Power supply enough for new memory.

[athlonxp2200]

I just bought a 1GB stick of new memory as a replacement to a 512MB stick and now the computer locks up after a couple of hours when playing games. So the question is; is a 350watt Antec enough for my system with a new 1GB stick of memory because it used to work just fine with 512MB?

Here are the rest of the system specs.

AMD Athlon 64 3400
ATI All-In-Wonder 9600 XT (Which don't forget has fast core speed so it might use a lot of power)
Corsair 1GB DDR400 memory
1 160GB Seagate hard drive and another 80GB Seagate
Internal DVD-RW drive and another DVD reader
Internal floppy drive
Creative Sound Blaster 128
D-Link network card
Five 80mm cooling fans (including the CPU fan)
Five USB devices, one is a receiver for a ATI Remote Wonder II and the other a Saitek non force-feed-back joystick, the other three are self-powered devices.
All built on an Abit nf8-v motherboard.

 

[Fardringle]

According to this tool, your Antec 350Watt should be fine with your system. The calculator says that you need about 313 total Watts.

Unless it's one of the new style RAM sticks that has the flashing LEDs that take slightly more power, a 1 GB memory stick should draw the same 10 Watts that the 512MB stick did. Besides, if it was a power issue, the system probably wouldn't make it for a couple of hours before shutting down. One way to eliminate this possibility is unplug your 80MM cooling fans (except the CPU fan) and leave the side of the case off. If it's a borderline power issue, the system should work better when the fans aren't drawing their 2-3 Watts each from the power supply.

Assuming that nothing else has changed in the system, I would have to suspect something wrong with the new 1 GB memory stick itself. This could be a compatibility issue between the memory and your motherboard, improperly installed memory (try reseating the RAM and make sure the memory slot is clean and see what happens), overheating the RAM due to a bad or improperly installed heat spreader (fairly likely based on your description), or a bad stick of RAM.

Check with Corsair to to make sure there aren't any compatibility problems with the specific 'model' of RAM and your motherboard, reseat the RAM, and then run MEMTEST overnight to see what results you get. If it passes the MEMTEST then the problem isn't with the RAM at all and you'll need to do additional troubleshooting to find the source of the problem. The fact that it runs normally for a couple of hours before shutting down suggests overheating somewhere, whether that be in the RAM, the CPU, video card, or the motherboard chipset (or something else entirely).

 

[deathwalker]

You may want to give your memory voltage a little nudge...the default is probably 2.6 or 2.7...bump it to 2.8 - 2.9 and see if it helps. this adjustment is in the bios.

 

[athlonxp2200]

First of all it's just a normal stick of memory no LED or anything like that. Plus it's not to hot because one time when it locked up I right away felt it (yes I was statically discharged) to see if it was hot but it wasn't. For the other thing's, I have reseated it a couple of times already, plus it is compatible with the motherboard. I will try unplugging some fans and hopefully it will work then.


One thing I do think it could be is the voltage of the CPU or the memory. I have Abit motherboard monitor and it says the voltage of the processor is only 1.33v, as far as I know it should be 1.5v. Whenever I run a program (such as winamp) the Abit software makes the pc speaker produce random beeps until the software is done loading. I also think it could be the memory voltage because I heard Corsair memory takes more voltage than other type's and the fact that deathwalker said give it a little nudge.

 

[athlonxp2200]

I tried running memtest86+ but it checked out ok, no doubt because the cache was enabled. That's because I can't disable it with my motherboard BIOS.

 

[BadThad]

Originally posted by: athlonxp2200
First of all it's just a normal stick of memory no LED or anything like that. Plus it's not to hot because one time when it locked up I right away felt it (yes I was statically discharged) to see if it was hot but it wasn't. For the other thing's, I have reseated it a couple of times already, plus it is compatible with the motherboard. I will try unplugging some fans and hopefully it will work then.


One thing I do think it could be is the voltage of the CPU or the memory. I have Abit motherboard monitor and it says the voltage of the processor is only 1.33v, as far as I know it should be 1.5v. Whenever I run a program (such as winamp) the Abit software makes the pc speaker produce random beeps until the software is done loading. I also think it could be the memory voltage because I heard Corsair memory takes more voltage than other type's and the fact that deathwalker said give it a little nudge.

Good advice here. I believe the correct voltage for your A64 is 1.35V, so that's pretty close, you might try bumping it a HAIR in BIOS.

Most often, when problems only occur after a couple hour of hard use (gaming), the problem is heat. What are you temps like under full load?

 

[athlonxp2200]

When under a full load the CPU temp is about 107F and the system temp around 112F.
I really don't think anything is overheating because it didn't do it with 512MB chunk.
It all started when I put the 1GB chunk in.


P.S.

My Upgrading and Repairing PC's says the voltage should be 1.5. That's also what the BIOS is set to but in Windows it shows it at 1.33v. Go figure?