Major memory problems

99nirc99

Distinguished
Aug 26, 2014
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18,510
First before I begin, I would like to address me and my knowledge. I'm a 18 years gamer, I don't know alot about hardware itself, but I have upgraded my PSU,GPU and added a RAM stick by myself so I have basic knowledge about how my pc is assembled.

Recently (about 3 months already) I've been having BSODs that after reading online I found out were about my RAM sticks. Blue screens such as "Memory Managment" and "page_fault_in_nonpaged_area". They have been happening randomly, sometimes 3 times a day and sometimes once in 2 weeks. Also, I have been trying to install many games, and it usually gives me errors while decompressing the game files, and after looking for a solution I found out it is related to memory problems.

I have tried to run memtest86, but it completely shuts down my PC at random times, first time it took 5 minutes and at the second time it took 10 seconds for it to shut down.

My computer is about 5 years old, and has 2 sticks of 2GB G.Skill ram, and another 4GB stick which is much newer (around 1 year old).

My specs are:
Intel Core i5 750 2.67GHz
Geforce GTX 570
8GB Ram (2 sticks of 2GB, 1 stick of 4GB, all G.Skill)
My PSU is 750W and is new (1 month old, I know it's an overkill haha)

Thank you for anyone who is willing to help :)
 

bignastyid

Titan
Moderator
Test the sticks 1 at a time, by removing all but the stick you are testing. It's possible 1 stick is failing, it's also possible they are not going to work together. Its best to buy ram in matched sets whenever possible and if you have to mix them try and match the specs as close as possible.
 

boju

Titan
Ambassador
All memory sticks used in a computer ideally should all be identical for best compatibility, same capacities, same voltages and same timings.

Your computer's motherboard and cpu is designed for dual channel memory and by having the extra single 4GB memory will default it to single channel. Dual channel can very well enhance performance, not a great deal between 8GB single channel vs 4GB dual channel that the 8GB would have an edge, albeit 2x 4GB would be the way to go.

Remove the 4GB and see if the problems stop. Research your memory and keep them the same.



 

99nirc99

Distinguished
Aug 26, 2014
22
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18,510




I've tested each stick seperately. 1st stick of 2gb gave 0 erros in 1 pass, 2nd stick of 2gb gave 154(!) at one pass, and kept adding erros during the scond pass. The last stick of 4GB returned 0 erros at one pass. Now that i've figured out which one is the faulty one, I was thinking about buying another single 4GB stick identical to the one I already have (This one). Will it work good as Dual Channel? or do I have to get a completely new 2x4GB set? (I would prefer to pay less, but it's not really a problem for me to get a new set, it's just that I want to make sure I don't just spend extra money)