Memory Slots

[vcd_pat]

I have a Soyo Dragon Plus 1800 XP Athlon based motherboard with three RAM slots. Is it possible for one of the slots to be damaged? Only, I originally had 512mb (2 x 256) leaving one slot empty... last year I started getting the blue screens of death, I ordered a new stick of 256mb RAM after finding out that removing one stick made my pc function perfectly. I have just decided to get more RAM, this time a 512MB to increase my RAM to 1.0gb. I installed this into the 3rd free slot ½hr ago, started the PC, went to MY COMPUTER to see total RAM was correct. I started Internet Explorer and a few seconds later I got an error message saying Windows had caused IE to crash, you know the message.... So, I took the RAM back out, took the 256mb out aswell (which I bought to replace the damaged one last year) put the 512mb one in it's place, now making my RAM 768mb and it's working fine.... hope someone can make sense of this....

[catachresis]

'Couple of quick things:

1. Yes it's possible that one of your dimm slots is damaged. Go back to one piece and try it in different slots.

2. It's possible that one of your mems is damaged or flakey. The athlon chipsets tend to demand goodish dimms. A bad one in the dimm1 position with a good one in another secondary slot may make the system unstable.

3. I'm not sure how recent the Dragon plus mb is, but there have been issues with athlon chipsets and the use of three dimm slots. A single dimm is always most stable.

Don't forget to badger the good guys at the forums on www.amdmb.com. They'll tell you plent in the Soyo threads.

Good luck.

[vcd_pat]

@catachresis - Many thanks for your help. I'm using CRUCIAL DDR RAM and have found it more reliable than the stuff that was put in for me when a friend's son built it for me. Currently I am using 2 slots and it's working fine, so either the 3rd is damaged or just temperamental. Funny you should suggest trying one piece of RAM in the 3 different slots because that's how I initially found out my problem last year. But when I bought a new stick of 256RAM it worked fine, although I still wasn't using the 3rd slot. I know absolutely nothing about motherboards, the PC was built for me but I will follow your advice about checking out the AMD forums. Thanks very much

[catachresis]

Nodda bother vcd_pat, next time you struggle with the metaphysical quandry of whether your ram is bad or not, try downloading 'memtester':

http://www.qcc.ca/~charlesc/software/memtester/

-- which I recall as having been acclaimed as the best of the software memory testing programs.

Last, next time you want a new workstation, don't give the business to your pal's son, but build one from scratch. Folks around here are always happy to help. Cheers.

[dx]

Some other things to think about vcd_pat......

1) VIA motherboards don't do well with all the memory slots populated. It's a known VIA problem that has yet to be fixed. Populating all three memory slots on VIAs causes instabilities that lead to BSODs.

2) Move your memory around. Try the 1st and the 3rd slots and if that does not work the 1st and the 2nd OR 2nd and 3rd. Memory sometimes does better in certain slots.

3) Memory really needs to be the EXACT same spec. rating to work properly on a mobo. One big reason for BSOD's is memory running together at slightly different speeds. The Mobo expects all the memory to work as fast as you most speedy RAM and when it does not..... BSOD.

4) Check your memory settings in your BIOS. Back off on your memory timings until you have a stable system. Try "CAS latency", "RAS to CAS delay", and "RAS precharge time" all at 3T. Try "Active precharge delay" at 6T and turn off the 1T "Command control." Mind you, your mobo may not have all these memory commands, but set as many as you do. It will make your RAM more stable. And once you have your system more stable, you can try higher settings (like 2T). But change one settting at a time to confirming stability before moving to the next one.

Lastly, Micron RAM has a lifetime garantee, so if you suspect one stick is bad.... run it solo in the first slot (closest to Mobo) as that is usually the most stable. If BSODs continue, RMA it.

Good luck!