More Awesome Than You!

Probably an incredibly dumb question one way or another, but is there? I had 256 MB RAM, added another 256MB and now my games (sims 2 and civ 4) have crashed the last few times I've tried to play. Once sims crashed to desktop, the other times both games have restarted the computer. 

Could this be because something to do with the RAM or is my computer screwed in some other way? It hasn't crashed doing anything else, just games.

If you have WinXP, you can probably check the Event Logs to see what might be the cause of your crashes. Either Application or System logs might give you an idea.

As far as the RAM goes, I would make sure that the RAM is compatible, with each other, and with your motherboard. You probably know this, but you can just buy any ole RAM and stick it in there, expecting it to work. Something about SIMMS and DIMMS and whatever. Although it is more expensive to do so, for non-computer geeks who don't know much about hardware, it is probably best to upgrade through whomever sold you the PC originally. They have all the specs and should know exactly what you need.

Barring that, you can either rely on a computer geek you know, or take your original RAM and/or user's guide to a store like BestBuy. If your computer is branded, you could most likely look up the specs on the official website for your model.

Ste

The computer geek I know put the RAM in and buggered off to Melbourne  :'(

I will see if I can find event logs and maybe take it back out and see if that helps.

Thanks for your reply.

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EEK my log tells me this:
The driver has detected that device \Device\Harddisk0\DR0 has predicted that it will fail.  Immediately back up your data and replace your hard disk drive. A failure  may be imminent.
 :o

Awfully suspicious it started right after you added more RAM. May be coincidence and your hard disk is indeed headed for imminent death and destruction and woe to you O Earth and Sea (uh, sorry, got a bit carried away there...!), but what might be more possible is RAM incompatibility. There are two things mainly that cause this: different latency timings and/or frequencies. Here's the thing though. In order to find out if it's a matter of incompatibility, you have to open the case and remove the offending stick. Could you do that?

It does sound like ram problem either faulty, not seated properly, or in compatible.  If a computer geek put it in for you then he shouldnt have touched the contacts but thats always a possibility too.

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.

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!

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

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 ;)

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.

I like to simpify my life!  ;D  Next time, go to: http://www.crucial.com/ (http://www.crucial.com/) they have a utility you can download which will tell you exactly what kind of memory your system can support, and what kind of memory you already have...(very important b/c your new memory can only be as fast as your old memory - without creating problems and complicating your life) - then you have the choice of shopping from them, or shopping around!

At least you go into your RAM shopping knowing what your comp can use and handle.

how do you check the ram timing as I have a computer crash issue.