Is there any reason adding more RAM to my computer would make it crash my games?
J. M. Pescado:
If your computer crashes due to added RAM, I suggest checking your RAM timing. New RAMs often have faster refresh and response times, and if you simply autodetect them, your computer may be using the response time stats for your new, faster RAMs, causing your old RAMs to be unable to keep up and thus fail under stress. Check the CAS latency times for your new and old RAMs, and make sure you operate at the speed of the slowest.
This tends to happen if you put 2 ns RAMs into a system formerly using 3 ns rams, the old RAMs can't keep up, return faulty results, and crash your computer. You may have to manually set the timings back to the speed of the slowest RAM so that they don't bug out.
dusty:
I fiddled with the latency settings things (which was kind of a stretch for me - much googling) and it does seem to be okay now. Thanks!
blubug:
I was having the same problem until 2 hours ago, I wish I could have read this 3 weeks ago (which obviously didn't exist, I know) so I could figure out why my pc was crashing randomly. Or I wish I could've read this 2 hours ago before I reformatted my C: drive and reinstalled windows for the 4th time in a few weeks (bad installation cd's are bad, m'kay) and finally had the same problem again and figured my new ram could be the problem. Sheesh.
So now I don't have to return it to the shop? I can still have more RAM?
By the way, I kept getting 'windows crashed because of an unknown device driver error', but I got that message even when I had just installed windows. (no drivers, not even the graphics driver yet) When I took the newest ram out, I didn't get any more error messages. (but I did install the display drivers in between)
I had a 512MB 333DDR ram and added 512MB DDR400 6 months ago with no problems, then I got another 512MB 3 weeks ago, also DDR400, of the same make, kingston. (Then my PC went berzerk. Then I deleted a system file and had to reinstall windows from a faulty cd.)
I never knew about timings though, guess you live and learn, and get frustrated a lot. Dusty, do you have any google successes you can recommend, I can try that. :D
Marvin Kosh:
All I can say is, it makes sense to buy your matching memory at the same time.
If you have two practically identical sticks of RAM then the only issue that will crop up is that it costs more to replace them when the time comes, but one assumes that if you buy the fastest RAM that your mobo can handle, you should only need to upgrade when either you can afford higher-capacity RAM (in which case getting two RAM sticks of the higher capacity makes sense) or when you buy a new mobo entirely, in which case you might not be able to use your old RAM anyway.
The other advantage in buying matching RAM is that should a fault shortly develop with one stick, you can send it back and make do with one.
Here endeth the waffle ;)
blubug:
You're absolutely right, I did think about that when I bought the first 512MB add on. I simply thought it would be enough. I got ddr400, because 333 was more expensive, silly as nobody would want it anymore. I was sort of scared of buying 1gb at once. Now the 400DDR is even cheaper than when I bought it, I wish I'd waited a few more months until I had the money. Maybe I'll get rid of the 333DDR if I have to get rid of one of them. Or just change the timings, which I'm not sure how to yet.
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