Windows XP Random Restars (after upgrading RAM)

[Armor3dOrange]

Hi everyone.
I upgraded my system's ram a couple of days ago and ever since then, my computer has been restarting randomly every ten or twenty minutes.

System Specs:
2.8ghz Intel P4
Windows XP Pro
ATi Radeon 9800 Pro
Maxtor Sata 150 300gb HD
500 watt PSU
2x512mb Kybte Ram
2x512mb OCZ Ram (upgrade)

My motherboard has 6 slots total (for dual channel ram). 3 slots in each pair.

After researching the problem a bit myself, I'm think there is something up with the new RAM I've installed. I gone ahead and disabled something under System Properties in Windows that prevents the computer from restarting whenever there is a fatal error. Instead I'm taken to window's blue screen of death and receive the error: "DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL"

I took the liberty to go ahead and run Microsoft's Windows Memory Diagnostic Tool (I created a bootable diskette).

When I first ran the test, that is with all four sticks seated on my motherboard, test 4 and test 5 failed every pass, LRAND and Stride6 respectively.

I then tested each RAM module individually and much to my surprise, each individual RAM module succeeded on every test on multiple passes.

I tested each individual slot on my motherboard by running the same test with a known working RAM module individually on each slot. Again, everything worked out fine.

I tested my dual channel K-byte RAM by itself on slots 1 and slots 4 (first slot of each pair). No problems here.

I did the same thing with my OCZ dual channel RAM and again no problems.

When I combine both kits, as in when I have all 4 modules running togethers, thats when my RAM ends up failing the memory tests.

I'm finding all this quite strange. Any idea on what could be happening?

 

[Armor3dOrange]

I forgot to mention this but...
All my ram modules are PC-3200, DDR400.

 

[xXxZxXx]

I think your problem is coming from the differences in the ram and how it has to be put in. Refer to your motherboard manual.

 

[Tedster]

https://www.techspot.com/vb/topic65114.html

 

[Bruce2]

It is ok to mix rams not as said in the ram help thread Tedster provided.

Provided that the rams are compatible to the computer, you need to install the slower rams on the lower bank slot so the computer detects it first.

Your problem seems very likely to be the voltage is insufficient for all the ram sticks you put in together. You need to go to your bios and make adjustment according to spec of the rams.

I might just try a pair of 1 Gig for less then $50 instead.

 

[Tedster]

no - it's not ok to mix rams. At best it might work, but the new ram will be clocked down to the slower ram speed. At worst, you will have system failure and BSODs.

 

[Eddy Rassy]

Hi everyone.
I upgraded my system's ram a couple of days ago and ever since then, my computer has been restarting randomly every ten or twenty minutes.

Armor3dOrange
I had exactly the same problem like you 3 days ago (random restarts) and I did all the ram tests and nothing showed up as bad.
when I looked at the hardware monitor I noticed that the DRAM voltage was red and above 2.80 volts which is not normal. all other voltages were green. I kept testing until the system failed completely.
I took out the power supply, tested it and there you go there was no power. I replaced the power supply and eveything is back to normal. It seems there was a failure in the overvoltage protection circuit that pumped higher voltage to the ram modules and the power supply finally failed
You may want to try a different Power supply. but check all the voltages if your system has hardware monitor
Good luck

 

[tweakboy]

It's a ram issue. Try changing their placement. Make sure they are not OCed in the BIOS. If still problems, run memtest , and that should find errors.. Well see, hopefully not. But ya I smell RMA in your near future!!! lol