How to isolate if RAM or motherboard is problem?

[ojo10]

I got an Asus M3N78 mobo, and upgrade recently the CPU to AMD x4 640.
the system has 2 GB of RAM, SATA Hardrive and a PNY geforce 210 graphic card.

per test, the CPU rarely gets challenged above 25%, and on the physical Memory, it says usually 800K available.
AVG IT security and Spyware programmes are running, so I don't think this is a virus or else problem. (no sudden change anyway)

I have tried to get an answer from ASUS as to why my system shows virtually no improvement and in fact start up of programmes "seems" to be slower than before.

So, is it the memory or the MOBO that should be replace or am I looking at the wrong area all together.

Please please help.

 

[spike15_mk]

First you should check your Windows operating system. Then if you want to check your ram, the best software to do that is Memtest 4.20. Run the program for at least 2 passes and you will see if your ram is ok.

 

[ojo10]

So, the Mem 4.20 checks were a complete pass.
the XP Pro works also fine, there has been no change since upgrade of CPU from 4400+ to x4 640.

i got ddr2-667 cas 5-5-5-15 333MHZ RAM, not very fast one, does a faster one make much of a difference?

I upgrade xpu because the speeds were getting a bit slow and I had some spare money to upgrade. It seems it was the wrong part to upgrade as performance just doesn't respond much.