RAM Upgrade

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Hello

I'm hoping someone might be able to give me some pointers here.

Last night I changed my RAM from 4GB of Corsair to 4GB of Crucial Ballistix (The reason being the Corsair RAM is going into a PC I am building for my brother). Anyhow, everything seemed to go fine, but now when I ever i start the PC up Vista (64bit) takes ages to load, it hangs on the microsoft screen with the progress bar just ticking over, then it takes another age to get onto the vista splash screen. After I eventually log in it can then take a while for all my programs to load, but on other occasions it runs fine. I ran CoD5 last night and that worked without a problem

I havent tried swapping the RAM back yet, thats my next task. I suppose my question is - is this issue being caused by the new RAM or is it coincidentally timed with a problem with my hard drive?

(The MoBo is an Asus Maximus Formula so the RAM is compatible)

Any feedback is much appreciated

Rachael

 

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Quickest way to find out if it is being caused by the new RAM is stick the old stuff back in.

 

Have you tried setting the RAM settings manually in the BIOS ? Does it have the same CAS, CAStoRAS, etc timmings ?

Is the memory properly seated ?

Have you tried running Memtest86 ?

Did you do a complete tidy shutdown of windows prior to boot ?

Might be worth clearing the page file just in case too.

 

Always assume first that the problem is either with the installation or configuration of any new hardware/software. It may not be, but that's where to start troubleshooting.
Swapping back your old RAM is a good first step, i.e. replace with known good components.

 

I ran a test on the RAM and no errors were picked up. I swapped the new RAM out and put the old back in, it ran fine. I put the new RAM back in and it now seems to be fine. Only had chance to reboot a couple of times this morning as had to come to work but its definatley not hanging like it was

As always when something goes wrong its a good learning curve I think what threw me was the fact that once it booted into windows (eventually) it would often work perfectly well.

Thanks for your time

Rachael

 

Not the best idea to suggest messing around with ram timings,especially if you don't tell the person how to recover if they make a single error.
If you mess up one of those settings you may find you'll have to reset the bios just to get the pc back working again.

Auto is perfectly fine and safe,overclockers are the ones who would make fine adjustments to cl settings and the like.

Is this a single 4gb stick of memory?

 

If Serial Presense Detect is implemented on the DIMM's in question and working correctly then yes it should not be required.

It sounds like at least one stick of memory was just not seated correctly and therefore not being detected by the BIOS correctly.

 

Always run MemTest86 after you install new RAM, let it run through for about 6 passes or so to ensure that their are no errors and your RAM is good.

 

Many motherboards don't have that option, and those that do will usually be accessed differently than the method you described. Still, there are other memory utilities that can be used.

Negative - the only time you need a fresh install is when you swap motherboards.

Actually, that's an A+ or MCDST-level question... MCSE questions deal with stuff like AD, DNS, and server administration - not basic desktop administration. ;)

 

Curious, why would you swap 4GB for 4GB? I can only assume that you swapped it to:

A) go from two sticks to one
B) go with memory with a faster clock rate
C) go with memory with faster timings

If A, you could be losing the benefit of dual-channel memory. Using two matched sticks will be faster than a single stick.

If B, you should ensure that the faster clock rate is compatible with your motherboard. You should also ensure that the voltages required by the memory are compatible with your motherboard.

If C, you should ensure that the timings for the new memory are lower, not higher, than the old memory. Lower CAS latency numbers are better than high ones.

 

I was also wondering if you had changed from dual channel to single channel

 

Not necessarily, you can attempt a repair which may work (in case you have data on the hard-drive that you haven't backed up...)


But yeah, fresh install it best.

Qs

 

Do you want to risk the integrity of your data (plus the time spent) on a repair install that may or may not work?

Besides, by the time you're replacing a mobo... you're likely due for a reinstall anyway. ;)

I'm considering doing a repave with 64-bit Vista so I can take advantage of the new memory I bought.

 

Thanks for all the responses.

I am swapping 2x2gb corsair for 2x2gb crucial Ballistix - still dual channel. I suppose slightly selfishly I am buying myself new RAM and giving my brother what I already had - still he will eventually get a new PC at the end of it for free

I chose the ballistix because it had good reviews and was reasonably priced on Novatech and yes your right Michael it has faster timings that the corsair (4-4-4-12)

 

Ensure that the new memory is compatible with your motherboard. Certain models are more picky than others. For example, although I am quite partial to ASUS mobos, I hear that my ASUS P5B is somewhat picky as to which modules it will accept... typically due to voltage considerations.

 

Instead of getting all technical, and swapping and changing this that and the other in the BIOS.......
Has anyone actually suggested to the OP that the BIOS might just need updating???????

 

I was having a quick stab at what I thought might give quick results or allow us to eliminate stuff at least.

Since the OP mentioned it was similar memory then there are only a few possible differences, Chip density, memory timings and voltages, thats why I said to look at the BIOS, I wasn't sure if old memory settings could get cached, apparently this does not happen so yes that was probably bad advice.

Other than that it could be multiple things, the most likely being in my mind :-

1. Incorrectly seated memory.

2. Incompatible memory.

3. Unconnected windows issue causing slow boot ?

I would check the memory is seated correctedly, check all memory is detected in BIOS. Run a full scan on memory with memtest.

Since memory is similar but just faster CAS timings it seems unlikely (but possible) that a BIOS upgrade would make any difference.

Of course the memory could also be faulty but we need the OP to run more tests before we can draw any conclusions.

 

Firstly i am going to apologise to you dmarsh,you got it right.

As bizarrely the original poster is spending money on ram purely because of the timings,it's the sort of wastefull thing i used to do years ago,i grew up a bit after that and questioned this practice of spending hundreds of pounds for tiny differences in goods and realised the rest of the world don't behave like this.

If you ask me today would i buy top quality ram [which they already had done] and then run out to buy much the same ram again ,i'd have to say no, as it is a waste of money really,unless you are a serious overclocker i don't see the point.

Timings is almost a geek subject,the normal person isn't interested in timings,the overclocker is.
At the end of the day it's a small difference, you are not going to get blistering performance by throwing away money like this,the performance difference you will get will be barely even noticeable.It's like asking which hdmi cable do i buy the one at £100 or the one at £10?

To the original poster i'd say learn by my errors,wasting money like this isn't sensible,may'be you will see after a couple of months buying stuff for barely noticeable differences is infact all a con.

I'm not saying avoid a toshiba for example and buy a bush or polaroid or something,that is a different subject,and yes i'd go for a good brand over a rubbish brand.
But you have already began with a great brand of memory,one of the best around.

And if you truely do know timings as a subject,you will have enough knowledge to sort the first problem.
Or are you saying you don't know about timings and bought the ram because it sounded better in the advert?

 

Del_Port - as I mentioned earlier I was buying new RAM anyway for a PC I am building for a family member, I simply chose to put the new RAM in my PC and I'll put the older RAM in the other PC.

As for my original post, as I mentioned I knew I had to swap the RAM out and either re-seat it or swap the old one RAM back in. I simply asked for other people's opinions, if reseating the RAM hadnt worked it would mean I may have other advice from other members which I could follow through when I got back in from work.