Tech Support Forum - View Single Post - 2GB RAM in P4C800-E Deluxe?

pzwovr633 · 10-17-2004, 03:42 PM

My specs:
Alienware AREA-51 (480W PSU)
ASUS P4C800-E Deluxe
Pentium 4 3.4GHz HyperThreading enabled
4 x 512MB Corsair XMS PC3200LL
Creative SoundBlaster Audigy Gamer 2
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5900XT 128MB
Windows XP SP2
WD 120GB HD (PATA)
Seagate 160G (SATA)
USB Maxtor One Touch backup drive 160G
ASUS DVD-ROM
Lite-On CD-R/W

Ok I have several questions.

I had similar concerns upgrading from 1GB to 2GB RAM. I decided my best bet was to stick with buying from Alienware, even though it was more expensive. To make a long story short, a month later I am still having problems. Next time, I'll be buying from Newegg.com or other online stores, and save some money. Alienware did not even provide me with new RAM, they gave me returned RAM (out of box, had colored dot stickers on them indicating tests were done to approve them). The RAM did not have errors but caused the system to crash when used by itself, or in conjunction with the working RAM originally installed in the system.

Ok here's the problem now. Alienware sent me brand new RAM this time, and it works by itself just fine. However when using both the new RAM and the old, (2GB total) my system becomes unstable.

Rarely what will occur is a blue screen indicating PFN_List corrupt. Which indicates a problem with the memory being read.

What is more frequent is that a particular online game that I play, will crash, or will freeze up. Sometimes it freezes my entire computer so I can't even CTRL ALT DEL out, or reboot. I have to reboot via the switch on the case.

With Farcry, gunfire sounds will remain occasionally in intensive battle scenes. If there are a lot of mercs firing at me, occasionally a merc I kill will still be firing his gun. That is, the gunfire sound will remain but everything else will behave normally (merc dies, no gunfire graphics). Removing either of the pair of 512MB DIMMS and running with just 1GB, does not result in this problem. So it seems it's a memory issue. Farcry never freezes up unlike the online game that I play.

Lastly, the reason I am using 2GB RAM is that I run 3 instances of the online game, and each use 333MB of memory.

I tried bumping the voltage to 2.75, and it had no effect.

Again, I'm using Corsair XMS PC3200LL memory (low latency). 1GB installed always works fine, yet 2GB causes these problems. What steps could I perform to troubleshoot this issue?

10-17-2004, 03:42 PM	#15 (permalink)
pzwovr633 Registered User Join Date: Sep 2004 Posts: 4 OS: Windows XP Home	My specs: Alienware AREA-51 (480W PSU) ASUS P4C800-E Deluxe Pentium 4 3.4GHz HyperThreading enabled 4 x 512MB Corsair XMS PC3200LL Creative SoundBlaster Audigy Gamer 2 NVIDIA GeForce FX 5900XT 128MB Windows XP SP2 WD 120GB HD (PATA) Seagate 160G (SATA) USB Maxtor One Touch backup drive 160G ASUS DVD-ROM Lite-On CD-R/W Ok I have several questions. I had similar concerns upgrading from 1GB to 2GB RAM. I decided my best bet was to stick with buying from Alienware, even though it was more expensive. To make a long story short, a month later I am still having problems. Next time, I'll be buying from Newegg.com or other online stores, and save some money. Alienware did not even provide me with new RAM, they gave me returned RAM (out of box, had colored dot stickers on them indicating tests were done to approve them). The RAM did not have errors but caused the system to crash when used by itself, or in conjunction with the working RAM originally installed in the system. Ok here's the problem now. Alienware sent me brand new RAM this time, and it works by itself just fine. However when using both the new RAM and the old, (2GB total) my system becomes unstable. Rarely what will occur is a blue screen indicating PFN_List corrupt. Which indicates a problem with the memory being read. What is more frequent is that a particular online game that I play, will crash, or will freeze up. Sometimes it freezes my entire computer so I can't even CTRL ALT DEL out, or reboot. I have to reboot via the switch on the case. With Farcry, gunfire sounds will remain occasionally in intensive battle scenes. If there are a lot of mercs firing at me, occasionally a merc I kill will still be firing his gun. That is, the gunfire sound will remain but everything else will behave normally (merc dies, no gunfire graphics). Removing either of the pair of 512MB DIMMS and running with just 1GB, does not result in this problem. So it seems it's a memory issue. Farcry never freezes up unlike the online game that I play. Lastly, the reason I am using 2GB RAM is that I run 3 instances of the online game, and each use 333MB of memory. I tried bumping the voltage to 2.75, and it had no effect. Again, I'm using Corsair XMS PC3200LL memory (low latency). 1GB installed always works fine, yet 2GB causes these problems. What steps could I perform to troubleshoot this issue? Last edited by pzwovr633; 10-17-2004 at 03:45 PM.