Need help with memory (Horrible with computers)

First thing. I'm horrible with computers. So if anything sounds like its a no brainer thing I'm sorry.

AMD64 3500+
x800 ati 256mb pci-e
windows xp
was 2gb now 1gb ram


Heres my question. I bought this computer http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc [...] =c00388382
and it came with this cheapo ram 2 x 512mb no name on it or anything. I wanted to play that new game Oblivion so I bought a 1gb PNY stick of ram from compusa. I installed it worked fine, but didnt really see any changes. The the computer started to crash randomly alot. At least 20 times a day almost. I then decided to take out the ram that I bought and the crashing went away, and everything was normal. Does that mean I need to buy the same brand of ram?

Like take the 2 x 512 out and just buy another 1gb PNY?

Is this compatablity thing also the reason I didnt see any performance upgrade when I installed the 1gb stick?

If anyone can help Thanks

PC N00b

I was also told that it could be the timings are off. And I should go to the BIOS and change everything to AUTO. How do I check it? I hit F1 and I went to the BIOS screen. but the memory slots are not colored blue so I cant seem to move down and select them. All it does is show the 2 x 512mb sticks. Its unselectable.

I have a phoenix - award bios cmos setup utility. But everywhere I go talks about an advanced chipset features. My BIOS dosnt seem to have that at all. http://appro.mit.jyu.fi/tools/biossimu/simu.html thats what everyone is talking about. But mine is so plain compared to this. Theres nothing that lets me adjust the timings or anything.

Help.

Or should I just get rid of the 2 x 512's and just buy another PNY 1gb stick. So i'd have 2 x 1gb PNY. Save alot of time and trouble.?

Thanks

Because I was just going to buy another 1gb PNY stick so I'd have 2 PNY sticks. Instead of the cheapo brand + PNY. Could that be the problem? Cheapo + PNY = Crashing.

PNY + PNY = Fine ? haha

I hope its not my powersupply because I don tknow how to install one.

You should just take out the cheapo ram, and buy another PNY stick, that way you can have it in dual channel. This will give you a performance increase from both increased bus width and increased memory capacity. Running three sticks of RAM is not advised, either use two or four sticks to get the dual channel advantage.

Okay,


I took out the PNY ram that I had with the cheapo ram. I think that caused it to crash alot. It has now stopped. I then switched the cheapo ram with the PNY and its still fine. So the cheapo ram is sitting in a box. I do see some improvement in the computers performance. So I might just buy another PNY stick and hopefully it'll give me the performance boost I hoped to get with the cheapo + PNY that never happened.

Sound good?

No way its the power supply. At work I have an HP Media Center Edition PC and I've added an ATI x600 Pro card to it at times and its still worked. Theres no way an added memory stick would pull so much more wattage from the power supply as to cause it to not work stably.

Its probably an issue with the motherboard being designed by HP to be set to work in dual channel mode and it doesn't have good compatibility with running 3 sticks. Or that the cheap ass sticks in there aren't very compatible with PNYs.

I agree with the others that the best bet would be to get another PNY stick and run 2x1GB. Throw the 2 512MB sticks in another computer that needs more RAM.

They did sell you PC3200 DDR I hope and not some cheap PC2700 or god forbid PC2100.

Sell the 2 512s on eBay and make sure to get EXACTLY the same PNY RAM as before. You'll be fine.

It is not the PSU.

OK, but was that the reason it was running slowly?