Bought new hardware

[Humpty]

Went and bought myself a 22 inch Samsung lcd montor and 2 gig of ddr ram to replace the 2 x 512 sticks so I can allocate more to virtual machines.

 

Monitor is great but my machine would constantly bsod and sometimes not even start with the 2gig ddr.

 

After ripping out half my hair and about to go back to my pc store I put back the old ram and had a look around the net for my mobo prob and bingo, there it was.

 

Working fine with the 2 gig ddr ATM with the dram setting dropped to 166.

 

Damn can't find the link but I kept a note just in case.

Thanks Peter, still listening but learning as I go

 

I went into the BIOs- Frequency/Voltage control

There is the CPU/DRAM frequency ratio currently set on auto as (SPD) and the DRAM frequency is setting is 200mhz

If I change from auto to manual then i can change the CPU/DRAM frequency ratio up and down and the DRAM frequency also changes with it - choices are 200 , 166 , 133 and 100.

 

So u mean change it so the DRAM frequency is set on 200 for one stick of DDR400 , 166 for both sticks and then 133 for all 3 sticks - (when i buy another) and everything should work then??

My local pc store did tell me that there would be no probs running the new ram but nothing about the bios setting.

[CTskifreak]

I just bought this for my Dell - TigerDirect - Crucial Ballistix 2 GB set. I checked my internals with the scanner at Crucial.com. I only have 512 MB of PC2-3200 right now...aka slow ass start up in Windows XP Home...this should help considerably.

 

 

AJ

[craigathus]

I just bought this for my Dell - TigerDirect - Crucial Ballistix 2 GB set. I checked my internals with the scanner at Crucial.com. I only have 512 MB of PC2-3200 right now...aka slow ass start up in Windows XP Home...this should help considerably.

 

 

AJ

 

 

Hi GCNbball8 could you or Humpty please tell me if I could easily (with no drama)

replace my 2x "512Mb DDR" ram modules with say? 2x "1024Mb DDR2"?

This PC is about 1 year old (Pentium D 2.7GHz, XPhome sp2) P4 Titan series Motherboard (GA-8VM800PMD-775) (VIAP4M800 Pro chipset) any helpful advice is always appreciated.

[Andavari]

please tell me if I could easily (with no drama)

replace my 2x "512Mb DDR" ram modules with say? 2x "1024Mb DDR2"?

Go to http://www.crucial.com and look on there, if the website doesn't have enough info you can even talk to a rep on the phone to get the correct memory.

[craigathus]

Go to http://www.crucial.com and look on there, if the website doesn't have enough info you can even talk to a rep on the phone to get the correct memory.

 

 

Thanks Andavari' I'll use the supplied link and go and have a look.

Even talk to a rep?

Is the site in the states? if so that could prove very costly for me in Australia

Appreciate the help.

 

From http://www.crucial.com (results)

 

Mother board specs...not all just the main ones.

 

DDR2 SDRAM Frequencies: PC2-3200 and PC2-4200.

Supported DRAM Types: DDR SDRAM only.

240-pin DDR2 DIMM Banking: 2(2banks of 1).

 

Q: What memory goes into my computer, and will a faster speed be backwards-compatible?

A: DDR2 memory with support for PC2-4200 and PC2-5300 speeds.

Is this the answer I need? and in layman's terms what does this mean?

Do I go for 2x 1024Mb of DDR2 with the highest speed?

 

This might sound like a dumb question' but I'll ask any way.

Whats the difference between (DDR & DDR2)? .

Appreciate any help and look ford to a reply.

[Humpty]

I don't think DDR2 ram will fit in DDR1 slots?

 

Or at least they won't in this mobo.

Installing your computers memory

Now that you have straight access to your memory slots, now would be a great time to install your computers memory. This step is done at this point because some big CPU coolers may block access to the memory slots once the cooler is installed. Also it is a lot easier to install memory if you have open access to the motherboard.

 

 

Simply open up the RAM tabs...

 

 

Place the memory in the RAM slots... Please take a look at the little notch in the memory PCB and in the slot for the correct alignment of the module.

 

 

And gently push the memory into its slot until the tabs are closed.

 

Remember that if your motherboard supports DDR and DDR2, make sure you're putting the DDR in the DDR slot or the DDR2 in the DDR2 slot. DDR2 does not fit into DDR1 slots and vice versa.

How to build a computer

[CTskifreak]

craigathus - run the scan again please and take a screen shot and post it......try to get everything...if you have to do it in to...that fine... I want to see exactly what the Crucial scan showed you.

 

I'll try to help you out once you post back.

 

Thanks

 

AJ

[Humpty]

Well it seems I spoke too soon.

 

Worked fine for a coupla days then turn it on this morning and constant bsods and restarts.

 

Dropped the dram a bit further and still no good.

 

Gave the two new sticks a good workout yesterday installing Vista Ultimate into a virtual machine.

 

No probs all day and night playing with Vista, turn it on this morning and kabang, it's stuffed.

 

Put back the old 2x512 ddr sticks and it's fine.

 

Next step is to go back to my pc store and get a credit on the 2x 1 gig sticks and fork out a bit more for corsair ram.

 

Even if the corsair ram cause the same prob I will still be able use them in a new mobo I have planned.

 

Results of the Crucial scan posted by GCNbball8.

Maximum Memory Capacity: 3072 MB

Currently Installed Memory: 1024 MB

Available Memory Slots: 1

Number of Banks: 3

Dual Channel Support: N.A.

CPU Manufacturer: GenuineIntel

CPU Family: Intel® Pentium® 4 CPU 3.00GHz Model 2, Stepping 5

CPU Speed: 3006 MHz

[craigathus]

craigathus - run the scan again please and take a screen shot and post it......try to get everything...if you have to do it in to...that fine... I want to see exactly what the Crucial scan showed you.

 

I'll try to help you out once you post back.

 

Thanks

 

AJ

 

Hi GNCbball8

I didn't actually run the scan, I just took note of what was on the page after running (Crucial Memory Advisor Tool).

Call me green or a "newbie" when I clicked to run the scan it wanted to download some sort of "activex" files or something along those lines and I just wasn't sure. to late and to tired at the time.

A friend at work says that adding extra ram in my machine "already has 1GB" probably wouldn't have as great an affect on performance as a better video card.

I might put future hardware upgrades on hold for the time being.

Thanks for replying to my post.

[CTskifreak]

Crucial is all right...it's ActiveX Control is all good, so you needn't worry.

 

If you feel like posting what is in your system...I will still help.

 

A GB of RAM is not to bad.... if you are running integrated graphics instead of a separate card, that would be a better bet in what you need to upgrade.

 

AJ

[craigathus]

Crucial is all right...it's ActiveX Control is all good, so you needn't worry.

 

If you feel like posting what is in your system...I will still help.

 

A GB of RAM is not to bad.... if you are running integrated graphics instead of a separate card, that would be a better bet in what you need to upgrade.

 

AJ

 

Thanks for the reply GCNbball8

I have a Nvidia GeForce FX5200 card at the moment.

I'm into games that tax the graphics displaying ability of my system to the max "Quake4 & Halo" etc.

To keep frame rates reasonably high' I have to set some options fairly low.

 

If I want to post details of my system, whats the best and easiest way?

[CTskifreak]

Thanks for the reply GCNbball8

I have a Nvidia GeForce FX5200 card at the moment.

I'm into games that tax the graphics displaying ability of my system to the max "Quake4 & Halo" etc.

To keep frame rates reasonably high' I have to set some options fairly low.

 

If I want to post details of my system, whats the best and easiest way?

 

Go to Start>Run> Type in 'dxdiag' > Click Yes and then take screen shots of the main tab and the display tab.

 

Then run the Crucial Scan again and take screenshots of that page so I (and others) can determine what is best for your system.

 

 

AJ

[craigathus]

Go to Start>Run> Type in 'dxdiag' > Click Yes and then take screen shots of the main tab and the display tab.

 

Then run the Crucial Scan again and take screenshots of that page so I (and others) can determine what is best for your system.

 

 

AJ

 

Hi GCNbball8

I took screen shots of the two tab's in "dxdiag" and pasted them in a wordpad doc.

When I tried to upload them into this reply I couldn't "file to big" about 4.5mb

Must be a way to do it?

[hazelnut]

Make sure when you save a screenshot that you save it as a jpeg or png file.

 

Bitmap files are usually way too large.

[craigathus]

Make sure when you save a screenshot that you save it as a jpeg or png file.

 

Bitmap files are usually way too large.

 

 

Hi hazelnut

Thanks for the advice, I thought I must have done something wrong

[DennisD]

Well it seems I spoke too soon.

 

Worked fine for a coupla days then turn it on this morning and constant bsods and restarts.

 

Humpty, did you find out why your 2gb of memory wasn't working?

 

The reason I ask is because Crucial says that my two slots (only 512 in one of them at the moment) can take a gb each.

 

But the info I get from my system is that it can only handle 1gb.

 

I would probably be more than happy with 1gb, but how reliable is the Crucial scan?

[Humpty]

After taking the two gig back to the store they said that the mobo wasn't suited and not much more info was forthcoming.

 

Still can't workout why it worked fine for a couple of days then went kaput.

 

Left it at 2x512ddr sticks and the old p4 3ghz h/t has been a fine machine for the last three years (and still is) but it's been shifted out to the back room.

 

This new core two duo, 2 gig ddr 2 machine with a 320 gig sata 16 meg cache drive is so damn fast and quiet that you can't even tell it's running except for the power led.

 

Also have set up a 120 gig ide drive on the new machine with XP pro as a backup which is plugged - unplugged as needed.

 

Vista Ultimate is on the new drive and I'm still on a learning curve, actually doing my head in bit but that was the same when I went from 98 to XP.

 

Just gotta hang in there.