Any computer experts out there?
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From: Calgary
Originally Posted by Apex_AP1,May 5 2008, 06:12 PM
my buddy thinks I should format my computer to fix this stuff and make these upgrades work, but who knows for sure. I got so much stuff on my PC and would hate to do this and then come to find out it still didnt work.
Check the RAM
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From: Garden Grove, CA
Originally Posted by Apex_AP1,May 6 2008, 12:12 AM
my buddy thinks I should format my computer to fix this stuff and make these upgrades work, but who knows for sure. I got so much stuff on my PC and would hate to do this and then come to find out it still didnt work.
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From: SoCal, Orange County
Originally Posted by MikeyCB,May 5 2008, 05:16 PM
Sounds like bad ram to me as well. When the computer accesses the bad portion of the RAM it reboots. This is likely why it works until a point then restarts, as opposed to not working at all.
I would pull the new memory, and add pieces until you encounter the problem again and you'll know it was the most recent piece that cause the problem.
I would pull the new memory, and add pieces until you encounter the problem again and you'll know it was the most recent piece that cause the problem.
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From: Oregon City, OR
Originally Posted by Apex_AP1,May 5 2008, 04:19 PM
oh ok. What causes ram to go bad anyways? Is it a compatiability thing? He did take the ram out of his old computer. The 2 sticks of ram he added are by Patriot and are red colored.
A few other issues:
if you have 4 memory slots total (2 used), and your buddy added 2 new sticks, you are making the memory controller work a lot harder so it could be a heat issue as well. Often times, you are better off running 2 sticks of larger memory than 4 sticks of smaller memory.
Patriot ram is usually pretty good. You might check the specs of the ram and make sure your motherboard can handle it. Running both the old and new sticks can be causing some issues as well if they are dramatically different spec. Unfortunately, E-Machines are not usually very good about giving you the BIOS options to modify the ram settings (voltage specs, etc).
Depending on the spec of your old ram, you might be better off just running the two gigs of new ram alone which would allow the BIOS to auto-detect and run that specific spec instead of running one set of specs and forcing the other ram to match it.
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From: SoCal, Orange County
Originally Posted by Sabre,May 5 2008, 06:00 PM
It can be a compatibility thing, but it is most likely just a faulty memory module.
A few other issues:
if you have 4 memory slots total (2 used), and your buddy added 2 new sticks, you are making the memory controller work a lot harder so it could be a heat issue as well. Often times, you are better off running 2 sticks of larger memory than 4 sticks of smaller memory.
Patriot ram is usually pretty good. You might check the specs of the ram and make sure your motherboard can handle it. Running both the old and new sticks can be causing some issues as well if they are dramatically different spec. Unfortunately, E-Machines are not usually very good about giving you the BIOS options to modify the ram settings (voltage specs, etc).
Depending on the spec of your old ram, you might be better off just running the two gigs of new ram alone which would allow the BIOS to auto-detect and run that specific spec instead of running one set of specs and forcing the other ram to match it.
A few other issues:
if you have 4 memory slots total (2 used), and your buddy added 2 new sticks, you are making the memory controller work a lot harder so it could be a heat issue as well. Often times, you are better off running 2 sticks of larger memory than 4 sticks of smaller memory.
Patriot ram is usually pretty good. You might check the specs of the ram and make sure your motherboard can handle it. Running both the old and new sticks can be causing some issues as well if they are dramatically different spec. Unfortunately, E-Machines are not usually very good about giving you the BIOS options to modify the ram settings (voltage specs, etc).
Depending on the spec of your old ram, you might be better off just running the two gigs of new ram alone which would allow the BIOS to auto-detect and run that specific spec instead of running one set of specs and forcing the other ram to match it.
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From: Oregon City, OR
Originally Posted by Apex_AP1,May 5 2008, 05:07 PM
are u saying use the 2 Patriot ram sticks and not the other 2 sticks which came with the computer? (if my computer can use them)
If the two types of ram are very different spec (one is DDR2-667 and one is DDR-1066 for instance) the computer will typically downclock the faster one to match the slower one.
Some ram does NOT like being downclocked too much. On the flip-side, if the PC was trying to upclock the slower ram, it can make it severely unstable.
Again, if your PC can use the newer ram, lets say you had 1Gb of slower ram before, and now just use the newer (faster?) Patriot in a 2Gb config, you will be noticeably faster AND have less memory issues using the new stuff alone.