4 gigs ram = no boot/BSOD

[ryan5508]

OK so here is my problem. I just built a new comp and now I'm having a weird problem. I originally installed vista on it with the 4 gigs of ram installed and it all worked fine. Computer worked flawless for days. I then ran into problems installing crysis on it, and vista wanted me to install a update for the 4 gigs of ram but it wouldn't let me install it. It would just fail over and over. So I read up on some things online and decided to reinstall vista while only having 2 gigs of ram installed. and add it back in later. Everything worked great, crysis installed, did all the updates, everything was fine.

Now any time I add the other 2 gigs of ram in I BSOD, if I'm lucky I get a black screen that I can move the mouse around on but nothing else ever happens. 3 gigs in is fine. Doesn't even matter what stick i use when only running 2 gigs on the system.

Now my question is why would it work fine originally and not anymore when nothing has changed? What can I do? Thanks

Specs-
GA-X38-DQ6
Q6600
4x1gig Corsair Domminator TWIN2X2048-8500C5DF
8800GT

 

[robisbell]

go to http://ultimatebootcd.com and burn the iso, and boot with that cd and run memtest86+ for 6 hours minimum, then run the appropriate HDD manufacturer diagnostic from the cd as well for a minimum of 4 hours. post the results.

 

[lardbeetle]

Do you have any smaller RAM sticks? Might want to try to see if it happens just when all 4 slots are full.

Does any other OS run with the 4 gigs of ram?

 

[ryan5508]

No I don't currently have anything but the 1 gig sticks. I just find it odd that it booted up originally with 4 sticks in and installed windows with out any issues. Worked fine for days, multiple restarts, I played Hellgate for hours at a time. And now it cant even boot just because I installed vista with 2 gigs and then added the other two later. That's were this issues confuses me on what to try next.

Robisbell-I plan on trying that iso after I'm out of work tonight see what happens

 

[ryan5508]

Well I only had a few Min's to play around with it today but I managed to get it to boot into windows with the 4 gigs. I installed a bios updated, and raised the DDR voltage to 2.1 volts. Bios was automatically giving the ram only 1.8 Volts.

I'm still kinda of lost as to why it worked originally though? No bios setting were changed between windows installs.

Thanks

 

[robisbell]

okay, well, wish you'd ran the tests like I asked, glad you're happy and good luck.