Memory stopping post load

[Wantski]

I've got two 1GB 400 MHZ sticks of double sided ram for a motherboard that supports them. The problem i have is both sticks are in the computer it will complete bios check and get stuck on the but just before xp loaded screen appears.

However if it remove one sticks at ramdom it will load fine, also if i put my spare stick in 256 333 MHZ in with one of the 1GB ram it will work fine.

So i've proved that both 1GB sticks are working, i've also proved my motherboard memory slots are working.

So my question is why wont the 1GB sticks work together?

Any ideas????

[GN]

Compatibility issues. Buy two exact same 1GB memory sticks that are supported by the motherboard and it should work fine. Sell off the other two if you wish or something.

You can get 2 x 1Gb matched pairs from about £80 apx.

[Wantski]

Got one of the ram sticks replaced under warranty and i can load windows fine but after 10-30 minutes i start getting dll errors and programs keep crashing. If i remove on of the sticks it works fine again, anyone got any ideas?

[GN]

umm read post I made above :wink:

Also check out your pc with anti virus software to check on if there is any virus on your pc altering dlls etc... and also please do not install 3rd party software, demos, shareware, freeware, spyware, or any other ware that might ware down your pc and make .dll **** in your system.

Also, run scan disk to check your hard disk for sector errors, and download the manufacture Hard Disk test tool to check if the disk is fine. Also, check to see if your PSU is up to its job.

Also check your motherboard to see if you have any capacitors that have blown there top (You will see them blotting or stuff on the top of them and they may be cracked.)

Also do a defragment. It might take upto a day depending on when the last time you did this.

[Ben]

Hi,

A couple of things you might want to try.

If your Motherboard has 4 DIMM slots, check that you are putting the memory in the right configuration. Most normally have 2 different colours. Depending on the manufacuter. Some require that you have both DIMMS in the same colour slot, some want you to have one in each. But as GN mentioned, ideally both DIMMS should come the same manufacturer and the same batch.

Try running this memtest program. http://www.memtest86.com/ One stick at a time to see if you get any problems.

If you get no joy here. Test your hard drive for problems. A full scan using the program from this website http://www.hdtune.com/ normally picks up any problems.

I don't think fragmentation is your problem, although it can effect performance, especially in games. You can download a defrag program from Diskeeper (http://www.diskeeper.com/diskeeper/home/diskeeper.asp) on a 30 Day demo. This will defrag your HDD in less than 20 mins and is much better than the built in windows version.

Good luck with your fault finding.