computer help me - ram

[Shade-of-Grey]

Ok so a few weeks ago I got an extra 2 gigs of ram (to get up to 4) and upgraded to 64 bit vista

Lately, I've been having problems installing basically every game I own...crysis install failed (says some random file is corrupt), same thing with bioshock and the frozen throne...age of conan worked fine however

anyway, after googling i found out that the cause could be the memory (post #6 here)

http://forums.slizone.com/index.php?showtopic=10650

anyway, i just took out the new 2 gigs and Crysis installed fine...so now i am quite perplexed...

the ram is the same brand and clock speed, although i did buy it a few months later (both OCZ 6400 4 x 1 gig sticks)

...what is causing this problem? how can i fix it? i mean...i'd like to use the 2 gigs i bought...

[HS the Whap]

I don't think you ramed it in there hard enough.

[Cheeto]

Get memtest86, install all your RAM modules, run the test. If it finds any errors, pull a module, re-run, repeat.

[Shade-of-Grey]

Get memtest86, install all your RAM modules, run the test. If it finds any errors, pull a module, re-run, repeat.
is there a version of that that i can run in windows, or do i have to use a boot cd?

[Cheeto]

Get memtest86, install all your RAM modules, run the test. If it finds any errors, pull a module, re-run, repeat.
is there a version of that that i can run in windows, or do i have to use a boot cd?
You have to use a bootcd, but there's a reason. In order to test the RAM, the program has to be able to overwrite to ALL of it. So nothing can be loaded into memory at all. When it loads, it's running entirely off the CPU's internal cache, otherwise there'd always be a few KB of RAM that it couldn't test. Trust me, it's worth it. You can also download Ubuntu discs and they'll have an option to boot into Memtest, or you can run it off a floppy disk or USB thumb drive.

[Shade-of-Grey]

ok here is how things are going:

I have 4 memory slots

0
2
1
3

0 and 1 correspond, and 2-3 correspond, just so you know how my mobo (evga 680i) is setup

I had my old ram in 0 and 1 for the last year, been working flawlessly.

I added my new ram to slots 2 and 3 about a month ago, and it instantly started FUCKING UP vista 32 bit. This is when i upgraded to 64 bit. Shit still seemed fairly fucked up.

The last couple days (after multiple reformats) things have been working fine, until I decided to start installing games, which is when this thread started. I would get random errors every time.

So far I have run 3 memtests:

Test #1) Had memory in slots 0, 1, and 2. 2 being 1 module of the new ram. Errors found (i dont remember now, but i think that it said the errors were on slots 0 and 1)
Test #2) Only old ram in slots 0, 1. Lots of errors found.
Test #3) Only new ram in slots 2 and 3. No Errors so far (on test 8 as i type from my laptop)

What confuses me about this is that I wouldve sworn that the errors would be on the new ram. My computer ran perfectly in vista with my original 2 gigs, both for the past year in 32 bit as well as today when I took the new ram out to try reinstalling Crysis and Bioshock. How then, are the problems on my old ram, and nothing wrong with the new ram? I certainly dont think anything is wrong with my timings or voltages, but maybe those settings were changed in my BIOS when I installed the new ram? The new ram is the exact same part model as the old ram, but like I said i bought it almost a year later, and neither set are completely labeled (the old ram has 5-5-5-12 with no voltage printed on it, while the new ram has 5-5-5 @ 1.80V printed on it)

The next test I'm going to run is the new ram in slots 0 and 1, will update.

Any advice on what i've so far though?

[TylerDurden]

yeah duel channel memory is suppose to be installed corresponding to the ram slot colors. For awhile i had 4 gigs in the first and second slot, not knowing this. From what i could tell, it ran fine, but really thats not good for your mobo, or memory. After switching the second stick, to the second blue slot, i was able to OverClock my memory, and saw performance go up.
Is all the ram the same ? all 4 sticks ?

I would first install one stick, test with OCCT, the best thing you could use, other then Prime95.

http://www.ocbase.com/perestroika_en/index.php?Download

if that stick checks out, then install the second, and run OCCT again, then the 3rd, etc.

You can either run OCCT for one hour, or two. Doesn't matter much. After OCCT runs, it will show you a bunch of graphs, and give you info on how stable your system is. If ANYTHING is wrong, hardware wise, the test will stop.

If for some reason you can't figure OCCT out, then use another program, like p95

http://www.freewarefiles.com/Prime-V_program_19638.html

Run the blend test.

Again, do the same steps, installing one stick at a time. Maybe some of your memory is bad. When i install ram on a vista64bit system, i install one stick at a time. Someone at OCZ told me to do that.

[Shade-of-Grey]

I've always had it installed correctly in corresponding slots, I'm running my next test which is new ram in slots 0 and 1, next test will be old ram in slots 2 and 3. The ram is all the same, but like I said I bought this second set about a year later - so there could be some differences in manufacturing, although they're the same part number. Not really sure about that.

[TylerDurden]

Go to the OCZ forum and get help. Their forum staff is award winning. Very helpful.

[Cheeto]

Hmm. I almost wonder if the problem might not be your memory controller on your mobo going tits up. Do you have a spare mobo/computer you can test on?

[Shade-of-Grey]

Hmm. I almost wonder if the problem might not be your memory controller on your mobo going tits up. Do you have a spare mobo/computer you can test on?
not that can handle this ram me thinks

MAAYBE actually...i'll check

also...whats a memory controller :(

[Cheeto]

Hmm. I almost wonder if the problem might not be your memory controller on your mobo going tits up. Do you have a spare mobo/computer you can test on?
not that can handle this ram me thinks

MAAYBE actually...i'll check

also...whats a memory controller :(
The memory controller is the chip that actually handles communication between the system and the RAM. I had a motherboard that was giving off symptoms like yours, turned out the memory controller had gotten zapped.