Help needed - ram upgrade problems

[RAFAL KRAWCZYK]

Hi,
I recently purchased 512 MB of ram for my Anthlon 1800+ to upgrade it to 700
something MB. Ever since I've done that and play doom3, I get a blue screen
with some sort of error. They're never the same. Latest one that I got is a
driver irq problem and as technical information it's STOP:0x000000D1
something something... Then cmaudio.sys address...... . Computer then
begins to dump the physical memory and hangs or reboots depending on the
error.
When I play the game with my old 256mb chip it all works fine. What am I
suppose to do about it? Should I reinstall windows as it might have gone
crazy at some point (shouldn't but it's made my Microsoft so wouldn't be
surprised either) or doom (doubt that the game is the problem as it works
fine with the old chip and with the new one sometimes the computer goes
crazy even at the log in screen) or should I get the chip exchanged?
Some technical specs of my comp.
Anthlon XP 1800+
Asus A7V333 motherboard
RAM: 256MB by Seitec
512MB by Elixir.
onboard sound
Geforce MX 440 video.
Thanks for your help.
Regards,
Raphael

 

[John Weiss]

I recently purchased 512 MB of ram for my Anthlon 1800+ to upgrade it to 700
something MB. Ever since I've done that and play doom3, I get a blue screen
with some sort of error. They're never the same. Latest one that I got is a
driver irq problem and as technical information it's STOP:0x000000D1 something
something... Then cmaudio.sys address...... . Computer then begins to dump
the physical memory and hangs or reboots depending on the error.
When I play the game with my old 256mb chip it all works fine. What am I
suppose to do about it?

What happens when you put in the new 512 MB stick alone? If it doesn't boot or
has some other problem, it's likely the wrong type of RAM or a defective stick.
If it works alone, there is some kind of conflict between the 2 sticks.

Does your motherboard support that combination of RAM?

 

[RAFAL KRAWCZYK]

What happens when you put in the new 512 MB stick alone? If it doesn't
boot or has some other problem, it's likely the wrong type of RAM or a
defective stick. If it works alone, there is some kind of conflict between
the 2 sticks.

Does your motherboard support that combination of RAM?

Same thing unfortunately. I already tried that combination. It boots fine,
but then when the game runs it goes all pear shaped and sometimes even
without the game it screws up . The motherboard seems to be fine with
that. I consulted the manual and it gave me a green light. I performed a
memory test and it seemed fine as well. Any ideas?

 

[Bob Day]

Hi,
I recently purchased 512 MB of ram for my Anthlon 1800+ to upgrade it to 700
something MB. Ever since I've done that and play doom3, I get a blue screen
with some sort of error. They're never the same. Latest one that I got is a

1. Go to www.crucial.com and use their memory configurer
to be sure you have the right memory module.

2. Download Memtest86+ from www.memtest.org and run
it for a few cycles.

-- Bob Day
http://bobday.vze.com

 

[spodosaurus]

Hi,
I recently purchased 512 MB of ram for my Anthlon 1800+ to upgrade it to 700
something MB. Ever since I've done that and play doom3, I get a blue screen
with some sort of error. They're never the same. Latest one that I got is a
driver irq problem and as technical information it's STOP:0x000000D1
something something... Then cmaudio.sys address...... . Computer then
begins to dump the physical memory and hangs or reboots depending on the
error.
When I play the game with my old 256mb chip it all works fine. What am I
suppose to do about it? Should I reinstall windows as it might have gone
crazy at some point (shouldn't but it's made my Microsoft so wouldn't be
surprised either) or doom (doubt that the game is the problem as it works
fine with the old chip and with the new one sometimes the computer goes
crazy even at the log in screen) or should I get the chip exchanged?
Some technical specs of my comp.
Anthlon XP 1800+
Asus A7V333 motherboard
RAM: 256MB by Seitec
512MB by Elixir.
onboard sound
Geforce MX 440 video.
Thanks for your help.
Regards,
Raphael

1. Have you run memtest86 yet?

2. What version of windows are you using?

3. Can you really play Doom3 on THAT old video card?

--
spammage trappage: replace fishies_ with yahoo

I'm going to die rather sooner than I'd like. I tried to protect my
neighbours from crime, and became the victim of it. Complications in
hospital following this resulted in a serious illness. I now need a bone
marrow transplant. Many people around the world are waiting for a marrow
transplant, too. Please volunteer to be a marrow donor:
http://www.abmdr.org.au/
http://www.marrow.org/

 

[RAFAL KRAWCZYK]

1. Have you run memtest86 yet?

2. What version of windows are you using?

3. Can you really play Doom3 on THAT old video card?

--
spammage trappage: replace fishies_ with yahoo

I'm going to die rather sooner than I'd like. I tried to protect my
neighbours from crime, and became the victim of it. Complications in
hospital following this resulted in a serious illness. I now need a bone
marrow transplant. Many people around the world are waiting for a marrow
transplant, too. Please volunteer to be a marrow donor:
http://www.abmdr.org.au/
http://www.marrow.org/

1) HI, I just ran the memtest86 and it gave me a lot of errors. I guess I'll
just have to get the chip exchanged.
2) I'm using xp pro with SP2
3) You'd be surprised! it runs very smoothly. Lets face it it's not exactly
jaw dropping performance, but it's not bad at all! I reckon that I could get
something way better but I really don't feel like investing money into a
graphics card that I utilise once ever 5-6 months for 2 weeks . Kind of
japanese philosophy - If it's ain't broken, don't fix it .

Once again, thanks a lot for your help.
Regards,
Raphael

 

[RAFAL KRAWCZYK]

1. Go to www.crucial.com and use their memory configurer
to be sure you have the right memory module.

2. Download Memtest86+ from www.memtest.org and run
it for a few cycles.

-- Bob Day
http://bobday.vze.com

Can the Memtest86 give a couple of errors and the chip still be alright to
use? Even my 256 has some errors on it (48) but the 512 had 200+.
Raphael

 

[spodosaurus]

1) HI, I just ran the memtest86 and it gave me a lot of errors. I guess I'll
just have to get the chip exchanged.

I've only ever had one occaision where the errors were not caused by a
bad chip on a stick of RAM. In that case, it was a dodgy brand new
motherboard. I tested both sticks on another system for hours and hours
and hours and no errors popped up. Replace the stick.

2) I'm using xp pro with SP2

Just wanted to make sure you weren't using Win98

3) You'd be surprised! it runs very smoothly. Lets face it it's not exactly
jaw dropping performance, but it's not bad at all! I reckon that I could get
something way better but I really don't feel like investing money into a
graphics card that I utilise once ever 5-6 months for 2 weeks . Kind of
japanese philosophy - If it's ain't broken, don't fix it .

Once again, thanks a lot for your help.
Regards,
Raphael

--
spammage trappage: replace fishies_ with yahoo

I'm going to die rather sooner than I'd like. I tried to protect my
neighbours from crime, and became the victim of it. Complications in
hospital following this resulted in a serious illness. I now need a bone
marrow transplant. Many people around the world are waiting for a marrow
transplant, too. Please volunteer to be a marrow donor:
http://www.abmdr.org.au/
http://www.marrow.org/

 

[kony]

1) HI, I just ran the memtest86 and it gave me a lot of errors. I guess I'll
just have to get the chip exchanged.
2) I'm using xp pro with SP2
3) You'd be surprised! it runs very smoothly. Lets face it it's not exactly
jaw dropping performance, but it's not bad at all! I reckon that I could get
something way better but I really don't feel like investing money into a
graphics card that I utilise once ever 5-6 months for 2 weeks . Kind of
japanese philosophy - If it's ain't broken, don't fix it .

That board can be picky about memory, especially memory with
lesser stability margin.

Try putting the 512MB module in the slot closest to CPU,
leaving the middle memory slot and the 256MB module in the
furthest slot.

Check the bios to be sure the memory is not set to "turbo"
or "aggressive" or whatever the term used in their bios to
describe a different set of timings independant of the
user-set or Auto-SPD timings.

Flash a newer bios, there were memory-related improvements
in later bios. Then clear the CMOS.

Manually set the bios to use synchronous memory bus- same
speed as FSB. Try setting the timings to 3,4,4,8.

If the board has a memory voltage setting, try adjusting
that to 2.6-2.7V.

After all of the above retest it with Memtest86

 

[DaveW]

Well, you didn't give enough details for a confident answer, but for
instance if you are using Win98SE as your OS, that OS can only rcognize up
to 512 MB TOTAL of RAM. If more is installed the computer becomes unstable,
as yours does.

 

[kony]

Well, you didn't give enough details for a confident answer, but for
instance if you are using Win98SE as your OS, that OS can only rcognize up
to 512 MB TOTAL of RAM. If more is installed the computer becomes unstable,
as yours does.

No, one merely needs to edit the system.ini file if more
than that is needed on Win98.

 

[Al Smith]

Can the Memtest86 give a couple of errors and the chip still be alright to

use? Even my 256 has some errors on it (48) but the 512 had 200+.
Raphael

I've read that if you get any errors at all in a memory test you
should toss the stick and get a new one. No wonder you were
getting crashes, if both your RAM sticks are bad.

 

[Craig Palme]

Well is seems to me that windows isn't the problem since the system works
fine with just the 256 installed. Have you tried with just the 512
installed? If it acts up then you know it's a bad stick of ram. If it works
fine, then your problem is a compatibility issue between both sticks.

 

[kony]

I've read that if you get any errors at all in a memory test you
should toss the stick and get a new one. No wonder you were
getting crashes, if both your RAM sticks are bad.

Absolutely not.
It's quite common for a board itself to be the problem,
and/or using modules that merely conform to JEDEC specs but
don't have much margin beyond that (which is not really the
"modules' fault"). Particularly when multiple modules are
used, the potential for errors from the board itself are
higher.

The better way to distinguish errors (one step among others
like trying the modules in another board) is to note where
the errors occur. If they continually reoccur at same
addresses that may be a hard failure (excepting very low
addresses which the board may've reserved for it's use) of
the module itself. Other times the SPD timings are ignored
or might need be manually adjusted lower per certain boards.

On the other hand, if one buys a module and it doesn't work-
for whatever the reason - that is still justification to
return to the seller.

 

[RAFAL KRAWCZYK]

Well is seems to me that windows isn't the problem since the system works
fine with just the 256 installed. Have you tried with just the 512
installed? If it acts up then you know it's a bad stick of ram. If it
works fine, then your problem is a compatibility issue between both
sticks.

Hi guys,
thanka a lot for your help. What seems to have happened is that the 512 chip
that I bought was not compatible with the ASUS board. It turns out that ASUS
is very picky with it's memory chips. It has a list of manufacturers and
model numbers which it reads. Sometimes it manages to start up with an
unlisted model but the system becomes unstable very quickly (what happened
in my case). I'm using a different brand now and its fantastic. Thanks a lot
again for your help.
Regards,
Raphael

 

[Al Smith]

I've read that if you get any errors at all in a memory test you

Absolutely not.
It's quite common for a board itself to be the problem,
and/or using modules that merely conform to JEDEC specs but
don't have much margin beyond that (which is not really the
"modules' fault"). Particularly when multiple modules are
used, the potential for errors from the board itself are
higher.

The better way to distinguish errors (one step among others
like trying the modules in another board) is to note where
the errors occur. If they continually reoccur at same
addresses that may be a hard failure (excepting very low
addresses which the board may've reserved for it's use) of
the module itself. Other times the SPD timings are ignored
or might need be manually adjusted lower per certain boards.

On the other hand, if one buys a module and it doesn't work-
for whatever the reason - that is still justification to
return to the seller.

I agree, it's a good idea to run the memtest in another box if you
can do so. Who knows? Might be a piece of lint on one of the
contacts. Bad RAM can be maddening. If there are only minor errors
the computer will still run, but it will be unstable. It can drive
you nuts. I had this problem on an old box. Everything worked, but
it just wasn't stable. Turned out one of my RAM sticks was showing
a very few errors when I tested it. When I replaced it, big
improvement.

 

[kony]

I agree, it's a good idea to run the memtest in another box if you
can do so. Who knows? Might be a piece of lint on one of the
contacts. Bad RAM can be maddening. If there are only minor errors
the computer will still run, but it will be unstable. It can drive
you nuts. I had this problem on an old box. Everything worked, but
it just wasn't stable. Turned out one of my RAM sticks was showing
a very few errors when I tested it. When I replaced it, big
improvement.

I guess my main point should've been that physical memory
errors (that is, defects in a chip) seem far more rare these
days than other factors.

 

[spodosaurus]

Absolutely not.
It's quite common for a board itself to be the problem,

A problem I recently experienced on a brand new ASUS A7S8X-MX board. The
memory would test as bad with memtest86, but the errors seemed to move
around, and sometimes a stick of memory would test fine, then if I
changed the bank it was in it would show errors. Both sticks tested fine
(20+ passes) in a known good system. Exchanged the board for another one
(A7V400-MX-SE as they were out of stock of the A7S8X-MX) and everything
is fine again.

and/or using modules that merely conform to JEDEC specs but
don't have much margin beyond that (which is not really the
"modules' fault"). Particularly when multiple modules are
used, the potential for errors from the board itself are
higher.

The better way to distinguish errors (one step among others
like trying the modules in another board) is to note where
the errors occur. If they continually reoccur at same
addresses that may be a hard failure (excepting very low
addresses which the board may've reserved for it's use) of
the module itself. Other times the SPD timings are ignored
or might need be manually adjusted lower per certain boards.

On the other hand, if one buys a module and it doesn't work-
for whatever the reason - that is still justification to
return to the seller.

--
spammage trappage: replace fishies_ with yahoo

I'm going to die rather sooner than I'd like. I tried to protect my
neighbours from crime, and became the victim of it. Complications in
hospital following this resulted in a serious illness. I now need a bone
marrow transplant. Many people around the world are waiting for a marrow
transplant, too. Please volunteer to be a marrow donor:
http://www.abmdr.org.au/
http://www.marrow.org/