Games crash with 4 x 512 RAM, but OK with 2 x 512

[WhipperSnapper]

My problem:

Certain games seem to run for a couple minutes (3-5) and then crash, freezing the system. UT 2004 and FEAR Combat crash, but UT 1999 does not. I have 4 x 512 Corsair Value RAM in an Epox EP-9npa+ Ultra motherboard. Before I upgraded to 2 GB, I had 2 x 512 and everything ran fine. I ran MemTest86 on it (with 4 x 512) for three hours (4.5 passes) and it didn't reveal any errors.

Video card is a Connect3d x800 GTO unlocked to 16 pipes running at stock speed (no need to overclock it yet). I don't suspect it's the culprit since UT 2004 seemed to run fine on it before I added the other two sticks of RAM. CPU is an Opteron 148 (stock 2.2 Ghz) overclocked 25% to 2.75 Ghz.

The RAM was purchased at two different times in two 2 x 512 pairs. I'm pretty certain that I would have installed the first two into the proper slots for dual channel. Is it possible that the two different RAM orders, although the exact same model, aren't completely compatable? If you had 4 sticks instead of 2, would you want to put the matching sticks in different RAM banks than the banks you would put two sticks in for dual channel if you only had two sticks?

Is there anything that I can do to solve this problem without buying new RAM (2 x 1 GB), or will I have to resign myself to simply removing the two new sticks and going with 2 x 512?

Has anyone else dealt with this, and how did you fix it? Might I need to tweak BIOS settings for the RAM?

[Note--I'm putting this under Motherboards since it's an issue that might be specific to nForce 4 Socket 939 motherboards and processors.]

 

[Conky]

Might be your motherboard. I know my last mobo only ran dual channel properly in one set of the RAM sockets and the other ones produced errors in Memtest. I only had two sticks of RAM so it wasn't that big of a deal.

 

[Conky]

P.S. I recommend running memtest and trying it out in your system with various combinations... i.e. 2 sticks, 4 sticks, 2 sticks in different channels, switch all the sticks around, etc. Then you might have a better idea of what is going on.

I swear, working on computers and making them run right is half-voodoo, lol

 

[NoStateofMind]

Maybe the RAM is set for 1T. With 2 sticks that's fine, but from what I hear with 4 sticks, it needs to be set at 2T timing. Just a hunch.

 

[SynthDude2001]

Originally posted by: PC Surgeon
Maybe the RAM is set for 1T. With 2 sticks that's fine, but from what I hear with 4 sticks, it needs to be set at 2T timing. Just a hunch.

That was my first thought too, but I'd be surprised if the computer even booted with 4x512 at 1T...

 

[Avalon]

Originally posted by: PC Surgeon
Maybe the RAM is set for 1T. With 2 sticks that's fine, but from what I hear with 4 sticks, it needs to be set at 2T timing. Just a hunch.

Yep, that's the first thing I thought. Everytime I get a system, I always manually set the system to 1T, so if I upgraded to max RAM usage down the road, I'd hit this little problem.

If that's not the case, try memtest.

 

[WhipperSnapper]

It went for 3 hours on Memtest 86 and didn't find any errors. Also, the crashes only occur while I'm playing more intense games like FEAR or UT 2004 (and not UT 1999).

I'm pretty sure I have the memory set to "AUTO" in the BIOS. I suppose that going over all of the memory settings might be my next step. Presumably it's already set at 2T.

 

[Ultralight]

WhipperSnapper, I have the exact same video card, motherboard, and RAM configuration. I tried to load NWN on this rig after playing on my old P3 with an ATI 9200. The thing is after two clean istalls I kept crashing to the desktop with an error message. I came to find out that for some reason still unexplained the X800 series of cards don't play nice with this game. Even the latest catalyst driver may not fix it.

So it may very well be the issue lies with your video card that is doing it. Check out the latest over at ATI and the games the 800 series has issues with.

As for Memtest you need at least 10 passes minimum. If you can live with it run memtest for 24 hours. My memory was automatically set at 2T.

 

[WhipperSnapper]

ATI, grrrr. However, I didn't seem to have the prob with just 2 x 512 and I was using the same video card (unlocked to 16 pipes).

 

[Ultralight]

It then sounds like bad RAM, but again I suggest Memtest for at least 10 passes. As for the X800 GTO I haven't had one issue with any other game but NWN. And, again, check out the ATI website. I know they list several games that have issues with this card.

 

[WhipperSnapper]

Could you please link me to that part of the ATI website that lists this?

 

[Ultralight]

Try this link and scroll towards the bottom. (hope it works)


http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/343

 

[tcsenter]

XP usually installs with the 'custom size' Virtual Memory setting, which effectively makes it 'manually configured'. After upgrading RAM on many systems running XP SP2, Windows did not automatically change the Virtual Memory (page file) settings to reflect the new system memory capacity.

e.g. after upgrading from 512MB to 1024MB, the page file was set to use the same parameters (minimum and maximum) that Windows configured for 512MB during SETUP

I'm not sure if this would cause any anomalies or problems, but maybe worth a check.

 

[GuitarDaddy]

I'm guessing you O/C is not quite stable with 4 sticks of ram. 4 sticks puts more stress on the ondie memory controller thus usually lowering O/C ability.

Run memtest and Prime95 overnight to verify stability. You may have to bump the vcore to handle the extra stress on the mem controller, or you may even have to back off your O/C

 

[Maverick1]

Drop your pipes down to 12 on your video card, and set your timing for standard cas 2 latency. THIS IS a mainboard problem with the Epox mainboards. most of them in the 9 series do not like to use 4 chips of memory instead prefer 2 sticks of 1 gig. but since you can NOT get 1 gig in anything except patriot that runs in true cas2 speeds right now don't bother going to a Dual channel 2 gig setup.