Hi all,

I'm encountering a weard problem

I recently installed a new system with the following specs

- cpu: Core2Duo 6750
- mobo : Asus P5K
- memory : OCZ PC2 6400
- graka : ASUS 8800GT
- soundcard : Sounblaster X-FI xtreme gamer

- OS : windows XP SP2 32bit

When I'm using 2GB of RAM my systems runs very stable. I can play every game (COD4, BF2, CRYSIS,...)
The problem is that when I'm installing more than 2GB of memory my systems crashes with a BSOD when playing games.

I have tried using 3gb's of ram (with the 3rd gb in either free slot) and even tried 4GB (with new RAM so that I'm sure that 3rd ram was not defect) so that all memory slots are filled up. But I still get the same result.

I have been looking at the minidumps but it seems that every time it's a different process that causes the BSOD. (I have included the dump files)

Does anybody has a clue as to what could be the problem. I would to use my extra gig of RAM without crashin in games...

Thx!
dBaser

XP is a 32 bit OS. It will not recognize 4 gigs of RAM and will not utilize 4 gigs of RAM. The same goes for Vista Home Premium because that also is a 32 bit system. If I am not mistaken, XP will recognize 3 gigs, but I am not sure how much of an improvement you'll get. Most people run XP, including gamers, with 2 gigs.

Also, do your RAM sticks match, i.e., are they compatible?

In addition, ASUS boards are well known for being notoriously picky about the RAM it will work with. Go to their website, look up your motherboard, and see what Memory is suggested for your motherboard.

XP 64 and Vista Ultimate will recognize and utilize 4 gigs of RAM.

That being said, two of your 4 minidumps point to memory corruption. I strongly suggest a) take out the two additional gigs of RAM and see if stability is regained and 2) run MemTest to see if indeed you have faulty RAM. Run it with a minimum of 7 passes. If you get errors then run each stick individually to see if one or how ever many are corrupted.

I would advise you to upgrade you VGA(Video Graphic Array) to something better than what you have now.

Hi,

@Patrickja2007: upgrading my VGA-card?? The ASUS 8800GT card is one of the newest cards and is only performing 3% less that ASUS's top card 8800GTX. The card itself is more than powerfull enough for what I want to do...
But thx for the suggestion anyway

@Route44
I know that XP 32bit will only see 3GB of RAM... So I know it's a bit overkill right now. I have the 4GB already in place for when I switch to Vista 64 but I'm still waiting a little bit.
I checked the ASUS website for the QVL and my type of memory is listed so that should not be a problem.

I will run a memtest to see if my memory is corrupt but i doubt that this is the case.
First of all, my system runs perfectly fine with the 2GB of ram. I can game on for several hours without crashing. So I don't think that my current RAM is bad.
I first added one extra gig. But when that crashed, I swapped to 2 completely RAM DIMMS so it would be very odd that these new gigs are also bad. Nevertheless, I will run the memtest to rule out that possibility as well.

I'm thinking to install VISTA 64 in dual boot to see if VISTA has the same problem...

Any more suggestions?

Thx already for the reply!!!

Could be a BIOS thing. Just tossing out ideas when ideas come to mind...