Ram upgrade = HDD fail?

D

dj saturn

New Member
please help, new here.
ok here we go...
MOBO: asus p5kpl-cm (socket 775 ddr2 4gb max)
cpu: pentium D 960 (3.6ghz dual core)
RAM: 2 x 2gb corsair ddr2 800 OR 2 x 1 gb corsair ddr2 800
video: geforce 9800 gtx+
OS: windowns 7
HDD: sata caviar 300 gb
PSU: 750 Watt Rocketfish

PROBLEM: I just got new ram today, the 2 2gb corsairs and put em in with excitement however, i noticed that i could hear my sata drive spinning loudly which it usually doesnt. The ram worked ok until i did tasks that used up the hdd alot i guess like defragging, copying, it gave me blue screens. So i switched back to my old ram a 2 pair of 1gb corsair and the problem was solved with the HDD causing crashes, but I want my memory upgraded! i ran memtest on the ram and I stopped it at 50% it had no errors so far. im going to run the test overnight but i was hoping for some help before that.

So what i also tried was 1gb stick in first slot and 2gb in second slot for a total of 3 gb and its working out so far no probs.

But when i ran the windows experiance index test thing, it lowered my score by .1 for memory when i had 3 gb opposed to 2 gb of ram.

any suggestions would be appreciated, thanks for reading that long post!
 
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If you have 4 ram slots chances are you can do dual channel. 2gb in dual channel is faster than 3gb normal. Use the 2 corsair sticks ONLY and see if you get an errors. (by the way, are they the XMS2? I have exactly the same)

If you get crashes and bsod's use 1 corsair stick at a time and determine if one is faulty. then you can get it replaced.
 
thanks for the quick response.

its only 2 slots but supports 2x2gb sticks
(i checked compatibility and it shud work)

yeah its XMS

right now i got a 1gb in the first slot and a 2gb in the second slot and no probs so far but i was hoping to use 4gb total...

even though 3.5 is only gonna be used but thats besides the point.

do you or anyone for that matter, think that if i switched to an IDE drive there wouldnt be a problem? I would basically clone the drive over but that takes a while and wouldnt not wanna do all that preferably

but if worse comes to worse.. u know
 
When you installed the two new sticks, did you make sure the voltage and timing was correct? If they are not change them manually in the bios.
 
yeah Ive tried even setting a slightly higher voltage (under 2.3v) and updating the bios and no luck.

the only things i havent tried that im aware of is .. .

  • underclocking cpu
  • trying a different HDD
  • upgrading PSU

I forgot to add that i have a 750 watt psu so it shudnt be a prob.
 
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i changed the timing from auto to 800 and it did the same thing.

i guess im going to have to stick with having 3 gb ram.

ACTUALLY...

will programs open faster and run more efficiently with 2gb ram in *dual-layer mode (sorry i dont remember what its called)

rather than a 1x2gb + 1x1gb memory sticks?
 
Dual channel. And technically yes, things should run faster in dual channel. Though some boards offer asynchronous dual channel which allows for different types of RAM to be installed (IE 2GB+1GB sticks). Performance is still less than more standard synchronous dual channel (two identical sticks.

Short answer, two identical sticks is the way to go if possible :P
 
dj saturn said:
will programs open faster and run more efficiently with 2gb ram in *dual-layer mode (sorry i dont remember what its called)
Click to expand...

Will the application be faster? It depends on what it does. Unless it needs to use vast amount of bandwidth, you won't really notice it.

Will it start faster? Well, if you need to load it from the harddrive into memory, the slowest part sets the speed (the harddrive).
 
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