Computer crashes with 2GB ram

[cptCuervo]

Whenever I have all four of my memory banks filled and try to game, my computer either locks up or crashes. Sometimes it will take a few hours to freeze up. It doesn't seem to lock up unless I'm pushing the system... Games like Battlefield 2 or even World of Warcraft.

I have tried everything I can think of to no avail... I am not over clocking and have even tried to lower the timings and voltage just to play with more variables. If I remove 2 sticks then everything is fine. However, any combination of the memory in all 4 banks will eventually lock it up.

I am using identical ram running at 2.5 cas and have used 2.5v-2.65v with the same results. My and drivers are all up to date.

Any assistance would be very valuable... thank you.

 

[Sforsyth]

Firdt thing I would do is run Memtest for 2 passes.

 

[JohnAn2112]

It might be one of the sticks that's causing you problems. Run Memtest on each set of memory. If both sets pass, try running Memtest again with all 4 sticks at 3-4-4-8 at 2T command rate and go from there.

 

[cptCuervo]

I ran memtest on every combo... I even let the 4 stick combo run for 40 passes (while I was out of town). However, there were no errors found.

Any other tips or suggestions?

 

[cptCuervo]

No other suggestions? Power consumption? I have an Enermax 535w power supply.

I know I could have a bad Motherboard.. but yuck.. don't want to think about that..

 

[loafbred]

Since it doesn't happen when stressing the RAM alone, and it does happen when gaming, i'ts almost certainly caused by heat, as the video card, cpu and chipset are blasting out heat while gaming.

Open the case and blow a big fan into it while gaming, being sure to get a good breeze going over the RAM. If this fixes the problem, you're going to have to do something to deal with heat buildup around the RAM. If that didn't fix it, it's probably some kind of problem with power supply to the RAM slots. Inspect all of the capacitors for bulging and/or leaking (not likely on such a new board). My guess is that it's almost certainly heat buildup due to having four dimms running with little or no air movement around them.

 

[cptCuervo]

I have tried the "big fan" trick, and it doesn't seem to make a difference. My temperatures are usually 40c or lower througout the system. It's only when I have all four sticks in the system that it crashes.

One other thing is that my USB keyboard isn't detected by the bios 3/4 of the time when my system is rebooted due to this crash. I have to cut the power completely for it to recognize the keyboard.

Makes me wonder if it is a power issue...