trouble with new ram

[Computer & Sound System Tech]

i bought ram last month i believe, and for some reason i'm getting the blue
screen of death sometimes not always. and today was even worse the computer
would always give me the blue screen of death, and i waited few hours and
turned it on and now it's fine. but i'm tired of the blue screen especially
the ram is fine, i will try the ram tester, but i wanted to know if there
was something i could do to stop these errors?

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[Mike Hall - MVP]

Run memory tests, but give memory a chance. Ensure that it is the correct
type. If you are going to pair RAM, ensure that sticks are matched. If you
are using budget makes, do NOT overclock your machine. The errors will keep
popping up for as long as the machine does not like the configuration
installed or if one of the RAM chips is faulty.

 

[Computer & Sound System Tech]

Run memory tests, but give memory a chance.
i did i can't see the result i ran the windows memory diagnosis tool and the
result aren't showing the system said it would tell me, but it's not.

Ensure that it is the correct type.

i use the exact same model that my pc came with pc2-5300 ddr2-667mhz,
although i might be wrong i believe the original came with pc2-5300
ddr2-533mhz, don't know if it makes a difference

If you are going to pair RAM, ensure that sticks are matched.

they are the exact same thing, same maker, same mhz, same amount (1gbx2)

If you are using budget makes, do NOT overclock your machine.

don't know what you mean by budget makes, but yes i got them cheap 39.99
each, and in my case i can't overclock i'm using a laptop, which i wouldn't
know how to overclock this peticular laptop, and i have no need to since
it's fast 2.0ghz.(i know how to overclock a computer just not this one)

The errors will keep popping up for as long as the machine does not like the
configuration installed or if one of the RAM chips is faulty.

well if it doesn't like the configuration it will have to though it out
because all i can do is change the order of the ram, which doesn't change
much because both of them are 1 gb, and as for the faulty ram, it would
surprise me because they are even a year old(not even 6 month.)

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[PvdG42]

Run memory tests, but give memory a chance.
i did i can't see the result i ran the windows memory diagnosis tool and
the result aren't showing the system said it would tell me, but it's not.

Ensure that it is the correct type.

i use the exact same model that my pc came with pc2-5300 ddr2-667mhz,
although i might be wrong i believe the original came with pc2-5300
ddr2-533mhz, don't know if it makes a difference

If you are going to pair RAM, ensure that sticks are matched.

they are the exact same thing, same maker, same mhz, same amount (1gbx2)

If you are using budget makes, do NOT overclock your machine.

don't know what you mean by budget makes, but yes i got them cheap 39.99
each, and in my case i can't overclock i'm using a laptop, which i
wouldn't know how to overclock this peticular laptop, and i have no need
to since it's fast 2.0ghz.(i know how to overclock a computer just not
this one)

The errors will keep popping up for as long as the machine does not like
the configuration installed or if one of the RAM chips is faulty.

well if it doesn't like the configuration it will have to though it out
because all i can do is change the order of the ram, which doesn't change
much because both of them are 1 gb, and as for the faulty ram, it would
surprise me because they are even a year old(not even 6 month.)

You should not be surprised at all. RAM can be bad from the beginning, or go
bad due to static electricity or other reasons. For whatever reason, the RAM
you purchased does not work properly in your laptop.

Are you saying that you have had this memory for almost 6 months with the
issues you cite? Why did you not contact the vendor as soon as the problems
appeared?

What happens if you put the original memory back in? Do the issues
disappear? That's a sure sign the new memory is incompatible. Did the vendor
give you a compatibility guarantee? Perhaps, next time you should consider
ordering from a vendor that does guarantee compatibility. Crucial is an
example. If you don't want to do that, at least order from a vendor that
will allow you to return the memory for a refund - *reasonable* restocking
fee if it's incompatible.

Is there any chance the issues are heat related? When did you last
disassemble the laptop to check for crud in the cooling fan?

 

[Computer & Sound System Tech]

You should not be surprised at all. RAM can be bad from the beginning, or

go bad due to static electricity or other reasons. For whatever reason,
the RAM you purchased does not work properly in your laptop.

hummm ok well it wasn't the static because i took all the safety step(i'm
A++ classes for computer repair graduated)

Are you saying that you have had this memory for almost 6 months with the
issues you cite? Why did you not contact the vendor as soon as the
problems appeared?

yes although it wasn't that bad at first it was just every one and a while,
but yesterday it was at a point where i couldn't run my pc at all.

What happens if you put the original memory back in? Do the issues
disappear? That's a sure sign the new memory is incompatible. Did the
vendor give you a compatibility guarantee? Perhaps, next time you should
consider ordering from a vendor that does guarantee compatibility. Crucial
is an example. If you don't want to do that, at least order from a vendor
that will allow you to return the memory for a refund - *reasonable*
restocking fee if it's incompatible.

will post back to say what happen when i downgrade the ram, fortunatly i was
smart enough to keep the original ram

Is there any chance the issues are heat related? When did you last
disassemble the laptop to check for crud in the cooling fan?

it might be heat but never had this problem with the original ram, so i
don't know. and this pc is brand new there no crud or dust on the monitor or
the keyboard even less inside the comparment(i keep this pc very clean, i
got pissed off when i saw a little scratch.)

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[Computer & Sound System Tech]

well first boot is alright but very slow, i'm not surprised about this but
first boot will always work fine, it's when the pc has been hot for a while
and then i reboot that i have problem

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[JW]

Sound like the additional memory is drawing too much power.
I suggest that you slow down the memory speed in your BIOS.

 

[Computer & Sound System Tech]

i can't i don't have an option for this the only thing i can set up is how
much ram to use as video memory, the min is 32 and the max is 256, right now
i have it set up as 64mb, and it's weird because on the labelit says it's
compatible with my type of system, i guess i'll have to call centon the
maker of the ram.

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[Computer & Sound System Tech]

this is stupid i do a downgrade from 2gb to 1gb of ram and my system score
is higher by .1 well, you can see how this feature means nothing usefull and
isn't accurate.

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[JW]

For Vista you need to allocate 128MB of shared memory if you want to use
Aero or flip3d.

 

[ato_zee]

i bought ram last month i believe, and for some reason i'm getting the
blue
screen of death sometimes not always. and today was even worse the
computer
would always give me the blue screen of death, and i waited few hours and
turned it on and now it's fine. but i'm tired of the blue screen
especially the ram is fine, i will try the ram tester,

If you have a floppy drive then run a DOS based memory tester,
Doc Memory Ram Diagnostic V2.2 comes to mind, from
http://www.simtester.com/
I've never trusted MS$ diagnostics to diagnose anything.
IDocMemory does a range of different walk tests to pick up obscure
faults like crosstalk between address lines, and can be
set to run a large number of cycles as a soak test.
I had boot blue screens until I killed most processes
prior to shutdown with Process Killer.
If shutdown leaves a corrupted file you may get
continuous BSOD's until you run Check Disk in Fix
Errors mode.
Once it finds and repairs crosslinked files, sorts
out orphened fragments, and the file tables, it'll
come good for a sort while.
Could be you have a hardware device like a USB
wireless stick, the drivers for which misbehave
and screw things up.

 

[Mike Hall - MVP]

The fact that your memory score rose when reducing the amount installed
suggests that the two sticks were not matched..

 

[Computer & Sound System Tech]

how in the hell(sorry for language, just irritated cuz i don't have money to
get new chip and getting the impression getting same but new ram won't help)
are you supposed to know if it is though.

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[Computer & Sound System Tech]

actually it's weird i only have 64mb assigned to it and it works for me
anyway

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[Computer & Sound System Tech]

ok i thought you would've answered by now but it's ok, i know life keeps us
busy, i had an idea, if the problem that i have is because they aren't
paired which i can't understand why they wouldn't be, but never researched
ram either so i'll let you tell me why, but what if instead of having two
1gb i use my old 512mb and one 1gb would this would or would i still have
the same problem?

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[Computer & Sound System Tech]

wow after typing my last comment i used the encyclopidia about ram, didn't
find much i didn't know exept that the reason why cpu have stop going much
faster than 2.0 ghz is because they have hit a "memory wall" basically we
are at a point where cpu is practically being slowed down by the ram speed.
so when ram speed gets faster we should see computer with 3.0, 4.0, 5.0 ghz
cpu(i hope we get there)

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[Mike Hall - MVP]

Matched pairs, as in twins.. some trade in old memory and buy two matching
sticks, same type, speed, manufacturer. The smaller computer outlets will do
this generally.

As more performance is screwed out of x86, it becomes ever more critical
that all components are 'just so'.

Re memory, buying non matching sticks will double the memory and it may well
work. Most likely, the system will see reduced memory performance. At worst,
any gain in memory available will be offset by spurious faults and/or BSODs.

Some memory is labeled clearly. Much of it is not, especially budget memory.
Budget memory sticks are essentially the same as half decent memory but they
have failed to maintain a level of performance expected of 'high performance
RAM. Really high performance RAM will cost double that of budget RAM, but
high performance is guaranteed.

If you look at adverts for RAM, you will see that some is sold in pairs.
These have been tested and found to be as close to 100% the same as is
possible. One pays a premium for this.

CPUs follow much the same pattern. Levels of performance are set, and
depending upon how reliable each CPU is will determine whether it is a
'4000+', '3800+', '3500+', 3200+', or '3000+'.

Lower reliability levels also bring with them less chance of over clocking a
system, assuming that the mainboard is 'overclock' capable.

 

[Computer & Sound System Tech]

what i don't understand is i bought them at the same time they have the same
maker, same model ddr2, same pc2-5300, same pin number, same amount of
memory 1gb, same speed. they are practicaly the same except for the fact
that there is two chip instead of one. so i don't understand how they
couldn't be matched, oh and the ram that i got came with lifetime warranty,
so i dought it was budget ram, but then again i'm not a ram knowing guy.

oh and i forgot to say this when i get the blue screen of death it is only
at the end of boot when windows is loading the list of users, not during
boot or during a session of windows only at the end of boot. don't know if
this makes a difference.

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[JW]

They are obviously not a matched pair even though the specs are the same
since they don't even have the same number of chips on each card.

 

[Computer & Sound System Tech]

oh my bad, i see where you might have gotten confused. when i said "two
chips instead of one", i meant i had bought two 1 gig instead of one. that
was the only difference that i saw, but i'm not sure but i may have found a
way to see if one or both of the chip is bad, i inserted a 1gig chip and a
512mb chip, and trying both 1 gig to see if i will get error so far i got a
good one, and i'm being ruff with it, since the errors happen after boot
during the loading of the graphics with is where you select the user you
want to log in i'm rebooting often and keeping the ram warm by having a lot
of program running and shuting down, etc. so far so good, only had bad boot
once, but didn't blue screen this time, so i suspect it was something else.

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