ram problem

[ukdan]

Hi, i need a bit of advice and i'm sure i've come to the right place. Thats the buttering up out the way so here goes...i have a medion 2.66 pc from aldi. I just replaced the hard drive and installed windows xp. At the same time i replaced my 256mb ram with 1gb. Now the system freezes after about 15 minutes so i have to turn it off at the wall (works every time!). I tried swapping the memory back and it runs fine so, can any one tell me, have i done something wrong or is it possible the 1gb is duff. Soory i've not been too specific but i'm trying to keep this to a minimum. Cheers in advance.

 

[JohnD]

Are you sure the new memory was firmly lodged in its slot?

Have you got a mix of old and new memory (some brands are incompatible)

 

[ukdan]

thanks for the quick reply. Its all on the one stick and i'm pretty sure it was all the way home.

 

[Doc Lenny]

Try Here http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp

Could also be that your PC is not compatible with 1gb memory modules, as oppose to 2 x 512mb.

Look at the Crucial memory website and try and match your PC. It will then recommend what memory module you can use.

 

[ukdan]

Cheers, doc. I did the test and i got a fail on the stride 6 part (its all greek to me). I take it that means i got a problem.

 

[eggplant]

yes it does.
As for compatibility in general, it generally wont boot in the memory needs to be paired - not usually the case in budget pc's.
Take it back and exchange it. Depending on your board, you may get better performance with 2 sticks of 512 rather than 1 stick of 1 gig, do you know what board it is? (aslo the ram slots may have 2 out of 3, slots a different colour which is often an indication, or 2 one colour and 2 another colour - not guaranteed but an indication of dual ram controllers)

 

[ukdan]

Thanks eggplant. my motherboard only has two slots, both the same colour, and i tried putting the stick in slot two. Same prob. I'd better try to change it for 2 512's then i think.

 

[eggplant]

Hi,

IF you have 2 slots as you describe, I think it very unlikely that your board requires paired ram, your new stick failed a ram test so is kaput anyway.
I cant say 100% without knowing what board it is, but I'm 99% sure that you will be fine with one stick on ram. If you can post the board details I'll have a check.

 

[ukdan]

Thanks again mate. According to my Belarc Advisor my motherboard is a MICRO-STAR INTERNATIONAL CO., LTD MS-6701 with a bus clock of 133 mhz. Its got a P4 2.66 processor.

 

[eggplant]

Hi,

ok finally found some info on your board, MSI make a lot of OEM boards and trying to find info can be a pain sometimes, Time and Tiny used a lot of msi stuff. Anyway, you should be fine with one stick, you wont see any performance increase on that board woth 2 sticks.
Advantage of one stick - leaves a slot free (or leave your 256 in for now) for future should you require more ram at any time.
Advantage of 2 sticks - if you have problems you can remove one at a time to eliminate memory problems - not much of an advantage really, in some boards theres 2 memory controllers which will give a performance increase if you have 2 sticks, not in this case though.

 

[ukdan]

Thanks again mate. Looks like i'll be giving my friendly pc parts supplier a call on monday to see if he'll be gracious enough to exchange this stick. I appreciate everyone's help with this. Thanks.

 

[blu3tang]

do a google search for memtest

a small program that checks your memory

 

[ukdan]

Hi. Its me again. Well, i changed my "faulty" memory stick and rushed home to fit my new shiny stick into my pc. BUT!!!!! The problem is still there. I tried loading a game and after 5 or ten minutes the system hung again. Having spoken to the shop guy, he tells me the memory i left him was working fine so there appears to be a problem with my system. Would reconfiguring my hard drive (which is also brand new) help at all?

 

[Doc Lenny]

Would reconfiguring my hard drive (which is also brand new) help at all?

No

Take it back to the shop and try 2 x 512mb. That's all I can suggest. Try 1 x 512 first and see how you get on. Then if everything is OK, slot the other one in.

Just out of curiosity did the mem tester show any errors with your shiny new stick??

 

[ukdan]

Hiya. Its me again. I checked my new stick of memory with the same test and it passed on the first pass, then it failed on the second pass. I decided to just sod it all and reconfigure my system in case it was a bit of a conflict. Eventually i got the system back to as near to normal as i could using 1 stick of 512. Then i put the 1gig bak in and, touch wood, its kept going. Still feel like i'm sitting here waiting for it to hang on me. Ah, the joys of computerdom!! Thanks for all your advice, by the way. This is definitely going to be my first port of call when i have a problem in future.