RAM problems, or a virus?

[blizeH]

Hi,

Last week I bought 12GB DDR 1333mhz RAM for my Dell Vostro 430 PC.

This was running fine for around a week, without a single glitch or crash, however yesterday my computer was throwing up constant error messages and BSODs (I couldn't open a single application)

I think it could be the RAM because:

1) I've had the PC for 3 years, and never had any problems until now
2) The crashes seem to fit in with other people's RAM issues

However, I also think it could be a virus because:

1) The machine runs absolutely fine in safe mode
2) Microsoft Security Essentials' real time protection was switched off for no apparent reason
3) When I disabled all start up items and services, the machine was absolutely fine too

I've now got it running for the past 12 hours just running a few basic programs (SyncToy etc) to do backups, and right now I am backing up the entire C drive in case I do have to do a clean install... but is there anything else you guys would recommend I try first please?

I'm almost tempted to do a clean install (though this really isn't ideal) but would be kicking myself if it turns out to be the memory - thank you!

 

[TenPc]

Ram is good until you try to use an intensive program or game and the upper memory of the ram is required thus giving "unexplained" errors. Basically, it seems your ram is not quite right for your rig. Go back to what you had before, why did you change it?

 

[blizeH]

Ram is good until you try to use an intensive program or game and the upper memory of the ram is required thus giving "unexplained" errors. Basically, it seems your ram is not quite right for your rig. Go back to what you had before, why did you change it?

Thank you - it's quite bizarre though because I was happily using ~11GB without issues, but upon rebooting my machine it crashed multiple times the moment I tried to even open a simple program.

I changed the RAM because before I only had 4x2GB sticks, I built a PC for my girlfriend's dad, and ordered 3x4GB sticks for myself and gave him my old sticks... seems like a bad idea right now!

Do you think it's a compatibility issue (I should give him the 12GB, take the 8GB back and order more RAM) or maybe just faulty RAM and I should request a return from Ebuyer?

Many thanks

 

[TenPc]

You have to consider the ram, if you bought 4 x 4gb, that might be considered as Quad Channel ram, to be used in 4 slots of one channel to which you could only use 2 sticks in a dual channel board. Now, 3 x 4gb might be triple channel ram to which the motherboard would bneed triple channel architecture, to which only 2 sticks would be dual channel.

4 x 2gb is more than enough for most users espaecially for games but not so for movie editing or intensive cpu programs.

It seems that you don't shut dow or reboot the PC all that often, possibly use sleep mode?

Edit - According to the specs sheet, the original ram was single channel ram, not dual or other..
3072MB (1x2048 + 1X1024) 1333MHz DDR3 Single Channel

 

[blizeH]

Thank you, I did try going down to just two sticks and had the same problem... I need quantity of RAM (I have *lots* of stuff open, using over 8GB usually) rather than worrying about eeking any sort of performance out of it (I appreciate that is short sighted) which is why I opted for the 3x4GB and I've noticed it ran a lot better than the 4x2GB I had before.

I shut down my PC on average once every few days, it generally depends if I'm going to be using it late in the evening and first thing in the morning too. Otherwise I shut it down

 

[TenPc]

It just seems to infer, the specs sheet, that the ram preference would be for single channel ram and not dual channel meaning that you could use just one or two sticks of varying volume as per the specs. Single channel slots would be a single stick per slot but with dual channel, that would be two slots per channel.

The Crucial 12GB DDR3 1333MHz seem to infer that they are triple channel sticks (3 sticks per channel), you could use them as single sticks but performance would be somewhat poor.

The Vostro 430 comes with a Dell 350 Watt PSU, that is good enough usually with what is originally provided but if you add anything like a hdd or video card or even extra ram, you need to add the extra watt requiremnt for that hardware meaning tha youmay need to up the watts to 450 or higher but remeber that Dell Case can only accommodate DELL PSU properly, other PSU types will only allow for tw screws in the bnack of the case, enough though to be secure.

http://www.dell.com/au/business/p/vostro-430/pd

 

[blizeH]

Thank you... so you would recommend I do change to (for example) 4x4GB sticks or 2x8GB sticks then?

Thanks for the heads up on the PSU also, I do have a 650W one now though

 

[TenPc]

The ram slots are not dual channel so you can use anything you like in those slots however, if your ram is not single channel singular, then you may experience some odd issues mixing dual channel ram assortedly. Perhaps you just go back to what you had considering how ell it worked.

Whenever you change or reseat something in the case, you have to make a manual SAVE & Exit in the bios. Dell Pc's are particular fanatical about users touching their gizzards.

 

[blizeH]

Ah, I see, thank you!

I actually figured out last night finally that it was one dodgy RAM chip (I'm going to return it asap) and it's running nicely with 2x4GB sticks right now...

Since, like you said, it ran nicely with 4x2GB sticks, would it be a good idea for me to buy one more stick so I can run 4x4GB?

(my memory usage was close to 12GB already, so I figure it could be useful)

Thanks

 

[TenPc]

Happy Computing

 

[blizeH]

Happy Computing

Thank you