Software Crashing..

Discussion in 'General Hardware' started by ProcalX, Jun 25, 2004.

  1. ProcalX

    ProcalX all grown up

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    When i actually get time i like to have a good old game of CS.. but recently when i try to play STEAM: Counter-Strike i get random crashes, it freezes for about 2 seconds, then it cuts back to the desktop, i get a memory error message..

    now i have a dual channel DDR system: running:

    2 x Corsair XMS pc3200 cl2.5
    1 x Kingston pc3200 cl3

    now i know u said that nforce boards can be picky with cl3, and also with different brands of memory being used in dual. however i have talked to the UK tech support for gigabit and they say it should have no problem running different brands in dual..

    i've had my setup installed for around 3 weeks now and this has only being happening over the last week really..

    my page file is set to windows managed, (changing it didn't make a difference)

    basically at the moment.. i am thinking that because i only have 1 Kingston chip, and 2 Corsair, the Kingston is having to run in Dual with the corsair..

    do u think it would be wise to buy another chip of Kingston exactly the same and have 2 Kingston in dual and 2 Corsair on dual instead of: 1 Corsair & 1 Kingston in dual and 1 Corsair By itself, due to the fact my board has 4 memory slots i have to run the 2 different brands in dual at the moment.
     
  2. ninja fetus

    ninja fetus I'm a thugged out gangsta

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    Put the matching corsair into the dual channel and have the kingston into the seperate slot. that should fix, if it doesnt post it up. *might wanna try re installing/repairing steam if all else fails
     
  3. harrack52

    harrack52 Supreme Geek

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    Let me explain something about dual channel.

    Your memory either works in dual channel or it doesn't. It's not a question of which sticks working together and another working alone.

    The way it works is that your memory slots are separated. In your case, you have 2 pairs of two slots.

    This means that one pair is on one channel and the other pair is on the other channel.

    So having 2 sticks (regardless of the brand) on one channel and one on the other means that the total amount of memory on one channel works on that channel and the total amount of memory on the other channel works on that given channel.

    Basically what it means is that regardless of how many sticks you have, what is important here is the total amount of memory on each of the channels. You can have 512mb on one and 256mb on the other but that doesn't mean that only 512mb (256 on each side) is working in dual channel and that the other 256 works alone.

    I hope it was clear enough but it probably wasn't since I'm horrible when it comes to explaining myself.

    Now on to your problem I would definitely try every single combination of memory config to see if it change anything (one stick, 2 sticks, 3 sticks, both corsairs together, 1 kingston with one corsair, testing every slot, etc).

    Also, since you have Corsair memory, you have to set the DIMM voltage at 2.7V , instead of the default which is 2.5V. Kingston works in 2.5V so that may cause problems. It IS an issue as I've experienced it since I bought some CVS (Corsair Value Select)

    You can also test your memory using memtest86. If you get any errors, it means your memory is bad and you should change it right away.
     
  4. ProcalX

    ProcalX all grown up

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    right how do i go about increasing the DIMM voltage? my motherboard allows me to increase the voltages via the bios however.. only in percentages.. like 5% 10% 20% e.t.c..
     
  5. harrack52

    harrack52 Supreme Geek

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    You will have to go in "Frequency/Voltage control"

    Then set the "DIMM OverVoltage Control" at + 0.2V
     
  6. Anti-Trend

    Anti-Trend Nonconformist Geek

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    Just a thought, but memory errors in Windows are not always related to RAM. It could in fact be that your HDD is having problems, and as a result your swapfile is becoming corrupted. Or possibly even a corrupted system file. I'd check out harrack52's advice and try Memtest86. This is something you probably want to do overnight, since it takes hours to do a complete memory test, especially on that much RAM. Once you're complete with your RAM test, at least you'll know one way or another about whether your memory is even the issue.
     

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