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Story: Had vista, changed out ram with some cheap stuff. It was advertised as 4gigs, but the computer could only use 2.6gigs. Weird. Then, month later, getting blue screens and freezing. Transfered all important data to external HD, then wiped, formatted into 4 partitions, and put XP SP1 on. Downloaded SP2. Going good again, games and internet all run. Randomly both the video and audio drivers die. Reinstall those. Going good again, then blue screens and freezing. Once I get those, I just turn off my computer and leave it for a week. When I come on again, things works fine for ~2-3 days. Then, back to those problems.

Run every anti virus anti spam anti everything I can find that's recommended by you guys. Nothing.

I'm thinking faulty ram.

You?

ecko_66 wrote:Story: Had vista, changed out ram with some cheap stuff. It was advertised as 4gigs, but the computer could only use 2.6gigs. Weird. Then, month later, getting blue screens and freezing. Transfered all important data to external HD, then wiped, formatted into 4 partitions, and put XP SP1 on. Downloaded SP2. Going good again, games and internet all run. Randomly both the video and audio drivers die. Reinstall those. Going good again, then blue screens and freezing. Once I get those, I just turn off my computer and leave it for a week. When I come on again, things works fine for ~2-3 days. Then, back to those problems.

Run every anti virus anti spam anti everything I can find that's recommended by you guys. Nothing.

I'm thinking faulty ram.

You?

What version of XP and/or Vista do you have? 32-bit, right? Get 64-bit. That will allow all of the RAM to be recognized by the system.

What model and brand of RAM did you buy? When buying essential components like RAM, video cards, hard drives, power supplies... cheap is usually an indicator of very low build quality. Branding does mean a lot in the tech world.

What are the other specs on your system and how old is it?

Correction Xp Sp3 32 Bit. I'll look into 64 bit.

About a year ago $20 was a good deal for 4gigs (2x2gigs). This is what I purchased, but I'm not 100% sure because the price is so high!

http://www.crucial.com/store/partspecs. ... 25664AA80A

Other specs (I'm not exactly sure what you're asking for, so here's some basics:)

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4400+
2.32 GHz
3.50 GB Ram

My computer is 3 years old.

So further analysis: The computer just crashed while playing BF2142, so I decided to take the RAM out to answer your question. Surprisingly, it was very hot, almost too hot to hold. So, I took one out and left the other in, turned on the computer, registered 2.0gb of ram. Same deal with the other one. While I didn't time it, the computer was on about the same amount of time, just for me to check how much ram was registered, but one module was significantly hotter than the other. Then, I moved both pieces from the black inlets to the blue, which are closer to the main CPU fan. I turned on the computer, did some opening and closing of big files to put it through the paces, and turned the computer off. The ram, while still hot, wasn't as bad.

Can a system freeze if the ram overheats?

Thanks for all your help so far!

A system can freeze if anything overheats. I don't know if a BSOD could do it.

You are going to have to download a program and burn it to a CD. If you can't use a CD, there's an installer for USB drives.

Anyway, go here: http://www.memtest.org/#downiso

Download either the ISO file or the USB installer. Burn the ISO to a disk. Put the CD in your computer and shut it down. Reboot. The system should recognize the disk and load from it. The application you downloaded will test your RAM for errors. Use a real camera to take a picture of the screen once it is done, please.

ecko_66 wrote:So further analysis: The computer just crashed while playing BF2142, so I decided to take the RAM out to answer your question. Surprisingly, it was very hot, almost too hot to hold.

Always let your computer cool down after having issues. Learned that one the hard way a long time ago.

Okay so I'm having some trouble with the memory tester program - I burn just (insert name).iso to the CD, and then on boot set the CD drive to priority, however it doesn't boot from there. I'm still looking into it, however my computer is having a bad spell of freezes and I can't get it to operate for more than 5 minutes. Any further research is being done on my laptop.

My motherboard is disappointing - there isn't any auxiliary ports for more fans that could cool the ram. This got my friend thinking that I should move my processor and HD over to another motherboard I have laying around. He says that there could be short somewhere in the current motherboard thats causing it, and also the other MB's I have laying around have more than enough fan ports. Could I test for a short?

Thanks for all the help, and I'm still working on getting the memory tester to work. I don't need to test the ram in my computer, correct? Just any other DDR2 type computer...

ecko_66 wrote:My motherboard is disappointing - there isn't any auxiliary ports for more fans that could cool the ram. This got my friend thinking that I should move my processor and HD over to another motherboard I have laying around. He says that there could be short somewhere in the current motherboard thats causing it, and also the other MB's I have laying around have more than enough fan ports. Could I test for a short?

There are lots of in-line fan setups that can use an in-line power source, such as THIS one. Still, that's some red-hot RAM. If it isn't already fried then you need to super cool it from here on out. When I got really desperate I took my household box fan that I used to blow on me while I sleep, opened up the side panel on my case and had the fan blow air into the case every day until my extra fans arrived. I put the fan right smack up against the case. It's ugly, but it works. Given the fact that your RAM is hot to the touch there may be a voltage issue, and that will more than likely lead to bigger issues. For now you need to ultra-cool the machine until you get things figured out.

Teancum wrote:There are lots of in-line fan setups that can use an in-line power source, such as THIS one. Still, that's some red-hot RAM. If it isn't already fried then you need to super cool it from here on out. When I got really desperate I took my household box fan that I used to blow on me while I sleep, opened up the side panel on my case and had the fan blow air into the case every day until my extra fans arrived. I put the fan right smack up against the case. It's ugly, but it works. Given the fact that your RAM is hot to the touch there may be a voltage issue, and that will more than likely lead to bigger issues. For now you need to ultra-cool the machine until you get things figured out.

Thanks for the link, I'll have to get one or find out what's what voltage wise - I'm pretty handy with a soldier.

Voltage issues? Am I assuming correctly in thinking that all DDR2 ram works in all DDR2 sockets? Or are there different voltage requirements from ram to ram? Can you elaborate?

You're correct, I'm just saying that poor manufacturing (if the board is indeed the problem) could have caused a trace to allow too much voltage to the RAM chip, making it hot. Are all the chips hot, or just one?

Big question, who makes the motherboard and is it capable of using 4 gig of ram? You say only 2.6 is recognized. Do you still have the old ram chips? Does the computer work any better if you put those back in (athough memory stealing Windows 7 may bog it down)

FragMe! wrote: (athough memory stealing Windows Vista may bog it down)

fixed

7 doesnt really steal ram like vista does.

Teancum wrote:You're correct, I'm just saying that poor manufacturing (if the board is indeed the problem) could have caused a trace to allow too much voltage to the RAM chip, making it hot. Are all the chips hot, or just one?

Both are hot. Another thing - even with the side panel open and a large fan blowing all heat away, the computer still froze. It's getting me thinking - I know it will freeze 5-30 minutes after I turn the computer on, is there a program that monitors and saves all actions that happen? Theoretically, if it's a software bug, whatever happened last, if it was 'saved' in time before the computer because unresponsive, would allude to what's wrong.

Edit: I'm a slight idiot. One of the ram pieces was sitting in the slot but not pushed in. So, when I have time I'll try to get my computer to freeze again, using the other piece.

FragMe! wrote:Big question, who makes the motherboard and is it capable of using 4 gig of ram? You say only 2.6 is recognized. Do you still have the old ram chips? Does the computer work any better if you put those back in (athough memory stealing Windows 7 may bog it down)

Motherboard - While there aren't any marking I can see, I believe it is a Foxconn G33m02 mATX. It says 3.5 is installed, while when each ram chip is installed by it's self they register as 2.0, respectively. However, in some menu I read that only 2.6 was being used, when both were installed. The old chips are in my dad's computer, and he's not willing to give those up. Bad situation.

501st_commander wrote:

FragMe! wrote: (athough memory stealing Windows Vista may bog it down)

fixed

7 doesnt really steal ram like vista does.

I had vista, then I came across these problems, and 'downgraded' to XP, sp3. XP is more stable than vista or 7, IMO. However, this stability is not great on my computer, no matter what the operating system!

P.S. - I have an inspiron 531.

Right click on my computer then properties that will show processor speed and amount of ram the computer detects

Sorry guys, I haven't had any time to work on this due to unexpected real life stuff, but I really appreciate all the responses! When I have time and success, or most likely more questions, I post back! Thanks!

Update -

Been doing some research, I'm thinking now that I have 2 problems. First, my PSU is busted. Second, the Ram settings aren't correct. To solve problem one, I obviously need to go out a buy a new one. Problem two is more difficult - the current bios I have doesn't let me change voltage settings or anything advanced, even with the 'ctrl+F1' trick. So, I'm trying to upgrade my bios. For that I need to know what my motherboard is. For that, I'm using the Sandra program, and although it gets stuck analyzing the PSU efficiency, the incomplete report might contain what I need.

As a side note, I took out my processor to see what pin configuration it was, and it was hotter than the Ram. As a test, I let the processor cool, and reinstalled it but did not put the processor fan back on. I turned on the computer, and by the time I entered BIOS, the processor was extremely hot. I'm assuming this isn't normal.

So the question of the day is: If a component doesn't have enough power, will it heat up? Or is it the other way around.

Thanks!

ecko_66 wrote:
So the question of the day is: If a component doesn't have enough power, will it heat up? Or is it the other way around.

0.o No it won't heat up much, but it may act very strangely and cause errors. Since your system is 32bit, it will only ever use 2.6 gigs of RAM so don't worry about some not appearing.

sim-al2 wrote:
0.o No it won't heat up much, but it may act very strangely and cause errors. Since your system is 32bit, it will only ever use 2.6 gigs of RAM so don't worry about some not appearing.

Okay, makes sense.

Update - Installed an updated Bios, didn't 'un-grey' the options in BIOS, so I'm stuck. I know from what the sandra program analyzed that my ram is not at the right voltage, mhz, and that other thing (4-4-4-12)

Also, I managed to install a new PSU. The ram isn't heating up, but the computer still freezes, although less often.

Everyone says to check the motherboard manual. Looking around for the manual.