Faulty Ram

gweng

Solid State Member
Messages
15
A couple days ago, I bought a some more ram for my computer. I tried to buy ram that was exactly like the stuff I already had, but the new pair I got had slightly different timings than my original pair (I'm not sure if this really matters though).

So I installed the ram, and my computer wouldn't start up (this was on xp). I didn't really think about it at the time, so I went ahead, took out the newly installed ram and then went and installed windows vista (which I had also just bought).

Once I got that all taken care of, I tried to put the new sticks of ram back in and got the same result as before. If I have both pairs in together, nothing works, but if I use either separately in either pair of slots on my motherboard, everything is fine. I have used the windows memory checker thing about 6 or 7 times now, and each time it confirmed that everything was fine (except for the time when I had both pairs of ram in, it immediately found a hardware error that time).

The old ram is 2 x 1gb Corsair XMS with 5-5-5-12 timings.
The new ram is 2 x 1gb Corsair XMS with 5-5-5-18 timings.
I've checked my motherboard and it supports up to 8gb's of memory.

Any ideas?
 
Corsair gives problems to most people I know. But here is a 67% likey fix, this may sound weird, but... take a ziplock back(sealable only!) and put the ram in it. Squeeze all the air out, and zip it, and shove it in the freezer for at least 48 Hours. If this doesn't do it, just dump the corsair.
 
Hmm...how would that do anything?

And considering I bought this ram from newegg, it'd be really easy for me to just return it. So i think I would do that over freezing it. Right now I just want to see if it actually is the memory that is causing the problem or if something is wrong with my motherboard (Asus P5B deluxe)
 
can you get into the BIOS and set the timings and stuff?
Did you try every single slot on the motherboard? I kind of had the same problem before, and found out that my 4th slot was busted.
Are you using an AMD or Intel?
 
Yeah I can get into the bios. When I looked there, it said that I only had 3008 mb's ram, I think, which doesn't make sense. I know that only about 3.25 gb's will be recognized, but that is less than three altogether.

I don't know how to set the timings myself, but I'm sure I could do it with some directions. And I'm using an Intel processor.

Oh also either pair of slots recognizes the memory as long as I only use one set. Yesterday I had my old ram in my yellow slots (1st channel?) and the computer recognized 2.0 gb's of ram. Today I am using the other slots with the old memory and I get the same results.
 
dont try pairs.
Try all 4 sticks of ram by itself and on each and every slot.
 
16 tests? Thats going to take forever! Is there any way I can do it without having to restart my computer everytime I need to run a test (i.e. a different checker I should use)?
 
i think memtest should be enough.
Yeah, its long, but you can pinpoint the problem better.
 
haha i just realized ill need to restart my computer after each test anyway so i can change the ram. well...i guess ill get to that tomorrow. thanks for the help
 
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