ram issues?

[Stern]

1. I recently bought a second stick of 512 RAM for my NF2 mobo, and now games keep freezing up, sometimes almost straight away, sometimes after half an hour or so. I took out the new stick and just ran the games with the old one, and everything is fine. I'm assuming the RAM got damaged either in manufacturing or in transit or something, because I'm 100% certain I did everything right when installing it ( grounding myself and so on ). Does anyone know any decent RAM checking software I could use to find out whats wrong with it? Or should I bother and just send it back to get replaced? - both sticks are Crucial 512MB DDR-RAM PC3200 CL3 CT6464Z40B

2. Is a Q-Tec 400W PSU enough for - MSI K7N2 Delta ILSR
- Athlon XP 3200+
- Radeon 9600 Pro ( slightly overclocked )
- 1024 MB DDR-RAM
- 3 80mm fans, 1 120mm fan
- 2 cathode tubes
- 1 SATA HDD
- 1 DVD-RW, 1 DVD, 1 CD-RW, 1 Floppy Drive
- 56k Modem, Audigy 2 ZS

I'm not having any issues with power, but i don't want to get any either, so I'm just wondering if I have enough for that setup.

 

[LiLithTecH]

Have you tried running the PC without the Video being OverClocked?
You may have to re-tweak the video with the extra ram.

The PSU should be MORE than adequate for your setup.

 

[Stern]

It runs fine when I don't have the 2nd stick in. I haven't tried running it on only the 2nd stick, will try that when i get home, but I'm quite sure it's the 2nd stick, I just want to find out whats wrong with it

 

[meltdown75]

Text

see if the 1st link in this thread helps you out any - i've tried other PSU calculators but never seen this one - it looks a little more in-depth.

i'm wondering what you consider a slight overclock on that 9600 pro. I don't think those rv360 / 350 chips respond very well to even the slightest OC - could be your problem. also you might want to try running with just 1 stick of ram to see if the problems persist. perhaps you can isolate the possible bad stick. g/l

 

[Stern]

i'll tell you tomorrow what i have it overclocked to, you can tell me if you consider it 'slight'

 

[meltdown75]

By slight I mean anything within 20mhz above stock on either the core or mem. Also I guess you'd have to decide whether or not it was worth it to do so... OCing your card to get a 2% fps increase isn't always worth the stress on the component. I'm sure some manufacturers' cards respond to OCing better than others though.

 

[Stern]

sapphire radeon 9600 Pro atlantis - fireblade retail. which is something I've always been wondering about, what does fireblade retail mean exactly? I might also post this in the video section...

 

[Stern]

ok, i have an update regarding this problem.
1. Game works fine with either stick on its own, but when I use both sticks computer freezes and I have to hit the reset button.
2. My card was overclocked: Core Clock 398.3 Mhz -> 425.3 Mhz ( 27 Mhz )
Memory Clock 297.0 Mhz -> 324.0 Mhz ( 27 Mhz )
3. I set my grfx card back to core speeds, and now I get different errors ( when both sticks are in ). Sometimes it just freezes and crashes to desktop ( and resets desktop resolution to in game resolution ), or it freezes but unfreezes after about 5-10s and whatever buttons I've pressed since it froze have been executed ( it also resets desktop resolution to in game resolution )

Now this seems to point towards the grfx card, because not overclocking it seems to have less 'lethal' errors, but the fact still remains that this ONLY happens when both memory sticks are in. Could it be a mobo ( MSI K7N2 Delta - ILSR ) problem?

 

[n0thx]

I also have a similar problem with my ram. I have two 512 sticks of kingston truevalue, but I have had that ram for quite some time now. Lately, though, my gaming has been going haywire. I took one of the sticks out (which I am on now) and my gaming is back to normal except for a slight bit of lag that came because I have less ram in. Sorry that I can't help you, but if someone knows the solution... by all means

 

[Stern]

when I first got the 2nd stick everything ran fine aswell. Then HL2 crashed a few times, then the game that i am trying this out on now ( Flatout ). It ran fine for about the first week

 

[Stern]

can anyone help with this at all? it's very frustrating

 

[LiLithTecH]

Do you have the RAM configured for DUAL CHANNEL?
(i.e. Dimm1 & 3 or Dimm2 & 3)

 

[Stonesoldier]

Try switching the ram to different slots
sometimes that has worked for me in the past
but then i have also had Ram that just did NOT like each other and refused to work together
fine with others or alone
but not together

heres what MSI say about your MB and RAM

Main Memory
? Supports six memory banks using three 184-pin DDR DIMMs
? Supports up to 3GB PC3200/2700/2100/1600 DDR SDRAMs
? Supports both 64-bit and 128-bit DDR SDRAM
? Note: nForce2 does NOT supports x4 memory device. 1GB can be made by other density of dram chip such as x 8, x16.
Due to the High Performance Memory design, motherboards or system configurations may or may not operate smoothly at the JEDEC (Joint Electron Device Engineering Council) standard settings (BIOS Default on the motherboard) such as DDR voltage, memory speeds and memory timing. Please confirm and adjust your memory setting in the BIOS accordingly for better system stability. Example: Kingston HyperX DDR500 PC4000 operates at 2.65V, 3-4-4-8, CL=3.
For more information about specification of high performance memory modules, please check with your Memory Manufactures for more details.


have you made any changes in the bios ?
that could fix the problem
worth a try

Good Luck
hope this helps

 

[Stern]

both sticks of ram are identical, as far as I know, they are both crucial 512 MB DDR Ram PC3200 CL3. I have tried both singally, and they work, although recently Unreal 2 has been crashing a few times, even with just the one in. It only definitely crashed ( and I've only tried this out in flatout, but hl2 was crashing aswell ), when both sticks are in, whatever combination. how do I find out if memory is 4x, 8x, 16x? I was beginning to suspect it was a graphics card issue ( but for some reason related to both sticks being in at same time ), because I stopped overclocking it and in Flatout instead of the entire computer freezing it either just crashes to desktop or freezes for a while and then I can continue controlling game ( although game keeps running while computer is frozen )

 

[Stern]

bump

 

[Rimnet]

I think I am having a similiar issue. I have a MSI K8N Neo2 Plat mobo, and 2x Corsair 512mb DDR RAM. My CS will crash my computer, leaving my video card to shut off (screen turns black), which results in me having to manually restart the computer. Also, my computer freezes at boot sometimes. I am going to try to fiddle with the RAM settings, because I am pretty sure the ram is not damaged since i ran Memcheck on it.

 

[imported_Scythe]

Have you tried running memtest86? Not that it's foolproof, but it does a much more intensive memory test. If a stick is bad, or prone to errors, I would suspect it would find them.

 

[imported_java]

loook for a BIOS update and updated drivers for graphics card.

 

[Stern]

bios and video card are both fully updated. Most recent crash was in Unreal 2, with both sticks of RAM in, the screen went blue and all the sounds went F00K! all over the place. I hit reset, and before I was even able to click on anything in Windows, it crashed again, the screen froze, and I heard weird crap coming from the speakers. *cry* I am gonna try and get a floppy disk to run memtest asap.

 

[Stonesoldier]

Hmmm
the symptoms you describe sound like my last comp beofre it died
MSI Mobo with nvidia chipset /AMD XP 2000 CPU ( first Nvidia chipset )
actually it was either the motherboard or the CPU that died
started haveing memory chips die then i had to do a few clean installs since my hard drives somehow got curupted -currupted ? ( dammit need spell check )
any way shortly after that ( bout 2 months ) damm thing just up n died
did all the tests i could find for memory - all said the 3 chips where good
tried swithchin them around - useing all 3 then useing just 2 - then just one
then it died
Im pretty sure it was the Mobo that went bad

Gave me a great excuse to build a new one
Asus A8V Deluxe
AMD 64 3500+ ( 939)
1024MB Kingston Hyper X pc3200 dual channnel
WD Raptor 74 gig 10000 rpm Hard drive
Nvidia 5700 vid
used me old case and other parts
already had the Antec 350W PSU
Runs great now
but then my wallets quite a bit lighter now and i
got to save for new Video card

I would give you a link to a good Mobo tester but i dont know of any off hand
maybe some of the guys in here do

 

[Stonesoldier]

http://www.benchmarkhq.ru/english.html

this site has a ton of tools
benchmarking and diagnostic ( lots of ram tests )

hope this helps

 

[Stern]

I ran memtest86+ v1.50. Here are the results:

Memtest86+ v1.50
Athlon XP(0.13) 2205 Mhz
L1 Cache: 128K 13527 MB/s
L2 Cache: 512K 4306 MB/s
Memory: 1024M 1434 MB/s
Chipset: Nvidia nForce 2 SPP / FSB : 200 Mhz
Settings : RAM : 200 Mhz(DDR400) / CASE : 3-3-3-8 / Dual Channel ( 128 bits )

Walltime = 0:31:00 Cached = 1024M RsvdMem = 88K MemMap = e820-Std Cache = on ECC = off Test = Std Pass = 1 Errors = 6 ECC Errors = 0

All errors appeared in test no.5 ( Test #5 [Block move, 64 moves] ) I then ran test 5 specifically a couple of times, and the errors went from 6 - 14 - 22 - 28.

These errors only showed up when I had both sticks of RAM in. I ran the test on both separately 3 times and it found no errors. Does this mean there's something wrong with the mobo? Also I'm hoping that this means it doesn't have anything to do with the grfx card? again, mobo is MSI K7N2 Delta-ILSR.

 

[Bassyhead]

Run memtest86 overnight with one stick at a time. If they both pass but don't work together then there might be something wrong with your board.

 

[Stern]

how can i find out what might be wrong with my board? as i said, both sticks pass on their own but don't work together. Is there some kind of diagnostic tools i can run to check board?

 

[Stern]

Originally posted by: Stonesoldier

heres what MSI say about your MB and RAM

Main Memory
? Supports six memory banks using three 184-pin DDR DIMMs
? Supports up to 3GB PC3200/2700/2100/1600 DDR SDRAMs
? Supports both 64-bit and 128-bit DDR SDRAM
? Note: nForce2 does NOT supports x4 memory device. 1GB can be made by other density of dram chip such as x 8, x16.
Due to the High Performance Memory design, motherboards or system configurations may or may not operate smoothly at the JEDEC (Joint Electron Device Engineering Council) standard settings (BIOS Default on the motherboard) such as DDR voltage, memory speeds and memory timing. Please confirm and adjust your memory setting in the BIOS accordingly for better system stability. Example: Kingston HyperX DDR500 PC4000 operates at 2.65V, 3-4-4-8, CL=3.

Good Luck
hope this helps

One stick of RAM has 4 blocks on either side and the other has 8 blocks on either side. I find this strange because both sticks are exactly the same order ( separated by about half a year ), and they are otherwise exactly identical. Does this mean they are x8 and x16? should they still work on a nforce2 config?