[RESOLVED] New RAM equals 'blue screen' :( .

[judge john]

lol. I’ll need it. well luckily i happen to have kept the e-mail receipts for all the memory i bought and the product code is identical. So they must have changed something along the way without telling me. Now that isn't my fault. The only thing is that i will ring them up and i bet they refuse to take what i am saying as true. They will probably get me to do lots of medial tasks and hope i go anyway . So i need to go to them with as much info as possible. As such i need your help again with some questions;

1) What was the difference you noticed between my sticks? The only thing i noticed different was that one was 512 MB (2 rows, 4 banks) and the other working 2 where 512 MB (1 rows, 4 banks). Is that the difference or are you just taking an educated guess there is an unknown difference?

2) I still don't see how the memory worked perfectly fine until now. Do you know what the reason could be for it happening now?

3) this isn’t a problem caused by something else in my system, so it’s defiantly the memory?

[Train]

My statement:

Those 2 sticks Listed as evaluation may not be completely compatable with the 16VDDT6464AG-40BGB stick

is what told me they probably would not be compatable.

I got that from your mem.txt which reads:


--------[ EVEREST Ultimate Edition 2005 (c) 2003-2005 Lavalys, Inc. ]---------------------------------------------------

Version EVEREST v2.00.335
Homepage http://www.lavalys.com/
Report Type Quick Report [ EVALUATION ]
Computer JOHNA
Generator John Austin
Operating System Microsoft Windows XP Professional 5.1.2600 (WinXP Retail)
Date 2005-07-16
Time 16:45


--------[ SPD ]---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[ DIMM1: Micron Tech. 16VDDT6464AG-40BGB ]

Memory Module Properties:
Module Name Micron Tech. 16VDDT6464AG-40BGB
Serial Number 1026D5F0h
Manufacture Date Week 6 / 2005
Module Size 512 MB (2 rows, 4 banks)
Module Type Unbuffered
Memory Type DDR SDRAM
Memory Speed PC3200 (200 MHz)
Module Width 64 bit
Module Voltage SSTL 2.5
Error Detection Method None
Refresh Rate Reduced (7.8 us), Self-Refresh

Memory Timings:
@ 200 MHz 3.0-3-3-8 (CL-RCD-RP-RAS)
@ 166 MHz 2.5-3-3-7 (CL-RCD-RP-RAS)
@ 133 MHz 2.0-2-2-6 (CL-RCD-RP-RAS)

Memory Module Features:
Early RAS# Precharge Not Supported
Auto-Precharge Not Supported
Precharge All Not Supported
Write1/Read Burst Not Supported
Buffered Address/Control Inputs Not Supported
Registered Address/Control Inputs Not Supported
On-Card PLL (Clock) Not Supported
Buffered DQMB Inputs Not Supported
Registered DQMB Inputs Not Supported
Differential Clock Input Supported
Redundant Row Address Not Supported

Memory Module Manufacturer:
Company Name Micron Technology, Inc.
Product Information http://www.micron.com/products/category.jsp?path=/DRAM

[ DIMM2: [ EVALUATION ] ]

Memory Module Properties:
Module Name [ EVALUATION ]
Serial Number C508CA10h
Manufacture Date Week 26 / 2005
Module Size 512 MB (1 rows, 4 banks)
Module Type [ EVALUATION ]
Memory Type DDR SDRAM
Memory Speed PC3200 (200 MHz)
Module Width 64 bit
Module Voltage SSTL 2.5
Error Detection Method None
Refresh Rate Reduced (7.8 us), Self-Refresh

Memory Timings:
@ 200 MHz 3.0-3-3-8 (CL-RCD-RP-RAS)
@ 166 MHz 2.5-3-3-7 (CL-RCD-RP-RAS)
@ 133 MHz 2.0-2-2-6 (CL-RCD-RP-RAS)

Memory Module Features:
Early RAS# Precharge Not Supported
Auto-Precharge Not Supported
Precharge All Not Supported
Write1/Read Burst Not Supported
Buffered Address/Control Inputs Not Supported
Registered Address/Control Inputs Not Supported
On-Card PLL (Clock) Not Supported
Buffered DQMB Inputs Not Supported
Registered DQMB Inputs Not Supported
Differential Clock Input Supported
Redundant Row Address Not Supported

Memory Module Manufacturer:
Company Name Micron Technology, Inc.
Product Information http://www.micron.com/products/category.jsp?path=/DRAM

[ DIMM3: [ EVALUATION ] ]

Memory Module Properties:
Module Name [ EVALUATION ]
Serial Number 2023C713h
Manufacture Date Week 26 / 2005
Module Size 512 MB (1 rows, 4 banks)
Module Type [ EVALUATION ]
Memory Type DDR SDRAM
Memory Speed PC3200 (200 MHz)
Module Width 64 bit
Module Voltage SSTL 2.5
Error Detection Method None
Refresh Rate Reduced (7.8 us), Self-Refresh

Memory Timings:
@ 200 MHz 3.0-3-3-8 (CL-RCD-RP-RAS)
@ 166 MHz 2.5-3-3-7 (CL-RCD-RP-RAS)
@ 133 MHz 2.0-2-2-6 (CL-RCD-RP-RAS)

Memory Module Features:
Early RAS# Precharge Not Supported
Auto-Precharge Not Supported
Precharge All Not Supported
Write1/Read Burst Not Supported
Buffered Address/Control Inputs Not Supported
Registered Address/Control Inputs Not Supported
On-Card PLL (Clock) Not Supported
Buffered DQMB Inputs Not Supported
Registered DQMB Inputs Not Supported
Differential Clock Input Supported
Redundant Row Address Not Supported

Memory Module Manufacturer:
Company Name Micron Technology, Inc.
Product Information http://www.micron.com/products/category.jsp?path=/DRAM

And having seen this type of error before, yes it is a educated guess.

2) I still don't see how the memory worked perfectly fine until now. Do you know what the reason could be for it happening now?

Well as long as the PC2700 was restricting things to the slower speed, that can cause things to work correctly. BEST I can do to explain that. Sorry!

3) this isn’t a problem caused by something else in my system, so it’s defiantly the memory?

Yes, when you removed that one stick and things commenced to work right, in my book, you proved to me that that stick is not completely compatable with the newer memory.

[judge john]

Ok then i will ring them up and see how it goes. if that doesn’t work then i could always go back to my previous 1.5gig set up that worked and return the memory i have just bough as that is in there 30day return policy. And thanks very much to all the help. Been much appreciated.

NB. Don’t know if this means anything but because the Everest i got is only an evaluation copy, hence why it says evaluation here and there, it only tells you the Module Name of the first stick. As shown above that was ‘16VDDT6464AG-40BGB’ in the stick that doesn’t work and I have just found out it is ‘8VDDT6464AG-40BDB’ in the one that does work. If it's meant to be like that i don't know.

[Train]

Well the first run in this case was what we needed. es I have seen them picked up by Everest later on. But that first run is what I take to be true in this siuation.

Yes the home edition is morethan good enough for normal usage and one I have been using for quite some time. Shocks people to see what all it does find out about there computer. But I for one really like it for what it does tell me.

Just a note for you, I have found anything from 768MB ad over that if you wish, to be the break point where my programs run thir fastest.
As you can imagine, I had to a lot of runs [ same program doing the same thing] and memory changes to find that out. The difference for me was 20 minutes faster times.

So it may just be worth your while to do some testing your self.

My virtual is split across 2 hdds , 100MB on C: and the rest [2 GB ]is on a hdd that is on another ribbon so I could cross the ide.

Just a tad of history here for you. I found that if I transfered 7GB to aother partition on the same drive or another drive on the same ribbon, it took 28 - 32 minutes to do so.
But if I transfered the same 7GB to another hdd on another ribbon, it only took 7 minutes. That I thought was worth while.

Plus the fact that I do use a ATA133 card, that just gives me more options to where I place things. Yep, 4 hdds on the card and one on the ide for a total of 5 hdds. Plus my burners, 2 dvds and a cdrw are on the ide. Just options that I have added over the years that might be advantages for you to check out.

[judge john]

ok cool, some big time savings there. i have only decided to go with 2gig cause bf2 is so stupidly memory hungry. i have real slow down problems in game. i also saw an interview with the head Bf2 producer at EA who said 2gig wouldn't go a miss. I noticed a big difference in the smoothness of the game from 1GB to 1.5GB so as memory isn't that expensive I decided that i might as well get 2GB. at least i wouldn't have to upgrade for a bit.

[Train]

Well, I sure hope you get things settled out real quickly to your satisfaction.

Do not game myself, but 3D generation can be real mean time wise.

[judge john]

great news! for me anyway. i had a small brainwave last night. When i originally had my 2700 in slot 1 and a 3200 in slot 2 it kept crashing to the blue screen. That was fixed when i realised you have to put the best one in slot 1. So that got me thinking that the memory configuration was very sensitive to what was in slot 1. When it was crashing to the blue screen yesterday i had the problematic stick of 3200 in slot 1 and the other 2x 3200 in slot 2 and 3. so as a last ditch attempt i put the 2 sticks that have cause me no problem in slot 1 and 2 and the other 3200 in slot 3 to see if that would work. Well some how it has. Seems to work perfectly fine now. So that may have saved me some money. i might now try and put the 2700 in slot 4 and see if that also runs fine so i can be back to 2gig. so cheers for the help once more as it's been fixed in the end.
i was just wondering if i did put the 2700 in and it all worked fine and they would all be running at 2700, would there be a noticeable difference? i mean is there really much of a difference between the speeds of 2700 and 3200? and is it worth 35 quid to get them all 3200?

[liam858]

The only real point in buying another 3200 stick would be for configuration, as in- if it did not work with the 2700 in at all, but you will not see a real improvement between 2700 and 3200, especially as the ratio of 2700 to 3200 sticks is 3:1 and they are all 512mb. Have you tried Battlefield 2, and any memory heavy programs to test the current configuration? if not Good Luck.



Liam

[judge john]

Well i have just played bf2 for an hour or so with no problems and before it was crashing within about 30 min if not sooner so that looks good. Also ran 3Dmark05, don't know if that is memory intensive or not? But all checked out ok.

[liam858]

If all is okay after some further testing, i would suggest some RAM heatsinks for those sticks, just to help you along with playing BF2 and other intensive games/apps:Example That Akasa is a little pricy to be getting four, but as an example so you know what to get, check ebay and other cheap component sites.


Liam

[judge john]

why do i need ram heatsinks? can ram get to hot and if so how can i tell if it is?

[liam858]

RAM heatsinks are just a nice way to keep your RAM cool when under a lot of stress, you can tell if they are hot by touching them once the power is off and you are grounded, it is nothing to be worried about unless the RAM is seriously hot to the touch in which case it is overheating and you will of already noticed probably with random shutdowns or your machine not booting at all,it is a tell tale sign that it is time for replacement, Heatsinks will merely stop the sticks from giving off too much heat and keep the computer internally cool and also will improve performance as it keeps the RAM sticks themselves from getting overly hot.




Liam

[judge john]

ok, i'll keep that in mind when i find the money .

[liam858]

You should be able to pick up some decent ones on ebay for less than a tenner in total.


Liam