Added more ram, computer freezing

[Jerochy]

Hey guys,

I recently added more ram to my computer that only had 2gb of ram in it. I ordered 2 of the same exact dimms that were currently in the computer. When I put them all in, I was getting stuck at the bios screen. It worked fine with just 3 sticks in, worked fine with just the older memeory in, and worked fine with just the new memory in. I tried every different orientation and nothing worked with all 4 sticks in, and everything worked with 3 sticks in in any slots. So the memory itself is fine and the motherboard is fine. 

I got a tip to increase the memory voltage and the NB voltage and it worked. I was able to boot up and play some games, but then it started freezing. It went from freezing within the first 15 min or so that it was on to now I can't get past the starting windows screen again. 
 

I heard that mixing ram leads to this sort of thing, but I ordered the same model number, brand, size, frequency, and clock ram. Below are screen shots of the following:

1. 2gb of the old ram alone

2. 2gb of the new ram alone

3. 4gb of all the ram working together when I was able to have the computer on for a little

I think it might be an issue with the clocks or something. I'm pretty much limited to the bios window with all 4 sticks in, so if anyone could give me advice on what to do to stop the computer from freezing, that would be great. The ram I got is http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227124 and my motherboard is http://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/P5NE_SLI/specifications/

The only thing I notice different about the new ram is the back cycle time on the new ram is 22 and the older ram is 23.

Any help at all would be great. Thanks guys!

[Valkyrie Lenneth]

u might need to increase ur mem controller voltage a notch , older cpus with ddr2 require mem controlelr overvoltage for 4sticks of ram aswell make sure timings are set manually

[Valandil]

is your operating system 64 bit or 32 bit

[Valkyrie Lenneth]

64bit or 32bit wouldnt cause lockups and freezes but it would limit his ram allocation to 3.2gb(maximum) on 32bit and 192gb on 64bit ( depending on the windows version )

[Jerochy]

u might need to increase ur mem controller voltage a notch , older cpus with ddr2 require mem controlelr overvoltage for 4sticks of ram aswell make sure timings are set manually

I put the ram to 1.93v and it worked really well, then it started freezing again. Since then, I tried 2.0v and made it to the welcome screen. How high should I go? Also, how do I manually set timings? Thank a bunch!

[Valkyrie Lenneth]

u shouldnt need to increase the ram voltages, but the memory controller voltage a tad... if your sticks do need voltage increasing

 

1.9V and 2.0V are pretty safe voltages

 

2.1V/2.2V if ur rams have any sort of cooling ( like newer rams got heatsinks/high profile/low profile )

 

Some Ocz sticks cover warranty to 2.3v( recommended staying 2.25 or below 24/7 ) even so ur pretty safe going 2.1/2.2 , but i doubt u need that much ram voltage...  i think all u need to do is increase mem controller voltage a notch ( not too much )

 

added to that, if u think the rams are stable after increasing mem controlelr voltage / ram voltages  ,   make sure to run memtest86 overnight atleast for 6-8hours minimum to ensure that the rams are stable on its own ( u could do that already right now without increasing ram voltages or mem controller, if it does not error but booting windows crashes or so, its 100% the mem conrtoller and not the sticks )

[Jerochy]

u shouldnt need to increase the ram voltages, but the memory controller voltage a tad... if your sticks do need voltage increasing

 

1.9V and 2.0V are pretty safe voltages

 

2.1V/2.2V if ur rams have any sort of cooling ( like newer rams got heatsinks/high profile/low profile )

 

Some Ocz sticks cover warranty to 2.3v( recommended staying 2.25 or below 24/7 ) even so ur pretty safe going 2.1/2.2 , but i doubt u need that much ram voltage...  i think all u need to do is increase mem controller voltage a notch ( not too much )

I know I should just be googling this or something, but how do I increase the mem controller voltage? And can I do this in the bios? Thank you so much

[Valkyrie Lenneth]

I know I should just be googling this or something, but how do I increase the mem controller voltage? And can I do this in the bios? Thank you so much

il have to know what cpu u have, in ur screenshots its not shown and it could either be amd or intel they both have different names and such for mem controller/voltages

 

if ud tell me ur cpu example intel core 2 duo e5400 or w/e id know all ud have to know

 

u have to adjust voltages in the bios yes

 

 also make sure that ur memorry runs at its SPD rated speeds , cas latency and timings ect

[Jerochy]

il have to know what cpu u have, in ur screenshots its not shown and it could either be amd or intel they both have different names and such for mem controller/voltages

 

if ud tell me ur cpu example intel core 2 duo e5400 or w/e id know all ud have to know

 

u have to adjust voltages in the bios yes

 

 also make sure that ur memorry runs at its SPD rated speeds , cas latency and timings ect

It's a q6600 and this is the mobo I have http://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/P5NE_SLI/specifications/

[Valkyrie Lenneth]

u will need to increase MCH voltage for the q6600 with 4sticks

 

MCH OverVoltage Control (1.25V ref) +0.1 = 1.35V   example

 

careful with mch voltage as it could change the voltages applied to ram aswell

 

Range + 0.1 ~ 0.3 recommended   increase/decrease to see for stability with 4 sticks

 

if mem controller adjustments do nothing at all try loosen ur ram timings to get 4stick stability, or increase ram voltage more ( 4sticks on older cpus can somtimes be hard to get stable )

[Jerochy]

u will need to increase MCH voltage for the q6600 with 4sticks

 

MCH OverVoltage Control (1.25V ref) +0.1 = 1.35V   example

 

careful with mch voltage as it could change the voltages applied to ram aswell

 

(G)MCH Overvoltage Control

Default voltage is 1.45V ( assuming it is ), and the available voltage scale provides an overvoltage of 0.025-0.775V. There an actual undervoltage of 0.2V from the BIOS set overvoltage. For example, as the stock voltage is set to 1.45V a BIOS setting of +0.50V would imply a voltage of 1.95V. However setting +0.50V gives an actual voltage of 1.75V, suggesting an undervoltage of 0.2V.

 

 

Range + 0.1 ~ 0.3 recommended   increase/decrease to see for stability with 4 sticks

 

if mem controller adjustments do nothing at all try loosen ur ram timings to get 4stick stability, or increase ram voltage more ( 4sticks on older cpus can somtimes be hard to get stable )

Alright so in my case, what should I be setting the MCH overvoltage to?

[Valkyrie Lenneth]

try + 0.1 first     then - 0.1    see what difference it makes, if it does nothing try 0.15 / 0.2 max   if either of those + or -  doesnt affect the way it behaves at all, i doubt its mem controller related... if it does seem more stable with mem controller changes... u might wanna mess around a little with it ( varying not too high or too low voltages, same with dram voltage )

 

if u just cannot get it stable at all

 

i suggest changing ur timings from 5-5-5-15 to 6-6-6-18

 

added to that instead of changing ur timings to 6-6-6-18 u can try increasing cycle time first ( just cycle time only, at 5-5-5-15 )

[Jerochy]

try + 0.1 first     then - 0.1    see what difference it makes, if it does nothing try 0.15 / 0.2 max   if either of those + or -  doesnt affect the way it behaves at all, i doubt its mem controller related... if it does seem more stable with mem controller changes... u might wanna mess around a little with it ( varying not too high or too low voltages, same with dram voltage )

 

if u just cannot get it stable at all

 

i suggest changing ur timings from 5-5-5-15 to 6-6-6-18

Ok and how do I get to the MCH OverVoltage Control from the bios? 

[Valkyrie Lenneth]

i have just read the manual of ur motherboard and apperantly your motherboard doesnt have much adjustments for the mem controller

 

NB Core Voltage [Auto]

Allows you to set the NB core voltage.

Configuration options: [Auto] [1.208V] [1.393V] [1.563V] [1.748V]

 

 

basicly u should get 1.563v then and it should be stable with that board ( googled it a little aswell )  users say that 1.56 setting is stable with 4sticks of ram

 

try with 1.393 first ofcourse ( since ur board cant manually set voltages as u wish, u need to pick from these presets )

 

i wouldnt recommend the 1.748 setting and stay with 1.563 max

[Jerochy]

i have just read the manual of ur motherboard and apperantly your motherboard doesnt have much adjustments for the mem controller

 

NB Core Voltage [Auto]

Allows you to set the NB core voltage.

Configuration options: [Auto] [1.208V] [1.393V] [1.563V] [1.748V]

 

 

basicly u should get 1.563v then and it should be stable with that board ( googled it a little aswell )  users say that 1.56 setting is stable with 4sticks of ram

 

try with 1.393 first ofcourse ( since ur board cant manually set voltages as u wish, u need to pick from these presets )

 

i wouldnt recommend the 1.748 setting and stay with 1.563 max

I bumped it up to 1.563 and I'm getting past boot, starting windows, welcome, but then it just goes to a black screen with my mouse moving around. Oh wait now it loaded, but not background and things seem a little wonky.

[Jerochy]

Certain icons aren't appearing on my task bar, it was saying that I need to give a windows activation key, but nothing is freezing yet so I think I might be ok haha. Thank you. Maybe if I crank the voltage up just a little more it will be fine.

[Valkyrie Lenneth]

hmmm if that really helps, try booting with 1.748 see if that fully solves the issue and if the rams are stable, but before trying 1.748 try increasing the ram voltages first with 1.563 setting

 

example try 1.563 with dram voltage 2.1  if u running 1.9/2 now

 

 

u should not ever have any glitches due to ram as unstable ram can cause os corruption... make sure its stable both in prime95 custom setting ( filling up all ur ram sticks manually example 8gb = set 6500mb on p95 )

 

 

just experiment abit more with the mem controller and dram voltages, im sure ul get it stable... if not... tighten the timings to 6-6-6-18 ... that should guarantee ur stability

 

if u had a crash before already due to unstable ram and it asks to activate ur key again, it could be that u had ur key loaded in ur ram, it crashed and it blew up / corrupted ... hence is why u must be careful with unstable rams....

 

 

i recommend downloading memtest86 and put it on a usb stick bootable,  run memtest before u boot into windows make sure u make atleast 1pass for now

 

 

when u think its stable, leave memtest86 overnight if its stable all night ( the rams itself are stable )  , rest is up to mem controller or a tad bit of more voltage

[Jerochy]

hmmm if that really helps, try booting with 1.748 see if that fully solves the issue and if the rams are stable, but before trying 1.748 try increasing the ram voltages first with 1.563 setting

 

example try 1.563 with dram voltage 2.1  if u running 1.9/2 now

 

 

u should not ever have any glitches due to ram as unstable ram can cause os corruption... make sure its stable both in prime95 custom setting ( filling up all ur ram sticks manually example 8gb = set 6500mb on p95 )

 

 

just experiment abit more with the mem controller and dram voltages, im sure ul get it stable... if not... tighten the timings to 6-6-6-18 ... that should guarantee ur stability

 

if u had a crash before already due to unstable ram and it asks to activate ur key again, it could be that u had ur key loaded in ur ram, it crashed and it blew up / corrupted ... hence is why u must be careful with unstable rams....

 

 

i recommend downloading memtest86 and put it on a usb stick bootable,  run memtest before u boot into windows make sure u make atleast 1pass for now

 

 

when u think its stable, leave memtest86 overnight if its stable all night ( the rams itself are stable )  , rest is up to mem controller or a tad bit of more voltage

Alright man thanks alot, I'll let you know how everything pans out later today.