Added New RAM; Occasionally getting BSOD: Should I be concerned...?

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Decided to upgrade my computer a few days ago and bought a gigabyte stick of RAM from Newegg. I previously had two sticks of 512 RAM (1GB) that was PC 3200, 184 pin DDR RAM. That's EXACTLY the type that I bought. I researched and made sure before doing anything stupid.

Well, I got it yesterday, installed it fine, no problems. But twice in the last two days, the computer has caught itself, given me the dreaded "blue screen of death" for like .5 seconds and then auto-rebooted itself.

Nothing bad has hapenned as a result (each time I clutch my heart hoping my hard drive wasn't just purged). But I AM concerned about this. I don't know what could be wrong, because the RAM matches and has been improving my system performance by leaps and bounds.

The RAM I bought is called "Super Talent DDR Memory Module 1GB 184-Pin DIMM".

My current system is Windows XP Media Center.

I'm wondering if there's something I forgot to do in the system concerning the RAM on boot-up. I seem to remember my neighbor (more of a computer jack-of-all-trades than myself) making some sort of action that told the computer how to run with the RAM...tho I might be remembering the processor installation, not the RAM.

Anyway, anybody who can give me help or reassurance of any kind, thank you very much in advance! I'm most definitely going to invest in a 60 GB back-up external Hard Drive, so I don't have to update everything with DVD RWs. This crap is too stressful for me.
 
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You can run a ram test to make sure that your ram is actually functioning in your system. What type of chipset do you have on your motherboard?

I know that on my old NForce2 Mobo that any cheap ram would not work, and if I didn't have factory paired ram, the system would choke. I had to sell a 256 MB chunk of Spektek ram that worked in other machines but wouldn't work in mine.

As a general precaution, you should never buy cheap ram. It rarely pays off, and almost always performs badly in a higher end machine. Stick to Kingston, PNY, Corsair, OCZ, or Mushkin. These five RAM manufacturers use only the highest quality components, and their PCBs tend to be of excellent design. (Most of them only assemble prebought ram modules, and manufacture the board they're soldered to. For example: Kingston buys Samsung chips, and assembles them.)
 
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Also, if you have a DFI motherboard, these boards are EXTREMLY picky on ram. Friend of mine built 2 comps, both with DFI motherboards, and his comp wouldn't even post untill he stuck some nice ram (Corsair extreme) in.

I reccomend This
 
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I myself run 1.5gb of memory in my machine consisting of a 512mb geil stick, a 512mb hyinx stick and a 512mb Generic stick in a ASUS A7N8X-E Deluxe using the nforce2 ultra400 chipset. All work fine.

Have you tried updating your mainboard BIOS?.
 
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|Overlord| said:
I myself run 1.5gb of memory in my machine consisting of a 512mb geil stick, a 512mb hyinx stick and a 512mb Generic stick in a ASUS A7N8X-E Deluxe using the nforce2 ultra400 chipset. All work fine.

Have you tried updating your mainboard BIOS?.
Not are you only extremely lucky, you are giving rather unsound advice. The Geil stick is the only decent quality module you are running, and I doubt you have the combo working in dual channel mode. But hey, feel free to prove me wrong, activate dual channel and run a mem test.

Your issue is cheap RAM modules, not bios updates.
 
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@Cucumba: I know its running, because I've never known my computer to process and render things so fast. My chipset is an "ATI XP 400" according towhat it says on the motherboard. Personally, I've heard Kingston RAM is VERY prone to system errors. I should have known there was a reason the RAM was only $84.

@Tsunami: I don't know how to check if my motherboard is a "DFI" so I can't tell. I like the look of the Corsair stuff. I see nothing but good reviews. I think I'll buy from them.

@Overlord: How do you update your BIOS...? Is that something you have to do with a disk? I think I'm alright tho, my PC is only 6 months old.

Thanks guys, I'm going to return that RAM and see about the Corsair stick. I don't like paying more, but I like the threat of the impending blue-screen-of-death much less.
 
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Cucumba said:
Not are you only extremely lucky, you are giving rather unsound advice. The Geil stick is the only decent quality module you are running, and I doubt you have the combo working in dual channel mode. But hey, feel free to prove me wrong, activate dual channel and run a mem test.

Your issue is cheap RAM modules, not bios updates.
BIOS updates are made to fix issues in with mainboards, so a bios update could well fix some general compatibility issues with some memory modules.
Not are you only extremely lucky
I don't consider myself to be "extremely lucky".
The Geil stick is the only decent quality module you are running
I don't find anything wrong with Hynix sticks. Hynix, like infineon is another company that provides memory for OEMs. These other two memory sticks I bought off a friend who wanted to get rid of them a few months ago so he could get 2gb of ram, and I myself got rid of an older generic ddr333mhz stick I was using to another friend who had simlar ram.
I doubt you have the combo working in dual channel mode.
Mainboard reports each time on post while booting that it's running in dual channel mode, not that I care so much really though as Dual channel on a socket a platform is not going to make such a huge difference.
@Overlord: How do you update your BIOS...? Is that something you have to do with a disk? I think I'm alright tho, my PC is only 6 months old.
Depends. Some mainboard manafacturers will give you utillities you can use to update your bios on a cd that comes with your mainboard or you will have to do go to the manafacturer's site and dowload the bios and save it to a floppy (if this has to be the method used, backup your old bios aswell). There are risks when flashing the bios however, if the computer loses power for any reason while flashing the BIOS the board is practically dead (unless had a mainboard the had dual bios chips).
Cucumba said:
you are giving rather unsound advice
I wouldn't say i'm giving "unsound advice", I am helping him with his problem with what I know, with the case of it being faulty memory and it needing to be returned as a last resort if nothing else works.
 
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ok for starters i had a old KT133 mobo and she had a gig of ram on it. it was running 2 512MB PC133 in there it ran great but there was the occasional BSODs, reboots and lockups. I found out that both of the sticks were faulty. (worked but didn't ) so maybe that stick is faulty. now the other thing about updating your bios. it's simple download the latest "NON-BETA" Update and save to a disk. from there you can run it by popping the disk in your floppy drive and follow the onscreen instructions. and it would be wise to make sure that you are doing it on a tight electrical outlet because if the computer powers down while doing this IT WILL NOT BOOT AGAIN!!!.
 
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Okay, I found some great Corsair RAM. I also contacted HP about who the original manufacturer was for my current included RAM so it would match. HP reccomended it and said it would garanteed work with my computer model. I also know Corsair's reputation, and I'm a little torn between which one to get.

So heres the Corsair one at (tax and shipping included) $117.98

http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16820145576

And here's the type prescribed by HP at a (tax and shipping included) $121.88 .

http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16820146545


I'm leaning towards the one HP said would do it, but if any of you have an opinion on it, let me know. Thank you all for your input!
 
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Corsair is very reliable, in fact, it is the only brand I've truly trusted in my own machines outside of Kingston.

(I have had Kingston modules in my machines going back to the 80386 processor, so whoever told you they are prone to errors is outright wrong)

Overlord, I am college educated, trade school educated, and real world experienced in the subject to a tune of about 18 years, therefore, you can fly a kite with your opinions. BIOS updates should always be dead last on your list of things to do, especially when you suspect a) faulty RAM modules, or b) bad PSUs. Ever see what happens to a board that screws up a BIOS update? No, that's because you don't know anything useful. Again, you give unsound advice, you even backpedaled on your update the bios solution. Do me a favor, and don't tell people to do risky fixes first - Installing/removing ram is risky should the user doing it not be very experienced as they could damage the ram in the process.

Additionally, your BIOS is lying to you, because you cannot run three modules in Dual Channel mode. And I care why? because dual channel on a socket a platform doesn't hardly do anything for a worthy performance gain anyway.

Incedentally, don't try and get me MCAed, since I'm the only one that can give one to me.
 
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You might want to look into what kind of mobo you have. If you have a DFI mobo you might need to tweak some settings in the BIOS. Like Tsunami said, DFI mobos are extremly picky with ram. I had to manually set my timers to stop my occassional BSOD. Popular DFI boards are called "Lan Party" boards.

If you do have a DFI mobo, you can call up their support team and they'll tell you exactly what to put in for timings in your BIOS.
 
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unnecessary quoting deleted
~Cucumba


Creating a post to single out a user coming from a admin is unprofessional, since I'm not going to comment, but bold out on what obviously looks like material to start a fight and resume assisting with the situation at hand, I will let it rest with you. Returning the ram should be last resort.

I stand by suggesting a bios update, and I am aware of it's risks, there's no need to verify that. If it comes for that much of a concern, he can read guides about it if he's still not sure or if he find's it a hard thing to do.

Other then that , I would try testing the ram in question in another pc aswell if possible. Try setting your latencies to higher values in the BIOS, if that solves the errors than something isn't supporting the memory timing. It could be the memory modules themselves, it could be bad motherboard design and it could be the memory controller in the CPU.

I love how you stole my quote of your post and edited into your post too[/sarcasam].
 
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Since you brought it back, you can stare at it nimrod. Note that the edit happened only after 2 hours of constant crying on IRC. Here, let me put it back for you!

I stand by my assertation that running a bios update with DMA and bad/non-compatable ram is high risk. If you want to take that risk, it is up to you, but then Overlord has proven time and time again that his suggestions are not the best.

Feel free to do as you wish. If you break your board, send it to Overlord, I'm sure he could fix it for you. And since you made your choice to make this thread about us, instead of about his computer problem, accept this invitation to never post in this thread again.

If you continue to piss me off, or give bad advice that can wreck people's computers, I'll remove your access to this section.

Further more, you have been told NUMEROUS times to bring up problems with moderation in private, so your public defacing campain will cost you one warning.

In fact, I reserve the right to ban you on your next offense for being a two time banee already.

I would tread carefully from now on son, I have your number.

As a further question, did you unwisely install that 1gb stick on top of the other two 512s? If so, that's your problem, in order to properly fill a Dual Channel system with 4 dimm slots, you need 4 paired ram of the same exact make and model.

That means buying two dual channel kits together, and even then there's a chance that it won't work.
 
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Cucumba, you should relax, he's just trying to say what he thinks is best, well I know I'm a noob, but he helped me solve alot of PC problems and they all worked. You are being fairly harsh considering smith never ragemodded to such an extent...you speak of defacing, however you generally are trying to deface overlord in the whole situation too

On-topic:

He bought ram, and he masewell take a crack at fixing the problem and find a solution with returning the memory being a last resort. flashing a bios these days is so easy, infact manafactureres like asus provide applications with their mainboards that allow this.
 
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Again, flashing the bios with bad/incompatable ram, is ill-advised. Overlord's suggestion was actually dangerous to J-Dude's situation, and there is no garauntee that a bios update has a fix for the RAM incompatabililty issue. There is a chance, however, that the RAM could hold the update improperly during DMA handling on the disk, this could corrupt his system permanently, even make it so that the machine cannot post. BIOS updates should only ever be done with a stable system.

As far as my moderating Donnierisk, you are in no position to question what I do, or how I do it. If you want a warning to go along with Overlord's for questioning moderation in a post, instead of a PM, continue to question me in a topic where the topic is not my moderating method. But for your entertainment, whenever someone makes a suggestion that is actually damaging to a computer, I'm not going to sit around and be second guessed by someone who isn't alive as long as I've been doing computer science. Overlord has made a grand history of doing this, and one day, will cause someone's machine to go into dreaded POST beeps.
 
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lol your right about one thing flashing the bios should be a last resort (well not much that but the last thing to do on the upgrade list) lol like with my old KT133 like i said bout the ram it was faulty but i was having internet problems where it would lock up every so often then i bought a new processor for it to bring it up to 1.5 GHz. It wouldn't recognize so i had to flash the bios but to my surprise not only did it recognize my processor (AMD Athlon XP) it also fixed my internet problem lol :yes: :laff:
 
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Cucumba said:
Again, flashing the bios with bad/incompatable ram, is ill-advised. Overlord's suggestion was actually dangerous to J-Dude's situation, and there is no garauntee that a bios update has a fix for the RAM incompatabililty issue. There is a chance, however, that the RAM could hold the update improperly during DMA handling on the disk, this could corrupt his system permanently, even make it so that the machine cannot post. BIOS updates should only ever be done with a stable system.

Agreed 100%. I once flashed my bios when this system was unstable hoping it would fix my problems and instead it gave me 2 months worth of work to get it working again. The bios flash worked, but it upgraded the raid section on my board to something my HD's could not handle and thus my computer refused to boot into windows.

Take Cuc's advice.
 
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Hmm...so its wiser to go for two 512 sticks if I already HAVE 2 512 sticks? I guess that makes sense. I checked back for those and I see that Crucial (the people who made my original RAM) is having a sale on their "Ballistix" RAM, which is apparently award winning and very reliable. The best they have I think. Its the right specifications too, but at an insane price because of their weekend sale!

Its 101 Dollars(with free 3day shipping plus tax included into the total), only like five bucks more than the crappy 1 GB one that doesn't work!

It sounds almost too good to be true looking at it. What do you think? Should I go for it? Feels like a hot bargain to me! (Its golden too, lol)

http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16820148007

I've only got the weekend to buy this tho, so I'm going to have to act fast!
 
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It's proabably a better idea than loading in 3 DIMMS in an odd single channel config. You'll have to set them all to the same timings to get performance out of them. Keep that in mind.
 
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also remember that if they are 2 different clock speeds the motherboard will always take the slower clock speed (i dunno why it does that but i guess how it works)
 

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