CPU, Memory, and SPD(both occupied slots) tabs in CPUz. You may need to make 2 posts to get them all in.
http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php

Also it may pay to D/L and burn Memtest+ to a CD and boot from the CD to test the RAM.
http://www.memtest.org/#downiso


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## ewakio (Jul 16, 2009)

The multiplier and core speed fluctuate between what you see here and 8x and 2666MHz, respectively.




























I think I already tried memtest but I'll run it again... results forthcoming.


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

The fluctuation is because of EIST(Intel Enhanced Speedstep Technology) you can disable it in the Bios, but it is usually not an issue as long as you see it ramping up when loaded.

The Ram shows running at 800 speeds(double pumped 400) and under the EPP timings.


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## ewakio (Jul 16, 2009)

> The Ram shows running at 800 speeds(double pumped 400) and under the EPP timings.


So what does that mean exactly? Do I have to do something?

Also, I'm running another memtest and it looks like I'm getting a bunch of errors now. Is it possible to copy those results somehow?


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## ewakio (Jul 16, 2009)

So the test is still running but I've gotten 32 errors so far. Here are a couple of the errors:

Tst Pass Failing Address Good Bad Err-Bits Count
8 5 00068128164 - 1665.5MB b5c667e 31c6667e 84000000 31
8 5 005a127edc - 1441.4MB caf78147 daf78147 10000000 32

Is it ok to switch out this ram with the new sticks?


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

ewakio said:


> So what does that mean exactly? Do I have to do something?
> 
> Also, I'm running another memtest and it looks like I'm getting a bunch of errors now. Is it possible to copy those results somehow?


No that means it's running the correct speed and timings.


Putting the new ram in would be good idea, run memtest on the new aa well.


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## ewakio (Jul 16, 2009)

I changed out the ram and ran memtest a couple times but it still crashes.


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

How many passes with memtest? Did pass?


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## ewakio (Jul 16, 2009)

I think I did 2-3 full passes and there weren't any errors for any of them.


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

Let it run for 6 full passes.


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## ewakio (Jul 16, 2009)

OK I'll try that later tonight and post the results when it's done.


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## ewakio (Jul 16, 2009)

I ran 10 passes of memtest and 6 passes of the Windows Memory Diagnostic and all of them came up clean.


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

At this point I would test it with a different power supply, any chance you can borrow one?


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## ewakio (Jul 16, 2009)

Hmm, not really. I took my computer to a repair shop and they said there's nothing wrong with the RAM or Windows, but that either the hard drive or the motherboard were faulty. He said there's a chance that when I put in the new ram, the voltages screwed up the motherboard and that the way to go would be to replace the motherboard. Is this a possible explanation?


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

Not a good one, the motherboard controls the voltage not the ram on auto if anything it would have under volted the ram and not booted. If he thought it was the hard drive the simplest thing would be to swap it out and see, any decent shop would have several around.


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## ewakio (Jul 16, 2009)

Well for now, let's entertain his idea of a bad motherboard. If it were a bad motherboard, what would I expect to see? And likewise, if it were a bad power supply, what would I expect to see? I want to run some tests on the motherboard (if possible) to see if his diagnosis has any legitimacy. Same on the power supply.


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

Power supply you can test with a digital volt meter> http://www.techsupportforum.com/f210/test-your-power-supply-with-a-multi-meter-151526.html

Motherboard you really just eliminate the other components.


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## ewakio (Jul 16, 2009)

I don't have a multimeter and don't really have the means (or desire, really) to get one right now. If there's a problem with the power supply then wouldn't the computer just not turn on? I just don't see how adding ram can screw up the power supply.

There's one more thing I wanted to make clear, if I haven't said already. The motherboard manual says that there are 4 x 1.8v DDR2 DIMM sockets for memory. My memory is 2.1v. Would putting four 2.1v sticks into four 1.8v slots fry the motherboard? I've heard that under voltaging (sic) memory is a bad idea - do you know how bad and what exactly it's supposed to do?


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

Fry the motherboard no the ram is run by the motherboard it does not supply the voltage.
Adding ram will not damage the power supply, nor the motherboard something else is going on here.


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## ewakio (Jul 16, 2009)

Is there anything else that I can do to find out what the problem is? I don't know what solutions to pursue right now, and I'm not sure that more testing will do anything towards finding out the exact problem. At this point, I'm willing to give changing out the motherboard a shot, if only because there are no other plausible solutions.


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

Disconnect the hard drive and try running a live Linux disk, see if the PC behaves ok under Linux running off a CD.


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## ewakio (Jul 16, 2009)

Ok... could you explain why I should do that?


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

The cost is free, if you still have an issue it eliminates the hard drive.


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## ewakio (Jul 16, 2009)

Well I ran this hard drive diagnostic utility last night called SpinRite (off a boot cd) and my drives were clean. Is this still necessary? It's just that I'm lazy and don't want to buy more CD-Rs.


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

No it's not necessary.


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## ewakio (Jul 16, 2009)

I installed Linux anyways, and it doesn't seem to be crashing... I've been spending a half hour or so now installing things and watching hulu (my makeshift stress test of sorts) and it hasn't given me any problems. I might try a clean install of windows if this continues to work well.


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## ewakio (Jul 16, 2009)

Well... I did a clean install of Windows XP and updated it to SP3 and was working fine for a bit, but is now starting to exhibit similar symptoms. I don't think the computer has crashed yet, but there are long hitches in booting up and just everyday windows navigation. It took XP two minutes to boot up (weird thing is it was booting in 15 seconds with SP1) and it takes Windows 7 around 15 minutes to load after an excruciatingly long install. Ubuntu still works fine, but I'm not going to switch to it permanently by any means.

Any other ideas?


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## Wrench97 (May 10, 2008)

I would be tempted to try another hard drive.


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## ewakio (Jul 16, 2009)

That's probably a good idea. However, I ran SpinRite on my hard drive without any errors and I don't have any hard drives laying around except for my backup HDD. I already bought a new motherboard and memory so we'll see if that changes anything. If not, then I'll try scrounging around for another HDD or just take it into the computer place again.


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