Upgrading my RAM

Sakebomb

Last night, for some strange reason, my computer refused to boot up, or post when I installed 2 additional sticks of RAM. I swapped them out with the existing ones to make sure I didnt recieve defective sticks. It booted just fine when I had 4gb installed, but any time I tried to boot her up with 8....no post...no BIOS...nothing. (My mobo is supposed to have a max capacity of 16gb) Finally around midnight, I went into BIOS and manually set the frequency down to 800mhz, powered her down, installed all 8gigs, and VOILA! Booted up, started windows, system info shows a lovely 8gigs running.

Then I went to bed.

So my question is: When I get home tonight, should I even bother trying to crank the frequency up?
Will it make any visible difference seeing as how I mostly use my computer for WoW, Pandora Radio, and Microsoft Office?

Heres a link to the RAM and mobo in question:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231193
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131603

Thanks in advance!

MushroomStick

What kind of RAM was in the computer already? You can't always mix and match.

a5ehren

So my question is: When I get home tonight, should I even bother trying to crank the frequency up?
Will it make any visible difference seeing as how I mostly use my computer for WoW, Pandora Radio, and Microsoft Office?

I seriously doubt it will make a difference. I would try some of the intermediate settings anyway so that you don't have to worry about it :P

Sakebomb

What kind of RAM was in the computer already? You can't always mix and match.

Sorry, I shouldve mentioned that in the OP. Its exactly the same. I just went to the Order History in my Newegg account and purchased the same product again.

Raekreu

Something similar happened to me with an ASUS mobo a few years back - when all of the RAM slots are populated, it will refuse to boot unless you downclock the memory. Reason being "to prevent damage to the memory controller".

So instead of running 4 gigs of DDR2 at 1066mhz I had to settle for 800mhz, veeery similar to what you're seeing.

Sakebomb

Raekreu wrote: »

Something similar happened to me with an ASUS mobo a few years back - when all of the RAM slots are populated, it will refuse to boot unless you downclock the memory. Reason being "to prevent damage to the memory controller".

So instead of running 4 gigs of DDR2 at 1066mhz I had to settle for 800mhz, veeery similar to what you're seeing.

Wow, thanks for the reply. Thats good to know. I was able to tweak it back up to 1066 last night and I think Ill leave it there. However Firefox did start crashing on the first boot up, and I got one of those annoying ERROR: XXXIDDQD memory could not be "written" crashes on WoW. Seemed fine once I rebooted after powering down and pulling the plug for a few seconds. We'll see how it goes.

Sir Carcass

I believe it's something to do with the memory controller or whatever. It can only handle so much bandwidth, so when you're doubling the places that are transmitting and receiving data, it has to be run more slowly. That's my guess, anyway. I know my RAM has to be run at a slower clock speed when using all 4 slots. I'm not sure if it's the RAM specifically or the motherboard, but I'm betting the latter.

Sakebomb

Sir Carcass wrote: »

I believe it's something to do with the memory controller or whatever. It can only handle so much bandwidth, so when you're doubling the places that are transmitting and receiving data, it has to be run more slowly. That's my guess, anyway. I know my RAM has to be run at a slower clock speed when using all 4 slots. I'm not sure if it's the RAM specifically or the motherboard, but I'm betting the latter.

Yeah, youre probably right. I noticed that my mobo has been discontinued from the manufacturer (coincidence?) That is royally going to suck if I end up having to replace it.