I don't think this is a game issue, but I thought I'd ask the bright folks here for help. I run an older system with an Intel Core2 Quad Q9450 proc. I'm running Win7 64, and have a good graphics card (GTX660). Up until today it has only had 4GB of ram, and it has run fine. Today I added an additional 4GB of ram, and ever since, my game locks up and I've seen the dreaded BSoD three times. I'm no expert, but I'm no beginner either. I built this system. The ram I'm using is compatible with my MB, and the additional 4GB (2x2GB) I added today is identical (not just similar) to the 4 (2x2GB) that were already present (same brand, model, size, everything...identical). I looked through the bios, but I didn't see anything obvious that I needed to adjust for simply adding more ram. It seems that my problems occur when I get near the 50% memory usage mark, so I'm guessing either the new ram is bad, or my MB doesn't want to access the additional sticks. Am I missing something obvious here? Am I doing something wrong? Thanks.
At first glance it sounds like a broken RAM module. You may run some stress tests, like "Blend" in Prime95 (http://www.mersenne.org/freesoft/) or Memtest86 (http://www.memtest86.com/download.htm) which may be even better. Also it's a good idea to check memory timings and ease them a bit if in doubt. You can also remove all modules, scramble and plug them in again, maybe some contact isn't working properly at the moment. If you changed something in the BIOS you don't remember sometimes loading the default setting works. Flashing your mainboard to the latest available BIOS is a very good idea, too.
I don't think it's the timing, since I can manually set it to match my modules through the (Gigabyte) motherboard tweaks. I'll run the mem tests. Thanks.
In addition to memtest, try reseating or moving around your ram into different slots. This helps sometimes.
a PC locking up after upgrading ram is almost 100% faulty RAM. there's a small chance that the problem is actually being generated by your motherboard. if you used the pc for years with those extra two memory slots with no RAM in them, there's probably a LOT of dust in them. you should clean them carefully not to bend any of the connectors. causing problems by miss configuring ram is actually really hard... even if you intentionally configure the RAM in a way that's harmful to it, it will either reset to factory settings, or it wont even boot. if you can boot all the way to running the game, then its not a configuration problem. you can try this: take note of which slot your original RAM sticks were in. remove them, plug in those slots the 2 new sticks you bought, run game again. if it locks up you eliminated 3 possibilities with one simple test: A) the problem was being caused by the slot and not the RAM. eliminated because the "good" slot also has the problem, so its the ram. B) the problem was being caused by mixing incompatible sticks. eliminated because only one stick was plugged. C) the problem was on the configuration of either one of the sticks. Eliminated again, because only one set of sticks was plugged in. if you get no freeze with this test, then remove the sticks, and plug in you old memory sticks on the other 2 ram slots. if it freezes, then you know that the problem is in the slot, and not on the ram sticks. but chances are, the problem is in the ram and not the motherboard. they are very delicate pieces of equipment, if something small breaks on them, they all break.
I had a set of GSkill that did the same thing. Replaced them with Patriot's and never had another BSOD.
More memory modules -> more stress on the memory and controller (chipset). If none of the new modules are faulty then you need to lower the memory frequency, loosen the timings or increase memory/chipset voltage. I suggest increase memory voltage first. If we talking here about DDR2 you need to increase it from 1,8V to about 2,0V or more.
Open up UserOptions.ini file and change to these following values and if you can try get windowed mode on other games you get BSoD. I got BSoD two days after I installed my ram aswell, although not all games where affected Tombraider works really well in fullscreen but not Planetside 2 if windowed mode solved the BSoD, then reinstall your VGA drivers and try fullscreen once more. this solved my issue, if there are a updated version of your VGA driver use that one
did this first, no change. Thanks though. Identical sticks, bought from the same link on the same vendor's website. Checked the slots, no obvious obstructions. Took your advice and mixed up my 4 sticks. Then installed just 2 at a time, played PS2 at 80+% mem use for awhile. No problems or issues. Then I swapped in the other 2 sticks. Same test...same results. No issues, no problems. Weird, I'm only getting BSoD and game freeze when using all 4 sticks are installed. Thanks. Thanks for the reminder. I ran the diagnostic on each pair of 2GB sticks and it found no problems with any of the 4. Thanks. Trying this now. I'm able to up the memory voltage in the bios tweaks. However, it only shows me the incremental increases, but I don't know what my baseline voltage is. My ram is spec'd to run at 2.0~2.1v. Here's my MB: http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=2740#ov How much should I up my memory voltage? I'm guessing .2v, but I can't find the baseline info.
If your RAM is specified for 2V this should be fine and work. If you are able to return your new RAM then there's also the possibility to switch to DDR3 because your mainboard seems to have two slots for it. DDR3 is a lot cheaper and faster, 8 GB of it cost nearly the same as 4 GB DDR2. You could also use these modules in a new computer if you are planning to upgrade someday, but then I would go for faster modules, at least ones that run at 1600 Mhz (using them at slower speeds is always possible) to have some room left for overclocking.
Update from the last post. I installed all 4 (2x2GB) modules, adjusting the voltage up +0.1v, +0.2v, +0.3v, and +0.4v and playing PS2. Each time, the game locked up just under 50% memory usage, except for +0.3v. That adjustment let me play into the 4+ GB range, but it also locked up. I re-ran the Windows memory diagnostic utility, this time with all 4 modules installed. Weird, when I run them in pairs, the utility finds no memory problems. But when I run all 4, the utility finds an unspecified hardware problem within the first 10% of the first pass. It looks to me like I have a motherboard problem...something to do with the second pair of DDR2 slots. Any other ideas?
I considered that, but my board only supports up to 4GB of DDR3, which doesn't seem like a noticeable upgrade.
Darn, right, that doesn't seem like a real upgrade, DDR3 is faster, but by far not so much that it would compensate the double amount of RAM. Did you already check if you have the latest BIOS installed and did you try the BIOS default settings to see if there's an improvement in stability?
Did you try putting 2 sticks in the slots that weren't used until now and test ? Didn't get that. It's not that uncommon for a slot to go bad when going from 2 to 4 slots on an older rig. Puts more stress on the components and uses parts that weren't used for some time. As for the voltages, there's no reason to go above rated voltage unless overclocking which there is no reason to do either (you didn't write which ram you got nor the bsod you are getting, altho we can guess that one).
I did update my bios, but I haven't yet tried the defaults. That's a good question. No I hadn't done that yet. So I did. I ran the same memory diagnostic twice, once with each pair in the second DDR2 memory slots, and it found no memory errors. That's really weird. That means it isn't any of my memory modules or my memory slots. What does that leave...my memory controller? How the heck do I update that?
Guess not much you can do. Make sure memory frequency, timings and voltages are set as advertised in the memory specs. If you can, go and test all four sticks in another mobo to rule out them not liking each other for some odd reason. You might also find this interesting. If it works on your system that would probably be the best solution. While you won't see any major speed improvement on a core2 system with ddr3 you can use those sticks in your next rig, ddr3 is cheap and you should have no problems selling your ddr2's
Frequency is a big one. What is the speed of your RAM? Buying a RAM stick isn't enough, you have to check the speed of it as well. Also, you need to make sure the memory isn't too new for your system. Example, I've worked with several PCs in Tech Support and we actually have older Dell systems that will have an aneurysm if we use double-sided RAM. If you were to have a 1GB stick at 4500mhz speed and a 2GB stick at 12800mhz speed, not only will you throttle your RAM, you might also cause those blue screens. It should tell you right on the sticker what speed your RAM is. If you're going to get RAM with different speeds, you want to get it as close to each other as possible. -Akuzimo
Huh...interesting. I didn't see that posting, but I did see this one. This guy had the same problem I do. http://www.gskill.us/forum/showthread.php?t=10179 By the way, here's the RAM I'm using. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231246 So maybe it's the RAM after all. I think I'll put all 4 modules back in, adjust it down to DDR2-800 4-4-4-12, and see what happens.
