Upgraded RAM, Slower performance

[BLOODY-PC]

PC

Gigabyte GA-K8NSNXP-939 Mother, 1 X 512 meg DDR 400 RAM, AMD Athlon 64 3000+ 1.8GHz CPU, Windows Vista Home Premium OS.

 

PROBLEM

PC was running like crap, switching off, running slow, continual beeping every couple of seconds. Put it down to faulty RAM. Was running Windows XP. I purchased a new stick of 1 Gig RAM, installed it and the computer ran even slower. I looked and the PC Perf Specs and it advised RAM was 256 meg???? Put this down to faulty new RAM. Exchanged the RAM and this time the computer still ran slow however the PC Specs showed 1 Gig. Exchanged the RAM 2 more times, same thing.

 

I gave the PC a good clean and got the original 512 RAM running. This then allowed me to install Vista. Put the new 1 Gig RAM back in and the PC runs slow as. Tryed pairing the 512 and 1 Gig, the PC specs showed 1.5 Gig but the PC still ran slow as. The PC has 4 RAM Slots, tryed all configurations, no luck.

 

New RAM was all DDR400

 

WTF is going on???

 

Please help, Regards, Fred.

[Dalo Harkin]

Do you know the manufacturer of the RAM - go to their website and they will tell you timings - then go into the BIOS and check that the timings are correct for your RAM

[BLOODY-PC]

Reply

 

The RAM is Strontium Technology Pty Ltd. They don't have much on there Web Site Strontium.

 

What do you mean by Timings?

[RandyL]

You might want to check out Crucial to look for the right RAM.

[BLOODY-PC]

Had a look at Crucial, I think the RAM is OK, 1GB PC400 HYNIX STRONTIUM

[Tony D]

I'm not saying that you don't have a RAM problem, but a slow computer can be caused by other things. How did you determine it was faulty RAM? If you determined that the 512 MB RAM was bad, then why are you still using it?

 

To determine the amonut of RAM needed, I go to the Task Manager and look in the Performance tab. It tells you how much RAM is needed. It the amount reported is greater than what's installed, then you need to get more RAM.

 

To determine if RAM is faulty, use memtest86 available here: Memtest86 - Download Page.

 

Your computer may be running slow if it has malware or if the hard drive is failing.

[BLOODY-PC]

The computer was beeping with a fault code (1 sec beep, 2 sec gap, 1 sec beep etc). I spoke to friends (Comp savy) and computer shops, thay all seemed to think it was a RAM problem. Either bad RAM or bad connection in the RAM socket. Once I cleaned up the computer components (all bits) the old RAM worked.

 

Don't you think it is strange how the computer works fine but slow now. Yet with bigger RAM it runs much slower??

 

I have Malware protection (Windows, AVG, Zonealarm)and have just installed the new OS removing all my old files. Shes a reg copy of Windows so I am able to get reg security updates.

 

I had a look at the Perf Tab, great little device, It is using around the 440mb constantly, Total 510, Cached 150, Free 0. This is with just the basic programs running.

 

The thing that gets me is it runs faster on less RAM!!!

 

 

I will download the Memtest86 but I believe the initial problems were dirt/dust and bad socket connections.

 

Thanks, Fred.

[Dalo Harkin]

It's not a case of more RAM is better - if you have 2 sticks of RAM and they are both different speeds - the PC will run at the slower memorys speed.

you could have the fastest RAM you can get but paired with some slow RAM it will all run slow -

if you have tried the newer memory on it's own and it's still no faster then there is a problem elsewhere.

Timings are what the memory runs at and some motherboards underclock the RAM so that the PC will run (resulting in slower performance)

if you can find what timings the RAM should be at e.g 5-5-5-15-42 and they are at say 5-5-5-18-32 then that's most PROBABLY the problem - to find the memory timings in the BIOS, when the PC boots press whatever button it says at startup to enter the BIOS (usually F3,F8 or F10)

and there will be an option called memory timings and will list numbers like I put above with dashes - write them down (if you change, you can put back) and compare them to what the manufacturer recommends.

[BLOODY-PC]

Can not find the PC's Memory Timings anywhere in BIOS. Is this because I'm running Vista?

[Dalo Harkin]

No its nothing to do with the Operating System - the BIOS is before the OS kicks in.

might be under advanced settings or overclocking options

[BLOODY-PC]

All sorted gents, just had to upgrade the BIOS.

[Dalo Harkin]

Glad to hear it :D

I hope that the BIOS update was a windows based one - the DOS ones are a pain in the a*se unless you have done them before :)