My PC is driving me mad!

[Glittery_Princess]

Hi all, a while back i had problems using the DR client and i got 1 gig of ram put in my pc to help - and it has - but the PC crashes LOADS now. Usually i have to restart around 4/5 times when i turn it on until it finally works. It just freezes up randomly, can be 5 minutes after i turn it on to an hour after etc. It usually starts with the windows freezing, but i can still move the mouse, but after i click on something the mouse will freeze too, and then usually the computer tower beeps randomly.

Could it be freezing because of the new ram? I also just got the new McAfee AntiVirus stuff so it shouldnt be a virus.

I cant win - freezes without the ram, freezes with the ram

 

[confused]

Have you got matching ram and whats the rest of the spec of the computer, might be something else thats wrong?

 

[Overdriven]

Complete specc?
OS?
Are you sure it's plugged in?

 

[Glittery_Princess]

Well i got it fitted in PC World since i dont know a thing about computers and the guy picked the one for my PC so he should have picked the right one

Atm i have:

Pentium 4
3.2 GHz Processor
1Gb Ram
ATI Radeon 9200 SE 128 MB DDR
160GB 7200 rpm Hard Disk

Probably told u too much info but i have no clue about computers at all!

When it eventually decides to work it works fine - it just seems to be VERY tempremental - but its driving me crazy

 

[Ingafgrinn Macabre]

Probably told u too much info but i have no clue about computers at all!

There's no such thing as too much info
Infact which you said actually doesn't say much. It's the computer equivalent of
I've got a car,
It's three meters long,
got 4 wheels
a towing hook
steeringwheel


But since you said that you don't know much about pc's I can't blame you

I think it's an incompatibility between your ram and your motherboard though.

what I'd like to know is:
Power Suppy Unit: Brand - Type
Ram: Brand - Type - number of sticks
Motherboard: Brand - Type

About the ram, it's probably printed somewhere on the receipt the bloke gave you at PC world and the rest of the info is probably written somewhere on the receipt of the computer itself.

Also, what you could do is:
Go to http://www.memtest.org/
Download that program (http://www.memtest.org/#downiso)
you'll probably want the "Download - Pre-Compiled Bootable ISO (.zip)" link

 

[Ingafgrinn Macabre]

Nerf 10minute timer...

Also, what you could do is:
Go to http://www.memtest.org/
Download that program (http://www.memtest.org/#downiso)
you'll probably want the "Download - Pre-Compiled Bootable ISO (.zip)" link

burn the ISO image in that zip file on a CD. (don't copy the file to a CD, burning an image is slightly different from burning files to a cd. There's most likely someone in your neighburhood that knows how to)

restart your pc with that CD in your computer and make sure your pc boots from that CD (you won't see windows booting up if it works correctly).
If while running the tests (shows at the top-right) a lot of error lines show up in the middle part of the screen, your ram is bad.

 

[Fana]

Does indeed sound like faulty or incompatible ram. I had similar problems with this machine when i built it, and it turned out it was due to me being cheap and buying shit quality ram that the motherboard didnt like (although the ram wasnt broken as such). Upgraded to some better brand memory and problems went away.

 

[Coolan]

if its ram from pcworld the likelyhood is its the correct speed, but they only do 2 major types, pny memory, and there own brand which both types arnt great, iirc the cas timer on the pny is 3, and there own brand 3.5, dunno if thats much help, but fitted enough of the stuff to know i wouldnt fit it into my own pc.

 

[Darzil]

I've found PC World to have a number of friendly, capable staff, and they genuinely try to help, rather than to just sell stuff.

However, the stuff there is low quality, overpriced, and the staff are not well paid, so the technically adept ones leave.

Darzil

 

[Loverman]

I cant win - freezes without the ram, freezes with the ram

This might be faulty RAM (most obviously), but since you wrote that last part I thought it might be that you are missing Motherboard drivers for the chipset.

If you don't know what these are, insert the CD that came with the motherboard, and look for something named VIA4in1 or something like it - or just labeled chipset drivers.

If that doesn't help, then it's the RAM thats incompatible with your machine, get brand-named ram instead.

 

[Konah]

the ram is probably ok, it maybe he didnt reset the bios to suit the new ram. try going into the bios when the pc boots by holding down the 'del' key, then goto the memory section and you should find at the top of that page a choice selector with "normal"/"fast"/"fastest"/"turbo" etc options or similar. choose normal or safe default or some such, save bios and reboot. if this solves it, next time u reboot, try the next fastest setting and so on until u find the limits of your new ram. also scroll down the various ram timing options on the page and set as many as possible to "auto" or "by spd".

dont worry u cant break anything, fiddling in there can only cure your problem, or make it worse if its worse simply reboot and try again.

 

[Naetha]

Have you tried re-seating the RAM? I know its the classic "have you turned it off and on again" but it helps to make sure the connections are secure. Also make sure the better or larger stick of RAM is closer to the processor than the less good or smaller one.