I have a system with 2 sticks of DDR400 RAM, each 512MB. When I run it with only one stick (either one!) installed, it runs fine for weeks. When I run it with both installed, Windows blue-screens within a day. What gives? Any idea what could be causing this?
The box ran just fine for months with both sticks installed, then a couple of months ago it started to blue screen. So I tested it with just one stick (no problems) then just the other (no problems) and then both again (problems). I tried swapping the position of the two sticks, but it still crashed.
I posted here about this a few weeks ago, when I thought the problem might be due to a my installation of Windows. But that doesn't seem likely to me now, since it runs just fine with only 512MB installed.
I also ran memtest overnight with both sticks installed and found no problems. BTW the RAM modules are identical.
My system specs:
- Asus A8V mobo with Via K8T800 Pro
- 1GB (2 x 512) DDR400 RAM
- Athlon XP 3000+ cpu
- ATI Radeon 9600XT videocard
- onboard audio (Realtek AC97)
- Windows XP Professional SP2 (fully patched)
- Boot drive is a partition on a 120GB Western Digital drive running as Master on the 1st IDE channel (a second 120GB WD drive is the slave on this channel)
- 2nd IDE channel master and slave are a Lite-On DVD-ROM drive and a TDK CD-RW burner
- On-board RAID controller running two SATA 320GB WD drives in RAID 1 (mirror)
- Westell DSL modem
- 500 watt Antec SmartPower 2.0 psu
I am wondering if it could be a mobo problem? Something wrong with the second RAM slot? Or could Windows somehow have a problem with 1GB but not 512MB? (A problem it only recently developed?)
I'd love to avoid either buying unnecessary replacement parts or re-installing Windows from scratch if I can avoid either. Maybe I should try running another OS (I have another partition with Linux on it) with both sticks installed to see if it crashes again? Or set up a new blank partition and install WinXP to it as a test?
Thanks.
The box ran just fine for months with both sticks installed, then a couple of months ago it started to blue screen. So I tested it with just one stick (no problems) then just the other (no problems) and then both again (problems). I tried swapping the position of the two sticks, but it still crashed.
I posted here about this a few weeks ago, when I thought the problem might be due to a my installation of Windows. But that doesn't seem likely to me now, since it runs just fine with only 512MB installed.
I also ran memtest overnight with both sticks installed and found no problems. BTW the RAM modules are identical.
My system specs:
- Asus A8V mobo with Via K8T800 Pro
- 1GB (2 x 512) DDR400 RAM
- Athlon XP 3000+ cpu
- ATI Radeon 9600XT videocard
- onboard audio (Realtek AC97)
- Windows XP Professional SP2 (fully patched)
- Boot drive is a partition on a 120GB Western Digital drive running as Master on the 1st IDE channel (a second 120GB WD drive is the slave on this channel)
- 2nd IDE channel master and slave are a Lite-On DVD-ROM drive and a TDK CD-RW burner
- On-board RAID controller running two SATA 320GB WD drives in RAID 1 (mirror)
- Westell DSL modem
- 500 watt Antec SmartPower 2.0 psu
I am wondering if it could be a mobo problem? Something wrong with the second RAM slot? Or could Windows somehow have a problem with 1GB but not 512MB? (A problem it only recently developed?)
I'd love to avoid either buying unnecessary replacement parts or re-installing Windows from scratch if I can avoid either. Maybe I should try running another OS (I have another partition with Linux on it) with both sticks installed to see if it crashes again? Or set up a new blank partition and install WinXP to it as a test?
Thanks.