Crashes with both RAM, fine with 1.

[Silvern]

Just built a new system for a friend on a budget - here's the specs:

ep43-ds3
e7400 dual core
ASUS hd4670
500g samsung SATA II
Antec Neopower 550
2 x 1GB DDR 800 Kingston (slots 1 and 3, dual channel interleaved) bought as 2 separate sticks not a pack but both of same type.
running windows xp

Ok so I spent 4 days trying to get windows xp to install but kept getting random crashes during install. even managed to get it installed but still kept getting random lock ups, freezes and crashes. So I thought, gotta be the RAM. Ran memtest on both sticks and both passed fine. So I took one stick out and left the other in slot 1. Everything worked sweet. Seriously not a single problem.

Could this be a bios issue? any nice diagnostics I could run to find out? System will run fine on 1GB but really want both going for my mate.

Cheers!

 

[GhislainG]

What's the part number of your RAM? Did you manually set the timings and voltage to match the specs? What are the timings and voltage according to CPU-Z?

 

[Silvern]

Hmm so you're kinda speaking a little over my tech level

So I download CPU-z and check the freq/voltage and adjust the bios to match?

Some new information:

Had the system running fine yesterday with 1 stick of RAM. Was running fine for about 6 hours except that I kept getting an ati2dvag.dll bluescreen error which I resolved by updating the BIOS from its current revision (F3) to its latest (F9). I thought this may also fix the memory problem as one of the previous revisions mentioned fixing memory compatability issues.

So now I'm not getting any video card problems but I am getting some other strange problems:

I moved the pc to another room switched it on and everything was fine, installed some DVD software, restarted and it kept crashing at the first page. Normally memory testing comes up with the amount of memory, this time absolutely nothing just kept restarting. Tried everything, taking out the RAM and replacing with other stick, trying channels 1+2 or 1+3 or 2 on its own, nothing I just could not get it working. Eventually I unplugged everything except kb/mouse/monitor and tried again. This time it worked fine with 1 stick of ram in Channel 1. Seems to have some problems when an ipod is plugged in via USB and but that makes absolutely no sense what so ever!

I'm thinking there must be a compatability issue with my RAM and the motherboard. So I'll adjust the freq/voltages as you have suggested and see if that helps. If not is there a possibility that its the motherboard itself?

What's really making this whole process difficult is that the problems I am experiencing have absolutely no logical structure. Whether or not the system will work is completely random. I am very much not used to experiencing problems of such a chaotic nature. From what I've read this seems to be a memory issue but this is my first build so I'm a little out of my depth.

Cheers!

 

[GhislainG]

CPU-Z has 2 tabs that you should be interested in. The memory tab displays the current memory timings. The SPD tab displays the modules timings table and required voltage.

If a PC can boot from a USB drive, then leaving an iPod connected definitely could cause issues.

 

[jitpublisher]

Most usually this is a voltage too low in the BIOS issue.
Many types and brands of memory run at different voltages than the BIOS defaults.
Especially compounds the case when adding a second stick, or more sticks, or not buying the sticks in matched pairs. Sometimes you eve have to raise the voltage very slightly over stock to get it to work correctly.
Usually only 1 stick will work well enough to boot the machine, and get you into the BIOS so you can select the timings/voltage's manually.
Check the vendor website (Kingston) for your memories exact voltage and timings.
Also, just because you bought 2 identical sticks, does not mean that they both run at the same voltage....if you bought them at different times.
For instance I had 2 -1gig sticks of Patriot extreme 2-3-2-5 DDR memory that runs at 2.3 volts I bought about 2 years ago. Now the exact same part that I recently bought to upgrade to 4 gig is spec'd at 2.5 volts.

 

[Silvern]

Ok So I managed to fix the problem.

Downloaded the specs for each individual stick based on the model number from the manufacturer and input the values as specified into the BIOS settings. Worked like a charm, absolutely no problems what so ever.

Thanks for all of your help!

Cheers!